Here's the update! Reviewers 148, 149, and 150 (if we reach that with this chapter) will get a sneak peek of Chapter 10! You guys rock thanks for all the encouragement and support! I've got the majority of this story mapped out in my head but I'm also wondering if you guys would want to read a story about Clarkson's Selection that I have been thinking about writing (after this story is finished)? Please comment your opinions on that in your reviews, if you wouldn't mind doing so.


Maxon's POV

It had been almost a week since the Southern Rebels had attacked. The funeral had gone rather smoothly but I couldn't remember most of it. All I could remember was the hangover I had trying to cope with all the emotions I was running from. I had felt nothing but anger at my father's death and that he had never been able to prove me wrong about the monster he was. Then again the only reason I had ever wished that was so I could help to change the country without him pressing me to do one thing over the other. Then there was a little touch of joy that I was feeling. Happiness that I could never be hurt again, that my family would be safe, that I would be able to change this country for the better without his permission. It had been an endless roller-coaster that day and Kriss had handled the preparations and my behavior outstandingly. I appreciated how supportive she had been throughout the whole thing. But it also made me drink more that she thought my father was a great man and someday she would have to learn about the scars on my back. Perhaps I could make up some lie about how I had been attacked by a rebel and then saved by someone else before they could finish the job.

The next thing on our agenda was Officer Leger's promotion to Captain of the Palace Guards. I hadn't spoken to him about the promotion ceremony but I had been avoiding making eye contact with him since I found out the truth between him and America. To be honest, I had been avoiding both of them. Prince Daniele had stayed to start putting America through her training as diplomat and after the way he had been acting towards her at the reception I couldn't help but boil anytime I was around her. It really just irritated me that everyone else was now free to try and sway her attention but me.

I continued to walk down the hall waiting for the Ceremony to start. I saw him at the other end and decided that it was time I approached him and thanked him for saving my mother, as well as congratulate him on his promotion. Part of me still wondered if America would be waiting for him in the sidelines, cheering on his successes and getting the benefits that would come with his new title. I knew that he still loved her even if she had fallen in love with me. Of course he would have fought for her, of course he would have confronted her after I left if he thought that I had slept with her. I knew how hormones worked from personal experience now. There was no way there weren't nights that he had wanted to be that intimate with America himself. If that thought—that America was going to be intimate with another man—had haunted me then it must have broken at him too. He would have wanted to know it wasn't true, that perhaps there was still a chance for them to be together.

I walked through the hallway towards him but his back was still turned to me. I heard a woman's soft laughter as I got closer to his room. America? No. Not America. That laughter didn't belong to her. I shrugged it off and continued to walk towards him and saw that it was only a maid. I coughed softly behind the two of them in order to get their attention. "Officer Leger, if I may have a moment of your time."

"Of course you're Highness," He replied and stepped away from the maid for a moment. She turned and walked out of his room past of us smiling softly up at him. I wondered what that was about. Maybe he was just a flirt. I tried to remember my conversations with America about him and thought she might have mentioned seeing him with another girl when she left for the Selection. My hand folded up into a small fist at the idea. If he was going to go back after America now that I was out of the picture, he needed to be faithful to her.

"I just wanted to congratulate you for your promotion. And personally thank you for what you did. Saving my mother I mean. And taking control of the Great Room the day of the attack." I spat out, not sure how I was supposed to be talking to him. The last words I had said to him after all were that he needed to get out of my sight before I sent him to New Asia to die. I hoped that there wasn't any bad blood left between us about that or America.

"I was just doing my job, your Majesty. But I am honored to receive my new position." He gave me a half smile before I saw that his leg seemed to wobble a little. I had forgotten about the news of his injury but it wouldn't keep him from doing his new duties as Captain. I nodded in his direction and turned out of his room without much else to say. Part of me just wanted to get away and forget that he was the reason I wasn't engaged to America but the other part of me that was finally learn to accept my actions just wanted to get away from the awkwardness of it all. How did two men who had loved the same woman for so long communicate and work together? I didn't know but I knew that I was going to have to learn no matter what. There was no turning back from his promotion, too many people knew what he had done.

