to the palace, everything was on virtual lockdown and I was feeling like a caged lion not knowing if Alice was safe.
Finally around midnight, Ruby burst from Leo’s bedroom into his sitting room where some of us had gathered and broke the news that Alice was safe—in America. I’d thought she was making a poorly-timed joke at first, but once she explained I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I allowed myself to revel in that for a few moments before despair worked its way in that Alice hadn’t been off licking her wounds following our fight. She’d left me. Again.
But now my siblings and I were doing whatever we could to help piece our country back together.
Leo glanced over from the stack of boxes. “She arrived last night and said it was eerie being surrounded by such calm. I suppose it would be.”
I wanted to ask if Ruby had seen Alice yet, but managed to remain silent.
My brother folded a slip of paper and put it in the back pocket of his jeans. “Well, I’m off again. Natalie and I are delivering the new load of blankets. Have you sorted any more generators?”
“Victoria is on it,” I assured, causing Leo to nod and chuckle before leaving again.
The one positive thing to transpire from our national tragedy was the discovery of Victoria’s true area of brilliance. Of course, she was a skilled assistant who would no doubt have excelled under anyone but a man who had his heart set on someone else. But in the hours and days immediately following the earthquake, Victoria proved herself to be an excellent barterer—and by that I mean the woman could flirt her way to a donated lorry of spring water with barely the flutter of an eyelash. Which was extraordinarily advantageous as Leo, Clara, and I had designated ourselves as our own individual team of disaster relief workers.
Of course, we worked with the government relief program put in place, but none of us fancied sitting in the palace while other people did the work to help our citizens. We set ourselves to the task of locating and delivering the more difficult to procure items sought by those running the relief efforts. They determined and carried out the plan and we filled in the leftover holes the best we could.
I was finally beginning to understand what drove Leo to pursue all of his drinking water initiatives in underdeveloped nations. It was one thing to sign contracts and talk about charitable programs in front of a room full of wealthy people, but quite another to put yourself physically in the communities you were helping. On top of that, the fact that these were the people we’d sworn to protect and care for made it even more essential to do everything we could.
For the first time in my life, I was single-mindedly in pursuit of something of absolutely no personal benefit to me. And it was both eye-opening and exhilarating.
Although I suppose single-minded is the wrong word because my mind was decidedly split on any given day between helping my people and thinking about Alice. I wanted to hop on the jet and fly over to see her, talk to her, discover exactly what was in her mind and why she’d run away again. But I couldn’t. My duty was to my country in its time of need, and that was something Alice would understand better than anyone.
It was the third day following the earthquake that the fatigue set in, making me long for one night of rest with Alice tucked under the crook of my arm and her cold toes nestled between my calves seeking warmth.
I’d resumed my prior routine of texts, emails, and voice messages—unsurprisingly unanswered—and I planned to use my inside source, Ruby, to seek out even the smallest bit of news going forward. But with Alice so far out of reach, I chose to return to one of my old habits of writing her a letter.
Dear Alice,
You were right. I was a massive dickhead.
I’m sure I’m not supposed to use the word dickhead in an apology letter, but there’s only so much personal growth a man can accomplish at one time.
I’m truly sorry for hurting you—for accusing you and not listening when all you were doing was telling me what I needed to hear. I’m coming to understand I didn’t treasure or respect your mind and heart as thoroughly as I should have, and there’s a lot of work in