with a small, closed-mouth grin at her immediately.
“Very good.” She nodded, and I stood a bit taller, happy to be complimented for once. However, as she left and Wolfgang entered with a tablet in hand, the small smile vanished.
He waited until the door closed before stepping forward, the deep frown on his freckled face telling me I was going to hate this. Gale had all but banned newspapers or anyone from talking to me about what was said in the press. I had not said anything to him about it. Instead, I just had Wolfgang basically translate what was said.
“The Morning Eagle again?” I asked him.
He nodded. “They are getting more vicious.”
Sighing, I sat back down, and instinctively, I wanted to cross my legs, but I remembered the last photo of me in the media and sat with my legs slanted.
“Read it.” I hung my head, waiting.
“Odette Wyntor snubs her sister. Augusta Wyntor-Washington, Odette Wyntor’s younger sister, claims her sister has snubbed her.”
“What?” I looked up at him in shock.
“Apparently, your sister spoke to some reporters last night. She is quoted throughout the piece.”
I reached for the tablet, and he gave it to me. Sure enough, there were quotes, not one or two, but several. Augusta declaring to all the world that I had ignored her, lied to her and that I was...
“Please tell me my translation is wrong, and this does not say, ‘My sister, Odette, always says she doesn’t want fame but then goes and tries to make herself the most famous person possible. If she is not the center of attention, she is upset.’”
What the hell? This could not be right.
“Yes, that is pretty much the correct message.”
“Was she drunk?” I gasped. But she could not have been drunk. She was pregnant, which meant she must have been insane. “I need to be the center of attention? Me?”
“Miss, there is a possibility that she was misquoted, that the press is simply trying to put words into her mouth. Do not get upset.” He tried to calm me down.
And if only it were that easy.
“My phone—”
“Miss.”
“Wolfgang, if it is a misquote, I want her to tell me. If it is how she feels, I also want her to tell me. Please give me my phone.”
He nodded, giving it to me, and when he did, I immediately dialed Augusta. Yes, it was true that I had not talked to my sister for the first two days I was here. But I did call, and I broke protocol by explaining what was happening that caused me to delay. Now I was snubbing her?
“Well, if it isn’t Her Royal Majesty,” was what she said through the phone.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from yelling. “Hello, Augusta, you must forgive me for calling you. I know it is late—”
“Is that how they train you to talk now? ‘You must forgive me.’”
“What is wrong with you?” I snapped, not understanding where her attitude was coming from. She sounded drunk. She couldn’t be.
“Me? I am perfectly perfect. Why wouldn’t I be? So, what is wrong with you?”
I ignored the nagging feeling in the back of my mind because I simply wanted to get off the phone call with her. “You spoke to the press about me?”
“They asked.”
“Augusta!”
“Odette!” she yelled right back. “What, am I not allowed to talk to whoever I want?”
“Not about me!”
“Why not?” She snickered. “Because you are a future queen? Well, Odette, that is of another country, not here. You do not tell me what I can and cannot do or what I can or can’t say.”
“So, you really did say it then? That I want to be the center of attention?”
“Well, don’t you?”
I wanted to reach into the phone and wring her neck. “I have never wanted that—”
“Oh, bullshit. You always say that! And yet, somehow, we are always talking about you. Oh, Odette won another beauty pageant. Oh, Odette is going to Juilliard. Oh, Odette is releasing an album. Oh, Odette! Oh, Odette! Oh, Odette! For someone who does not want to be the center of attention, you seem to be there a lot.”
I really could not believe what I was hearing. I was stunned. Just stunned. “Augusta—”
“Oh, please do not call my name like that. I was asked questions, I answered. And because it was about you, you found time to lecture me? But you are there for weeks, and I get a call only twice?”