Anne-Marie bit on her fingernails loudly as she stared into her phone's screen, Aubrey's words echoing over and over again in her head.

"The prince is back. Didn't you hear? There are some pictures of him making a quick stop at the royal mall hours ago all over the internet."

Should I call him? Or should I not call him?

She couldn't keep herself from asking herself the same questions all over again. Ever since Aiden left, it had been hard for her to concentrate on anything. Her mind had been occupied only of memories of him. She had seen pictures of him in Berlin with other leaders and royalties all over the internet and his fan pages but never got the chance to talk to him ever since he left. He never even called once and now he was back, he still hadn't called or texted, not even after he knew she was going to be gone for three days. Their plane was going to be leaving in a minute.

She exhaled.

What's wrong with you Anne-Marie? Why do you even care?

"Whose call are you waiting for?"

She raised her head from her phone immediately and turned to Aubrey who had her eyes glued to her phone with a smirk on her face the moment she saw Aiden's phone number and name on her screen.

"Woah." She said jest fully. "Did you miss the prince that much?"

Anne-Marie turned off her screen immediately and cleared her throat so Aubrey didn't make up any more assumptions that were obviously facts.

"Why would I wait for him?"

Aubrey's smirk got even wider as she raised her head to look at Anne-Marie. She could notice how Anne-Marie's cheeks got red in embarrassment.

"It's him isn't it? You miss the prince."

Anne-Marie scoffed.

"Don't be ridiculous Aubrey, I was just- waiting for my mum's call, that's all."

She looked away nervously, hoping Aubrey bought it because the last thing she needed was for Aubrey to blow things out of proportion. Aubrey folded her arms and pouted.

"Oh, bummer. And I was just about to tell you that the prince would be joining us in Eutherdore for class week."

Anne-Marie turned to her immediately, her face brightening up.

"Last I checked, he was on his way."

"What? Really?" The anxiety in her voice and excitement too was very obvious. Aubrey turned to her and scoffed.

"I thought you didn't care."

"Is Aiden really coming to Eutherdore?"

"Mnn." Aubrey nodded. "Asher just arrived at the airport even." She frowned and raised her upper lip in confusion. "And since when did you call Denise mum?"

Anne swallowed hard immediately and widened her eyes at Aubrey. She could tell Aubrey was waiting for some kind of response but she didn't know what to say. It was obvious she had slipped again.

"Aubrey-"

"Omg, it's Harry!"
A loud voice yelled from behind them. Saved by the bell really!

"Harry is here."

Anne-Marie gulped hard just as Aubrey turned towards the sound of the noise everyone was suddenly starting to make. She held her breath and then let out a relief exhale before she turned to the crowd too.

"Harry is here? Where?"

"Harry Fletcher is going to Niyagra?"

The voices got even louder causing Aubrey and Anne-Marie to turn quickly to the entrance as Harry was making his entrance in the best way he knew how, dramatic. He had his sunshades on and a pretty thick fur coat wrapped nicely on his body with his shiny black leather boots glittering with the lights and a lollipop stick sticking outside his mouth. That was it, that was exactly why he drove all the girls so crazy; his playboy dress-sense, attitude and charisma. Anne-Marie could count about three girls with him, they looked older, more like college students and they held on to his arm, one at each side with their short dresses, really long heels and perfect straight hair while the other just tagged along behind them. She could hear Aubrey scoff quite loudly beside her.

"Always a drama king."

She wasn't wrong. Everyone knew Harry fletcher to be the easy, carefree and fun-loving one among the K3. K3's very own Casanova. His reputation preceded him wherever he went. He was familiar with every night clubs and hotels anyone could think of. He was the only K3 who didn't have a love interest and was not looking forward to one. Adored by a lot of female and even male teenagers and adults, Harry always made sure to make a scene no matter what, knowing how to make good use of his sweet adorable dimples to his advantage. Anne-Marie watched how he slowly turned to one of the girls and raised her hand to his lips, he kissed it gently.

