Carefully she put down her pen and stretched her fingers. Signatures over signatures. How many papers did her husband have to sign during his lifetime? Now it was her turn, at least for a while. Depending on the result of the paternity test, potentially for the next eighteen years until her youngest child would come of age to take the place of the reigning king or queen. At the same time this duty of hers might end any second, when... Oh well. She was still so surprised that her pregnancy survived this horrible attack that she was slowly starting to think that she was actually going to bring this child into the world after all.

Her head was still pounding, and her throat hurt like hell. She'd woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat after the encounter with her husband in her sleep and desperately needed to get her mind off things. Getting back to work had been the only thing she could think of. Well, safe to say, the distraction success she'd been hoping for turned out disappointing.

Had the vase not been in her reach as Cyrus' hands were locked around her neck... she'd probably be dead now. It was simply inconceivable. Dead like Simon, dead like Robert. How many other people had to die in order to set the record straight? When would they ever stop? Would there ever be forgiveness for what had happened so many years ago? Would she be able to forgive herself?

A shiver ran down her spine. She yawned and looked up from her desk. She winced, letting out a quiet gasp. Ted Pryce was standing right in front of her, mere metres away. How did he get in here?

"Pryce, for God's sake! How dare you coming in here without knocking?"

"I did knock. Your Majesty didn't respond."

"And you took that is a permission to enter?" she was slowly starting to get furious, "Actually, I see absolutely no reason why I should not fire you right away. Not only did you let my husband get killed, tonight the Queen of England almost got strangled, in this very palace, under the watch of dozens of your security cameras. I had to defend myself to save my life, no one was coming to my aid! I'd be curious for your explanation of how this could happen."

Tears were shimmering in her eyes, but he looked completely unmoved.

"I am deeply sorry, Your Majesty! Tonight I was manning the cameras myself in my office. For just a minute I turned my back, then I saw and immediately came as fast as I could."

"Well, as you can see, even a minute of negligence is too much! This family is under attack, for heaven's sake, I have personally received death threats, and you're just sitting around in your basement? I don't care if you're my bodyguard or my child's, how do you imagine this baby to survive if I am dead? It is your fucking job to protect this family! You're a desaster, Pryce, an utter failure! And I do hope the reason you're here in the middle of the night, aside of your mediocre attempt of an apology, is that you came to tell me that you finally found my husband's killer."

The man took a deep breath and clenched his jaw. He slowly shook his head.

"No... I didn't find him. I don't need to find anyone. Because it was me who killed the king."

Her eyes widened and her whisper was barely audible: "What?"

Just casually, he drew his gun and pointed it right at her. The dim light was reflecting on the polished steel.

"Holy sh...!" Her heart stopped beating for a minute, she jumped up and staggered back against the wall, her chair falling over.

"Put that down!" she tried, miserably.

He merely shrugged. "Nah..."

She started sobbing. Protectively she placed a hand on her belly. "Please, don't hurt my baby!"

"But what are you talking about? I don't want to hurt your baby. I want to hurt you! The baby will just be collateral damage."

Shaking, she ran for the door, only to find that it was locked. Hectically she pulled the door knob, Pryce just snickered: "Try all you want, bitch! This time it's game over for you. A bit improvised, I have to admit... But I had to act quickly after Cyrus almost finished my job tonight. I can't have anybody else kill you before I get a shot at it, and apparently there's quite a queue..."

"Why?" she sobbed, feeling dizzy. This couldn't be happening. She was still dreaming, or yet again! That must be it.

"Why do you want to kill me? Why did you kill my husband? He was always a loyal friend to you!"

"Oh, was he? How loyal was he, when my wife had to die because I had to save his royal ass? How loyal were you? You didn't give a shit about Daphne, neither of you two. No one in your entire rotten, deranged family!"

He inhaled, and it was only then she saw that he was crying too, still pointing his muzzle at her. His voice started trembling. "You took my life that day. All of you! You destroyed everything I had. Because of you my daughter grew up without a mother. And I happen to know that mine wasn't the only family you destroyed. But today, you're finally going to pay, and you can be thankful that I intend to make it quick. So you better stand still so I can shoot you nice and clean right in your pretty face."

She swallowed hard and tried to steady her breath in order to speak as calmly and insistently as possible: "This is madness, Ted, you're in the palace! Unless everybody here is conspiring with you, you'll never get out of this! They'll catch you, and you will spend the rest of your sorry life in jail!"

"DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?!" he screamed all of a sudden, shaking heavily, making her jump out of her skin, "I don't care! I have nothing to live for anymore."

"Think about Ophelia!"
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY HER NAME!"

She wanted to reply when finally she heard a gunshot flying through the air.