“He gave me divorce forms.”

Lucy practically screamed. “He did what?!”

“He gave them to me tonight at dinner. Hundreds of pages, Lucy. He had a whole, complicated thing prepared before he even told me anything about it.”

“Oh my Goddess, Yena, why?! I thought you were in love?”

“I thought so too,” I said, and then I broke down into sobs again.

Lucy gave me lots of reminders to breathe while I tried to stop crying. She told me that she loved me and asked how she could help.

“You’re helping already,” I told her. “Thank you. Thanks for listening.”

“I’m here for you. Always.”

When I was able to catch my breath, I told Lucy the whole thing.

About how Nolan told me last week that I could study abroad, and he’d support me. But then tonight, he finally revealed that it was just not something I could do at all… if I stayed married to him. If I stayed a princess.

I didn’t even mention Gina yet, when Lucy brought it up.

“Do you think… that it could really be about something else?” she asked carefully.

“He said it wasn’t, but I have this awful feeling it’s about his ex. That girl that came to his party, I’m sure you saw on the news, the whole thing where she passed out in his arms?”

“I did see that,” Lucy said. “That was his ex-girlfriend?”

“Yeah. And then, Nolan and I went to see her later that night in the hospital.”

“You what?! Why would he make you do that?”

I shook my head. Then realized Lucy couldn’t see me and said, “For the press, I think. To keep up appearances.”

“That’s awful. And what happened at the hospital, how did that go?”

I took a shaky breath before I could answer. And then recounted that whole awful scenario to Lucy, too. The conversation I overheard between Gina and Nolan in her room.

“Fuck,” Lucy said when I finished. “That’s insane. And what did Nolan say, after Gina said that shit about you?”

I searched my mind. What had he said?

“I’m not sure,” I finally told her. “I was starting to cry, and didn’t want to do it in public, so I went to the bathroom and locked myself in.”

“Wow, I’m so sorry Yena. All that sounds terrible.”

“It is.” I coughed out a sad little laugh.

“So,” Lucy said, “what do you think you’re going to do?”

I sat up on the couch and looked over at the mess of papers spilled all over the floor near the doorway.

“I don’t know,” I said. “What do you think I should do?”

ADAN

“I’m sorry,” Adan said. “I’ve got plans tonight with an old friend. I’ll need to take you home after dinner.”

Lucy pouted.

“Alright,” she said. “Maybe I could stay over tomorrow night, though? I don’t like sleeping alone without you anymore.”

She batted her long eyelashes at Adan.

He gave her a half-smile, pretending to find her cute.

But really, Adan was getting very, very annoyed with the girl.

Lucy was pretty. He could focus on that sometimes. But her personality was grating on him, and he didn’t know how much longer he could stand her.

Her aggressive cheerfulness was sickening. And now she was getting needy and clingy, too. She called and texted him all the time, begging for attention.

He had to get rid of her. But he needed to find the right time, and the right way to do it.

He had to get back in with Yena, first. Find a way to get the princess to trust him again.

Adan was very charming and persuasive. This wouldn’t be the first person he screwed over once, then won over again later.

Winning Yena’s confidence would be tricky. But Adan liked a challenge, anyway.

And he had found that he couldn’t stop thinking about the princess.

The news about her was nonstop these days. Everywhere Adan looked, there were tabloid pictures of Nolan and Yena. And every time he looked at them, Adan got a weird feeling…

It was almost like he missed her.

Sure, his time with Yena was all just part of a plan. A plan that hadn’t worked out incredibly well but had done at least a little damage to Nolan.

And they had only spoken a few times. But Yena was clever and intriguing. She was unlike anyone else Adan had ever met.

Usually, he waited for Lucy to bring Yena up, before asking questions about her and Nolan.

But he was past the point of suspicion with Lucy. The girl had dropped her guard with Adan. She trusted him completely.

They reached the restaurant where Adan was taking Lucy for their date, and went inside. After they were seated in a quiet corner, Adan ordered a glass of Lucy’s favorite wine for her and a whiskey neat for himself.

Their drinks came and Adan raised his glass to Lucy’s.

“A toast,” he said. “To you.”

Lucy beamed at him and clinked her glass into his, and they drank.

“So, have you talked to Yena?” Adan asked.

“Actually, yes.” Lucy’s tone was suddenly heavy.

“Something wrong?”

“Oh yeah. Get this… Nolan served her with divorce papers.”

Now that, Adan had not been expecting.

“What? I thought you were just telling me about how in love they are. What happened?”

Lucy tore apart a piece of bread and put a chunk of it in her mouth. She shook her head while she chewed, looking frustrated.

“He said it’s because divorcing him would be the only way for her to study abroad, because she wouldn’t be safe if she moved to the human world, even for a semester, if she was still the princess.”

“That’s crazy,” Adan said. Even though it was true.

“I know. She thinks it’s not the real reason, though.”

Adan sipped his whiskey slowly, trying not to seem overly excited.

“What would the real reason be? Why else would he possibly want to divorce Yena?”

“Well…” Lucy sighed dramatically and looked Adan in the eye. “She thinks there’s someone else.”

“Oh wow. I did not see that coming, but…” He trailed off and took another drink.

“But what?” Lucy asked, intrigued.

“I don’t know. Somehow it doesn’t seem surprising. Nolan is impulsive, he changes his mind a lot, and always gets what he wants…”

Lucy was buying every word Adan said and shaking her head in disgust.

“I hate this,” she said. “Yena is so miserable right now. She’s in so much pain.”

Adan frowned. “I wish I could talk to her. Do you think… do you think she’s ever going to forgive me for that big misunderstanding we had?”

Lucy considered this for a moment.

“I don’t know. It’s probably Nolan, really, that has the problem with you. She’s never brought the whole thing up with me before.”

Adan nodded.

“I guess,” Lucy continued, “if they really go through with this divorce, maybe then she would be more open to talking to you again.”

The waiter came with their meals, and Adan let the Yena talk die down.

Lucy prattled on the whole time they were eating, talking about which classes she wanted to take in the fall, and asking Adan stupid questions about teaching.

He drove her home after dinner, as promised.

“So, tomorrow?” Lucy asked, unlatching her seatbelt.

“I’ll call you in the morning and we’ll talk about it.” Adan gave her a smile and stroked her cheek.

Lucy leaned in to kiss him.

Adan felt like groaning.

But he closed his eyes and kissed her.

Then, a vision of Yena’s face appeared in his mind.

Lucy slipped her tongue into Adan’s mouth and he sucked on it, making her moan. He was thinking about Yena… and imagining it was her that he was kissing, instead.