Cold.

A room had never felt colder. Anne-Marie could barely get her thoughts together watching Aiden pace around the room like that, he was nervous and she could tell.

She held her breath as she watched him, she couldn't help but wonder what it was he was thinking about besides the fact that they had just invited one of the elders of Niyagra to speak with them. Aiden had a lot of worry about, he was scared. This was his last option, his last resort to helping Niyagra and he couldn't help but worry he wasn't going to be able to convince the elders one more time to let him.

He wasn't even sure what was going to happen the moment Elijah walked into that room with one of them, he didn't want to imagine it but he was prepared for the worst case scenario.

Where were they anyway? It was over two hours, why weren't they there yet?

Aiden turned to the clock on the wall, he let out a frustrated breath that made Anne-Marie roll her eyes again.

"You know, pacing like this isn't going to help us solve anything." She had to say it, Aiden turned to her. "If anything, you're only going to wear your legs out."

"Yeah, it's easy for you to say. Talking to the elders of
Niyagra isn't as easy as you think it is. I've tried doing that for seven years, of course I'm nervous and worried. This is our only shot, everything that happens from this moment, is dependent on what happens in this room from today."

He stopped pacing and drew a deep breath. He turned to his sweaty palms and rubbed them together, Anne-Marie exhaled.

They both turned to the door the moment they heard footsteps approaching it. Anne-Marie got up from her chair immediately so she could have a better chance at looking the moment the door opened.

Aiden puffed his cheeks with air, this was it, the moment they had both been waiting for and he had never been more nervous. The door opened and Elijah walked into the room immediately, taking a bow to Aiden the moment he did while another guard walked in with an older woman in front of him. Anne-Marie took a good look at her, with the way she dressed, anyone could tell she was one of the elders of Niyagra at a glance, the youngest of them, the one in charge of taking care of the infected.

She exchanged quick glances with Aiden,

"It was hard getting one of the others." Elijah went on to explain. "She was the only one that wasn't together with the others."

"Is this all you could amount to?" Aiden returned his gaze to the woman that raised her trembling voice at him, he could see how she tried to hide the fear in her eyes by glaring at him so fiercely. "Abduction? You came into our home and we let you, now you're just going to walk in the footsteps of your father and abduct one of us?!" She yelled at him. "Was this your plan after all? Is this your way of caring for us? You think abducting me is going to make us bow to you?"

She chuckled.

"You're mistaken. Nothing you do is going to make the elders change their minds, not even if you decide to kill me here. So if you're going to kill me, get on with it already."

Aiden sighed. She was indeed really feisty. He turned to the guards that held on tightly to her and nodded after a few seconds, encouraging them to let her go.

The woman felt her body tense and let out a relief exhale when she felt them take their hands off her. What was that? Was he really letting her go? She narrowed her gaze on him, why?

"I'm sorry for the way my guards brought you here," Aiden went on to tell her. "Sometimes, they tend to be too efficient and do all they can to get the job done. I'm sorry if you felt violated, this is not an abduction, you're not being abducted in anyway."

The lady squinted her eyes as she looked at him. She turned to Anne-Marie and to the rest of the guards. Was that true? Did he really mean that? Was she really not abducted? She took her gaze back to Aiden, her hands were slowly stopping to tremble.

"What do you want?" She let her voice remain tough anyways. "Why did you bring me here?"

"We need your help." Anne-Marie told her.

She scoffed.

"My help?" She asked. "What could the prince of Breton and the prime minister's daughter possibly need my help for?"

"It's about your people." Anne-Marie said. "We've found a way to help your people get better, a way to make everything better for the people of Niyagra and stop the spread without having to bow down to the king."

The lady squinted her eyes, she was trying to wrap her head around what she had just heard. Was she really saying the truth? Had the prince really found a way to help her people?

"All we need, all we really need you to do is convince your people and the other elders to grant us permission into Niyagra, to grant us the permission to hold a fundraiser in Niyagra, open your gates again to the people of Breton, give them access to tour Niyagra and feed their curiosity, that way, we could raise enough to get the infected amongst you treated and we wouldn't have to do it with the help of my father, just the people."

"You want to hold a fundraiser in Niyagra?" She stared at him, disbelief in the tone of her voice. "You want me to talk to the other elders to let others inside our home?"

