Chapter 19- The Princess

"Well?" she says after a moment of stunned silence from Henry and Charlotte. "Aren't you going to say hi to me?"

The girl in front of them had a face just like Charlotte's… but her hair was a mess, and her clothes- Where did she get those?- were filthy, had some holes and the shirt was obviously way too big. She looked nothing like a princess. And yet….

After a moment, Charlotte swallows. "Pri- Princess Kelilah?"

"Oh, please don't call me princess," she says, her face twisted like it was a dirty word. "I've renounced that title. You'd think that it would be obvious that I wasn't interested in the royal gig when I left."

"Left?" Charlotte exclaims more loudly than she meant to. A bit more quietly: "You ran away?"

"Duh," says Kelilah. "All of this royal princess stuff? So not my thing." Except stuff wasn't the word she used. "Really, I've liked this life on the run much better. No one telling me You have to do this, Princess. You have to do that, Princess. I am so over that."

"So what was your plan, then?" Henry breaks in. "Run off and hope you can survive on your own?"

"Oh, so this must be Henry," says Kelilah, ignoring the question. "He's hot. Are you two dating?"

Henry and Charlotte looks at each other. "… no," says Henry finally, although what he was really thinking was I wish. He didn't know it, but Charlotte was thinking that, too. "Wait," he says suddenly, as something occurs to him. "How do know my-"

"Dang." Again, not the word she used. "I would have snatched him up already if I were you, Charlotte. Hey, I have an idea! How about you stay here and be me, and I'll go back to America, where I can be free of this princess crap, and I'll date him for you!"

"I don't think so," says Charlotte a little defensively. "And why would you run away?"

"Oh, I see," says Kelilah, sitting down on a stone wall with her legs crossed ver un-princess-like- except for the tangled hair and ripped clothes, she could have passed for a snooty popular girl. "You're one of those people."

"One of- what people?"

"You know," says Kelilah, casually examining her nails as if they weren't covered in dirt and grime. "One of those people who think being a princess is all ball gowns and parties and being pampered. By the way, it's not."

"I know that," says Charlotte. "I'm sure I haven't been living your life the way you did, but I've seen how hard your mother works to run your country-"

"My mother," scoffs Kelilah. "You mean the woman who would never listen to me when I told her that I didn't want her job?"

"I'm pretty sure it's an inheritance thing," says Henry.

"Which is exactly the problem." Kelilah stops examining her nails and looks them dead in the eyes. "I don't want anything I'm supposed to inherit-"

"Your mom's been worried sick-"

"Don't," hisses Kelilah, "even think about trying to tell me that. My mother hasn't done anything for me except stick around. Sad the same can't be said for you, Charlotte."

"You don't know what you're talking about," says Charlotte, getting angry. "I have a mother who's always been there when I needed her-"

"Wow," says Kelilah. "Maybe I should be more clear: both our mothers stuck around, but the other parent? Disappeared without a trace."

Henry is about to bring up that Kelilah's dad didn't disappear, he died, when he sees Charlotte's face; it's ashen and she looks like she might throw up. "Charlotte? You okay?" Henry speaks softly. Charlotte doesn't seem to hear him and instead looks at Kelilah, and says, "How… how do you know that?"

/\/\/\

Erika Page sat on her porch, trying to listen to the detective who was trying to ask her questions. Whether it was the shock, or the baby, she didn't know, but she could barley comprehend anything the detective was asking her.

"M'am?"

Erika's head snapped up. "Sorry. Just… you know. The shock." She didn't mention the pregnancy.

"I understand, m'am." He does not understand. "When was the last time you saw him?"

Erika closed her eyes. "Yesterday morning, I meant him at his house- he was staying right next door, which is how I meant him- as he was leaving for work at the mall. He said he might have to stay late and would call, but he didn't call, and this morning he still wasn't here. I called him, his friends, his boss- no one had seen him. Then I called 9-1-1."

"Okay, we'll investigate his place of work and ask around. Do you have any idea why he may have disappeared? Does he have any enemies? Was there a fight?"

Her boyfriend had no enemies, not that she knew of. They had only meant a few months prior; he told her that he worked in the mall, that he had just immigrated from outside the country. The began dating, and only two nights ago had she found out she was pregnant and was trying to figure out how to tell him. Had he seen the test when he came over?

Fighting tears, Erika told the detective. He wrote down every word, and occasionally interrupted with more questions.

"Did he say where he was from?"

"No."

"Did he mention anything about going home? To visit family, maybe?"

"No, he's never mentioned any family and always said how much he loved America. He never wanted to go back." Did he?

Months later, there was zero sign of him. He wasn't there when Erika held her baby in her arms for the first time. He wasn't there when little Charlotte took her first steps. He wasn't there when she began asking questions about her daddy.

/\/\/\

Charlotte's mom had only told her what happened after she wouldn't stop asking; all she knew about her dad was that he had been a cold case missing person since before she was born.

Henry looks at her but doesn't say anything. Charlotte never talked about her dad, so he never asked, though he had just assumed her parents were divorced. This "disappearing" stuff was completely new to him.

"Wow," says Kelilah, in a tone that implied she thought Charlotte was the dumbest person on Earth. "Seriously? Do the math, girlfriend."

Charlotte's brain seems to have entered some sort of shock state. She had never seen her father… Kelilah's father was dead, or supposed to be… they look exactly alike...

"Wow. Okay." Kelilah mistakes her silence for uncertainty and calls, "She's clueless, come on out!"

The other person- the one she was talking to- approaches; they hear his footsteps before they see him, but when they do see him, Charlotte recognizes him from two places:

One, the photo from the newspaper article she had read about Kelilah's birthday.

And two: the photo Ms. Page thought Charlotte had never seen, the only picture she had, of Charlotte's biological father.

Amy32: Remember your review to Chapter 10? Yeah, this wasn't even part of the original plan!

PicassoPenguin: Forgot to respond last week, sorry! Okay: so this is probably the BEST review I have ever gotten, THANK YOU! The part about their relationship growing slowly is actually something I was a bit worried about messing up, so that really meant a lot! Also if I frightened you a bit I guess i'm doing something right, mwa ha ha! And to answer to the update-twice a week thing, the school year is fast approaching!

Happy Reading!