Nicandro's POV

Dear diary,

Today is just like any other day since grandpa passed away; meetings after meetings with dad about his coronation and the instability of the monarchy right now. Spain does feel a little empty now without a king for the last few months. Dad's coronation cannot happen yet as the people are still angry with us. Just a little while longer until the judges decide if my entire family will be forcefully abdicating from the throne.

Being next in line to the throne means everything that happens in my life from now will be on the microscope by the public, especially during this time. That also means I would not be able to see Alveanea for a longer time than I had hoped. I really do miss her.

Dad has been the strong pillar our entire family needed throughout this ordeal. I certainly would not be able to run the country when I just discovered I had a secret twin brother who is probably the most well-connected drug lord in the world and killed his father. Mum was barely holding it together when it first happened, with protesters protesting that our entire family line should be abolished from the throne, sending death threats to us, our once connected friends had left us in the cold as well.

I guess the only good thing that came out of this is Perez and I working together despite our differences. We have been working on some other projects on the side without much of dad's involvement as I want to help lift off some of the burdens on dad's shoulders. Perez loves the monarchy and being in power more than he hates me, and I do not mind as long as it saves our family.

Efren cleared this throat, "I think you've been staring at that text message for seven minutes now, sir."

Alveanea: Hey, I just got back from my first day of school. Surprisingly I somewhat can understand what was taught in class lol. Also met this really nice girl, her name is Sha. Last week, I saw Breton coming home at six in the morning with his shirt all ruffled up and I swear there was a lipstick stain on the collar of his shirt. I'm glad he has found someone instead of being stuck with me in the house every time. What's going on with you recently? I hope everything is getting better on your side.

I sighed and turned off the phone, handing it back to Efren.

Efren raised his eyebrow, "You're not going to reply back?"

"What's the point, Efren? We've exchanged eight messages in the past three months," I ran my fingers through my hair frustratedly, "And just to not let go of each other completely, holding onto the last piece, waiting for that last piece to be gone. Well now that she has a new life, I don't want to hold her back and allow her to fully move on."

He remained silent for a few seconds before saying, "I understand, your highness," and closed the door behind him.

The following week, I met up with Perez for our bi-weekly meetings. This was our sixth meeting, and surprisingly we've managed to not bring up about the past, only focus on the present issue. We met up at the Grand Whimsical Hotel, the same hotel where I booked a suite for Alveanea when my grandfather found out she was staying with me in the mansion last year. I have a deal with the hotel owner, allowing me full access to three of the suites in the hotel and access to a pathway in and out of the hotel, which most of the staff aren't even aware of.

"Cousin," Perez acknowledged as I entered the room.

I gritted my teeth, not having to put up with any of his antics, "Let's just get this over with."

He raised his eyebrows at me, "Someone had a bad day?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "Just drop it, Perez."

"Damn, this is one of those rare occasions where I've seen you so annoyed. You're always so calm and collected," he folded his arms, "I recognise that type of annoyance anywhere, it's female-related."

I ignored his comment, started taking out the documents I had ready to discuss with him.

"Let me guess, it has something to do with a certain someone named Tiana," he continued to poke.

I forcefully put the file on the table, "If I was having female-related issues, I certainly won't come to you."

He dramatically put his hand on his chest, "Ouch."

"Can we start now?"

Perez cleared his throat and sat upright, "Yeah, what do you have?"

"I was thinking of doing some charity events in other countries, to show our people that we have the support and not to turn on us."

Perez nodded his head slowly, "Yeah, you can go to Germany. The president did a deal with grandpa decades ago-"

"No. That would be exactly what the people are expecting us to do and give them more of a reason to call us cowards."

He looked a little taken aback by my statement, "How so?"

"They obviously know we have some sort of agreement with all the countries in Europe. If we go running to other countries in Europe now, it'll be seen as the last desperate straw to save our dignity and the family name."

He was lost in thought for a while before saying, "Then which countries should you go to?"

"Asia, the family has barely made any visits there and it would surprise everyone. The status of our relationship with the Asian countries is unknown, so if we manage to gain their respect, hopefully, everyone else will," I said with determination.

"Nice one, cousin," Perez commented, "You got any ideas on how to carry it out?"

I push the thick file on the table toward him, "Have at it."

Two hours later, we've made some progress in regards to the logistics and feeling good about where we are. I put the documents back into the file, Perez laid his head back on the couch and sighed.

"I can't believe the fate of our family depends on a bunch of judges," Perez scoffed.

In about one month's time, the most pristine judges in our country will come together and decide if our entire family will be stripped of our royal titles. That was decided by the ministers and agreed on by the people to see if we're still worthy of holding on to our royal titles.

"It's twenty-twenty. Everything is political, even us."

I straightened my jacket and stood up from the couch, Perez stopped me before I headed towards the door, "Seriously, everything okay with you and Tiana?"

Wouldn't call myself thinking about this picture one of my men took of her hanging out with this Phillipino guy for this past week okay.

"Yes. Why, you like her or something?" I asked in annoyance, even though I knew the answer was no.

He pursed his lips into a straight line, "You know why I showed interest in her and danced with her at the ball. And I apologised... sort of."

"Thanks for your concern Perez, but I'll manage," and with that, opened the door and walked out of the room.

"I just don't want that to distract you from what's happening right now!" he called out, but I just continued walking.

Because the throne is all you care about.

Since the royal advisors agreed on my proposal, there was a constant thought which was clouding in my head for the past week; where I should see Alveanea when I'm on the tour. Even though Singapore was not one of the Asia countries I was visiting, Malaysia was and it's right beside Singapore so I could make it work. It was the uncertainty of whether she wanted to see me again after I ignored her message from three weeks ago and the man I had been watching said that there seemed to be no wrongs in her life right now. It would be selfish of me to step into her life again and bring back the negative memories of what happened last year.

Other than the constant thoughts, there were also constant meetings with my father and the royal advisors. Being in all these meetings with my father in the past few months just showed me how not ready I am to be the next king of Spain.

"What? Why aren't you going with me dad?" I looked at him with disbelief.

He sighed, "Son, you need to do this. There's already so much going on here, I need to be here to settle those things. You need to go out there and gain our family name back."

"Alright. It's just- I don't know if I can do this. I'll probably end up embarrassing us even more."

He looked at me dead in the eye, "I believe in you, son. The whole country does."

I don't know why he said 'the whole country does' when everything the people have shown us is how much they hated us. I simply nodded my head as we got back into the meeting, me following up with my most trusted advisor, Dante. He's a jerk most of the time, but he's good at his job and has been loyal to my family for two decades now.

After hours of being locked in a meeting, I finally get to retire to my room at nine pm. On my desk were pictures of Alveanea and two of her classmates hanging out, the three of them with smiles on their faces. I hadn't thrown them away yet after as it was a reminder for me to move on from her. I've got so much on my plate and I won't drag her into my mess. That's why I had also decided to not visit her during the tour.

I guess we're what romance books would call it 'right person wrong time'.

There was a knock on the door when I got out of the shower, and I prayed it wasn't an advisor; I don't think my brain can function anymore tonight. I let out a sigh of relief when it was Efren standing at my door. But my relief soon turned into nervousness when I saw the look on his face.

"What is it?" I asked, with all of the possible bad scenarios running through my head.

He took a step toward me and said in a low volume, "I'm afraid Alveanea has been attacked, sir."

Now I'm definitely going to see her.