71. The Headlines.

[Luke]
"What in the world have you done?"
I groaned, my head pounding as I struggled to open my eyes, I had gone over on my alcohol last night and so apart fr waking late, I also awake with a pounding headache, it did not help matters that someone was already shouting at me so early.
"Tom, what is it?" I groaned as I sat up in bed.
A newspaper smacked me squarely in the face and my eyes opened widely.
"Take a look at that, you have no idea what you have caused." He looked angry.
"What?" I jerked back in shock as I read the headlines on the newspaper and saw the pictures displayed on the pages.
"How did this happen?" I asked.
"I should be asking you that, you have about thirty minutes before the King finds out about this and may God help you because I won't say a word in your defense."
"These pictures, there's no way Crystal could have gotten them besides you already sent her back to America, then it must have been—" I stared at the papers in shock, unable to believe my eyes.
Claire couldn't have done this, I tried to tell myself but then the evidence was right in front of my eyes, because of her my image had been exposed to the public and not in a good way.
"Have you seen the headlines, they're eating you alive." Liam rushed into the room with another magazine in his arms.
"That's exactly what I'm trying to tell your friend here." Sir Thomas said.
"Oh, hello Sir Thomas." Liam greeted.
"Save your hellos, Luke might have done a lot of harm to his reputation but you have always supported him, in fact this time you were even an accomplice. Congratulations, the two of you have successfully ruined the royal family's reputation."
"Sir Thomas, I can ex—"
"Save it, leave your explanations to the King or the press because we will have a press conference as soon as possible and you better start thinking of ways to turn this around." He pointed at me. "I can't believe I always stood up for you, you know why your problem is, you're too selfish, you always think of yourself alone, you never thought of the royal family's reputation or the reputation of the two women involved, tell me what is going to happen now, how are you going to wash away this stain, such a scandal has never been heard of in the history of the royal family."
"I'm sorry, I never thought she would ever stoop so low to behave this way." I lowered my head in shame.
"You're still blaming someone else aren't you, when are you going to take the blame for your actions, then again I ask myself are the tabloids really lying, they called you irresponsible, they're right there. They call you a cheat, right again, they only missed your manipulations and deceit."
"Sir Thomas!" Liam yelled. "Please that's enough, he feels bad about all of this already."
"Not nearly bad enough!" The door opened and in walked the King.
"I should just disown you right now, are you proud of yourself huh, Luke, are you?" He demanded angrily.
"Your majesty." Liam and I began at the same time.
"Everybody out, I want to talk to him alone." The King said, Liam and Die Thomas exited the room before he continued.
"I should have known that you would do something like this but I chose to trust you." He started.
"Your majesty." Tears welled up in my eyes as I stared at him.
"I'm disappointed in you, Luke, you've disappointed me, I know that you did not love the young woman but did you have to take a mistress outside and that too a foreigner." He spat out angrily. "This is such a great scandal, you've brought shame upon me and the entire royal family, I should just ask for you to be beheaded instead."
"Father!" I don't know who looked more shocked by my outburst, me or the King.
"You only choose to acknowledge that I'm your father now?" He laughed loudly. "I'm no father of yours!" He yelled and slapped me hard across the face.
I fell to my knees before him, the corner of my lips bleeding.
"I'm sorry, your majesty, please forgive me, I'll do whatever it takes, I'll do whatever it takes to make this right please give me a chance." I pleaded.
"First you have to talk to the young woman, that's if she's still interested in being with you, then we have to schedule a press conference where you have to admit to being manipulated by whoever this is in the photos." He said.
"Yes, your majesty, I'll do as you've spoken." I said, my tears dropping to the floor beneath me.
"Good." He said and stood up from the floor.
.
.
[Claire]
"Claire, have you seen the headlines?" Sophie screamed from the other side of the call.
"Stop screaming." I groaned, I was still hungover from last night.
"What are you saying?" I asked her.
"Why isn't your phone switched off, I tried to call five times already before I remembered your house line." She complained.
"You're all over the news and Jean too, don't try to leave your house, I'm sure the press are on their way to your house as of now." She said,
"Press… Jean… house, what are you saying?" I asked in confusion.
"Don't tell me you're still hungover, log into your social media accounts and check out the trending news." She said and ended the call.
I dropped the ice pack that I was using to cool my head as I went in search of my phone. I looked around for it but it was nowhere to be found. I checked the purse I was with last night and my clothes pockets but I still didn't find them.
I stopped searching for it and logged onto my laptop instead.
The trending news page loaded immediately and I gasped loudly as I read the news.
"No way, how is this possible?" I asked myself, I began to feel bad as I read all that was being said about Jean.
Then I read where it said I was the one who gave the information to the press and I froze.
***
"It wasn't me, I would never do something like that."
Sophie was right, in a few hours my house was swarming with press vehicles, photographers and the likes, I had to smuggle out of my house through the fire escape and then I went over to Sophie's.
"Girl you don't have to convince me, I know that you would never do such a thing." Sophie said. "Though I would have been proud if you had done that, you don't have to worry yourself about this, it's just karma paying him back for everything, who knows how they got their hands on those photos."
"No, you don't understand, those photos were taken privately, I recognized them because I took most of them with my phone, those pictures were on my phone."
"Okay and where is your phone now?" She asked.
"That's the problem, I haven't seen it since yesterday." I said.
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"Then it can only mean one thing." She said,
"What?"
"Someone else has done this to harm the Prince." She said,
"Right, the Prince." I swallowed. "Well he can take care of himself, I don't have to worry about him."
"Claire, is it really over?" Sophie asked.
"It really is." I nodded and looked away from her.
"You're not even going to call him to find out how he's doing, he can't be doing good with all this news." She said,
"You know, I really liked you when you disliked him." I sneered at her.
"Well, then I didn't know that he was the Prince of Denmark." She joked and I laughed.
"You're so bad." I laughed.
"I have to go, I hope you'll be okay here." She said getting up from the sofa.
"Yes, I'll be fine, I just hope those deranged press leave my house soon enough so that I can go back." I said.
"They'll probably be there for a few days." She said and pecked me on the cheek.
"Yeah, then I guess I'll be staying here for a while." I grinned.
"Yeah, you can stay as long as you want." She turned to walk away and she paused and then turned back around. "Are you really going back to America for good?"
"Hmmm." I hummed and she walked back out without another word.
I laid on the sofa after she left and I sighed. I was hurting and I couldn't deny it. I could not imagine how Jean was feeling right now and I felt bad that I couldn't be there to comfort him.
I fell asleep on the couch but the sound of the bell woke me up and I went to get the door.
"I'll be right there." I rubbed my eyes as I walked to the door.
"You!"