"Is he always like this?" She didn't have any idea when she asked that.

"Who? Harry?" Aubrey nodded. "For as long as I can remember." She turned to Anne-Marie. "I won't blame you for forgetting what Harry Fletcher acts like because his attitude isn't quite pleasing to remember." She chuckled. Anne-Marie forced a smile on her face too. "I wish I had partial amnesia too, at least I could force myself to forget this horror in front of me." Aubrey turned back to Harry.

Now Anne-Marie laughed a bit. She watched how Harry slowly turned to them. It was like he could spot them out from the crowd. Why wouldn't he? She watched how he pulled his glasses to his nose bridge and winked at them.

"God." Aubrey placed a hand on her forehead to rub it. "He embarrasses me."

"I find him adorable." Anne-Marie added.

"Half the girls in Bostwood do. He's not called Bostwood's biggest Casanova for nothing. I mean, who wouldn't want to be admired by the last son of the Duke of Camparaine? Harry's family is the reason why Bretons love wine so much. They gave us Fletcher wine after all, one of the bests in the entire country. Plus he's handsome and has quite a charm. Of course girls would be attracted to him, he's a K3. They are all every girl's greatest fantasy although Ash is the most handsome."

Anne-Marie turned to her and scoffed when she noticed the smirk on her face. She liked how Aubrey was so open about her feelings for Asher. She was doing a good job at not running from it anymore.

"The more I look at it, the more it's obvious that their break up had something to do with this."

"What break up?"

"Harry and Noa's."

"Harry and Noa dated?!"

That was quite loud. Anne-Marie didn't even know she had been so loud. She was just too surprised to hold it in. Aubrey turned to her immediately. She could see how widened her eyes were. Anyone could tell she was shocked by the news. She scoffed.

"Hey Paris," she pouted. "Until when do you get your memories back? This is getting extremely frustrating having to reminisce about old times on my own and fill you up on everything."

Anne-Marie swallowed hard and tucked her hair behind her ear. She didn't know what to say.

"You really don't remember?"

She shook her head.

"The match? Tenth grade." Aubrey went on. "Ms Maria and Mr Fletcher tried to match Harry and Noa together. They dated for about a year, quite longer than I thought it would last. Unlike every other arranged relationships we know, theirs wasn't like that, they actually started to like each other, a lot. It was the first time I had ever seen any of them be so attracted and interested in anyone and also the last. You even went ahead to buy them a pre wedding gift because we thought they were going to get married before you and the prince, you don't remember?"

Anne-Marie didn't want to answer that. She leaned closer to Aubrey.

"What happened?"

"What do you think happened? All I know is things got bad after Harry's mother got into that accident and got into a coma. They broke up weeks later without any of them saying why. I have a haunch Harry cheated, maybe he did. Ever since then they both changed and Harry became you know," she gestured to Harry as one of the girls gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Harry. I admire them both anyway, I admire how they've been able to remain friends ever since."

Anne-Marie slowly turned her gaze to where Noa stood with two other men in front of her, older men. She could recognize one of them to be her father. They looked quite alike. She knew who the second one was too, Mr Isaiah Roman, now known as Isaiah Lennox, Noa's stepfather and Timothy Lennox's husband. Anne-Marie knew because she had had tea with them a few times. Noa's parents got divorced sometime the year before and even though Noa didn't really like to talk about it, she never showed any signs of discomfort or hate towards the fact that her father had remarried four months later to the man he called "the man of his dreams". Isaiah was a catch and was really nice too. He was one of the nicest people Anne-Marie had met and he loved Noa a lot.

Anne-Marie watched them closely. From the way they talked, she could see Noa was pretty upset about something and they were just trying to comfort her.

"Looks like Ms Maria won't be showing up at the airport today." Aubrey's words brought her head back to her. Anne-Marie looked at her, hoping she explained more. She could recognize the name to be Noa's mother but what did she mean?

