When I walked out of the interrogation room, I spotted Perez who was still sitting at the same spot when I went in. "You okay?" He asked as he walked towards me.

I let out a forced chuckle. "You're asking me if I'm okay? Your grandfather just got shot."

He sighed. "I know I should be really worried and sad now, but I can't help but feel..."

"Disappointed?" Perez nodded in response.

"Is it bad that I feel that way?" He ran his finger through his thick black hair, "The thing which he did... abandoning his own child, it's unforgivable."

He's right about that. If the king hadn't done that, I wouldn't be an orphan.

"So I'll ask one of my drivers to bring you back to where you're staying at? I've got to go to the hospital now." He said after a few seconds of silence and I nodded in response.

He fingers briefly brushed my arm and before he walked away with three other bodyguards. I didn't think much of it and walked the other way with another one of his bodyguards.

When I got back to the hotel, it was pass two in the morning so thankfully there was no one at the hotel lobby except for the receptionist who looked at me weirdly when I approached him, which I wasn't expecting any other reaction from him. My hair was ruffled, dress stained with blood, wearing a police jacket and makeup smudged; a total disaster. I had to ask him for another room key as mine is with Efren who was obviously unavailable at the moment.

I was about to walk away when he started talking. "Were you in the same room as the king when he was shot?"

"I was," I replied to him.

"Do you think he's going to make it? The news is saying he was shot twice," he asked another question.

I subtly rolled my eyes in annoyance. My current state clearly screams 'leave me the hell alone'.

I replied to him anyways, "I think he wished he died because his legacy is destroyed."

He folded his arms. "Eighty-two percent wishes he does not make it according to the internet."

"Good to know," I looked at the card from his hand and headed for the lift, showing no emotions.

Once I went into the suite, I immediately checked my phone knowing that Breton and Peter will be checking in after hearing about what happened tonight on the news. When I tried to use my phone, it was dead. So both of them actually called me until my phone was dead.

I decided to take a quick shower while my phone was recharging as I don't want to be wearing the dress stained with Efren's blood any longer. I put my pajamas on, and a towel wrapped around my head to absorb the water from my hair. I turned on my phone and the notifications started flooding in.

56 missed calls and 67 messages from Breton

31 missed calls and 91 messages from Peter

1 message from Nicandro :)

After twenty minutes on the phone with Breton and Peter, and countless reassurance that I will inform them if anything happens. Since Spain will definitely be in chaos of possible protests to dethrone the entire royal family, Breton encouraged me to leave on the next flight to Singapore which is tonight before the situation worsens. I then finally got the chance to get back to Nicandro, I called him instead of texting him because you can't just text someone after they've just witnessed their grandfather getting shot in front of them.

"Hey," I said as soon as he picked up the phone.

"Hi," I could hear footsteps before he started talking again, "You're safe back at the hotel?"

"Yeah, and you're at the hospital?" I mentally slapped myself for asking that question, of course he was in the hospital.

"The surgery is still going to take a few more hours, there were a lot of internal damages."

I could hear the thick emotion in his voice, he must be all over the place now right. I wish I could be there with him right now.

"I see, how's Efren doing?" I probably am a monster for not being able to bring myself to say sorry about his grandfather's condition.

Because deep down I know I'm not.

"He's alright, he's resting now."

There were a few seconds of silence before Nicandro spoke up, "You should go sleep, it's almost three am."

I walked towards the bedroom, "Yeah, yeah I'll probably go do that."

"Will I see you tomorrow?"

"Yes, you will," I said as I sat on my bed, and decided not to tell him about me maybe leaving for Singapore tomorrow. He has plenty on his plate right now.

"Okay, good night then, Alveanea."

I wish I could stay in Spain for a few more days, but somehow it feels right to leave. Leave all the bad things behind. Try not to think about the fact that my parents' death was just collateral damage for Felon to claim the throne for himself.

"Good night, Nicandro."

"Three, two, one." I inserted the tool into his skin and pulled the bullet out, trying my best to stop my hands from shaking.

"Bloody hell." Efren bit his lip.

