18. Indebted.

[Claire]
One hundred thousand kroner, he had to be freaking kidding me, that was a lot of money, but I didn't mind, I would pay him back just to get rid of him and maybe then he would believe that I wasn't interested in his money.
I even wondered how wealthy he was, was he just a palace guard or was he more than that because he had an air to him that smelt like wealth.
I would know because I'd been around wealth and wealthy people all my life.
The money was a lot but I would try to come up with it, even if I had to start selling my jewelry, I didn't want to, but they weren't any use to me, I couldn't wear them because I was not supposed to be wealthy here and I had brought them to sell if I ever needed money for emergencies.
This looked like an emergency to me.
"Fine, if you'll give me your contact, I'll pay you back, I don't have that much right now but if you can just give me a few—" I started to say before he interrupted me rudely
"You have a month," He said coldly and then his eyes raked my body. "Unless you have other methods of payment in mind, I accept payment in kind."
My palm itched to slap him again immediately after he finished his statement.
"I said I'll pay you back your money, I will never sleep with you," I replied angrily.
"Okay, well I guess you have just three weeks then." His eyes held an evil glint.
"You said one month." I shot at him.
"I changed my mind." He smirked. " Your clothes are in the wardrobe, you can leave when you're done."
I turned to get my clothes as I watched him leave.
"And Claire." He turned back to face me. "Don't be late, I'd hate to have to resort to other methods to get the money from you." With that, he left and closed the door behind him.
Jean was a mysterious man.
He scared me, and excited me and annoyed me, and turned me on, there were just so many contrasting feelings.
When I was sure that he had left, I dropped to the floor and cried again, this time I cried because I just wished he would believe me.
I couldn't deny it any longer, I like Jean and I wanted him to like me. I still wanted him even after all of this and it made me very sad.
I picked my clothes from the wardrobe, they were clean, no wonder he said I owed him one hundred thousand kroner, he really did a good job of taking care of me.
I only wished that meant that he liked me, but he seemed to dislike me each time we met. He had been sweet at first, even trying to cajole me into his arms but now he was different.
I walked out of the room slowly and made my way towards the elevator, the door opened just as I got there and I got in quite easily.
It was Saturday, sweet Saturday.
Saturday used to be my best day of the week when I was in America, but now it was the day of the week that I dreaded the most because it was laundry and clean-up day.
I didn't think I could do that today though, I was still hungover from too much drinking last night and my heart ached because of Jean.
I picked up my phone to call a taxi when I found messages from Sophie. She'd been worried about me when I didn't show up again last night, I planned to call her later in the day then I opened the taxi app on my phone.
Before I could call for a ride though, a black Mercedes Benz roared its engine and parked in front of me.
"Miss, Mr. Jean asked me to drop you home." He said.
"No, my ride will be here soon, tell him that I say thank you but no thanks," I answered him straightaway.
"Please ma'am, the mister is a very scary person to deal with, if I don't do this, then I would get in trouble for sure." His pleading made his Danish accent pronounced.
I looked at him for some time, if he said Jean was a scary person to deal with, that would confirm my suspicion. He was definitely more than a palace guard.
"You can just tell him that you dropped me off and it'll be fine, if he ever asks me, I'll say the same." I was not budging.
"Please ma'am, I can't do that, there are cameras everywhere." He looked close to tears and that was when I realized that he was the victim here.
"Fine." I huffed, he quickly came out of the car and opened the passenger door for me.
"Thanks." I tried not to roll my eyes at the gesture and I got in.
"Thank you, ma'am." He thanked me and drove off.
"Aren't you going to ask me where I stay?" I asked him after a while.
"No need, the boss already told me." He said.
"The boss?" I frowned.
"My bad, I mean Mr. Jean, I see him as the boss, you know, so it just came out, I mean—" He started rambling nervously.
"What is your name?" I asked, cutting his nervous ramblings off.
"Oh, I'm Aren."
"Okay, Aren, do you want to tell me the truth now?" I asked him carefully.
"I'm sorry, I really can't say anything."
"You know what, it's fine, don't say anything." I realized that if Jean found out I was fishing for information about him, especially his financial status, his misunderstanding of me would just grow.
For the rest of the ride, I kept quiet and looked outside the window. Copenhagen was a very beautiful city and it felt like I couldn't see enough of it.
"Thank you very much, Aren." I thanked him when he dropped me off at home, I chuckled when he told me to wait and then came out to get my door.
I thought it was very chivalrous of him, then again he might just be doing it because he was ordered.
I heard the sound of a text message come in as I walked into the house. I checked to see if it came from Sophie but I froze when I saw the contents.
"Tick-tock, precious time is running out."
.
.
[Jean]
"You didn't sleep at the palace last night." Sir Thomas stared at me with disapproving eyes.
"Who's to say I didn't wake up early today," I asked, looking at him slightly amused.
When I got back to the palace, I thought of sneaking in but then I was a Prince, what's the most anybody can do to me.
I decided to act naturally instead and as I walked past, the servants bowed in greeting, they probably all assumed I had just gone out for a morning drive, all except this guy.
"Do you think this is funny, what scandalous activities were you up to last night?" He asked angrily. "Do you know what the King has to say about this?"
The king? I scoffed internally, if the King had any idea about this, Sir Thomas wouldn't be here right now.
He must have found out then decided to handle it himself without going to the King, Sir Thomas was always helping me behind the scenes, he never showed it but I knew that he cared for me a lot.
Throughout my rebellious years, he helped keep me from getting in trouble with the King a lot, nothing ever really got past him, but he would always pretend that he wasn't aware of some things, he had turned a blind eye to many of my mistakes in the past.
I loved the man as well but we began to drift apart when he became an advocate for reconciliation between me and the king, he always made excuses for the king and it angered me a lot, I knew it was kind of like his job and the King was his King but I wished sometimes he'd just admit that the King was wrong.
"I was at my mother's apartment," I told him the truth, there was no use lying to him.
Yeah, another person that knew about the place was Sir Thomas, I think he was the one who helped her set it up.
My mother owned the entire building but she only used one apartment, the rest was converted into a hotel.
His eyes softened and he looked at me for a while before responding.
"Do you think you were spotted?" He asked calmly.
"No, I didn't go out as the Prince."
"Fine, the King will expect you for lunch at his chambers later today. I went to your room to invite you last night when I found out that you weren't there."
"Anybody else knows?"