"I can't believe it's been a year since Noa came out to her and she still won't speak to her or show up for any event. They practically live in the same house but it's almost like they are strangers. Aren't all mothers supposed to love and accept their children no matter what? Poor Noa," Aubrey rubbed her arms as she kept her eyes focused on them. "She doesn't only have to live with the fact that her mother hates her for being sexually attracted to women, and has refused to accept it, but constantly has to go through rejection and series of abandonment and heartaches over and over again for wanting a relationship with her mother. "

So that was it? That was the kind of relationship Noa and her mother had. No wonder Anne-Marie didn't know much about Ms Maria Williams. She was never home everytime she came around anyway.

"I even heard she moved into a hotel last month and has refused to go home until Noa agrees to break up with Veronica and allow for another exorcism."

"An exorcism?" Anne-Marie frowned.

"Apparently, she thinks Noa is possessed by an evil gay spirit." Aubrey rolled her eyes. "What on earth is wrong with all our parents and being so ignorant about everything that concerns us? I just don't get it."

Anne-Marie watched how Noa turned towards them after exchanging hugs with her fathers. She had the saddest look on her face as she slowly started to approach them.

Beep.

She had a text message. Anne-Marie slowly reached for her phone and opened it just so she could read the text Denise had sent her.

"Have fun at Eutherdore and don't forget to take a lot of pictures and make a lot of memories. With love- mum."

The smile on her face widened as she read the text over and over again in her head while Noa got closer.

"What has you all smiling?" Aubrey was anxious to know. Anne-Marie turned to her immediately.

"My mum texted me." She couldn't stop herself from being so excited. It was everything she had ever dreamt of. A home, a parent, a mum and day by day, Denise was becoming more of more of that to her. A mother. It excited her a lot.

"Woah, look at you. I'm jealous that you're actually getting to fix things with your step mum when my Mum barely even remembers what grade I'm in."

"At least you both have Mums that want you alive." Noa said as she came to a stop right in their middle. She slowly turned as they both turned to look at her. "Mine would rather have me dead."

Aubrey exhaled and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. She rubbed it gently while Anne-Marie reaches for her hand and held it. She squeezed it lightly.

"Don't worry Noa, she'd come around someday. For what's worth, we are here for you."

Anne-Marie raised her hand to rub Noa's arm.

"Whatever you need."

Noa turned to her and forced a smile on her face. She had to. One way or the other, her friends always had a way to make her really excited and forget about all the crazies going on in her life.

"It's the prince."

Anne-Marie froze immediately and it felt like the rest of the world did with her.

"The prince is here."

"Oh my god, the prince is here, he really came."

"Is he traveling with us? Coming with us to Eutherdore?"

"Amazing- I can not believe it, I have to take this."

"Impossible."

Did she hear correctly? Did she just hear what she did? That Aiden was at the airport? Where? How? When? She turned around immediately in search for him, her face brightening a little bit the moment she noticed him walking down the huge hall gracefully. It was easy to locate him. How could anyone ever miss him when he always stood out at everything. She found a smile forcing its way on her face immediately and could feel how her heart kept pounding against her chest with every step he took in her direction. He had his eyes on her, no one else but her and his frown grew even worse as he stormed towards the trio, Elijah behind him and about four more guards in pairs of two behind them.

"Prince Aiden," before she knew it, Valerie had just jumped out of no where and was heading towards him with a huge smile on her face. Anyone could sense her desperation from miles away but the frown on her face turned to a scowl the moment Aiden walked past her like she was invincible. It was embarrassing.

"Excuse me ladies." Harry whispered to the women and didn't even wait for their permission before he scurried away with Aiden the moment he got close.

"You're out early." He told him even through Aiden tried to walk faster, Harry tried to keep up. "I thought you flying straight to Eutherdore?"

"I changed my mind."

Aiden walked past him without saying so much as a word but Harry could see it. He could tell something was not right just by his countenance. Asher walked hurriedly towards him too with his ticket in his hands.

"What's going on?"

Harry shrugged his shoulder, he had no idea.

