Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Andrew sat in his home office, preparing for an emergency meeting. Human terrorist attacks and vampiric intrusions were on the rise. It was up to Andrew and his advisors to come up with plans to address these problems and present them to their human counterparts, before the issues could get out of hand.

Andrew was reviewing, for the third time, material sent to him by his top advisor on the human terrorist attacks and vampiric intrusions when he received a text message from his media advisor. Normally, he would have saved it for later, but it began with the word URGENT, signaling a matter he could not ignore.

Sighing, he opened the text and found a link to a tabloid article. When he clicked the link, he found a picture of Crystal and himself hugging outside of her apartment. Beneath the picture was a headline about Crystal being a candidate for his new Luna

Andrew groaned in frustration and ran his hand down face. He should have known that man was not just a fan trying to get a picture of him for a keepsake. He had been trying to not upset Crystal and jump to conclusions, but his instincts had told him that he should have gone back and demanded that that man delete the photo.

Too bad he didn’t listen. Now, Crystal could be put in danger because he hadn’t taken the proper precautions.

Andrew suppressed a shudder as long-repressed memories, threatened to flood his mind.

No.

He wouldn’t let that happen, not again. He would protect Crystal at any cost. In this case, that meant putting these rumors to bed as quickly as possible.

Andrew started to type out a response to his media advisor, then stopped. He couldn’t bring himself to type the words that he knew he needed to in order to kill the rumors. They would kill something else, too.

A knock on his door shook Andrew from his thoughts.

“Come in!” he called out,

The door opened to reveal his top advisor, Thomas. The mousy-haired man had an unassuming presence, but his calm, intelligent brown eyes took everything in. Right at this moment, he could tell that something was on his leader’s mind-but there were more pressing matters at hand.

“Everyone is waiting for you in the conference room, Your Highness, Thomas said. “You’re very nearly late.”

Unlike most people, Thomas wasn’t afraid to tell Andrew things honestly. It was one of the things that Andrew valued in him as his top advisor.

“A king is never late. Everyone else is simply early,” Andrew said, paraphrasing a line from The Princess Diaries, which Lisa had made him watch with her a million times when she was a child.

Thomas couldn’t help but smile. He, too, had a daughter who had made him watch that movie growing up.

“Certainly, Your Highness, but it is not very kingly to make them wait too long”

“As usual, you are right. Just let me handle this one matter, and I will be there shortly.”

Thomas dipped his head submissively.

“As you wish.”

Before Thomas could turn to leave, Andrew raised his hand to stop him.

“Thomas, I have a question for you.”

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“If you had feelings for a woman and thought that you had a chance of being with her but being with her could cause her harm, would you be with her?”

Thomas scratched his chin in thought.

“That’s a tricky question, Your Highness. Of course, I would want to be noble and say that I would not be with her for her own safety, but—”

“But what?”

“But truthfully, I think I would do the selfish thing and pursue her.”

“And what about the harm that could come to her?”

“Well, I would protect her with all the resources that I have, Thoma*’s eyes glided over Andrew. “And if I were you, those would be some pretty impressive resources.”

Andrew nodded, carefully considering Thoma*’s response.

“Thank you, Thomas. I deeply appreciate your advice, as always.”

“It’s what I’m here for.

“Well, if you could please go distract the masses now, that would be appreciated as well.”

Thomas chuckled.

“Certainly,”

After Thomas left the room, Andrew shifted his attention back to his phone. His jaw set with determination, and he began to type his response. He could only hope that he was making the right decision.

Lisa stomped back and forth across her bedroom. She clutched her phone tightly in her right hand, and on the screen was the article about Andrew and Crystal. She had to resist the urge to throw her phone at Bob, who leaned against the door.

“How are you not upset by this?” she asked, waving the phone around. “Your ex has seduced my father!”

“Trust me, sweetheart, I am furious,” Bob replied, his voice deceptively calm, “but losing our heads won’t help us right now.”

“After everything we’ve done-

“Keep your voice down.”

“It’s a big house, Bob. No one is going to hear us.”

“It’s a big house that your father keeps under surveillance 24/7.”

Lisa stopped pacing and pivoted her head, as if she expected to find a hidden security camera immediately. Bob stepped forward and pulled her into his arms, hiding their conversation in his embrace.

“I know that this is a problem,” he whispered to her. “We just need to be smart about this.”

“I don’t want to lose my father,” Lisa whispered back, almost whimpering. “I’m losing her to him, and I don’t know what to

do.”

“Shh, shh. Fortunately, I know exactly what to do.”

Lisa looked up into Bob’s face.

“You do?”

“Yes. We need to get rid of Crystal, once and for all. It’s the only way that our life together can start off the way that it’s supposed to.”

“But how? We’ve already tried some..atrocious ways to scare her, and they didn’t work. They only seemed to bring my father and Crystal closer together.”

Bob leaned forward and k*ssed Lisa gently.

“You trust me, don’t you?” he asked, his l*ps only a breath’s length away from hers.

“With my life.”

“Then trust that I know exactly how to get rid of her.”

Lisa stared into Bob’s eyes.

“You won’t drug her again, will you? That was so scary. I thought…

She couldn’t even finish that sentence.

Bob placed his hand on her cheek and ran his thumb over her bottom l*p.

“I promise, I won’t drug Crystal again.”

“And you won’t hurt her, will you? The glass and the letter opener, they both got so close to injuring her, and I don’t know what my father would do if anything happened to her..”

“Shh, shh. Don’t you worry about that. I won’t hurt her.”

Lisa sighed and leaned against his hand.

“Thank you. I trust you to get this done.”

Lisa reached up to k*ss her knight in shining armor, Surely, he would be able to scare away Crystal where their other attempts had failed.

Bob returned her k*ss with fervor. He would not let her-or himself-down in this regard. He would permanently dispose of Crystal, one way or another, and Lisa would never need to know how.