2 Unhitched (31 page)

“Jane, say good-bye to your prince! Forever!”

The words swirl around in my head. Around and around until I am dizzy. My heart beats erratically. My legs wobble. And then the whole room starts swaying. I’m about to faint.

Helplessly and hopelessly, I feel myself going down. Except before I drop to the floor, I fall into strong, familiar arms.

“Darling, are you okay?” It’s Gallant!

“Put me down,” I scream at him.

“What is wrong with you?” He raises his brows. A mystified expression falls over his breathtaking face.

“How could you do this to me?” Sobbing, I pound my fists against his rock-hard chest. I am too weak to free myself from his arms.

“What are you talking about?” His voice registers even more surprise and a touch of anger.

“I know
your
secret!”

“My secret?” he says nervously. “Darling, I have never kept any secrets from you,” he stammers.

“Don’t lie to me! I know about your affair with Aurora!” I choke. Angry tears roll down my cheeks.

“My affair with Aurora?” Gallant furrows his brows as if he’s stunned, but I’m not falling for it. No way! My tear-soaked eyes meet his and narrow into sharp slithers of glass. Finally, I’ve confronted him.
Finally!
And, now, I’m ready to take him on full force.

“YES! And I can prove it!”

Composing myself, I start from the beginning with the love letter I found in his desk… move on to my trip to Faraway where I learned about their childhood romance from the Badass Fairies… then on to my escapade at Sparkles where I, undercover, witnessed their romantic tryst.

Gallant cuts me off. “That awful server at Sparkles was you?” And then he does something I could never imagine. He bursts into laughter. Uninhibited, uncontrollable laughter. He laughs so hard he cries.

“STOP laughing!” I scream at him. “This is no joking matter.” I can’t believe he’s laughing his head off while I’m exploding with rage. His reaction has totally unnerved me.

He tries to say something, but his hysterics won’t let him. Wiping his eyes, he finally manages.

“Darling, Aurora is
not
my first love. Or my lover. She’s my first cousin!”

His first cousin?
He carries me over to a secluded velvet settee. Still in his arms, I listen in a state of total numbness as he explains how their fathers are brothers… how he, as a young child, witnessed Malevolence put her curse of death on newborn Aurora and overheard The Good Fairies’ plan to hide her in the forest… how he and Aurora soon became secret best friends… how he wrote her letters, giving her the code name “Briar Rose” so no one would discover her whereabouts… how he introduced his other best friend, Prince Phillip to Aurora, who instantly fell in love with him… how he secretly followed his friend into the forest on his quest to bring Aurora out of her deep sleep… which was a fortuitous thing because when vengeful Malevolence made her surprise appearance and transformed into a deadly black dragon, Gallant was there to fight her off and save the lives of both Phillip and Aurora.

I’m in shock. Complete and utter shock. My Prince is not an adulterer; he’s a hero! As Gallant continues his story, a horrible guilt devours me. I’m speechless.

Aurora married her true love Phillip shortly after he awoke from her deep sleep with a kiss, and they went off to live in her father’s distant kingdom. Over time, Gallant lost touch with his two best friends. Until enterprising Aurora opened up a lingerie store at The Trove. Aurora’s Secret—
“For
the Sleeping Beauty”
—playing off her moniker and fame. The cousins got together a couple of times, and when Aurora learned of Gallant’s talent as an artist, she came to him with an idea. With the success of Aurora’s Secret at The Trove, she decided temporarily to leave Phillip (Eeks! So, that was the split up!) to open a second store in Wonderland. A perfect place for a women’s lingerie store given that the resort was a honeymooner’s paradise. She had an interesting strategy. Why not lure men into the store to buy their princess brides lingerie? She commissioned Gallant to create a large painting of a beautiful woman wearing her seductive undergarments to be the centerpiece of the store. When Gallant told her he needed a model, she volunteered herself. Why not? Aurora was blessed with beauty (and a perfect body!), and there was no one better at selling her lingerie.

Holy shit! So, that explains everything. Gallant was not at in Wonderland having an affair with Aurora. He was merely there working on the painting of his cousin and helping her open her new store. The plan was for the painting to debut at the museum opening and then move it to her new store. That was going to be his “big announcement.” Crap! I can’t believe misjudged everything and jumped to such a horribly wrong conclusion.

