Anne-Marie sneezed into her handkerchief.
It was so hard giving the textbook in front of her all her attention when she kept looking away to sneeze every five seconds. What was wrong with her? Even with the heater on, why did she feel so cold? At that rate, it was going to take her the entire night to get her homework done and over with.

She wiped her nose just as she heard a tiny knock at the door. She tried to clean her nose quickly, turning slightly as Denise pocked her head inside. Anne-Marie slowly lowered the piece of cloth from her face.

"Can I come in?"

Anne-Marie nodded slowly, like she had any power to stop her. Denise pushed the door and walked into the warm room, gripping on tightly to the little tray in her hands. Anne-Marie could tell by the look of it that she had brought her her regular glass of milk just like she did every other night since she arrived at the mansion.

Denise never missed it for a second.

Paris must have lived the life.

She had a lot of good people around her, a lot of people that cared about her and always wanted to protect her. It felt so good. Denise slowly dropped the tray on the bedside table right before she turned to Anne-Marie with a tiny smile on her face. She noticed how there were a lot of books in front of her, a pen and her laptop.

"Doing homework?"

Anne-Marie turned to her bed and exhaled. She turned back to Denise.

"It's a lot." She said. "I just wanted to get them all done tonight since I'd be having a lot of busy days shooting the documentary with the prince all weekend. It's due on Monday."

Denise nodded. She totally understood. The smile on her face grew wider when she remembered, just like Anne-Marie, Paris was quite persistent when it came to getting her homework done. She never missed a deadline. Organization was her motto. It felt so good to know that Anne-Marie was taking school just as seriously as Paris would have.

"How was the visit to the palace?" Denise was trying to have a conversation at this point.

Anne-Marie nodded.

"It was alright." She said. "The king and queen aren't as upset as I thought they would. The king is working on getting rid of the video circulating online and the prince," Anne-Marie didn't even want to think about him, to talk about him, thinking about Aiden was just going to upset her again. She exhaled.

Denise understood. She really didn't need her to talk much about it.

"About how my husband talked to you earlier-" that was the exact reason she was there, to see if she was okay after the way Oliver had talked to her back at the kitchen. "You didn't deserve to hear those words he said. It wasn't exactly fair of him to talk to you like that."

"Oh." Anne-Marie feigned surprise, stretching her hands towards Denise and waving them in an attempt to stop her with a nervous smile on her face. "You don't have to worry about that Mrs Vutron." Anne-Marie added. "I'm not mad at all, actually, if anything, I think I deserved it. I shouldn't have let my anger get the best out of me, I shouldn't have hit the prince and made things difficult for everyone. Mr Vutron was right, It wasn't in my place. I'm just grateful for the opportunity to help my family, to save my brother and I don't want to mess it up. That's why I'm going to do everything I can to earn the prince's forgiveness."

"But still, you didn't deserve to hear any of those words." Denise told her and then let out a tiny smile. "I'm really sorry he said them to you, sometimes, my husband, he's- he lets his emotions get the best out of him and he gets really upset when things don't go his way but I can assure you, he didn't mean any of the things he said."

Anne-Marie forced a smile. It felt so good to actually hear an apology for what Oliver had said to her. It felt good to know that there was at least someone on her side, someone that really knew who she was.

"Finish up and get some rest." Denise told her. "You have a busy day tomorrow."

"Thank you Mrs Vutron." Anne-Marie said after her as she watched Denise walk to the door, open it and then walk out of it.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Denise massaged her moisturizer gently into her face, tracing her hands down her neck and doing the same too. She could see Oliver from the huge mirror in front of her and how he looked so busy on the bed with his laptop just like he had been ever since he and Anne-Marie got back from the palace.

She had a lot to say, to ask but she kept looking for the right way to start. She kept on massaging the cream into her neck, with her eyes still glued into the mirror right before she dropped it.

"So a documentary huh?"

She took her eyes away from the mirror so she could apply more moisturizer in her hands. She saw how Oliver's eyes were still glued into his laptop.

"We are just going to do it?"

"The king and queen bought the idea." He said not even bothering to look at her. "Besides, it might happen to be the only thing that we need at the moment. It would help our family a lot too, put us and Paris' relationship in good light with the public."

"Yes but that would mean it would also put us out there." She said.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Aren't you bothered by it?" She slowly lowered her hand from her face, still looking into the mirror. "We are talking about a royal family documentary with Paris in it. It's going to be the first time Paris would be out there formally, or should I say, Anne-Marie."

"So?"

"Documentaries about the royal family are always a trend, a global trend. Everyone is going to be interested in knowing how Paris and the prince are doing since after the engagement. It's going to increase Paris' popularity by a great percentage, what if it causes us trouble? What if people from Anne's past get to watch the documentary and get a lot of confusion? What if they try to reach out to the royal family about their confusion? Haven't you thought about that?"

"That's never going to happen." Oliver told her as he typed into his laptop. "Only a foolish person would try to put up a stunt like that in front of the king without proof. Only someone that has no interest in living anymore would approach the king with assumptions that his soon to be daughter in law, used to be a homeless pauper in crystal lake. It'd take a lot of courage to even think about it. Who would ever believe that the Queen would choose a street pauper for fiancée for the prince? As a suitable candidate for queen? It's almost unbelievable and has never happened in all the history of Breton. It's comedic. Everyone is just going to see it as a striking resemblance, that's all."

