Chapter 20.

“I've been living in my lowest, it's safe to say

Hope my little bit of hope don't fade away…” Tales of Dominica - Lil Nas X

March, 2137

Eveline

After breakfast we all said goodbye and headed towards our offices to start the day's agenda, I took with me only the folder with the details of the dance and decided to take the photos I had liked from the copy of the album I had received after if I went to my room, the rest would surely be burned with gusto in the fireplace.

I then left my documents in my office which was next to my brother's office and went down to the first floor to go to the council room to get the documents that the twins had set out for me on the balance of changes applied last month and in its repercussion among our people and in our most distant provinces.

As soon as I reached the door other guards greeted me and let me through. When I entered I saw the red-haired twins talking to each other sitting at the table in the corner of the room, the main table was only used in official meetings, even though I said they could use it because it was more comfortable.

“Good morning guys!" I say and the two redheads lift their heads to watch me and smile as they stand up and straighten their clothes that were always out of place.

“Good morning, Your Highness! Did you come for your documents?” They say it at the same time and I laugh at how the two of them manage to complete each other's lines.

“Yeah, I couldn't come here yesterday,” I say and they both nod and Morgan excuses himself and goes over to their desk to get the paperwork and I see there's a lot of newspapers spread across the table and Gregory goes over to his brother to help him but I out of curiosity walk over and pick up one of the copies seeing new photos of protests that I wasn't aware of.

I start rummaging through the pile and I see that since my interview many newspapers have come out and some with good news and some with bad news, but all of them mostly had pictures of protests, and when looking through the reports only one rebel group was cited, the group with the Phoenix that I had seen a few weeks ago in a newspaper my mother had given me and that she pretended not to know about, their names highlighted in the headline.

Outbreak Crown.

Below the headline were several photos of protests in black and white and people running with bandanas tied over their faces and flags fluttering in the crowds in the photos, and I could see that they were a very strong group as they were present in all countries, including MacQuoid.

“Miss?" I hear Gregory call me and I look up from the papers and they look a little apprehensive as I'm looking at the papers.

“Why these newspapers aren’t sent to my office?" I asked quietly as I watched them and saw the twins look at each other and when they looked at me they looked apprehensive “Whoever it is, no one will know what you told me since from now on I get a copy in my office, without fail, of this newspapers," I say trying to bargain and they nod.

“Your father has prohibited us to send the papers to you but we keep the copies for safety in case we need them, sorry for that Your Highness,” Morgan says and they both bow but I stop them in mid-motion and they look at me confused, the blue eyes of both trying to figure out what I'm going to do next.

“It's okay, you just followed orders, if it's uncomfortable for you two take the papers to one of my maids or Gwen, but thanks for your cooperation,” I say and they both nod and I take the papers and the papers and put them in the briefcase and decide that the best thing will be to work in my room.

But because I'm not sure if Nolan is there I hang around my office reading the headlines a bit and realize that the OC group hasn't carried out any kind of violent attack, their group just protests and distributes leaflets and rarely gets into conflict, and then I stop to think for a second and my eyes widen.

Whoever the violent group is wanting to cause confusion and the group that always appears in the newspapers just wants recognition and changes, which have already been offered, but according to the protests the biggest demand is the end of the law that prevents marriages, the law that put me in the situation i’m in now and that has been subjugating women for over 20 years.

It was my goal to get to the end of it for sure.

As I continued to look at the other newspapers I noticed that some people were carrying posters with my photo, and on them phrases such as "Long live for Eveline Taylor", "God save the future queen" and "Ally!!!" were present, there were some with derogatory phrases but I realized they were of violent protests, and I found myself curious about the support that OC had for me to ascend to the throne.

After some more time reading I decided it was time to go upstairs, so I collected my things and went upstairs to my room and realized that the door was open and only Eylisha was inside, she hummed softly as she organized and sorted some things for take it to the laundry, when she saw me she smiled and I leaned the door behind me.

“Adela has agreed to go out with Nolan, they are going to town for dinner tomorrow!" She said excitedly and I dropped the papers on my dressing table and I ran to hug her and we celebrated together as we laughed “You're kind of a really weird Cupid Vee, the poor thing almost had a heart attack when she walked into your room and saw him, so because I'm not silly I knew you had put a finger in it so I closed the door and waited in the hallway for them to solve this impasse,” She said and I started to laugh and she followed me, which caused her dark brown hair to fall out of her bun and fan out down her back.

Mine came loose from the bun too, so I remembered my mom and as we calmed down I asked her to sit at my dressing table so I could fix her hair.

“Can I braid your hair?" I ask her and she nods. I then move to her incredibly wavy hair and decide to do two side braids and join them together, leaving the rest of the hair down “My mom asked to speak with some of the two of you to see if they know any other good chaperones to help us with the Ball next week and in the future with the wedding when Eileen is back.” I say and watch in the mirror as she chews her lip thoughtfully and I continue to braid her hair.

“I know a very nice girl in town, she came from CassCross but works very well but whoever hired her pays very poorly, I'm sure she would be more than grateful to work for you Your Highness,” she says and I smile.

“Shut up Eylis! And please call her and set up a date, and ask for her file please, I'll look at it as soon as it's in my hands, thank you so much Eylis,” I say and hug her from behind and she squeezes my hands as we look at each other in the mirror. "Okay, it's beautiful!" I say and she smiles and runs her hands through her hair after I let her go and gets up to see the result.

“Really, you have a talent for this,” she says and I laugh as I sit on the bed and throw my shoes on the floor and she picks up the laundry basket and she prepares to go downstairs but I ask her to wait while I get up and I go to the desk and scribble a quick note and hand it to her, she looks at me confused.

“Give it to Roman, he'll know what to do and thank you Eylis,” I say and she nods and says goodbye to me and I sit at the desk and organize the newspapers I've read and put them in the right place and close the drawer with key so that no one knows about it.

I cannot harm the twins at my father's whim.

I then start working on the improvement reports and sigh wearily knowing the day will still be so long.