I grow limp in Gallant’s powerful arms and avert his gaze. I feel sick-to-my stomach awful. I’m overflowing with guilt and can’t stop cursing stupid, stupid me. Self-hatred consumes me. How could I have ever doubted my beloved husband Gallant? Ever!

But wait! Aurora practically told me herself earlier tonight that Gallant was leaving me for her.
Start eating for one
. Her sinister words whirl around in my head.

“She was vicious, I swear,” I tell Gallant after relaying my nasty encounter with her.

“Darling, you must have heard what you wanted to hear. There is not a chance that Aurora would say something like that. In fact, she is so looking forward to meeting you tonight.”

He’s probably right. Given my volatile state, I probably hallucinated the entire thing.

Gallant gently brushes his fingertips through my upswept hair and gazes at me tenderly. His piercing blue eyes penetrate my heart.

“Darling, do you still love me?” I ask feebly, too afraid to look him into the eyes.

Gallant smiles warmly. His dimpled cheeks give me goose bumps.

“Jane, my darling, I cannot paint beauty without thinking of you. You have been my life force and inspiration. I love you more than life itself.”

Tears stream down my face. How could I have ever mistrusted him? Doubted his love? I don’t deserve someone as wonderful as Gallant. I don’t!

I gaze up at him and our eyes connect. Slowly, his mouth moves toward mine. The mists of our breaths become one. He lowers his eyelids and parts his lips, pressing them against mine. My lips melt into his, and we kiss like we’ve never kissed before. It’s passionate, all-encompassing, and delicious.

A sharp kick from the baby takes me by surprise. I pull away from Gallant.

“Darling, what’s wrong?” asks my alarmed prince.

The baby won’t stop kicking And then I feel a strange but familiar contraction.

“I have a little secret,” I splutter.

Gallant looks taken aback. “I have one too.”

My eyes widen. So much for a husband and wife claiming to have no secrets from each other. I tell him to spill the beans first.

“Darling, do you recall all those overnight business trips?”

“Of course. You went to Wonderland to help Aurora,” I reply matter-of-factly.

Gallant looks at me sheepishly. Oh no! He’s going to tell me he’s been having an affair with someone else!

“I was going to Faraway to see Dr. Grimm,” he says, spitting out the words.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Therapy! No big deal!

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Now I know why he accompanied his parents to that ribbon cutting ceremony.

Gallant bows his head. “I felt too ashamed to admit that I needed some help. The pressure of the retrospective caused me much anxiety, and I loathed the way I was ignoring you and Calla.” He tilts up my chin with his long, deft fingers. “Can you forgive me, my darling?”

“Of course, my love.” Is he kidding? Just about everyone in Lalaland should be in therapy.

Gallant plants a warm kiss on my forehead. “Thank you, my darling. Now, what is
your
little secret?”

Eeks. I practically forgot about the baby. A little kick reminds me. Okay. Here goes.

“I’m having—”

Out of nowhere, a brouhaha cuts me off.

“I’ve got the proof!” shouts a scawny woman holding a large basket and running toward us. I don’t believe my eyes. It’s The Potato Sack Princess. Two armed guards are chasing after her along with Charming and Cinderella. And waddling behind them is Humpty Dumpty, scribbling notes in his notebook.

I leap out of Gallant’s arms to my feet. Gallant jumps up too.

“Guards! Stop her!” screams Charming on the top of his lungs.

With ease, the barefoot Potato Sack Princess outruns her assailants. She shoves the basket under my nose. “Here’s all the proof you need. Gallant and Aurora’s love child.”

I look into the basket, and my eyes practically pop out of their sockets. It’s Princess Swan! The baby recognizes me immediately and coos. Gallant gazes at me with bewilderment. Ooops. I never got to the love child part.

Charming and the guards catch up to The Potato Sack Princess. Cinderella is right behind them. A panting Humpty Dumpty continues to write down everything.

“Arrest her, guards!” commands Charming. “She’s the one who’s been stalking us and—”

“Kidnapped our baby!” cries Cinderella, snatching the basket with Swan out of the P.I.’s hand.

Oh my God. That shabby private eye tailed the wrong person. Gallant’s identical twin brother Charming! And Miss Perfect Princess Cinderella does indeed fit the description of Aurora that I gave her.

The guards draw their spears and aim them at the scrawny P.I.

“Wait!” I shout at them.

