The Queen's Impossible Boss - Natalie Anderson Page 0,1

minor. No one was as loyal as Juno, and this jerk hadn’t even given her the chance to explain.

In the past Jade’s only act of defiance had been to stay in touch with Juno after that last fight, despite her father’s ever-looming disapproval. A month before they’d turned eighteen their mother had passed, leaving Juno alone and isolated miles away. Jade had been prevented from going to the funeral and unable to offer any real comfort and Juno had made it clear she had no desire to return to Monrova. Jade had learned to bypass the Internet security wall that had previously stopped her from seeing her sister’s social media postings and they’d video conferenced when they could. Juno had regaled her with tales of her life as the media-dubbed ‘Rebel Princess’ in New York...

But Juno still hadn’t come back when their father had died just a year ago. And while her choice had saddened Jade, she’d understood that some things were so painful they were impossible to overcome...or at least, took a long, long time. So Juno’s surprise visit to Monrova at the weekend had been the best thing ever. And her suggestion of a three-week twin-switch?

Yes, it absolutely was crazy. But Juno needed time in her own country—she needed time to understand the heritage and the life that had been denied her.

And yes, there was a selfish element to Jade’s ready agreement. For Jade to have just a little time to herself and live like a ‘normal’ person with relative anonymity? To experience a few of those freedoms that only a city like New York could offer? To have time to herself before fulfilling her late father’s last wish? And Christmas—an actual special, even if alone, Christmas. She’d barely been able to admit it even to herself, but the chance to experience life a little more ‘normal’ had been irresistible.

‘How could you just ignore their calls?’

There was that emotive edge in Alvaro Byrne’s tone that had scalded Jade. It seemed her ‘little more normal’ now included dealing with Juno’s irate boss at work. She was determined to defuse this situation. Duty—responsibility—was everything and right now she was responsible for Juno’s reputation.

Jade had her own challenging choice ahead. She would do anything for her country—even marry the man her father had decided would be the best match for her politically. Since his death, her advisors had unanimously insisted that the marriage was still the best course of action for both Monrova and for Queen Jade herself. If it was, then of course she would do it. But Juno had been horrified that Jade was even considering marriage to King Leonardo of Severene—the neighbouring nation—and she’d wanted to give Jade space to consider everything. Juno had handed over her phone, passport, passwords...and Jade had been swept along by her twin’s insistence and enthusiastic assurance that they could pull this off.

Because she’d not just wanted it, she’d needed it too.

But Juno had said there was no need for Jade to go into her work as she could work from home in this last week before the office closed early for the Christmas break, lessening the chances of someone suspecting their switch. Only when Jade had landed at the airport in New York and turned on Juno’s phone, it had pinged incessantly, signalling an insane amount of messages and voicemails. And this last—from the CEO himself—was the one that spurred Jade’s action now.

‘This is Alvaro Byrne.’

He was CEO of a conglomerate that had started with an eclectic suite of popular apps and mushroomed since to include both property and financial investments. Juno had been recruited to work in the social media marketing arm for the suite of apps, including that original fitness tracking one—Byrne IT. Juno had mentioned a minor issue at work in passing, but when Jade had looked online after hearing those messages, she saw the fuss was more major than Juno had realised and it was only escalating.

On her journey in from the airport, Jade had searched online for any information she could find about the office and her co-workers but there’d been little about the structure. So she’d listened again to the catalogue of increasingly concerned voice messages and memorised the names of the callers—grateful for the disciplined memory techniques drilled into her from a young age. Then she’d coiled her hair into a bun to hide the fact that hers was longer and straighter than Juno’s and hoped that her plain black trousers and white shirt were