"And you know this how?"

Oliver exhaled. He slowly raised his eyes to meet her.

"Oliver, are you sure you really have this under control? We can't afford to make any mistakes. It's not just us that would get punished for it, it's Paris, it's Anne-Marie, it's her brother. There's a lot at stake to just make assumptions."

"Why don't you focus on getting Miss Davis ready for tomorrow and leave everything else to me?" He told her. "I can assure you that you have nothing to be worried about. We are not going to get caught. At least not until Paris comes home."

Denise slowly whirled around so she could look at him directly.

"Comes home? We don't even know when that is. How long are we going to keep doing this? How long are we going to keep deceiving the king like this-"

"As long as it takes." He glared at her. "It's too late t go back now. We are so close, so close to sealing off our engagement to the royal family. I am going to recommend a date to the king by tomorrow."

Denise narrowed her gaze.

"I'd suggest we round up the documentary with the engagement party next week."

"You're going to hold our daughter's engagement party without her? You're going to let someone else take her place at her own engagement party? And next week as at that? What do you think is going to go through her head when she wakes up? You know your daughter better than anyone Oliver, do you think Paris is ever going to forgive you for any of this? Forgive us? It's bad enough that we got someone else to replace her but getting someone else partake in her own engagement is going to-"

"She's going to understand." Oliver cut her off. "She's going to understand that I did this for her, just like I've done all her life. The royal engagement is supposed to be a step towards all her dreams, all our dreams and it was nearly almost taken from her. I have to protect her dream, I am doing this to protect her legacy, I am doing this for her."

Denise scoffed.

She couldn't believe it. She was even having a tough time speaking. She just stared at him.

"What's going to happen when she's not awake after the engagement?" Denise asked him. "What's going to happen when a date is fixed for the royal wedding and she's not awake by then? You'd let someone else get married to the prince for her sake too? You'd take that moment away from her too?"

"If I have to then I would. It's just a wedding. It's nothing compared to the future waiting for her when she wakes up. She's going to have the world wrapped around her fingertips because we made it possible, because we made the sacrifice for her-"

"What about Anne?" Denise cut him off. "Haven't you thought about how your great plan could actually ruin hers? Do you have any idea how any of this is going to be difficult for her the moment Paris opens her eyes? You're pushing her into a trap, sacrificing her life for Paris', what if this backfires on us? What if she gets too comfortable with this life we're pushing her further into? How do we just take it from her just like that? Do you have any idea how difficult this would be for her?"

Oliver looked away.

"We almost lost our daughter Oliver," she went on. "It's barely been up to a month since the engagement, since Paris went into a coma, how could you possibly be trying to set up another engagement date, without Paris as at that? Where in this world is that going to be fair to both Paris, the prince and Anne-Marie-"

"It doesn't have to fair," he cut her off. "It just has to be worth the sacrifice."

"What?"

"This, all of this we are doing is for a greater good. We are all making sacrifices to get what we all want, it doesn't matter how we do it, what matters is that we do and we get through with it. Paris is going to wake up as the queen to be or even queen of Breton and even though she gets upset about it, it won't last long because she'd realize that she achieved everything she ever wanted, Miss Davis would go back to her old life with her brother safe and sound, healthy. It's better than doing nothing and watching the Westrovs strike again or make a bigger aim at the throne. Everyday we sit with our hands folded, we give Fabian the upper hand, not just him, every other powerful family with a hunger for the throne. Getting the engagement done as fast as we can is the only way to seal the deal. To keep the Vutron's family's dream alive. Nothing else matters."

Denise scoffed.

"Like I said, focus on getting Miss Davis ready for the documentary and leave the rest to me. She's going to be in the palace for a while."

Denise furrowed her brows.

In the palace? What did he mean in the palace? Oliver went back to typing into his laptop. Denise's eyes widened when a possible explanation came into her head. Was he trying to say-

"Yes," Oliver saved her the stress of thinking too hard. "Paris would be at the palace up until the engagement ceremony, for the documentary and of course, her safety, we don't know when the Westrovs could strike again."

"What?"

"The king and queen approved it. She'd be leaving for the palace first thing in the morning so get her ready."

"They are not even married yet, How could you suggest she sleeps in the palace until- do you have any idea what people are going to say? Does any of this make any sense?"

Oliver rolled his eyes. This was getting really frustrating.

"It's a documentary Denise," he cut her off "focusing on the prince and our daughter of course she has to be in the palace. The closer to the prince, the better. You're making it sound like the palace doesn't have over ten guest rooms and quarters. Can we please stop talking about this darling? I'm really tired and I still have a lot of work to do."

Denise scoffed.

She got up from her chair slowly. She couldn't believe it either. She was speechless. She shook her head and walked to the huge bed, got into the blanket and turned off her bedside lamp.

She was done talking about any of it. She was tired of talking because it was obvious that at that point, Oliver was barely listening to anything she said.

She shut her eyes.

Whatever he wanted.