Thanks to Berryyy for following and jjprules for favoriting!

Property of Illea- Ha ha, and love marry poppins movie so much.

On to chapter, 28!

Jacob's POV

I jump out of bed and race towards the sound of her scream, now turned into a sob. It was my mother.

I run into my fathers room, where my mother was wailing, my sisters already there, faces in each others night gowns. My father was lying on the bed, a knife in his chest, and blood welling up on the side of this head.

Cassie walks in just then and takes in the scene. Her eyes fill with tears and she runs out of the room.

My knees give in just then, and I join my mother and sisters on the floor, weeping.

Cassie returns with a handful of guards and the doctor.

The guards scout the area for the killer, while the doctor examines my father. He takes his pulse gently.

I don't even realize that arms are around me until I see Cassie sitting next to me, tears coursing down her face, and hugging me.

I bury my head in her lap and she strokes my hair.

Who could have done this! I want whoever killed my father dead immediately!

Suddenly the doctor leaps up. "He has a pulse!" The guards lift father onto a stretcher and rush him to the infirmary right away.

Mother and Jo and Lindsey are right after them. I close my eyes, and the hope that he survives is strong and alive inside of me.

Cassie helps me up and looks me in the eye. "He will live." She says with certainty, and leads me towards the infirmary.

We're about half way there, when a guard stops us.

"Sir," He says nervously, "Sorry to interrupt, but we just checked the jail cells, and Devon, the rebel we captured is missing." He says.

I sag a little. DEVON DID THIS! I think sure of myself.

"Search the palace inside, and gardens! If he escaped, he couldn't have gone far!" I command shrilly.

The guard nods and disappears.

My hands tremble a little as we reach the infirmary.

Father was lying on an operating table. And a doctor was putting stiches into his chest and his head. Mother and Jo are weeping next to him, while Lindsey was being strangled back to her room by some maids, this wasn't for children to see.

"Is he ok?" I demand.

The doctor looks at all of us. "The king is in a deep coma and right now, he's not coming out." He says gravely.

Mother crumbles to the floor. I grit my teeth in anger. I turn on my heel and stalk out of that place.

I go to the jail cells, and just like the guard said, Devon was gone.

"Prince Jacob!" Someone calls behind me on my way to my room.

I turn slowly. It was the guard I sent to search. His name tag said that his name was Officer Crosby. "What?" I bark.

"We found this outside." Officer Crosby says handing me a piece of paper.

Dear Prince Jacob,

Your father is probably dead by now. Good, we are very glad of this arrangement. If you don't please us as the next king, it will be you next. Choose your wife wisely, she must please us, or else we'll be forced to kill her. We want this selection narrowed down to the elite soon, or else. Oh, and I would protect those pretty sisters of yours as well. You probably know who this is by now, if you don't well...

-Devon and Malcolm/Andrew, (Yes, the Andrew that helped Cory and faked his own death all of those years ago.)

I finish reading the letter, and shove it back at the guard. "Find Princess Cassie and ask her to contact her brother for us and rely what this letter says to him. Then I want an increase on guard patrol, outside and inside the palace." I say.

The guard nods and leaves me.

Malcolm. He betrayed my father, and i's trust so badly. But, he was wrong about one thing. My father wasn't dead yet, and that was not a goal of Malcolm and Devon at this point.

I go out into the gardens and collapse on onto the grass, not caring that I was wearing a t shirt and sweat pants.

I moan out loud, then, after the moan felt good, I scream, really loud.

I look up when I see movement from above me, and realize that it was just one of the selected, probably wondering who was screaming from underneath her balcony window.

I sigh, I was the prince, and next in line for the throne if my father, god forbid should die, I had to pull myself together.

I sit up, my white t- shirt stained green and wipe the tears that were streaming down my cheeks.

I close my eyes, take a deep breath and let it all out, literally punching the ground, and beating up my hands.

When I'm done, I don't feel better, just worse.

I trudge up to my room and take a shower, changing afterwards into a suit. I head down to the infirmary to check on father.

The doctor is waiting for me.

"Your highness, at this point, he's on life support, it's your decision whether to take him off or not." The doctor says.

"No!" I say sharply.

My lower lip starts to quiver a little and I leave before I start bawling. Back in my room again I ring the bell for my maids to come.

Taryn, Layla, and Grace.

"Ladies, I will take breakfast in my room this morning, Grace, if you would be so kind." I say pulling my act together, when I really just wanted to punch something.

"Taryn, send Vivian to my room, tell her I would like to discuss the selected." I say to Taryn.

I was just done with everything. The selection was just dragging by too long, and I needed it to be narrowed down to the elite, something that was almost done.

"And Layla, please tell Princess Cassandra to come to my room as well." I say.

While my maids leave I go to the window and look out. It was so peaceful outside, nothing like the storm going on in my brain.

