Page 2 of The King's Fake Bride

This should be Yorgos in this room right now, not me.

He would get married without a second thought if that’s what the country required of him.

He would do it marching down the aisle with a big smile on his face, too. I’ve never met anyone who loved the country as much as my brother did. Yorgos should be king. His death came too soon, and I have no clue what to do. I feel like I’m drowning as people who are supposed to be helping me are holding my head underwater.

Atticus and Jorge may be trying to do their best, but getting married doesn’t feel like the answer to the country’s problems with me.

They run deeper than simply finding a bride and slotting her into place, hoping that she’ll play along and not expose me for the fake I am.

I have no business sitting on the throne.

“You’re going to have to get married. It’s the only option,” Jorge says, his tone pinched as he rubs his fingers on his temples.

I wish there was something more I could do to fix this, but it seems like nothing will work. I can’t make people like me.

They would be suspicious if I came along with a bride out of nowhere. It wouldn’t be believable, and yet the two men in front of me think it’s the only way to keep the crown.

“You want me to find a woman that’s going to marry me? How do you propose I do that?”

“You need to think about what’s best for the future of the kingdom.” Jorge forces the words out like a parent who’s exasperated with his child.

“I’ve been doing that since the day I buried my brother. Nothing I ever do seems to be enough. I’ve gone to the parades. I’ve put on a smile. I’ve mourned with my people in the streets. They still don’t like me. They don’t think I’m capable, and I can’t do anything to change that.”

Atticus rolls his eyes. “You’ve always had a flair for the dramatic.”

Jorge leans back in his seat, crossing one leg over the other, his foot bouncing in the air. “I think we need to give some serious thought to this marriage idea. Atticus is onto something.”

“He’s onto nothing. Do you honestly think those people down there are going to believe I’m getting married? I haven’t been with a woman seriously in years. The only stable relationship I had was when I was twenty. I’m twenty-eight now, and I still have no clue what I’m doing. Our country’s people are going to see right through it.”

“We’ll just have to fake it, then. You’re going to pretend that you’ve been dating some woman for months. Maybe a year. Then all you have to do is convince the public that you love her and want to marry her.” Jorge shrugs one shoulder. “It’s simple.”

“It’s insane!” I say and throw my hands in the air.

Atticus smiles wider, his face lighting up. “This is the perfect plan. You’re going to find a woman that the press will love. Somebody who relates to the people.”

“So, you want me to marry a commoner?” I snort, leaning against the windowsill, looking down at the people in the streets as they make their way towards the castle. “And here I thought that the monarchy was supposed to marry for connections and control.”

“You need to think in a broader aspect,” Jorge replies. “Marrying someone who has nothing to do with the crown or the monarchy or the nobilityismarrying for connections. You need a connection to the people. She would be that.”

I turn around and face them both, pinching the bridge of my nose. Both of them are grinning like fools, like this is the best idea they’ve ever had. I fail to see how two men who are both so intelligent in their own right have come up with something as asinine as marrying a woman I don’t know.

I take a deep breath, trying to hold my temper. “And what are you going to do, hold auditions for this woman? You don’t think that people will notice? We have to give them more credit than you’re giving them right now. If you start a search for my next wife, even in secrecy, it’s going to get around.”

“That it would, which is why you’re going on your own.” Atticus stands, looping an arm over my shoulders and hauling me backto the table, motioning me down into my seat. “You’re going to go out and blend in with the people out there. Find a woman who needs money. A lot of money.”

Steam would be pouring out of my ears right now if it could. “Oh, I see. There’s not a woman out there who’d want to marry me, so we’re going to bribe one to do it?”

Jorge shakes his head, his frown deepening as he looks between me and Atticus. “No, we can’t go and have you bribing women. That would be a whole other level of media trouble that I’m not willing to deal with right now.”

“I don’t see why we have to deal with it at all,” I bite out. “I’ll just go to more charity events and host more balls. Invite the townspeople into the castle. Show them that they don’t have to worry about me. Somehow prove to them that I have their best interests at heart.”

“Do you?”

For a brief second, I think of kicking Jorge out of the meeting room. I could strip him of all powers he has as an advisor, forcing him to go back to living in town in whatever little hovel he can find instead of the fancy mansion he has out in the country.

“Yes. I may not be Yorgos, but I do have their best interests at heart. I just don’t know how to make them believe that. Yorgos was so much better trained for this role than I was. He was suited for the crown.”

“Well, maybe you should have been there, right there alongside your brother, learning how to be king.” Jorge sniffs the air, looking down his nose at me.

---