Fake Princess
CHAPTER 103
I tried desperately to keep walking upright down the corridor and out towards the gate. However, after arriving on the city streets, my courage evaporated and I started running, followed by Devan.
“ She knows,” I said as we finally arrived at Paula's house. We ran towards the garden behind the house, and from there we snuck into my room. “ She knows, Devan.”
Devan started walking back and forth as soon as we closed the door, but now he stopped. “ Then we must tell the king and queen. We can't keep it a secret, Amelia.”
I want to agree to Devan's proposal. I want to nod and say, “ Of course. We go now.” But I stared at my bed, where two sheets of paper from the library lay beside the piece of paper containing the fortune teller's last confession, and I remembered Melani's pretty face. A face you want to believe in. The face of a woman whom the king and queen trusted more than anyone else.
“ This is not enough,” I said. “ This is not proof. They won't believe us, and even if they do, we still don't know where the real princess is. Do you think Melani will tell them, just because asked, after all this time, after all her plans?”
“ Many ways that can be used to make someone tell his secret,” Devan said grimly, but I shook my head.
“ Whatever they do won't make him confess. Melani has been working on all this for a long time. He's strong, Devan. And intelligent. It might even be possible that he already had a plan to kill the princess should the king and queen begin to realize what happened.”
“ I thought you said he needed the princess alive,” Devan replied.
“ Indeed, as long as no one knows that Riana is not the real princess. But if they find out, maybe Melani will kill Diana, so that there is no heir other than Riana. He's the royal family, Devan, or at least his great-grandfather who was four generations before. Riana is the best choice they have, if Diana dies.”
“ Then why didn't he kill Diana now?”
Devan knelt before me sitting on the bed, and took my hand into his grasp. “ Please, Amelia. I know this is dangerous, but we have to tell someone—“
Devan's lips whimper. “ I'm afraid he'll try to hurt you. He almost blew us up in the middle of a common corridor. He wouldn't mind sending someone to chase you.”
Like lightning striking in a dark room, Devan's words suddenly highlighted something I had forgotten. Granules of ice began to form along my spine, and I sighed sharply before I could stop it.
“ What?” sue Devan.
The nausea gnawed at my stomach. “ I think he's already sent someone.”
Devan's grip on my hand grew so tight that I pulled it off if I could. “ What do you mean? When?”
“ On the day of my meeting with Riana. There was a man following me. He's waiting in front of the house.”
A blood vessel throbbed in Devan's forehead. “ And you didn't tell me?”
Seriate