Ryan played with the curls in Sam’s hair as they danced. She smiled contentedly and looked out over the city. As he looked at her, suddenly he felt like he wanted to tell her the truth. He wanted her to see him as he was, and to love him that way, too. He was a little relieved that she would know the truth soon, and he hoped she would still want to be with him. His future flashed in his mind, and he saw himself as king, and Sam there as his queen. It scared him, but in a good way. “Samantha?”
Her eyes drifted over to meet his. “Yeah?”
He brushed her cheek softly with the back of his knuckles. “I love you.”
She gasped inwardly and then her faced softened into a smile. Without waiting for her answer, he leaned in and captured her lips.
As he pulled from her, he felt someone watching them. He opened his eyes to see Emma turn and run from them. He knew immediately what had happened. She had seen the kiss and thought he was playing her. “Hey Sam, I’ll be right back okay?”
She nodded. “I’m going to find Olivia.”
He nodded and quickly rushed to the doors of the palace. Just as he reached them, William entered, out of breath. “It’s too late, Emma’s gone.”
Samantha made her way through the dancing crowd of people. Where had Olivia gone? All of a sudden, she thought she heard the young girl’s voice laughing. She turned to find where the sound was coming from and saw Olivia dancing with someone. Not just anyone, but with the prince.
Sam frowned. They were dancing and fooling around like old friends. How did Olivia know Prince Ryan? She gently pushed through the pack to get closer. Some guy grabbed her around the waist. “Hey baby, want to dance?”
She shoved him away. “No thanks.”
She crept up behind the prince and a laughing Olivia. He picked her up and spun her around. She smiled. Prince Ryan must be a friendly guy, she thought. Then she heard his voice. “I’ve missed you, Livie.”
Livie. That was Justin’s nickname for Olivia. In fact, she hadn’t heard him call her that in a few weeks. But why was Prince Ryan saying that he missed her and acting exactly like…Justin?
Lost in her confusion, she almost didn’t see the prince take off his mask momentarily when he put Olivia down. But she saw him. The guy wearing a crown was definitely Justin.
Sam turned her head back the other direction where she thought she had seen Justin go, and she saw him talking to a servant. She glanced back and forth between the two, wondering if she was going crazy.
By this time, Olivia had noticed Sam and left the prince to get to her. “Sam! Where’s Justin?”
Sam looked up to where the prince had been and he had disappeared. She frowned at the girl. “Olivia, I’m hoping you can tell me. I just saw you dancing with him a second ago. But the Justin I was with, is over there talking to a servant. What is going on?”
Olivia looked at the ground. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied.
“Olivia Rae Timberlake. You know more than what you’re saying, so tell me the truth!” Sam ordered.
The young girl peered up at her, suddenly afraid. She didn‘t want to ruin the secret, but she had to tell the truth. “Justin’s over there,” she said pointing to a group of people now surrounding the prince.
Sam pointed to the guy speaking with a servant. “And the guy I was with tonight…?”
“…is Prince Ryan.”
Sam’s mouth dropped open. As realization hit her, anger filled her thoughts. “Olivia, we’re leaving. Please go wait for me in my car while I speak with Justin and Ryan.”
Olivia nodded sadly, as tears trickled down her disheartened face.
Ryan threw on his mask and pushed his way through the mass of people to find who he was looking for. He finally reached Justin and grabbed his arm. “Put your mask on. We have to talk.”
Justin obeyed and followed him out to the patio. He took off the crown and set it on the ledge. “What’s going on man?”
“Something bad happened,” he began. “Emma saw me kissing Sam and she ran off. William tried to stop her, but it‘s no use. She‘s gone.”
Justin covered his face with his hands. “You’re kidding me. So you took your mask off? Man, we said it was too risky for you to ever take it off tonight.”
“I was out here, and you were inside. I thought no one would see,” Ryan argued.
“Well you thought wrong. What are we going to do?” Justin said, furious.
They heard a female voice behind them. “Well, first of all, what you’re going to do is tell me what’s going on here.”
They turned to see Samantha with her hands on her hips. Ryan’s heart sank. No one said anything.
“Both of you, take off your masks,” she said. They obeyed to reveal their nearly identical faces. “Which one of you is Justin?”
They both pointed at each other, saying simultaneously. “He is.”
She sighed, frustrated. “I cannot believe you guys! I don’t know how long you guys have been lying to me, but after all we’ve been through, I deserve to know the truth!”
Ryan decided it was time to fess up. He put the crown on. “Sam, I’m not Justin. I’ve just been pretending to be him for the last few weeks.“
He turned to Justin. “I‘ll talk to her. You need to go find Emma.”
Justin nodded and took off running.
Sam looked at him, questioningly. “This whole time, you’ve been pretending to be Justin. Why did you do this?”
“Because when I first saw you at the club, I fell in love with you, Sam. Then I met Justin and it was like fate that we looked so much alike.”
She tried to remember that night, and was in disbelief that she had been lied to for that long. She crossed her arms. “You traded places with J, because you wanted to get to know me?”
He nodded. “I know I have a lot of explaining to do, but please believe me when I say that I never meant to hurt you.”
“So why did you lie to me? Why didn’t you just introduce yourself and see if something happened?” she asked.
He looked at the ground. “I just had to know if you could really love me, and not just a crown.”
“I don’t even know who YOU are,” she said, bitterly. “I fell in love with my best friend.”
“Is that the truth, Sam?” he pressed her.
She glared at him angrily. “I’m not the liar here, Ryan.”
He winced. “Well can you honestly say that you felt about Justin the same way that you feel about me?”
“It doesn’t matter now, because I can‘t love a stranger,” She said turning away. “I have to go.”
With that, she hurried off toward her car.
