Chapter 26

“This all looks good, Ruby,” Caleb says as he puts the papers down on the coffeeshop table. We met early in the morning to go over my plans for the Alpha Ball. It had been a few days since I saw him last, and I had finally had time to write out my proposals.

Still, I didn’t share the details about Harper and Adrian, not yet. After overhearing Caleb talking about me with Lucas in the palace gardens, I felt like I could start to trust him, but that didn’t mean I wanted to hand over all my cards yet.

“Do you really think so?”

“Yeah. It’s a lot better than what Joseph and I had come up with. He’s a brilliant planner when it comes to weddings, but you would be surprised how much difficulty he has with other types of parties.”

I laughed, and took another sip of my latte. “I know I haven’t been back to any of your council meetings, but do you think the rest of your team will be on board as well?”

Caleb waved the question away, “They’ll respect my judgement, whatever choices that turns into.”

I nodded, not entirely convinced by his response. They had seemed perfectly willing to question Caleb before, and it made me feel guilty to know I kept making trouble for him amongst his supporters.

“Well, I should probably get going, I have another copy of this I need to drop off with Joseph—“

”You’re going to the bridal shop?” Caleb interrupted.

“Yeah, it’s not a terribly far walk from here.”

“Let me drive you,” he said firmly, like it was a statement rather than a question.

“Oh no, that’s alright, I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“It’s no trouble,” he said, sounding slightly bored of the topic already. “I’m going to meet Joseph as well, we have some intelligence issues to discuss.”

I raised my eyebrows slightly. “Intelligence issues? What’s going on?”

Caleb smirked, “Suddenly you sound so interested in me.”

I rolled my eyes, picking up my drink and heading to the door. “If only someone was.”

It wasn’t a long car drive to the bridal shop. With the convertible roof set down, the wind whipped my hair around me as we sped down the highway.

It was only the middle of the day, but for some reason the lights were off despite the open sign hanging on the glass entrance door. “That’s odd,” Caleb muttered, going up to knock.

“Joseph! Are you there?” He asked loudly, pounding harder on the door.

“Do you think he overslept or something?” I asked, peering through the window displays.

“But then why would the open sign be out?” Caleb responded, nudging the door handle open to find it was unlocked.

We locked eyes for a moment, concerned and curious.

Inside, the front part of the shop was chilly, but we could immediately hear the echoing sound of typing on a keyboard. We followed it to the back, where Joseph was hunched over his desk, deeply focused on the screen.

“You look like a mole rat down here, turn on the lights,” Caleb said, flipping a switch and startling Joseph out of his chair.

“Oh, Caleb! Ruby! You scared me to death,” he said, panting and removing his glasses to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

“I’m sorry to bother you, I just wanted to give you this,” I said, placing the extra copy of the Alpha Ball plans in front of him.

“What’s that?” He asked, sounding dazed. He read the title, “Oh yes, thank you, I’ve been looking forward to that.” He pressed the bridge of his nose, “Sorry, I’ve had a few recent discoveries that threw a bit of a wrench into my expectations for the night.”

Caleb crossed his arms, instantly taking on his professional demeanor that only came out in political situations. “What kind of discoveries?”

Joseph looked between myself and Caleb, before sighing, and pulling up a document on his computer.

“You can read the whole thing if you like, but the unfortunate summary is this: Lucas is planning to bring the Bears to the Alpha Ball.”

Caleb’s brow furrowed. “He’s planning to do what?”

“He can’t do that, this is technically a private state event. Inviting citizens or government officials from another Kingdom, especially a hostile one, would look like he’s declaring an alliance.” I said, trying to sort through the meaning of Lucas’s actions.

“That’s not the worst part,” Joseph said, scrolling through the pages to a pair of names circled in red ink.

“…my parents?” I said, stunned.

Joseph nodded grimly. “Lucas seems to think he can get a troupe of Bears into the Ball without anyone noticing, and furthermore than he can make it look like your parents were striking a deal with them. When he gives them the word to stir up trouble at the Ball, your parents will be the ones who get blamed for the mess.”

Caleb spits on the ground. “So he gets away clean, while your parents are made to look like they want to incite war. He really can’t get any lower.”

“But that’s not—“ I stop myself. That’s not what happened in my past life. Had I changed the future so much by the choices I had made since I broke off my wedding to Lucas that whole sequences of events were different?

I remembered before I was reborn that Lucas used the same tactic to frame my family, that much was the same. But I knew for a fact that he hadn’t organized those plans until much closer to the Ball. How had he managed to get ahead of us?

And how would we be able to close that gap and get ahead of him again?

Caleb looked through the documents on Joseph’s computer before cursing and exiting out of the page. “He has made up some pretty indisputable evidence on his side, no one would question it,” he said, “that’s more vicious than I thought he would ever go.”

“I can’t let him get away with this,” I said, “I’ll rearrange the itinerary, I’ll reallocate soldiers and guards throughout the ballroom—“

”Ruby,” Caleb said gently, taking me by the arms and looking deeply into my eyes. “You don’t need to worry about a thing, alright? Joseph and I will take care of this.”

“They’re my family.” I said, remembering the sight of their broken bodies lying dead in their own blood. “I won’t let this happen to them.”

“And neither will I,” Caleb said, looking back to Joseph. “We have three days, what can we do?”

Joseph leaned back in his seat. “I’ll see what I can come up with. In the meantime, Caleb, I’d suggest you get back to the palace to finish setting up for the Alpha Ball. Ruby?” He said, clearly trying to put on a cheerful face.

“Hm?” I responded, intrigued.

“What do you say we find you something to wear?”