Mo yawned loudly. “You know, there are people here that will take care of that for you.” She indicated Tess’s overflowing suitcase.

“It’s cathartic to do it myself,” Tess defended her actions as she sat on the bag and attempted to get the overflowing, jam-packed luggage to zip.

“Whatever,” Mo shook her head like Tess had lost her mind. “You’re at least coming to breakfast, right?”

The last thing Tess wanted to do was take a chance on running into Sebastian or any of his family, but it felt rude to leave again without saying goodbye. Besides, she needed to speak to her brothers and let them know that she would be joining them on their private jet home––preferably right away.

Nodding her head in answer, Tess went into her side of the bedroom’s bathroom to shower and get ready to say goodbye to everyone at the palace.

Despite their rough start here, she realized that she would truly miss Geoffrey and the other castle workers. If she was completely honest with herself, she might even miss the stuffy queen and hot mess of a king. She most-certainly would not miss Priscilla, their hoity-toity manners coach, in the slightest. As she let the piping-hot water spray down on her, she refused to ponder how much she would miss Pierce and, especially, Sebastian.

She had hoped that during the night her warm feelings toward them would morph into righteous anger over their plot to use her, but instead, she was left with hurt feelings and an irrational longing to forgive them. The stubborn side of her refused to give in to that urge.

When she emerged from the bathroom, she felt renewed and ready to face what was coming. She would politely, firmly, and efficiently inform the others that she was leaving, and she would leave no room open for discussion. There was no reason for her to be rude or condescending, but she was ready to get back to her real life. This royal fairy tale had come to an unhappy ending for her.

Mo had always been able to get ready in a flash, so she joined Tess in the bedroom as soon as Tess tied on her practical and comfortable black and white sneakers. When Mo smiled and held her arm out to escort Tess down to breakfast, Tess felt a surge of appreciation that her friend was ready to stand by her side, even if Mo didn’t exactly agree with her anger and bitterness.

At breakfast, the gang was chatting and laughing as if nothing was amiss. Tess was stunned that her brothers had so easily forgiven and seemingly forgotten. They were not usually ones to be so flippant about someone trying to use their wealth, or––especially––their sister.

Apparently, a much-older duchess had set her sights on Sebastian after the announcement was made about his royal bloodline. He had reluctantly danced with her once, in order to be polite, but when he turned down her insistence that they dance again, she had become unruly––to the point of swinging her long strand of pearls around, undulating at him, and beginning a striptease.

Ellie’s eyes were sparkling as she recalled the event for those who hadn’t seen it first-hand. “When Sebastian told her that he would get her a cup of coffee to sober up before securing her a ride home, she turned around and flipped the back of her ruffled skirt up at him!”

Ellie had a hand over her mouth as she tried, unsuccessfully, not to guffaw with laughter. The others––with the notable exception of Sebastian and Tess––were rolling with uncontrolled giggles.

Upon seeing Tess’s crossed-arms and angry glare, Millie weighed in, “You really should have seen it.” She used her linen napkin to swipe a tear from the corner of her eye. “She let him know in no uncertain terms what she thought of his refusal of her offer to spend the night with him.”

“She must not have been wealthy, or he would have jumped at the chance,” Tess snapped, which brought the table to an immediate awkward silence.

Ever the optimist and champion of the underdog, Ellie said, “That’s not really fair.”

“Oh, really?” Tess bugged her eyes out at the other woman. “I think what is not fair is being stalked and used for access to money.”

“They didn’t go through with it. Instead, they came clean and admitted what they had done. And they apologized.” Ellie quietly but firmly defended the royals.

Feeling justified and not caring if she sounded like a brat, Tess said, “Maybe they knew they were about to be caught.”

“We never would have found out,” Trey weighed in with his boardroom voice of finality.

Tess rolled her eyes. She should have known that her older brother would immediately jump in to take Ellie’s side, even though his baby sister was hurting. “We might have,” she pouted.

Sebastian sat forward then. “I’ve already apologized to Tess, but I owe each and every one of you a sincere apology.” He looked around the table and made eye contact with each person.

“The plan that Pierce and I cooked up to get Tess to lure you here was immature and incredibly ill-advised. I want to assure you that the king and queen had no knowledge of it, nor would they have approved of it. We realized it was a mistake as soon as we met Tess and Mo and discovered that they were such lovely and real people, who should not be treated as pawns in our quest to save this kingdom. As much as we both love our little island paradise, it was uncalled for and inexcusable for us to even consider tricking you into helping us.”

“What he said,” Pierce weighed in, nodding his agreement.

Trevor turned to Pierce and asked, “Are you sure that you were the eloquent one that was meant for public speaking and all of the responsibilities that go with being king?” His words weren’t intended to be hurtful. It was an honest question that the others were thinking, but hadn’t voiced.

Proving that he held no ill will about Trevor’s questioning, Pierce raised his shoulders as if he too were perplexed by their parents’ decision. “Maybe when we were little,” he suggested. “I honestly don’t know what they were thinking when they made the switch.” Pondering for a moment before deciding to go for it, he quipped, “Maybe the king was drunk.”

Nervous titters were heard around the table. It felt wrong to be laughing about such a thing, but the heavy atmosphere in the room needed some comedic relief.

Turning serious again, Pierce gazed at Mo, “I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

Mo nodded, in quiet acceptance of his apology. Tess rolled her eyes, unable to believe that her friend didn’t have more backbone than that. Granted, Tess was the actual target, and Mo had simply been the one Pierce couldn’t resist; but Tess still felt like her friend should be angry with them on her behalf, if nothing else.

When Trey said, “No harm done,” Tess nearly fell out of her chair.

“Seriously?!?” she asked, feeling incredulous. This laissez-faire attitude was so unlike her no-nonsense, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later billionaire brother. “I think being in love is making you loopy,” she accused. When he gave Ellie a dopey smile, Tess threw her hands up in disgust.

“That’s it… I’m out of here,” she decided. She awkwardly tried to scoot her massive wooden chair back from the table before one of the servers jumped forward to assist her.

Her grand exit had already been ruined by the stubborn chair, but Tess tried to maintain her haughty air. She didn’t realize that the tablecloth had somehow caught on the belt of her floral dress. When she stood and whirled to leave, she pulled the tablecloth with her and scattered several place settings in the process.

Mo was the first to speak. “That looks like something I would do, not you.”

Stunned and humiliated by the entire ridiculous scene, Tess added appalled to the mix when she burst into distraught tears.