I would have updated sooner, but I just watched Ansel Elgort on Ustream so...Forgive me?


Alexandra's POV

"Alexandra, please talk to me," Alex begs.

The wedding is next week. Is it too late to cancel it? No, no, that can't happen. The country will be suspicious when they find me pregnant and unmarried. Queen Abby did it. She killed Justin Illéa to marry his cousin, Porter Schreave. Should I just somehow kill Alex? Poison wouldn't be as suspicious. Maybe I could hire an assassin to do it.

"Alexandra," he says again, grabbing my wrist this time.

"Let go of me," I growl, daring to look in his pain-filled eyes.

"What did I do?"

"Don't talk to me," I say, walking away from him. "Get out of my room."

"Please," he begs, and I want to kill him. I am fuming. "Just tell me what I did wrong, and I'll get out of your way."

I clench my jaw. Should I tell him, or should I wait for the plot to deepen? Should I tell the man that I've fallen in love with, or should I wait for the perfect time to kill him since he's so willing to kill me? I am so filled with hatred right now, and beneath the clouded anger, my mind begs me to reason with him, because he promised to care for me and our child. No. They were all lies.

I turn around to him before I realize I'm crying. "Alexander, you stay away from me. Get out of this country, or else I'll fly you back to France myself. In a box with no holes. Get out of my room."

Alex takes my face between his hands. "Alexandra, please." He wipes a tear on my cheek with his thumb.

"I heard you talking to your father last night," I say. "I hope that's enough for you. Now get out." I walk past him, but he catches my forearm.

"About his savage plan?" Alex says, and I'm confused and furious at the same time.

"How dare you talk so calmly about this? Why didn't you tell me? Let go of me!"

He takes his hand of my arm, and he crosses his arms. "Alexander, I want the entire truth," I say.

Alex stares at the ground for a long while before he speaks. "You've heard his entire plan, I assume. If you want me to be completely honest, I was planning to go through with it."

I despise this man. Is there anybody I can still trust?

"However," he continues, "I didn't anticipate on meeting a beautiful, intelligent, charming princess. I was in France thinking you were a brainless ditz. I didn't...plan on falling in love with you."

I swallow, and more tears escape. I hate being hormonal. Anything and everything will either make me cry or want to punch something. "Please, Alexandra," he says, putting his hand on my cheek again. "Please believe me."

I glare at him. "What are you going to do now to foil your father's plan?"

"My cunning mother has already planned a staged assassin," he says, as if coups aren't out of the norm. "You and I are still to be wed next week, and I will say my vows and mean every word. I will love you forever, and take care of you and our child."

I frown, still trying to make sense of this. "When did you fall in love with me?" I ask. "After you slept with me or before?"

Alex blinks and sighs. "I was still doing my father's bidding around time."

"Alexander, you fooled me for weeks. I was in love with you, and you were just playing with my feelings. I can't even look at you." Yet I don't look away from his pathetic, pleading face.

"Please don't hate me," he says. "I know I've made a terrible mistake. I fell in love with you the morning after we slept together. You looked so radiant and happy and your feelings were infectious. I finally realized how happy I was, how my happiness was genuine after so long. I regret my every involvement in the plot my father concocted. But I will never regret that night, or any of the kisses I shared with you.

"I love you, Alexandra," he says. "I have never met a more beautiful, smarter woman. Please forgive me. I know how your mind works, and you're probably finding a way to kill me subtly. Please, if you could hold that out until after the marriage I'd be grateful."

"Why?"

"So I could die knowing that I had at least a minute to call you my wife."

I don't know what I want to do more, slap him or kiss him. "I need time to think about this, Alex," I say.

"Please, there's one more thing," Alex says. "Just remember that you're safe until the baby is born. If you decide to kill me before our child is born, just remember that your life will be at risk."

I turn around and walk out to my balcony. "I won't kill you."

The last sound I hear from him is a relieved and sated sigh and the close of a door.


Matthew's POV

"What kind of person would claim they're the princess," I say, "when you've been princess for at least half a year?"

"That's what I said!" Tess says, pacing the balcony. "She's going to be at the palace in, like, thirty minutes, and Matthew, what the hell is happening?"

"Tess," I say, grabbing her shoulders. "You're the princess."

"But what if I'm not? Then I'll lose a throne, my entire life, you—"

"Wait, why me?"

"Remember that contract we signed saying that you were supposed to marry the Italian princess?"