"It's just one day," Anne-Marie said

"One day or not, it can't happen," she snapped at Anne-Marie. "The gates of Niyagra has been closed to the rest of Breton for reasons you both know. Opening our gates all of a sudden and letting you hold a fundraiser in our village is impossible, the elders would never see reason with what you're asking."

"But you could talk to them," Anne-Marie took a step towards her. "You could make them see reason with what we are trying to do, you can make them understand how important it is for us to control the situation in your village. We've all seen firsthand how dangerous the V virus is, it almost wiped out Breton in a span of twelve months, how long is it going to take for it to wipe out Niyagra? You said it yourself, you can't control the spread on your own, your people are dying, you're all going to die if nothing is done to help you all, we could all die. This is a chance, we are giving you a chance to save your people, why won't you take it?"

"It's not me, it's everything, it's the rest of the elders. Accepting help from the royal family is one thing, opening our gates is another not to talk about letting the press and the public in, holding a fundraiser," she scoffed. "There's no way they would ever listen to me."

"But you're not accepting help from the royal family." Anne-Marie told her. "It's from the people, the people of Breton are your people, Niyagra is still Breton last I checked, surely you don't see the people of Breton the same way you see the royal family, the people of Breton are not a threat to your people, they never have been, why won't you let us help you? Are you all just going to sit back and watch your entire village rot away? you'd watch your people die when you know there might actually be a way to save them?"

"Us? Since when did you care about what happens to the people of Niyagra?"
The lady glared at Anne-Marie, her frown worsening everytime she kept her eyes on her. "Since when did you care? Last time I checked, your father is the reason we are going through what we are right now. Why do you care so much about what happens to us anyways? The prince I can understand, but you? You've never cared what happened to our people, why now?"

Anne-Marie held her breath and swallowed hard. She was right, Paris didn't care about the people of Niyagra, she probably never had a reason to, it must have been really awkward to see that Anne-Marie was so concerned about them all of a sudden. She let out a shaky breath, how else was she supposed to explain herself? How else was she supposed to explain it to them? To convince them to accept their help?

Anne-Marie exhaled. She wasn't sure if she had any other words to say, she really didn't want to cross the line especially since she saw how irritated she had made the lady already.

"Your highness," Elijah's stutter brought her attention back to Aiden, not just hers, but the woman's too, causing them to turn to Aiden and watch him fall to his knees slowly.

Anne-Marie froze and widened her eyes and so did the lady as Aiden knelt down in front of her, his both hands laying on his thighs and his gaze buried on the ground. He couldn't believe it either, he couldn't believe the lengths he had to go through to save them, to get them to listen.

"Y-your Highness." The lady stuttered too, shock evident in her trembling voice and wide eyes.

"I know it's not in my place to ask of anything from you or your people." Aiden went on before he was distracted or stopped. He was desperate, desperate to get through to her. "All I'm asking for is one chance, one chance to right my father's mistakes, one chance to earn the trust of your people, to help them, to give them an opportunity to live, a reason to live," he raised his head to her. "That's all I ask, grant us access into your home, and I promise you, you wouldn't have to lose any of your people to the virus anymore."

"We can't make up for what happened seven years ago," she slowly turned to Anne-Marie as Anne-Marie reached for her hands, causing the lady to go cold immediately and glue her eyes to their joined hands. "We can't bring back all that you've lost, we can't make up for the mistakes of our parents but we want to try and we can only try if you let us."

The lady raised her head to Anne-Marie and stared at her for a while, she turned back to Aiden. It was unbelievable, she had the prince on his knees and the daughter of the ruthless prime minister begging her, the seeds of the same people that ruined the lives of her people but at that point, all the hate she had was gone, swept away by their humility. She returned her gaze back to Anne-Marie as she indulged her, trying to convince her with the way she looked at her.

What was she going to do?

She shut her eyes for a second and drew a deep breath.

It was going to be really hard convincing the rest of the elders at that point. What was she going to do?

