The door creaked as it opened, I tensed, I felt the heat in my body, I was going to faint ─at least that's what I felt─ I wanted to look for a place to hide, but the room was too small for me to hide, when finally the door opened wide, we met three men, they all had similar suits, they gave the impression of working in the palace.

"Your Highness," said the man who held the key, his gaze suddenly fell on me and he frowned, the two men behind him did not move a muscle, so whether they were surprised or not, it did not show, "your parents are looking for you."

"Mark," the prince pronounced from his place, my gaze wandered between him and Mark. I noticed the prince's body relax. "Are they close?"

Mark denied.

"They went up to the second floor, they will be waiting for you in the north wing," he clarified, and the prince nodded, about ten seconds passed, no one said anything, we were just watching each other and when the prince shared a glance with me, he cleared his throat and motioned me towards the exit.

"Would you mind stepping out?" he asked, and my cheeks turned red. I hurried out of the room, Mark offered me a smile, and from here, the two men behind him were more intimidating than from where I stood. The prince came out seconds later and stood beside me.

"Excuse me, your highness, may I ask who the lady is?"

"Oh, yes. The lady," said the prince turning to look at me curiously, then he saw Mark and then the guards. "The lady..." he muttered more to himself, as he put a hand to the back of his neck and scratched. "She is... uhm.... her name is..."

"Frederick, where the hell have you been? We've been chasing you around the palace like a little child!" A woman's voice was heard on the other side of the corridor, and suddenly she appeared walking in our direction, it was the queen, the king and three other people I didn't know. A scream of anguish escaped me, ─a scream which the prince realized because he turned to see me─ I was paralyzed watching the king and the queen a few meters away from us, the prince cursed under his breath.

Suddenly, in a millisecond, the prince and I were intertwining our hands to run through the corridors of the palace, I didn't even have time to process what was happening.

"Don't look back!" he shouted over his shoulder at the very second, I decided to look behind me to see that we were being chased like two fugitives. "Just run and don't turn around...".

I nodded even though he wasn't looking at me, my pulse was racing, and my heart was pounding so hard it was starting to hurt, mostly due to the fact that I was panicking. We turned right at a corner, then stopped for a few seconds while I decided which way to go.

"Frederick! Stop!"

I heard the queen's voice, I know he had said not to turn back, but it was inevitable not to. Another sharp cry escaped me when I saw that the kings, Mark and two more men who I suppose were palace guards, were running in our direction, the prince noticed it and gives my hand a squeeze so that I again start running with him to the stairs at the other end of the room. It takes us time to do it because the distance is quite far, the men behind us proved to be fast because they managed to be only a few centimeters away from us, Frederick did not flinch, he squeezed his hand tighter to mine and pulled my body to him to prevent the men who were following us from grabbing us, he managed to divert to the end of the hallway stopping long the stairs and continue running.

Adrenaline was what was running through my veins at that moment, my body was tense and the only thing I could think of was not to be caught, so I was giving my best to run and not to let go of the prince's hand, because I was starting to sweat from my nerves.

"Let's go, we have to get to the stairs, they can't catch us."

He said in my direction turning again in another corridor to the right, how many corridors were there in a palace? We had not stopped running through the corridors and I had the impression that there was even a labyrinth.

"Frederick! Enough!"

The queen's voice was heard again in the distance, another quick glance behind me confirmed that they were getting closer. We turned a corner again and again we were close to the stairs, this time with no detours we made it to them.

Oh my God, I suck at running!

My feet started to burn, and it didn't take long for fatigue to set in as soon as we stopped for just a second to climb the steps. There were hundreds of them, we made it up the first twenty steps.

"Right or left, right or left?" the prince murmured, stopping in the small corridor that showed us some stairs on the right and some on the left. "Left...."

He murmured.

"Frederick! Stop!"

This time it was the firm voice of the king who exclaimed. The prince, who was about to rush up the stairs on the left side, stopped his step, the king, the queen, and the rest of the men who came with them, rushed up the steps and came at once to us.

"Frederick, what is all this commotion!" complained the queen in annoyance. "Are you out of your mind?!"

"Mother... Father..." said the prince, forcing a false smile on his mouth. "I'm sorry, I had no idea you were looking for me."

He apologized. The queen, who was only a few centimeters away from us, had folded her arms and was looking sternly at her son, the king had an extremely serious look on his face.

"What's up?"

He asked when he saw that his parents were murdering him with their eyes, a chuckle escaped him. With a movement, the king managed to rest his gaze on our intertwined hands, he slowly looked up at me, I froze in place and felt my breath catch. The queen also became aware of my presence.

"Who is this girl?"

The queen asked in my direction, her frown was furrowed, and she looked at me with a strange expression that I did not know how to decipher. I was waiting for an answer from me, but I was too stunned to assume what was happening, I opened my mouth and immediately it closed, it was as if the words in my mouth didn't exist to speak, I looked around me for help, Frederick gave me a look and I begged for help.

"Uhm... she is .... Uhm..." he got nervous and scratched the back of his neck again, a chuckle escaped him, and he cleared his throat at the same time he let go of my hand and brought it to the back of his neck to scratch it. "She is..."

He turned to look at me for help.

"Bethany," I whispered, and he nodded.

"Yes, it's Bethany, Bethany...."

"Danielsson," I interrupted. "Bethany Danielsson, your highness."

I just called the queen your highness when it's majesty. I shook my head as fast as I could.

"I'm sorry, your majesty. I am Bethany Danielsson."

"That's right, it's Bethany Danielsson," the prince interjected. "Better known as.... Bethany Danielsson."