"I thought that was a joke!" I say, throwing up my hands. "We were all so positive that you're the princess."

"Matthew, you're not helping," she says, covering her face with her hands.

"Wait, so does she look like you?"

"I don't know."

"And do you think she's smart like you and do you think she's talented—"

"Matthew!"

"What? I'm just saying that if she's exactly like you, I might be willing to marry her."

Tess slaps my shoulder, but there's a faint smile gracing her lips. "You are such an—"

A knock cuts off her unsaid profanity. Mother opens the door and says, "She's here."

Tess looks at me one more distressed time. She looks as scared as she is every time she wakes up from a nightmare, except this is reality. I'm sure we can rip up that contract, yeah? We walk down together, and she clutches my hand as if she'll disintegrate into nothingness if she lets go.

In the foyer is a girl whose face is out of sight from us. She's observing a painting like it's a God-made artifact instead of a bunch of colors. What a poser.

I clear my throat to get her attention, and Tess's grip tightens on me. The girl turns around and the resemblance almost makes me fall down the stairs.

"Holy shit," I whisper.

"That's not possible," Tess mumbles.

I have to look at the girl beside me to make sure that there are actually two, and I'm not actually seeing double. The girl approaching us has long, black straight hair, like someone took Tess's hair and somehow flattened it like a pancake. The girl is a bit on the skinnier side, and not in an attractive. She might as well be a skeleton. But her facial features are uncanny. She has the same upturned, enigmatic, unusually-dark eyes as Tess. Their noses and their lips are the same, even the same arching, quasi-judgmental eyebrows.

The girl curtsies (even though she says she's royalty). She's wearing a pink skirt—something Tess would never wear—and four-inch heels—something Tess would never wear.

"Prince Matthew, it is an honor," she says in Italian, fluidly and rapidly.

"Buon giorno," I say, but Tess lets go off me and practically pounces on the girl.

"Perché sei qui?" Tess asks, speaking as fluently as the other girl.

"I came to explain myself, that I am the true missing princess of Italy."

Tess scoffs. "Excuse me? A pink skirt and skyscraper shoes won't make you a princess."

"Money won't make you a princess either."

I can literally see their perfectly-manicured nails ready to claw each other's eyes out. I step in between them. "Stop, please," I say.

Tess looks frustrated while the other girl is smiling like a rainbow. "Forgive me, your grace," she says, as sweet as sugar. I want to gag.

"What's your name?" I ask, and I make the mistake of sounding intrigued. Tess glowers, but the other girl smiles.

"I'm Teresa Francesca Renaldi de'Medici."

"Bullshit," Tess mutters.

"Slow down, Catwoman," I say in English.

She frowns at me and crosses her arms. "Who the hell is Catwoman?"

"How many languages do you speak, hmm?" the girl says, ignoring our tiny banter. "I speak Italian, English—"

"Then why don't we speak English?" Tess retorts.

"Okay, no problem." The other girl crosses her arms. "So as I said, I am Teresa Renaldi, but my captors have taken to calling me Francesca."

Tess shrugs flippantly. "Call whatever the hell you want to call yourself, but my identity remains mine. Got it?"

"Hold on," I finally say. The two girls look at me, and I almost laugh how identical their scowls are. "I get that one of you is princess, but what I still don't understand is how you two look like the same person. Even down to the birthmarks."

Tess turns to Francesca and stares her down. "The mark beside your brow? That's a freckle, not a mole."

Francesca gapes at her, trying to intimidate Tess with her glare. "But—"

"The mark on your left earlobe is made up. It's fake. I bet if you tried washing it, that eyeliner would come right off."

I'm not exactly sure how Tess picked that up so quickly (or what eyeliner is, for that matter). "You're just a lying impostor, trying to get to the throne," Tess accuses triumphantly.

Francesca is a loss for words. "Okay, I get that the mark on my ear is a fake, and that the birthmark isn't truly one. But how would you explain the way you and I look like duplicates?"

Tess answers calmly and coolly. "It's a statistic that six other people in the world happen to look like you. You're just one out of six that looks like me."

"Then why would the Italian Mafia come for me?" Francesca pleads, and I can tell she's groping for any other excuse.

"Maybe you should ask them instead of coming to the palace saying that you are me."

"Tess," I say, "she does have a point."

"Oh, so now you're siding with her?"