*************************************************

The evening was cold and the walk to the car was a long one. The thing was they weren't exactly walking to the car, Aiden was nervous, they both were and so they found themselves walking down the road with the cars driving slowly, right behind them. A walk was what he needed. Aiden was so lost in his thoughts to actually think of anything else, not the weather, not the car or the royal guards walking behind them. He looked into his watch again and into his phone.

There was nothing.

No calls, no texts, nothing.

At that point, he was tired of waiting, was she ever going to call back? Were the elders of Niyagra going to listen to them? To grant their request? Was he really going to be able to help them without the King's help? He had a lot of thoughts to be scared and worried about, for a reason he felt like the life and death of the people of Niyagra depended on him. He froze when he heard Anne-Marie let out a weak exhale, the sound her hands made as they rubbed against her arm to keep them warm alerted him. You could almost hear as her teeth gritted against each other with every step she took, she was cold, shivering.

Darn it!

She should have came out with a coat at least or worn something with a lot of sleeves if she had known the night was going to be so cold, not that she could help herself, it was her uniform, it was unfortunate she didn't really get the chance to change out of it before they left the royal academy. She literally had tears in her eyes and she kept sniffing every now and then.

Great Anne-Marie, just great.

She stopped walking when she noticed how Aiden had stopped walking too. She slowly turned to him, why did he stop? Was anything the matter?

She had her eyes glued to him like she was trying to read him but instead, he just pulled off his jacket and took about two steps towards her, he wrapped it over her shoulders, now he was protecting her from the cold, good thing his shirt had sleeves.

"You don't have to-" She tried to be modest.

"Don't complain so I don't change my mind." He cut her off. "If you were so cold, you should have said something."

Anne-Marie pouted as she watched Aiden look away, doing all he could to avoid eye contact with her. The street was lonely, too lonely and even colder since he gave her his jacket but he tried to brush it off, rubbing his arm gently every three seconds while his eyes were suddenly becoming teary.

Goodness gracious, why did he even give her his jacket in the first place? He was freezing. He sniffed, trying to push the tears in his eyes back. Anne-Marie chuckled. He looked so cute doing all he did, acting so tough.

That reminded her,

Anne-Marie reached for her diamond bracelet. She hesitated at the thought of what she was about to do. She couldn't believe she was even considering it, she remembered how it was the first thing Oliver gave her after she moved into the mansion, she had spent all day thinking it through, thinking about what she was about to do.

Was it really okay? Was it okay if she gave it up to save the people of Niyagra? Aubrey told her they were going to make a lot from it, it could help Aiden a great deal, help Niyagra. Looking at the shiny stones on it made her understand how precious and luxurious the bracelet was, she was thinking of selling it the moment she left the mansion, it was going to help her and Abel get settled into their new lives a great deal, was she really going to just hand it over to save the sick people of Niyagra?

Think about if Marie, it's just one bracelet, a couple of millions perhaps but look on the brighter side, you'd make enough for you and Abel by the time you leave the Vutron's mansion.

Anne-Marie didn't want to think about it anymore or talk herself out of it. She pulled off the bracelet and handed it to Aiden.

"Here." She stretched it towards him as he slowly turned to look at her. "Do whatever you want with it."

Aiden furrowed his brows.

"It would go a long way in helping the people of Niyagra."

Aiden widened his eyes, he couldn't believe it. Did Paris just willingly let go of her jewelry? Selflessly? The Paris he knew? To save the people of Niyagra? He scoffed.
What was wrong with her.

"Don't look at me like that." Anne-Marie smiled nervously. "I just want to help, I know it doesn't seem like it but I know what it's like to watch someone you care about die and you not being able do anything about it, that's why I want to help. You could sell that together with everything else, I'm sure it would go a long way." She pursed her lips and pretended to think for a while. "I could just buy it back after the fundraiser."

The lady from before was right, there was something definitely wrong with her. The Paris he knew would never let herself get involved with the problems of Niyagra in the first place let alone contribute to making it better.

He squinted his eyes as Anne-Marie placed the bracelet into his hands while she drew a deep breath.

You did the right thing Marie, you did the right thing.

"Your highness."

Both their thinking got cut short when Elijah started to approach them as fast as he could. Aiden folded the bracelet into his fist and turned to him immediately, pretending like nothing had happened.