I put the bullet on the floor and pulled out the bandage along with the tape and prayed that the bleeding stops. There was no other sound coming from the hallway except for my shaky breathing. Efren tried to sit up straight, but I immediately stopped him.

"Don't even try to move, it's not stitched up yet."

"Okay, doctor." Efren said it in a mocking tone.

I shook my head in disbelief, "You're seriously acting all relaxed now? After I just pulled a bullet out you?"

Efren let out a huge breath. "I deserve a few seconds to joke, I thought I was going to die less than five minutes ago."

"One wrong move and I could've seriously damaged a nerve or something." I wanted to smack him in the arm for saying that, but he looks so fragile right now I might actually break him just by touching him.

"Seeing your expression when you were taking my bullet out has already done enough damage to my nerves." He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes, "Ha ha, very funny."

After a few seconds, he asked, "So what happened?"

"The king was shot twice." I replied.

"I-is he alive?"

"When I left the auction room, he was. Not sure about right now, it looked pretty bad."

"How's Nicandro?"

"I didn't get the chance to talk to him as it was so chaotic. Still, he looked better than his father who had just found out he had a twin brother and saw his father get shot in all of a few minutes."

Efren's eyes widened, "Twin brother?"

Right, he wasn't there.

"Felon is his father's twin brother and the reason for coming here tonight is so that everyone knows that the king is the type of man who abandoned his own child because he was born with one arm." I explained.

"Okay. But what about everyone else? My sister?"

Shit, I completely forgot about the other staff in the castle. "I don't know. I came to you as soon as Felon and his guys left."

"And the other guards?"

I squeezed his hand a little before saying. "The ones I've seen on my way here from the auction room are all dead."

He sighed. "So, what do we do now?"

"You're asking me? Your line of work is to be experienced in these situations."

"Never a situation where a group of people takes control of the castle and shoots the king."

I stared into his dark brown eyes. "I'm not leaving your side until help comes."

And that's what I did. I sat right next to Efren on the ground, knowing that help will not come soon as we're on the second floor in the castle. My worry increases as his face turns a little paler and the blood stain on the bandage gets bigger. His needs to get the bullet wound stitched up soon if not he will die from bloody loss or infection from an open wound. I noticed that he's beginning to doze off and even though I don't know any medical information, I know that he should be awake right now.

I shook his shoulders gently. "Efren, stay awake."

"I-I can't." He closed his eyes.

"Efren? No, stay awake."

Just then, two officers spotted us and had their guns pointed at us. It took them a few seconds to register that Efren needed medical attention immediately and one of the officers talked into his walkie-talkie to send a team up here right now. Within a minute, I heard footsteps rushing up the stairs and saw three medical workers carrying a stretcher rushing towards us.

One of the officers steadied me as I was sure that couldn't stand properly after almost watching Efren bleed to death. He passed me his jacket and stayed by side until we reached the first level in the ballroom where they were at least a few hundred people present from police officers to medical workers to those people who attended the ball. I saw Efren carried on a stretcher being lifted into an ambulance and I can only hope that the doctors save him in time.

The entire ballroom was in a complete chaos as there were people crying, screaming, yelling, bleeding, traumatised from a group of criminals taking control of the castle. At the right corner of the ballroom, my heart almost jumped out from my chest when I saw that there were at least a hundred bodies covered up in sheets and one by one being carried into vans. I took a seat at the refreshments area and refilled myself a glass of water, chugging the whole thing down.

"Tiana?"

I looked at the direction of whoever called me and saw Perez walking towards me. His black hair is a mess, black tie loosened and blood shot eyes probably from the excessive amount of crying.

"Perez, what are you doing here? Where's the rest of your family?" I asked him as he took the seat right next to mine.

"All of them are at the hospital with my grandfather right now. Only my father and I stayed behind to answer questions by the police." He answered me.

"I see, so how are you feeling right now?" I paused for a second before adding on, "Sorry, stupid question."

"Obviously not alright. But are you okay? There's blood on your dress." His eyes were on the blood on my dress, Efren's blood.

"That's not my blood, I'm fine." I gave him a small smile.

"That's a relief," He slowly got up from his seat, "Are you heading to the police station for questioning? You can go with me."

"Sure, thank you," I kindly accepted his offer.