A Love that Endures 2

by Forrest, Bella

  Zeke sighed. “I just . . . well, I just don’t know if it’s wise for you to leave like this right now. I know your head is in a weird place, and that’s totally understandable. But these plans seem a little brash. And as your friend, I feel like I need to tell you that.”

  “I understand where you’re coming from,” David replied, trying to gather his scattered thoughts into a coherent argument. “But I don’t actually think this is such bad timing. Think about it. Katy won’t be here, so I’ll just be stewing in our room anyway. I’d never let you cancel plans for me, so you’d be gone. And there’s zero chance I’d do well on my midterms without taking some time to compose myself first.”

  Thinking through his reasoning only strengthened his resolve. His voice grew stronger and more confident as he went on.

  “So many things have gone wrong recently that it almost feels like a curse at this point. But this . . . this is the only thing I currently have to look forward to. This is the only thing that I can be excited about. I need to do this.”

  Zeke took a deep breath, looking intently at David, and then nodded. “I see your point. But just try to remember that you don’t owe anyone anything. If for any reason the visit doesn’t go as planned, you don’t have to stay. And if you need to come back early, I’ll be there for you. Just call me. Plans or not. Deal?”

  David forced a smile. This was probably the best compromise he was going to get out of his friend. So, even though he still didn’t want to interfere with Zeke’s plans, he reluctantly agreed. “Deal.”

  Zeke nodded, and David, turning back to his phone with an intent energy, scrolled to Marcos’s—to his father’s—number, and dialed.

  The accented voice answered after just a few rings. “Hello, David?”

  “Marcos. Yes, it’s me.” Was that the right way to greet his father? He still couldn’t imagine using the word “dad.”

  “I’ve been waiting for your call, David. Had a feeling you’d want to get away for a while after . . . everything that’s happened.”

  David grimaced. It was a horrible reminder that on every continent now, David’s name was becoming a punchline.

  “How soon can I come?” David asked, choosing to bypass his father’s statement entirely.

  The reply was quick. “How soon can you be packed?”

  * * *

  David heard the beep again that night.

  He had a flight to catch the next day and had just finished packing up his things when he heard it. This time, Zeke was there to witness.

  “There. Did you hear that?” David asked.

  Zeke looked up from an open textbook with a puzzled expression. “Um. Hear what?”

  David stopped and listened again. It was quiet in the room, with the exception of music playing downstairs and the occasional sound of a car driving by out front. After a few seconds with no beep, David sighed.

  “I keep hearing a noise in here. Like a beeping, or . . .”

  “Like something is running out of battery?” Zeke finished for him, a little too quickly to be natural.

  David nodded. “Have you heard it, too?”

  Zeke shrugged. “I just assumed that you had an MP3 player tucked away in a drawer that needs a charge. Or a watch or something. It’s none of my stuff.”

  “It’s none of my stuff, either,” David asserted. He strained his ears again, but all he could hear was the music drifting up from the lower level.

  Zeke looked over at David with a smirk. “Well, if all else fails, at least the Brazil trip will be good for one thing: getting away from that noise.”

  But David didn’t laugh. It might’ve just been all the business with the press, his phone, and the plagiarism charge keeping his nerves on edge, but it seemed to him that there was something ominous about the beeping.

  Like something was out of place.

  29

  Katy

  “Miss you already.”

  Katy looked down at her phone and frowned. It was David. And Katy knew what he meant. She typed a text in return.

  “Hopefully it won’t be too long. I miss you, too.”

  The king and queen had wasted no time ferrying Katy and Cassie back to Lorria after the scandal. It had only been twenty-four hours since the photos were published, and now Katy was in a car in Lorria, on her way to the summer home on the Mediterranean. She’d slept fitfully on the overnight flight, dreaming of being chased by photographers and having no place to hide.

  “Is that David?” Cassie asked, gesturing at Katy’s phone.

  Katy nodded. “He’s on his way to Brazil.”

  “Hmm,” Cassie mused. Katy guessed what her cousin might be implying.

  “He explained to me why he’s going now. And it makes a lot of sense,” she told Cassie, feeling a need to support his actions. She too had been concerned to hear that David was jetting off in the middle of the week with midterms still in progress. But she couldn’t blame him. Classwork was the last thing on Katy’s mind at the moment, too. And at least David had ensured that he could make up the work later, so it wasn’t like he was ditching all responsibilities.

