Annalise entered the dining room where her youngest son was already waiting for her, along with Rupert. She frowned when she saw that Jeffrey was nowhere to be seen. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen the fourteen-year-old much that afternoon.

"Has anyone seen Jeffrey?" Annalise asked. There were only so many places in the palace that he could be.

Rupert thought for a moment, "I assumed he was in his room."

Annalise turned her attention to one of the guards stationed at the door, "Officer Verlice, please go find Prince Jeffrey."

"Right away, Your Majesty." The officer said with a bow.

Annalise watched as he left the room and nodded to the butler to signal that it was time to serve dinner. If Jeffrey wanted to be late then they would simply start without him, she knew Callum was probably hungry and it wasn't fair to him to make him wait on his older brother. He knew what time dinner was served at.

Annalise grew worried as more and more time passed, she was almost finished with her meal when Officer Verlice returned and bowed to her.

"We have searched the premiss, Your Majesty, Prince Jeffrey is nowhere to be found."

"What?" Rupert demanded as he stood. How did a prince simply disappear? "What do you mean he's nowhere to be found?"

"We've searched the entire palace, my lord, we couldn't find him anywhere," Officer Verlice replied.

"Where was he last seen?" Rupert asked. He threw his napkin against the table and approached the guard.

"In his room, my lord," Officer Verlice replied. "He must have snuck out during shift change."

"You believe he snuck out?" Rupert hissed. "And what led you to this conclusion?"

"There were no signs of a struggle anywhere in his room, if Prince Jeffrey had been abducted, he would have fought or left some kind of clue," the officer replied, shifting his weight between his feet.

"Scan the security footage and lockdown the palace, no one leaves or enters until Prince Jeffrey is found!" Rupert ordered.

"I'll call him," Annalise said in a worried tone. Why on earth would Jeffrey just leave the palace? He knew how dangerous it was in public without an escort and a security sweep. She sighed as she held her hand out for her cell phone, which one of her maids handed to her. She held the phone to her ear and waited for her oldest son to pick up. She frowned as after a few rings it went to his voicemail.

"No answer," Annalise said as she stood. "Alert the police, I want roadblocks across the city, especially at the boarders."

"Is Jeffrey okay?" Callum asked.

"I'm sure your brother's fine, sweetheart." Annalise said as she approached her youngest son. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tightly.

"We'll find him," Rupert said as he left the room with Officer Verlice.

You better, Annalise thought as she played with Callum's hair. She sighed and kissed his head, she hoped Officer Verlice was right and that Jeffrey had just snuck out. But how would he have gotten past the guards? Though she knew that if he were taken, Verlice was right, he would have left a clue or struggled.

Rupert stood watching as the guard reviewed the security footage. His arms were crossed and he kept looking from screen to screen, watching every angle of the palace. Suddenly, one of the guards spoke.

"There he is leaving his room with…isn't that Reagan's son?" One of the younger guards asked. He pointed to the screen where an image of Jeffrey and Ethan was paused. Instead of his usual attire, Jeffrey was dressed simply in jeans and a black hoodie, clearly intending to blend in with the public. Ethan handed him a pair of sunglasses, which the Prince put on to and pulled the hood of his hoodie over his head, making him unrecognisable.

"I believe so," Verlice replied.

"Bring Officer Reagan here now," Rupert ordered.

Verlice nodded and left the room with the younger guard. Rupert had another officer track them throughout the palace on the security footage. Jeffrey had made his way to the garage with Ethan where they got into the back of a black Mazda.

"So, Jeffrey did sneak out," Rupert mused. "Inform Her Majesty and give the description of the car to the police. I want every guard patrolling the gates questioned as to why they allowed the Prince out of the palace."

"Right away, my lord," one of the guards said.

Moments later, Office Reagan entered the room. Rupert turned to face the man and scowled at him.

"Where is your son?" Rupert demanded.

"I'm not sure, my lord," Officer Reagan replied. "He only told me he was going out with friends."

"You don't know? How do you not know where your son is?" Rupert questioned angrily as he pointed to the security footage of Jeffrey and Ethan getting into the car. "Wherever he is, he's with the Prince. You'd better hope for his sake the Prince makes it back safely."

"I assure you, my son will answer for his behaviour," Officer Reagan said.

Rupert crossed his arms, "Oh trust me, he will. As will you."

Annalise paced the Women's Room; it was nearly ten at night and there was still no sign of Jeffrey. Rupert had given her all of the updates and she still couldn't believe that he would do something so reckless. She sighed and played with her necklace nervously, she had already lost her husband, she couldn't bear to lose her son as well. Suddenly, the door to the Women's Room burst open and Rupert entered dragging Jeffrey by the collar of his t-shirt.

"Jeffrey!" Annalise exclaimed as she rushed over to her son. She quickly looked him over for any sign of injury then pulled him into a tight hug. "Where on earth have you been?"

"I'd like to know that as well." Rupert said as he slammed the door to the Women's Room shut.

Jeffrey flinched at the sound and stuffed his hands into his pockets, "I snuck out with Ethan, we went to a music festival."

"You mean Reagan's son?" Rupert demanded as he approached Jeffrey.

"Yeah, but it wasn't his fault, it was all my idea," Jeffrey said, avoiding eye contact with his mother and uncle. He felt bad about worrying them, but he had enjoyed the festival and once he was able to relax he found that he had a good time. It was nice getting out of the palace for once without an entourage of people.

"Why did you do this?" Annalise asked, she grabbed Jeffrey's chin and forced him to make eye contact.

"I don't know, the festival sounded fun, and I wanted to go," Jeffrey replied quietly. He pushed his mother's hand away and stared at the ground.

"You could have been hurt, kidnapped or killed!" Annalise exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?"

"I'm sorry!" Jeffrey exclaimed. "But I knew if I asked you would have said no."

"So, you just did it anyway?" Rupert snapped. "How could you be so stupid?"

Annalise sighed, "Don't berate him, Rupert," She said, then turned her attention to her son. "Jeffrey you're grounded for a month, you are not to leave your room, you are to have no visitors and you are going to hand over your phone."

"Fine," Jeffrey said quietly. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to his mother.

"Have you eaten?" Annalise asked.

Jeffrey nodded.

"Then get to bed," Rupert ordered.

Jeffrey nodded as he left the room, he knew better than to argue. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and left the room. It was nice to get out of the palace, but he knew it was never going to happen again. He just hoped that Ethan wasn't in too much trouble.