"I'll come back to Russia real soon." I hugged Peter again.

"Call me if you need anything."

"Same for you."

Peter left around noon to the airport which leaves me alone in this big suite. I spent the rest of the day yesterday looking at the schools Breton signed me up for in Singapore and hours talking to Helen. It took us an hour to finally decide on the full outfit for the ball after showing me hundreds of options and she got her team working at full speed to amend the dress to fit me for tomorrow.

Close to five in the afternoon Helen and her team came by the suite and spent two hours on getting me ready. I haven't sat on a chair without moving for two hours long since I was in school four years ago and it was a real struggle trying to sit still. As of five minutes ago, they have left and now it's just Leya and I in my room as she helped me to get rid the wrinkles on the dress.

"You look beautiful, Miss." Leya commented once she's done.

"Thank you, Leya."

I spin around in my dress and looked at myself in the mirror again. First time in my life that I felt pretty. The dress itself is a sleeveless dark purple paired with gold ribbon earrings and basic nude heels to top it off. My makeup was simple, with no eyeshadow and light pink lip gloss. My hair was done into a bun shaped like a rose with bits of my hair sticking out in the front.

There was a knock on the door, "Are you done?"

"Yup." I put on my coat and opened the door to see Efren waiting.

Efren and I left the hotel through the back entrance so as to not attract attention since I'm wearing such a eye catching dress. Once I was in the car, my palms started to sweat but at the same time I can't believe I'm attending a ball at the castle!

"The plan will work." Efren looked at me from the review mirror.

"I'm actually more scared of the king seeing me at the ball than dealing with whoever at the entrance."

"The king wouldn't cause a scene in front of everyone."

"Doesn't mean he won't kill me later."

"Let's worry about getting you into the castle first."

Twenty minutes later, I can see the castle from the window and it looks exactly like those castle in fantasy movies. It's about five times as big as the mansion Nicandro stays in and mostly a light brown colour which gives off those eighteen hundred vibes. I saw tall black metal gates surrounding the castle as we were closer to the castle. We passed by the main entrance which there were loads of cars waiting in line to get in and I saw for a few seconds the red carpet on the stairs as people were getting out of the cars. I could barely see clearly as there were too much camera flashes from all the cameramen standing by the stairs while all of them were held back by the security guards.

I can't imagine having so many people taking my pictures at once, every move that I made will be captured by the camera. The last time a group of people stared at me was during a presentation back in public school and my anxiety was off the roof. Safe to say I don't do well with all the attention on me unlike the women who I saw posing on the red carpet, soaking up all the attention from the cameramen. Not saying that's a bad thing, I just wished I have the same amount of confidence as her.

Five minutes later, Efren reached the back gate to the castle as I saw two lamp post side by side and a security post. I felt the nerves creeping up on me and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.

"Get ready." Efren said as he made a turn towards the gate.

I nodded and took the black blanket and covered it on me as I lie down on the seat while trying my best not to ruin my hair and makeup. I felt the car slowing down which means we were reaching the security post and heard the window rolling down.

"Josh, good evening." Efren greeted.

"You know everyone has to use the main entrance, Efren."

"I'm not just everyone, I'm prince Nicandro's head of security."

"The king's orders, sorry."

"Come on, I don't want to wait half an hour to get in through the main entrance."

There was a few seconds of silence before Josh spoke up, "Fine, it's only you right?"

"It's just me." Efren replied back without a hint of hesitation in his voice.

"I'll have to check your trunk, just as a precaution."

"Fair enough." I heard the car door opening and footsteps.

I heard the car trunk open, "You have a teddy bear in the car trunk?"

"It's for my nephew."

"Okay, you're good to go." There was the sound of the gates opening and I let out a huge breath.

"Coast is clear." Efren said and I pull the blanket off me.

"That was the longest minute of my life." I said while checking if my hair is still decent in the review mirror.

After Efren has parked the car, we both got out of the car and thankfully there were no other security guards in sight as most of them were probably at the main entrance. Efren and I walked to a wooden door and he knocked on it a few times while I stood there in silence.

A middle-aged women opened the door and looked at Efren, "Brother."

I was a little shocked to meet Efren's sister as I sort of always thought that he's an only child. She was wearing an apron and I can see the beads of sweat on her forehead. She must be working in the kitchen. When I took a closer look at her, I saw her hand on her baby bump.

"Sister." He greeted back.

She turned her head to face me, "Hi, I'm Emilia."

"Tiana." I gave her a small smile.

"Follow me." She opened the door wider to let us in.

The aroma smell of the food entered my nose and I saw many chefs preparing the food with much concentration. Some of them stared at me as they were probably wondering what is a girl wearing a long dress doing in the kitchen. Once we reached the door to the way out, Emilia returned to her work station while Efren and I walked out the door.

Efren stopped walking, "The ballroom is all the way down the hallway."

"Where are you going?"

"To my post for the rest of the night, see you later."

With that, he turned right and walked up the stairs while I turned left and make my way to the ballroom. The lights in the hallway were pretty dim, but there's a lightbulb directly above a picture frame hung on the wall which caught my attention. The picture is a formal family picture which shows the king about thirty years younger with his wife standing beside him and their three children sitting on the couch. I immediately regconised Nicandro's father as he looked very alike to Nicandro as he was around Nicandro's age in the picture.

As I continued to walk down the hallway, I heard a sound coming from one of the rooms. With my curiosity ponding over me, I walked closer to the door where the sound is coming from and heard... kissing sounds.

I immediately took a step back and the person who was holding some champagne walked passed me while looking at me weirdly. I was going to walk away and leave them some privacy when I heard their voices.

"We should stop before it goes too far."

"Right, I don't want to mess up my makeup."

Wait, I know their voices, it's-

That's when the door opened to reveal Miguel and Olivia with startled expressions as they spotted me. Olivia was wearing a emerald coloured dress with a slit from the knee paired with big emerald earrings while Miguel was wearing a black suit with a emerald coloured tie to match with Olivia. How cute.

"Tiana, good to see you again." Miguel said as he buttoned up his suit.

Great, now they must think that I'm some stalker.

"You too. Also I swear I wasn't stalking you, I just came here cause I don't know anyone-"

"No, not at all. Nicandro told us to come here and wait for you since he figured you would need some company with familiar faces. We just got a little carried away... as you probably heard." Olivia blushed.

"Thanks for waiting for me. Also you have lip gloss on your cheeks." I pointed to Miguel's cheeks.

Miguel's eyes widened a little then he wiped the lip gloss off his cheeks while Olivia hooked her arms around mine and we entered the ballroom. On the ceiling was the biggest chandelier I've ever seen in my entire life reflecting light all around the ballroom with maroon curtains hung from pillar to pillar. There was the very long stairs with small golden bells along the wooden handles along the stairs. The floors were so shiny and glossy that I could see my own reflection in it. I spotted a group of people getting ready to play instruments for the dance later on and security guards at each corner of the room.

"Can I take your coat, Miss?" A young man asked me.

I haven't realised he was standing in front of me as I was too distracted with my surroudings. I nodded and took off my coat, passing it to him. I couldn't find Olivia and Miguel when I was done but thankfully spotted them within a few seconds and quickly made my way to them.

I accidentally collided into someone on the shoulder and when I looked up to apologise, it was none other than the king of Spain.