"He's coming here." Aubrey gave Anne-Marie a little push on her arm and it made her cheeks redden even more especially since Aiden was only a few paces away from her. She slowly raised her hand to wave at him as he got even closer.

Three days, it had only been three days since she saw him and it felt like he was gone a whole year. Watching him walk to her the way he did, like a prince in a fairy tale or a hot male lead in a teenage Kdrama made her heart flutter a great deal. Aiden got to the front of her and froze.

He suddenly started to remember. Watching her smile at him the way she did, watching her act like she didn't know what it was she was doing, watching her act like someone she was not and fit in perfectly into that role to make a fool out of him, disgusted him.

The pictures and the words, Elijah's and Keisha's and then Abel's, they were getting to him, echoing in his head all at once and his frown kept getting deeper and deeper. He was getting even more frustrated just looking at her while she acted so innocent. What a liar.

Who exactly was this girl standing in front of him? How did she look so much like Paris? Why?

Anne-Marie slowly found her smile starting to fade especially since he had no interest in reciprocating it.

"What's wrong?"

"Did something happen?"

"Is he mad at her?"

Anyone could see how Aiden was glaring at her scornfully. It was almost obvious that something was wrong. Aubrey and Noa could see it too. Asher and Harry as well and Anne-Marie, he was standing right in front of her and glaring at her, how couldn't she notice it?

Anne-Marie looked around. The whispers were getting louder as everyone had their eyes focused on them. Everyone could tell that there was something off. She was starting to get really uncomfortable. She slowly turned to Aiden.

"Aiden-" she called his name in a whisper.

"Come with me." He ordered. "Now."

He turned and took a step to leave just as the murmurs got even worse.

Hearing all the students whisper among themselves made her really afraid, for some reason, she could feel a cold chill pass through her spine. She slowly turned to Aubrey and Noa.

She was stalling and Aiden was getting really impatient. He stopped walking and drew a deep breath, raising his head in the air for energy. He had to calm himself down a bit. He knew he didn't need to make any decisions that could turn around to hurt his family. He was done tolerating her and everyone else. He turned immediately and stormed back to her while Anne-Marie was still having a hard time wrapping her head around what was happening. He lowered his gaze on her hand and grabbed it without thinking about anything else. He held on as tight as he could that it made Anne-Marie wince in pain. He was hurting her and it was intentional.

"I didn't stutter." He told her and then started to pull her away before she could even get over the shock of what was going on.

Anne-Marie tried to struggle to release herself from his hold but he tightened his grip on her, he was holding on to her tightly and pulling her towards the direction of the VIP waiting lounge and she couldn't do anything to stop him.

They got to the room and he threw her inside, making her collide with the edge of the table in front of them. Anne-Marie could feel her sides hurt immediately as she held on to it for support. She raised her head to him and watched him take a quick scan around the room just as everyone began to get up from their seats. The students had followed them all the way too and were watching right outside. She could see how Asher and the rest hurried to the door.

"Your highness," Asher took a step in towards them.

"Stay away from this Asher." Aiden warned him. He didn't want to have to repeat himself. He turned to the elderly people in the room and the two teenagers.

"Everyone get out. Now!" He ordered as loud and clear as he could. It didn't take a minute before they all started to leave as fast as they could. Asher and Harry too just as two bodyguards walked to the door and closed it. They stood firm in front of it.

Anne-Marie swallowed hard. What on earth was going on? She slowly retraced her gaze to Aiden. What was wrong with him? Why was he acting that way? She held her breath and managed to stand straight, ignoring the pain she felt at her side. Aiden turned to Elijah immediately.

"A-Aiden-"

He reached for Elijah's gun and turned to her as fast as he could. He raised it to her forehead, pointing it at her. Anne-Marie's eyes widened as she cringed in fear.

"Your highness-" Elijah took a step forward and then froze while Anne-Marie gasped in shock. She couldn't believe it. She was numb all over, she couldn't move. Was that a gun? Like a real gun? Was Aiden pointing a real gun at her? Why? What did she do? What on earth was going on?

"Who are you?"