Damn, women have their moody moments sometimes. "I'm not siding with anybody," I say. "I just think we should get more evidence. It's not everyday you meet your doppelganger, you know."

"Then we should have a blood test, whatever it takes, and interrogate her further," Tess replies sharply.

"Okay, we'll have it your way," I say, turning to Francesca. "You might as well meet my mother and father. I'm sure they'll contact the king and queen of Italy right away."

"Of course, your grace."

The girls follow me, and I stand in between them just in case one randomly lunges at the other. I knock on my father's door.

"Come in," he calls. When I open the door and reveal Tess and Francesca, he drops all of his papers. "Oh, my."


Shit's about to go down.

Question of the Day (stolen from KhrystineR): If my story became a TV show/movie, which actors would you want to play my characters?

Answer to previous QOTD: I have a lot on my knees and hands because I'm clumsy like that, and I like to pick my scabs. Weird? Yes.

Thanks for the reviews!

WinteryRose- A medical degree of some sort to keep it running in the family. Plus, I like helping people. I was planning biomedical engineering as my course, but I'm not creative enough to be an engineer :P And your brother...ouch. Thanks!

lilythemermaid- Ouch that sounds...painful. And mental scars are abundant in my brain :P Glad you're still reading! Thanks so much! LALOL

Kiren- Yeah, that was a one time thing. It's ten o'clock though so I guess that counts? Yeah, I got cuts on my forearm once from climbing a tree and I told my friends I cut myself and they were super appalled and they were like "Are you okay?" I started laughing and said I was kidding. I know it's not funny, but that's how weird my humor is. They laughed. Thanks so much!

Theoneforever- #doppelganger lol Tatthew/Mess might not make it to their wedding day :/ Thank you!

Please-and-Thankyou's- Ouch, glass is sharp. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

SJWrites2014- Yeah, that chapter was sort of a flight of ideas. Darn. Thanks so much!

Property of Illea- Haha yeah I PM'ed the irew chick and idk if she replied yet. Oh, well. Thanks so much!

Athenachild101- At first I totally believed the lightning scar thing and I was like that's a helluva coincidence! Thank you!

magicalnerd123- I love John Green. So much. PLOT TWIST TESS AND FRANCESCA ARE THE SAME PERSON :o Jk that's not even possible. Thanks!

ReadLikeYouMeanIt- "What just happened?!" - me when every character I love dies T_T haha thank you so much!

agb1700- Hahaha you don't want The End to end? :P Thank you so much! Lurve ya!

Guest- Thanks for giving me the idea of a paternity test! I didn't even think about it until I saw your review! Thank you!

fantasybookgirl- Haha no running rules are BS until you actually learn from it :P Thanks so much!

KhrystineR- Hahaha reading your whole review made me feel like I was being yelled at :P Loved it, though. And that's a good question. I used it for my QOTD. Is that fine? I'll answer this question next chapter, but I most definitely have ideas :) The whole Anastasia thing always fascinated me. Thank you so much!

ThisGirlActuallyReads- Ooh ouch. I hate being burned, literally and figuratively. Thank so much!

LovableL101- I'm glad you loved the chapter :) Ow, I hate hitting my elbow. Like, it's the most unusual spot to hit but it's the most frequent one that gets hit. Ya know what I mean? Oh, well. Thanks so much!

prnamber3909- 0_0 That. Bitch. Jk. I'm sure that was a quote from somewhere but yeah. Oh, #meangirls with dat pink skirt. We only wear pink on Wednesdays :P Thank you!

PokemonLuver151- Hence your username :P I used to play Pokemon on the Wii but idk. I found books more intriguing :P Thanks so much!

dakotamo- HAHAHA whoa death threat right here! My uncle's a lawyer :P Girl, you gotta stop giving me ideas to kill my characters off. It just might happen ;) Thanks so much!

winterprincess- Your review left me speechless. I literally cannot comment one thing without revealing something. OMG Rated M stuff is the worst. I learned it the hard way too. The Selection rated M stuff is...*shudders* Thank you so much! P.S. Don't apologize for your language to ME. I cuss wayyy worse than that and everyone who reads my stories know that :P

ilona18- I still fall on my knees. Whoops? :) Thanks so much!

LittleMissTori- Duuude it was so coincidental how I was obsessing over Ansel Elgort. Have I obsessed over him before? Idk. I can't count my scars. Too. Many. :P Thanks so much!

Love ya!- AcademicGirl