"You have a phone call." Elijah went ahead to raise Aiden's phone to him so he could take it and get the call. Aiden placed a hand over the speaker and turned to Anne-Marie,

"Excuse me."

Anne-Marie pursed her lips and nodded. Not like she had a choice, she watched him walk away from her, speaking into his phone. Anne-Marie rubbed her arms together, leaving her focus on him. She was dying to know what he was talking about and why he was taking so long. She couldn't exactly hear what it was he was saying but she could notice some sort of excitement in the tone of his voice.

In a minute, Aiden hung up and hurried back to her with a smile on his face, a really bright smile. He stopped right in front of her, she had never seen him so excited all her life.

"Did someone from Niyagra call?" It was like Anne-Marie could already guess the reason. Aiden bit on his lower lip and nodded after a second. Anne-Marie gasped, her eyes widened in excitement immediately.

"What did they say? Is it good news? Are they finally going to let us help?" She was asking so many questions at once. "Would they let us hold the fundraiser in their village?"

Aiden pursed his lips and pretended to think for a while, he was intentionally trying to keep her on an edge. He returned his gaze back to her and his smile got even wider, exposing his adorable set of dimples.

"Mnn." He nodded.

Anne-Marie gasped again as he placed her hands over her mouth in excitement, screaming into it and jumping as high as she could. She couldn't believe it.

"Really?" She asked him. "They really said that?"

Aiden folded his hands behind his back as he watched her. His excitement doubled just watching her be so happy.

"Mhmm." He nodded again.

"That's amazing!" She said. "It's really amazing, I can't believe it!"

Anne-Marie was so happy, too happy that she found herself jumping on Aiden on reflex causing Aiden to freeze for a second. His entire body had become numb under her touch. Her body was so warm, and she smelt so good. He was fighting all that it was inside of him to hold back, to not take her, to not wrap his arms around her. What was she doing?

Anne-Marie opened her eyes the moment she snapped out of it. Had she done too much? She had no idea she had been that excited, too excited as to hug him like that. Christ, that had to be super embarrassing.

She pulled herself away from him slowly, letting her cheeks brush against his. She narrowed her gaze on him, she didn't know why her eyes sought his and when he looked into her eyes, when their eyes met, it was like fireworks were exploding in the air. She could see her reflection in his eyes, his birthmark glorified his eyes even more, Aiden held his breath for a second, he had no idea, he had no idea when his hands found their way away from behind him, he wasn't in control of his thoughts anymore.

There was only one thing he could think of, holding her, kissing her, he pushed his head slowly towards her and then froze, he was waiting for her reception, he went further when he noticed how she didn't stop him. Anne-Marie held her breath, her heart was pounding with every inch his face drew closer to hers, her heart was racing. She couldn't, she shouldn't, at that moment, she had no idea what she was thinking but somehow, Paris' face popped up in her head, she pushed herself back from Aiden slowly, clearing her throat.

She couldn't do it.

Aiden froze.

Anne-Marie was so red from all that embarrassment. She couldn't believe she just rejected a kiss from him even when she wanted to so badly. She tucked her hair behind her ears and swallowed hard, Aiden watched her look away, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

Anne-Marie cussed herself under her breath, she was so stupid. Aiden scoffed, for some reason, he enjoyed that fact that he made her so nervous. He raised himself to stand straight and smiled. He wasn't going to fight it or force it. He cleared his throat.

"We should tell the others." He told her. "So they can make arrangements-"

Anne-Marie turned to him immediately.

"We should." She knew a change of conversation was necessary, she had to get rid of the awkwardness between them. "I'd tell Aubrey and Noa, I'm sure they'd be excited to hear it." She got out her phone.

Aiden nodded. That was fine, he was fine with it. He turned, folding his hands behind his back again.

"Your highness." Elijah called behind him. He slowly turned to him and let him lead him towards the car.

Anne-Marie turned away immediately and shut her eyes. She needed to breathe, she needed to snap out of it, she needed to focus.

What on earth is wrong with you Marie?

What was that? Why was her heart racing like that? Why did she always feel butterflies in her belly whenever she was around him like that? What was that feeling she felt? What was that tightening on her lower abdomen? Why did she suddenly feel so nervous? She placed her hand on her chest and drew a deep breath.

What exactly was wrong with her?