America's POV

The last few days had been spent learning about different ways to be a diplomat. There were the procedures, the attitude, the basic knowledge of laws of Illéa and other countries, what diplomats liked being spoken to only as business partners and those that were friendly, and so on. When Daniele would release me from my teachings I spent most of my time alone. It seemed that from the moment he had laid eyes on Celeste he had been absolutely smitten by her beauty. I was glad that she had changed so much from the person I knew at the beginning of the Selection. She acted human and normal instead of being obsessed with his position in life. She was being the Celeste that had grown to be my friend and Daniele seemed to like that person enough to spend his own free time with her. However it seemed that he had been given the side task—probably by Nicoletta—to make it look as if we were bonding a little bit more than as co-workers. I shook my head at her feeling like she needed to make Maxon jealous of someone else. I didn't understand why she, Celeste, and Marlee were so keen on making him realize he had made the wrong choice. I had seen how Kriss had handled the funeral preparations. I wouldn't have been able to do that. I wouldn't have been able to do anything she would have to learn as princess and future queen. I was finally starting to accept that this was the way things were supposed to be in life.

Today Aspen would be promoted to Captain and I had promised Lucy she could come look through my dresses and blow him away. I wanted them both to be able to enjoy his special day and I knew that Lucy didn't have any proper ball gowns. As Aspen's new girl, I wanted her to shine and sparkle, looking just as important as he did throughout the Ceremony and looking like she belonged with him to those that would be judgmental about her being just a maid. It was luck that she had woken up at all a day after the Reception. The doctor's thought she had taken a turn for the worst and were prepared to give up on her but she pulled through. Every waking moment since then she had been at Aspen's side and I had seen bits and pieces of their romance. It was something beautiful and I don't think I had ever made him as happy as she did. This would be the first public thing that they attended together and I wanted my friend dressed to blow him away.

She picked a long, flowing, purple dress that was tucked away in the corner of my closest. I didn't think the color would ever work on me so I had sent it away anytime the girls had suggested it. However, the magenta color blended perfectly with her features and wasn't too tight that it would squeeze the wound in her side that was still healing. I smiled and walked towards the ceremony with her letting her carry on about how much she loved Aspen and how grateful she was that he had paid any attention to her at all.

The Ceremony started with the guards presenting the flag of Illéa and a short speech by Maxon to explain the high honor that would be received by Aspen as well as the story of how he came to earn such a title after little time on the force. Next one of the other Captain's, one who had presided over Aspen during his training, talked about how well he had always done no matter what task he was given and how he was honored for him to become his equal in ranks so that they would be able to work together more often. Following this, Aspen was given his new badges to place on his jacket that showed off his position. I looked over at the pride beaming out of Lucy's eyes and lightly reached out for her hand to give her a light push towards the stage.

"Go on," I whispered to her. She shook her head looking hesitant at me. "He loves you so much Lucy. This is your moment just as much as his. Go on," I smiled at her managing to place my hands lightly on her back to give her a gentle nudge up the stage.

She finally took it and walked slowly up the stairs. I saw Aspen turn out after saluting Maxon and his fellow officers to see him smiling brightly at Lucy coming to stand beside him as the photos were snapped. He took her arm firmly in his and broadcasted their relationship boldly and proudly to the rest of the world. It was in that moment that I truly realized the only feelings I had left for Aspen were of the same kind that I had for my siblings.

Aspen looked between Lucy, Maxon, and the crowd almost as if he were searching for a sign. He smiled back at Lucy as the photography started to die down. In that moment, as if he were throwing caution to the wind he got down on one knee and proposed to her. I saw her start to wipe the tears from her eyes and squeal with happiness. But my thoughts had moved past them as I saw and felt a pair of beautiful brown eyes flicking onto me and then away again. I realized that Maxon was looking between me and Aspen, dazed and confused. Even though I was surprised at first about their relationship and the fact that he had already moved on, I was happy for them. But I didn't quite understand why Maxon was so upset. He had choose not to listen to either of us. He didn't give me time to explain that I hadn't been seeing Aspen anymore. He had picked this route and I had absolutely no sympathy for whatever he was feeling. After all, he was engaged to Kriss now and I could almost feel her rolling her eyes at me as Maxon looked at me. I tried to shake my head at her, wanting to know that I wasn't going to split them up but she didn't seem to care for conformation. However, unlike at the Reception, her hand didn't drop his which meant that he must have been able to help her realize that he despised me for lying to him.