The kings frowned as did the others present, they didn't understand what was going on and neither did I. I had just done the craziest thing in my life, and I had no way to describe it. I had just done the craziest thing in my entire life, and I had no way to describe it, I still wasn't processing it accurately.

"And what are you doing here?"

The king asked, leaving aside the fact that we had been running away from them and making them chase us all over the palace, apparently, I was the new talk of the situation, thinking about it that way made me nervous, and the reality hit me.

Oh my god, I was inside the royal palace with the king, the queen and the future heir of Sweden, with whom I had just done the craziest thing in my life! I wanted to faint at the thought of it, I just made myself even more nervous than I already was. I was definitely in serious trouble.

The king cleared his throat, snapping me out of my thoughts.

What was his question?

"She?" he asked pointing at me, everyone nodded. I don't know what was going on, but the prince was only making things worse, at least that's what I sensed. "She's here because... I uhm...."

My body tensed just thinking about it, I was going to give myself away, I would say I was just another journalist who had come to interview him, because he knew, he knew the reasons why I was inside the palace, I had told him in that room.

Wow, how clever Bethany!

If the prince gave me away, in just a few seconds, I would be beheaded.

The queen's serious look intimidated me even more than I already felt.

"She's here because I've..." He paused, doubtful of his words, he put a hand to his chin, it was as if he was creating something in his mind. "I invited her. Bethany and I... uhm...."

I heard the king snort from his place, it seemed he had started to get irritated with his son's answers.

"For God's sake, Frederick. Stop beating around the bush," he spat in annoyance.

He swallowed hard.

"Fine. Bethany and I are dating."

As quickly as the words were out of his mouth, he put his arm around my shoulders to pull my body into his. To all of us in the hallway, a "What?" escaped, Frederick offered his best smile and leaned a little toward me and very close to my ear murmured: "follow me."

I laughed nervously and nodded.

What on earth was going on?

There was no doubt that the scandal we had just made a few minutes before was forgotten.

Not daily that I have never lied because it is clear that I have done it on more than one occasion, but I have to clarify that I was not the best liar, most of the time, I used to give myself away, even so, I made my effort to support the prince.

"Yes, we are..."

"Dating," he interrupted me with a smile, "We met a while ago and I asked her to go out with me recently. Nothing out of the ordinary other than a beautiful friendship."

The looks on everyone's faces were incredulous. I prayed to myself that I didn't have the same expression because that would give us both away in seconds.

"When did that happen?" questioned the king, who was the one who was most shocked by the bombshell his son had dropped. In short, he had forgotten the scandal we caused.

"A while ago."

The queen frowned.

God, what kind of answer is that? The prince was digging his own grave beside me.

"Oh, really? And how did you two meet, Bethany?"

When he pronounced my name, I froze, if it wasn't for the squeeze the prince gave me on the side of my arm ─which fortunately was still hugging me─, I didn't manage to answer his question.

"I uhm... we..." I was a journalist, I wrote different notes and articles every day, it shouldn't be complicated for me to answer the king's question, if I concentrated, I could recreate a little story in my head, "We met in...."

"Helsingborg," the prince interrupted again, "Yes, it was in Helsingborg at..." I added.

"A party," I added. "Frederick and I met at a party; from some friends we have in common."

"And what kind of friends?"

"Trevor."

"Mason."

We spoke at the same time. We shared an anguished look.

"Mason."

"Trevor."

The prince cleared his throat.

"Trevor," he said. "It was thanks to Trevor, Mason is a friend of hers who is a friend of Trevor's, who introduced us and .... is a long story," he said, cutting it short and playing it down. "The point is, we are dating."

He put a giant smile on his mouth, and I did the same. Great. I was lying to kings, with their lying heir. Yes, I would soon find myself on the guillotine to have my head chopped off, for lying to a royal was a serious crime, and I was lying not only to one, but to the whole family. The look of the kings wandered between me and their son, they looked at us with extreme curiosity and gave the impression of analyzing us with accuracy, I shuddered, I felt that we were not being convincing, I began to feel heated, that's when I got the twentieth. I was in the royal palace, in front of the kings, with whom I had just had a conversation with their liar son -because he was a liar, a very good one-, with whom minutes before I had been locked in one of the rooms. And with whom I have also slipped all over the palace running away from the most important people in the country.

God, I can't believe this must be happening to me, I definitely got high. I thought.

To check that I wasn't dreaming, I pinched and wrinkled my nose as I felt the sting.

No, I was not dreaming.

A man hurried across the corridor to our side, bowed to the kings and spoke.

"Your Majesty, the Duke of Luxembourg is in his office," he said to the king, who stopped watching us and adjusted his suit.

"All right, tell him I'll be there in a moment."

The man bowed again and hurried away. Again, the king turned his gaze to us, frowned.

"Well, we all have important matters to attend to here, as well as this conversation," he spoke with authority and assurance. He pointed his index finger at his son. Frederick, after your meeting with the press, I want you and the young lady in my office. "We will discuss this with your mother in private, not here."

Without further ado, the kings turned around to leave the way they came. The prince was still hugging me, he kept hugging me until we lost sight of the kings and the rest of the staff that accompanied him, the only one who stayed by our side was Mark.

"Whew, that was easier than I thought."

What the hell, how could I say that! That was the craziest thing I've ever done in my life!

The prince turned away from me. He looked relieved and calm, I wondered how he could keep his cool with a situation as compromising as this, because the more the seconds passed, the more upset I felt.

Mark and I were staring at him, the prince started laughing out of nowhere, it was a funny laugh, when he realized that none of us were amused, he cleared his throat and adjusted his suit.

"Mark, would you allow me a moment alone with the lady?"

He asked his butler who immediately nodded and without comment, let us alone.