While the perplexed guards hold their spears in midair, The Potato Sack Princess, still wearing my locket, yanks out a creased sheet of parchment from her grungy burlap dress. “Your invoice. This was an express job, and it reflects in my fee. I expect an immediate payment.” She thrusts it at me.

As Gallant tries to make sense of the situation, Humpty is taking copious notes. I dread the headline story in tomorrow’s
Fairytale Tattler
. “
Former Evil Queen Returns to Evil!
Orchestrates Cinderella Baby Snatching!”
Seriously, can this night get any worse?

Yes… when I see how much the bill is. A potato sack full of gold! No way!

The scrawny P.I. smirks. With her filthy fingers, she toys with my locket.

“Give that back to me!” I yell at her. I snatch the locket off her neck and put it around mine. Where it belongs.

“Hey, lady!” snarls The Potato Sack Princess. “Give that back to me. You owe me!”

Gallant’s eyes dart back and forth between us. “Jane, what is going on here?”

Full of shame, I explain how I hired The Potato Sack Princess to spy on him and Aurora. “I guess she confused you with your brother.” Charming and Cinderella exchange a confounded look, but it’s too long a story to get into.

The guards, caught up with the absurdity of the situation, finally handcuff The Potato Sack Princess.

“You don’t know who you’re messing with,” she screams, struggling to free herself.

Gallant sighs. “Let her go. I shall explain everything later.”

“Whatever,” say Cinderella and Charming in perfect unison. With Swan in her basket, wailing from the commotion, they saunter off, hand in hand. The guards free The Potato Sack Princess. She rubs her wrists and scrunches her face in anger.

“Don’t think I’m leaving so fast,” she snorts. “I’m a highly cultured individual and happen to appreciate art.” She fires me a scathing look. “You’d better pay up,” she snivels as she moseys off to study a painting.

Humpty chases after her. “Mam, can you give me a statement?” he shouts out.

Gallant glowers at me. “Jane, I cannot believe you actually hired someone to spy on me!” Each word is sharper than the one before. He’s angry. Very angry.

I feel as small as one of the peas on my plate. “I’m sorry,” I say meekly.

“Don’t pull that shit on me again!”

Eeeks! I’ve never heard him curse before. He must
really
be mad at me. I cower. And then, he breaks into a dazzling smile and sweeps me into his arms. “HA! Gotcha!”

Phew! He’s over it. He still loves me!

“And what was that little secret you were about to tell me?” he whispers in my ear.

The baby! Why do I keep forgetting? But before I can get out a word, Winnie and Elz come racing up to me, each from a different direction.

“Jane, Aurora is about to exit the powder room!” Winnie says breathlessly.

Elz raises her brows. “But I just saw her at the buffet.” Turning, she points at a woman wearing a black taffeta gown, standing at the end of the long table. “Look, there she is.”

Sure enough, it’s Aurora, the woman who threatened me earlier.

“That’s odd,” says Winnie. She scratches her head, perturbed.

Gallant beams. “Jane, let me introduce you to my cousin, Princess Aurora.” He takes my hand and leads me to the banquet table.

“So lovely to finally meet you, Jane.” She smiles warmly and embraces me. “My cousin has told me so much about you.”

Weird! I swear she sounds and looks just like the Aurora I met earlier. Except she’s so sweet. Gallant must be right. I was hallucinating. Hearing what I wanted to hear. That dragon chase must have messed with my head.

“What do you think of the painting?” She bends over the table and scoops some vegetable pâté onto her plate. “Gallant told me you’re his best critic.”

“It’s wonderful,” I stammer. “One of a kind.” Except Aurora may not be. Coming our way is a woman who’s identical to the woman who’s standing next to me. She’s even wearing the same black taffeta gown.

Gallant is bent over, helping himself to a truffle tart. I tap his shoulder. “Darling, when were you going to tell me that Aurora is a twin?”

Gallant straightens up; a puzzled look is scrawled across his face. And then he sees her and gapes.

This Aurora makes eye contact with him, smiles, and heads our way. She has the same athletic gait as the Aurora I saw with Gallant at The Trove.

“Gallant, is this your lovely wife?” Her voice is identical to Aurora #1’s.

“Yes, this is Jane.” Gallant’s brows furrow. “But who are you?”

“Your cousin Aurora.” She looks taken aback.

“Then, who is she?” He points to the other Aurora who has made her way down the buffet.