Page 76 of Maid for the Alien Prince

“We… We don’t know that either, sire. But we found something that belongs to her.”

He motioned toward the middle of the room where, lying in a sodden blanket of carpet, was a smashed glass. By itself it meant nothing, but it wasn’t alone in the room of evidence.

There, to one side, a forgotten uncomfortable royal red slipper lay upended, the letter “R” embossed on the toes…

Camila’s slipper.

She was gone. My deepest fears had come true…

She had been taken.

* * *

I wanted to leap upon the back of my Fayam and search through the entire estate myself, to ensure no rock or tree or stream lay unsearched…

But anyone could do that.

I had dozens of staff to search for me—and that was what most of them were doing now—dispatched to all four corners of the vast estate and told to search everywhere for Camila.

They were to block all exits and to not let anyone through. I was at the center of the search efforts, directed from my office.

Once the estate had been locked down, we sent the search parties in a rolling pattern, from one lot to another. I handed most of the duties to my subordinates, which left me with plenty of time to consider other options.

Especially who would want to kidnap Camila in the first place.

I had amassed quite an army of enemies since I had inherited my wealth. First there was the royal family. After their assassination attempt, I didn’t put it past them to make another attempt on my life.

This time, their spies could have come and stumbled upon Camila… Or she might very well have been their target right from the beginning.

I clenched my hands into fists and slammed them on the desk. Maybe they realized I wasn’t such an easy target… but that my fated mate might be…

And how would they know the significance of Camila to me already?

I glared at the doors as if I could see the staff on the other side, their hushed whispers easily audible to my enhanced hearing.

Which of them were loyal to me? And which were loyal to the royal family? Or my other enemies?

If I had maintained control of the running of the palace, none of this would have happened. The staff would have been loyal to me and—

I pulled myself up and recalled that before I had retaken my rightful place at this palace, there had been another member of the royal family in residence, and had been for over twenty years.

The old staff could easily be more loyal to the royal family than to me, its most recent occupant. It made me suspicious—suspicious of everyone surrounding me within these walls.

But the staff all knew Camila and I didn’t believe they would have turned her in so easily. But what did I know?

I didn’t know these people and I suspected that so long as there were staff at the palace, there were going to be spies for my enemies.

The worst thing of all was not knowing what the truth was. I was never likely to discover it. They were never going to reveal the truth of their plans to me. Whatever their goals might have been, the result was the same.

Then there was another enemy, one I had made most recently—Ges.

He was very angry when I retired him from his position, and I knew he would be looking to get some kind of revenge on those he considered responsible for it.

That meant either me or Camila…

After all, she had been the one to make him lose his position at the palace, the one who had opened my eyes to his duplicity…

I scratched my chin. Now that I thought about it, he was the most likely person to have kidnapped Camila.

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