Layla returns a moment later with Cassie.

"Cassie, did you get in touch with your brother?" I ask.

She nods, "I won't repeat what he said, but the gist was that if he ever sees Malcolm, or Devon again, he'll kill them." She says.

"Thanks Cassie." I say.

She gives me a kiss on the cheek, "I have to go reassure my adopted family that they're safe." She says wryly, "They heard the news and are freaking out." She says leaving.

After Cassie leaves, Vivian walks in.

"Your highness?" She asks.

"Ahh, Vivian, please inform the selected that I want to talk to them in the dining room in half an hour, I will be eliminating five of them, and the pen pals thing with me is off." I say.

Vivian looks concerned at me but, following my orders, leaves the room.

Grace then brings me my breakfast, and I quickly eat before going to check on mother and Jo and Lindsey.

I knock on mother's door.

"Go away." She mumbles.

"Mother, it's me." I say.

She opens the door. I rush into her arms. We stand like that for a few minutes.

"Did you talk to the doctor?" She asks.

I nod.

"He's almost as good as dead." She wails. "I don't know what to do!" She says collapsing on the bed.

"We hope." I say simply, "That he comes out of this coma. He will live!" I say rather forcefully.

Mother's lips quiver and she nods.

"For now, we have to appear strong, for Jo, Lindsey, even Cassie. And of course, the selected." I say sitting down next to her.

"I've asked Vivian to stop the letters thing, and I'm eliminating 5 girls right now." I continue.

"What? No! Jake, just because your father is in a coma, doesn't mean that you slack off in picking a wife! If he, he, d-d-dies, then you'll be picking someone to rule in his place with you, honor his memory by that!" Mom says sharply.

I hear the despair in her voice, and I know then that father was going to die, it would take a miracle to pull him out of that coma.

"Ok, I understand, but I didn't like the letters anyway, and I want to get rid of these 5 girls anyway." I say.

Mother nods in understanding. "Did you get Devon's letter?" I ask.

She nods, her face twisting into an angry expression. "We have to find them, and kill them." She says, and I agree with her wholeheartedly.

"Do you think that I should tell the girls what happened?" I ask mother.

"Well, they probably have a theory by now, so you should probably tell them anyway." She says biting her lip to keep from crying.

"I'm going to go check up on your father and your sisters, good luck with the eliminations." She says.

I nod and after giving her a light peck on the cheek, I leave.

When I walk into the dining room, the girls are all assembled, just like I asked Vivian.

Cassie was given permission to sit with the girls, and she was sitting next to Ariel and Jessica.

She gives me a sad look as I walk in, and I could see that she had been crying for a while.

I go to stand in the middle of the room.

"Girls!" I yell for their attention.

Vivian quiets them down.

"I don't know if you heard, but the situation with the rebels is getting worse, in fact, I'm not supposed to be telling you this, but I believe you have the right to know. This morning, or late last night, there was an inside betrayal from the palace, and an advisor to the king, in disguise as a rebel, broke a fellow rebel out of jail. Together they tried to kill the king, who is now in a coma." I say.

I stop for a second to control my trembling hands, and I quickly wipe the tears coming down my face.

"We don't know yet if the king will survive." I say mournfully. A few girls look sad, while some just look unconcerned.

"I have also received word from the rebels that they want the selection to be over soon, and that they want to like whoever I choose. If they are not satisfied they will the girl that I choose. Because of this, I am eliminating 5 girls right now, and by the end of the week, we will have only the elite left." I say.

At the end of my small speech, a few girls look angry, some look scared, while others look determined. This just makes my decision to eliminate the girls I had in mind much easier.

"I thank you all for you letters, I now know the identity of you all, and I am sorry, but if I announce your name, you are being eliminated." I say.

"Madison, Nicole, Mackenzie, Jacklyn, and Marlene." I say awaiting their reactions.

Madison and Nicole look pissed. Marlene looks very sad. Mackenzie bursts into tears, and Jacklyn glares at me.

Cassie, I notice, stares smugly at Jacklyn, as well as Maureen and Ashley. What was going on there?

I look at the girls apologetically and exit the room, sinking down on my bed, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door.

This was a hard chapter to write, because I had to really get in touch with Jacob's feelings.

Do you think that the king will live, or die? Were you surprised by Malcolm? If you forgot who he was, he was that annoying advisor to King Dominick, who Jacob really hated.

Do you guys have a girl in mind who you want to win? Who do want to be eliminated next? I have a plan for some of them, and an idea of who is going to win.

Here are the girls left:

Jenna, Courtney, Ruby, Juliana, Lana, Gina, Sarah, Allison, Bree, Jessie, Ashley, Maureen, Tori, Ariel, Cynthia

Please let me know your thoughts either by sending me a pm, or by reviewing!