Anne-Marie let Aiden pull her all the way to the ladies bathroom while the guards followed right behind them.

"Wait here." She could hear Elijah command the other two guards when she and Aiden walked into the bathroom. The guards halted and stood guard in front of the door, one at each side while Elijah walked in after them and stopped right in front of the door. He looked away when Anne-Marie pulled her arm from Aiden's tight hold. He didn't want to be caught staring.

Anne-Marie could see how Aiden was studying her face like he was going to say something, perhaps scold her but was holding back. Anne-Marie could already imagine a thousand things he was going to say, but she also knew she couldn't wait for him to have the first words. She folded her arms, worsening her glare on him.

"What?" She asked him. "You want to scold me again? You're upset I said I wasn't shooting the documentary anymore?" She scoffed. "If you wanted to scold me so badly, you really didn't need to do any of this, you didn't need to pull me all the way here."

Aiden listened. For some reason he didn't interrupt her. He just stood there, staring at her and listening and that made Anne-Marie even more irritated.

"It's embarrassing." Anne-Marie finally said after a few seconds. "Watching all of this, being here with you, being a part of your scheme for attention and public applause, it's embarrassing."

Aiden raised a brow.

"Royal family my foot." Anne-Marie scoffed. Now she was sick of it, she was sick of holding back her disgust. She knew letting out how she felt about things that upset her was the only way she could breathe. She had to tell him, she had to tell him exactly how she felt.

"To think that there are a lot of people out there that look up to you, that look up to the royal family. I can't believe that this is all they get. None of it is real. None of what you make the public believe is real. I should have known all along." She said to herself.

"It's politics after all. It's what you all do, it's what those in power do, feed people with poison and then sell them the antidote. Inflict pain on the lives of the masses and then offer to help them when in fact, they only do it for their own selfish benefits. That's what the royal family is about isn't it? That's what you're about. Pretending to care about those people, to care about the kids, you visit them every weekend and tell them a story just so you could have your media capture special moments like that and feed it to the public, feed an imaginary picture of the amazing prince of Breton, down to earth, people friendly, kind hearted and extremely nice to the people when in real life, you're none of those things, when in real life, you're a jerk. A selfish and manipulative person who cares about no one but himself."

She held her breath for a second and shut her eyes so she could breathe.

"This is crazy."
She needed a moment. A moment to think deeper. "I can't believe I agreed to something ridiculous like this, I should have known better."

She opened her eyes again and raised it to Aiden one more time.

"I can't do it anymore." She glared at him again. "I don't care what's going to happen after this but I can't do this anymore. I refuse to be used like this, I refuse to be a tool for royal family to use in deceiving the public, if you're going to win the trust of your people then you should at least try to do right by them, this documentary doesn't cut it. You don't need a documentary to prove yourself to your own people. What they want is hope, not this. The royal family can't even understand what half of the people in this building have been through. There are people here battling for their lives, fighting every hour to live and you all are just going to use it to your advantage? to hit headlines? 'The perfect prince of Breton pays a visit to the sick and poor kids' that's what you want isn't it? To you it's just a few pictures with a few sick kids but to these kids it's their life, it's hope. 'I got to see the prince, I took a picture with the prince, I can die with no regrets now. He has noticed me, he might probably do something to help me, to help other children because he understands, because he has seen me.' that's how they feel, that's all they feel but it never happens, it's never going to happen. While they sit in their beds, waiting for death, wondering when they'd die, you and your family sit in your thrones, trying to choose what picture to sell to the media. I'm disappointed."

She frowned even harder.

"I know you're used to being spoiled all your life, to having all you want and doing all you want but sometimes, even if it's once in your lifetime, try to do something decent. Try to be a better man than your father and his father and the father before him!" She yelled

"I beg your pardon Miss Vutron," Elijah took a step towards them to stop them but Aiden stretched a hand to stop him. He didn't want him to interrupt her, he was still listening to all she had to say.

"Do you have any idea, do you have any idea how many people have put their faith in you? Do you have any idea how many people believe you'd be a better king? How can you be a better king when you're not even a better man? To be a better king you have to be a better human first and nothing about this, nothing about feeding off the pain of people, your people, is humane!"

"Miss Vutron!" Elijah yelled at her immediately. Anne-Marie held her breath for a second. She couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe she had just said all that at once.

"You would show respect to the prince and the royal family and talk with caution or you'd be punished for misconduct in front of and blasphemy against the royal family right now."

Anne-Marie scoffed. She flickered her tongue down her lips and shut her eyes again. She needed more breaths. Aiden dropped his hands and lowered his head so he could watch her try to avoid every form of eye contact with him. For the first time in a long time, he was actually speechless. That had to be the Paris he knew, although Paris would never in her life talk to him the way she just did now but the anger issues was one thing they had in common. The difference was, where the anger was directed to.

"Are you done?" Aiden asked her after a few seconds.

Anne-Marie blinked twice in embarrassment as she bit on her lower lip hard. She was done for. She knew that now. If Oliver or the King ever heard a word about what just happened, it was going to be the end of their deal and her life. What on earth had come over her?

Aiden let out an exhale, letting himself smile a little bit. He turned to Elijah who happened to still be in shock from what happened and signaled he came over to them. Elijah obeyed.

Aiden turned back to Anne-Marie, he wrapped his hands around her waist and slowly grabbed her by her sides and before Anne-Marie could even register what was going on, he lifted her up from the ground gently like her weight was nothing and placed her on one of the slabs beside them.

Elijah hurried to them with a bag in his hand. It was the first time, the first time she even noticed he had a shopping bag with him. She quickly turned back to Aiden who happened to be really busy with taking off her shoes.

"W-what are you doing?" She was really shocked.

"If you're going to throw tantrums," Aiden kept his gaze on her first foot after he took off the shoe on it. Her big toe was swollen and her foot was red in a few places. She had a bruise too. He handed the shoe to Elijah, "Make sure you throw them while standing comfortably." He took off the other one too and did the same. Elijah opened the bag and got out a pair of slides.

"Let me do it your highness." He volunteered.

"Nah," Aiden took it from him. "She's feisty nowadays, she might bite you."

He turned to Anne-Marie and smiled a little bit. Anne-Marie blinked. What on earth was going on?

She watched him slide one of the slippers gently on one foot and then the other but she was still so shocked about the situation to even stop him. She waited until he was done.

Aiden took a step back to take a good look at her legs. They fitted perfectly.

"Wow." He placed a hand on his chin pretending to be surprised. "They did fit."

Anne-Marie lowered her gaze to the slides. They were perfect on her, super comfortable and pretty too. How did he know? How did he know those were what she really needed? When did he even get the time to get those?

"I guess we're done here."
She slowly raised her head back to Aiden as she watched him turn to Elijah.

"Have one of the men drive her back to the palace." He said. "She doesn't have to come with us for the rest of my schedule. She can head back first."

"Yes," Elijah bowed, "Your highness."

What did that mean? Was he leaving? Was it really okay for her to head back without him? She was about to say something when Aiden started to take fast steps to the door without doing as much as looking back at her.

The door opened and he walked out. It closed again. Anne-Marie swallowed hard. She slowly retraced her gaze to her feet, turning it around to have a better look at the shoes. She exhaled.

What was going to happen now? What was going to happen to her now?