Maxon's POV

After the Ceremony and the dinner had begun, I walked through the crowds of people needing some space from everything that I had just witnessed. Whatever Captain Leger had been talking to or doing with America outside of her room that day, it hadn't been romantic. I ran a hand through my hair trying to hide all of the raging emotions that were flooding through me. All I could come back to was how much of an absolute idiot I had been not to listen to what they had to say. Luckily I had been able to leave Kriss chatting with Officer Alexander and a few others while I walked through the crowds trying to accept more of my rash decision. No matter where I turned, my behavior that day was coming back to haunt me. It hurt that I had done such terrible things—well, acted in such a terrible way—and for nothing. America had said very little to me in the last few days and I had hoped that we would at least have been able to become friendly again. But at last I was realizing just how much I had blown up everything good that had ever been between us by being a complete asshole.

I saw her across the room and looked behind me to ensure that I was far away from Kriss's line of vision. I didn't want her to think that I was trying to win America back. Things had been rough between us and with our coronations just a few weeks away, I didn't want to stir up any bad blood. But I wanted to apologize to America. I wanted to let her know how truly sorry I was about everything I had been saying and doing to break her the way she had broken me.

"Lady America," I whispered sadly and softly, finally reaching her. She looked up at me, almost surprised by my tone.

"Prince Maxon." She replied. It was almost too cold for me to handle. I winced at her calling me prince. She had never done that before. I didn't want her to start now.

"America," I whispered, feeling the tears start to pool in the back of my head. I didn't want to cry but being here in this moment brought up such hard feelings that I didn't want to deal with either. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for how I treated you that morning and every day since. Whatever I said to you out of hate I take it all back. I hope that we can be friends."

She looked up at me, fire flaming in her eyes. It was her fighting spirit and I knew that she wasn't going to reply very nicely to me. "It wasn't right, Prince Maxon. It wasn't right that you were so cold to me over things that you didn't even understand. You were awful." She started, spitting each and every word out of her mouth with venom. She pointed to another corner of the room where Daniele was sat with Celeste, their fingers intertwined. "First off, she's changed, Prince Maxon. She changed a few months ago and that's why we became friends." I opened my mouth to speak but she raised her hand to continue. "Yes, you should have let me explain that morning but it's too late now. Whatever we had, it's gone. Whatever friendship we could have had, well, I feel like that's been placed on hold until I can win over your future wife again. Don't even make me get into how hard that's going to be. Stop looking at me like you've lost something, Prince Maxon. You made your decision and that's what you are going to stick to, do you understand? You need to start treating her better. She's done nothing to deserve you looking at me with regret. You knew what you were doing that morning."

I nodded sadly at her and tried to come up with the words to help it all go away. I couldn't though, they wouldn't come. "America, I'm so sorry," I whispered again. "I know I threw away what we had out of anger but you could have told me the truth."

"I'm aware of that Prince Maxon, I'm aware of my own guilt. But it changes nothing. I know that I was wrong not to tell you who Aspen was and what I was confused about for the longest time. But I told you I would earn back your trust and that's when I stopped seeing him. I had to win you. You told me I was leaving with a new caste and a man who still wanted me but you were wrong. He had moved on too. All he wanted that morning was to know why I had slept with you. Why I had given you that before we had been married because he was worried that someone would find out and something would happen to me. He was looking out for my best interest and that was it. He didn't want me to lose the person I was before I came here!"

I nodded, softly and sadly. "I know that and I don't regret my decision, America. But I still have feelings for you that I haven't been able to get rid of yet." I threw out the lie and instantly regretted it. That was probably the most contradicting statement I had ever said. How could I be glad about my decision but still have feelings for her? I saw her trying to sort out which one was the lie in her head and knew what she would believe. Of course she would think that the second was. I knew she had always been fragile about her self-worth when it came to me. I looked back up at her and saw that the fire had died from her eyes.

"Then we can't be friends yet, Prince Maxon. Perhaps after the wedding." And with that, she turned around and walked away from me. I heard her sob softly when she thought she was out of my hearing range. I turned away from the conversation we had just had and walked back to Kriss, pulling her away from her conversations and requesting that some music start to be played in honor of Aspen's engagement and pulled my fiancée close to me, fighting back my tears.

This was finally the real end of things between America and I.