  “I just think it’s weird timing. Like, why is he taking a vacation at a time when he’s in a lot of turmoil?” Cassie went on. She wasn’t looking at Katy but spoke while glancing out the darkly tinted window at the shoreline. They weren’t far from the estate now. And the view—of salt-kissed vineyards on one side and blue sea on the other—truly was beautiful. But Katy couldn’t appreciate that currently. Not with everything that was going on.

  “I wouldn’t exactly call it a vacation, Cass. And did you expect him to just sit around in Cambridge and wait for my return?” Katy countered. She didn’t like this accusatory tone Cassie was taking with the man Katy loved. After all, David was suffering, too.

  Cassie looked back at Katy from across the dark leather interior of the limousine. “So do you think you’ll go back? To Harvard, I mean?”

  Now it was Katy’s turn to look away. She wasn’t sure how to answer that question. Of course she wanted to return to Cambridge to be by David’s side. But did she want to go back to Harvard, with the heightened media interest and the pain of her exposure still fresh? And how would her parents, and the people of her country, react if she just went right back there?

  “We’ll see how this goes,” she finally replied. For once, she wasn’t excited about being at her summer home.

  In fact, she was dreading what was going to happen when she got there.

  * * *

  “Katerina, are you listening?”

  Katy looked up across the long mahogany table at her mother. It was the first thing that either of her parents had said to her directly, even though she’d spent more than two hours in their presence so far. She’d been ushered into the dining room for a business meeting with the family lawyers, public relations experts, and a crisis team her parents had called in from Switzerland.

  “Yes, Mama. I’m listening,” Katy replied. Though she wished she hadn’t been. Nothing that had been said during the meeting made her feel any better about the future.

  “Then what is your takeaway from this conversation?” the king asked in a gruff, short tone.

  Katy breathed out and turned her eyes back to the woodgrain of the long table. “That the best way to bury this scandal is to hide out for a while, focusing on charitable works.”

  “And?” the queen prompted.

  Katy sighed. It was embarrassing being talked down to like a child in front of a dozen professionals as they all sat around the table with their notebooks and laptops, staring at her as if she was a leper.

  “And then announce a suitable engagement,” Katy finished.

  Saying the words out loud didn’t make them feel any more real. It still felt like a bad joke, a parody of everything she had wanted for herself. Of course, she couldn’t imagine actually going through with it, especially since she currently had a boyfriend!

  David. My David.

  But it wouldn’
t be smart to fight it right now. Not in front of so many strangers, and not when her parents were already too ashamed and angry to even speak with her until they had been forced to acknowledge her. Now is certainly the time to choose your battles.

  “Well, then,” the queen said, turning from Katy to look at the crisis team, her cold, businesslike expression barely wavering. “The crown appreciates your seasoned counsel. And now we can begin work on phase one. Compile a list of the most suitable volunteering opportunities.”

  Because that’s the best reason to volunteer: for your own public image. The whole thing reeked of selfishness and hypocrisy to Katy. She actually loved volunteering and working to help her people; she didn’t want to do it in a way that was calculated just to make herself look better. But how could she voice those concerns now, when she was the poster child of a wayward daughter?

  The meeting droned on around her while she tried not to physically slink down into her chair. She was used to her parents trying to plan her life for her, but at least that had come with good intentions. This was pure, manipulative PR. And Katy didn’t like the feeling of so many people trying to “fix” her life all at once, without so much as asking her opinion.

  The king adjourned the meeting, and everyone stood. Katy stood as well, looking first at the king and then at her mother. But neither so much as glanced in her direction. They walked out of the dining hall together, still in conversation with their lawyer.

  Katy had never felt so alone.

  “Chin up, Princess,” a man’s voice said gently.

  Katy turned to see one of the Swiss crisis managers smiling softly at her. It was the first time she had been spoken to kindly since arriving at her home.

  “We deal with much worse than this all the time—this isn’t as bad as it sounds right now. Don’t let it get you down,” he continued, comforting her as much as he could, before nodding in farewell and following the rest of the professionals out of the room.

  Katy let out a deep sigh. That was all she had wanted to hear since landing in Lorria: that it would be okay and not to beat herself up over this. Something that she struggled to remind herself wasn’t just her fault; something that ordinary couples would not have been looked down upon for doing, a moment of joy that had been stolen from her by a photographer with no integrity, who had made the situation appear so much seedier than it really was. This wasn’t entirely her “mistake.”

  Cassie was waiting for her outside.

  “How’d it go?” her cousin asked anxiously, watching as the rest of the crew walked toward the entry hall of the grand house. It was larger than their winter home, used more for guests and events. But the large estate, surrounded by spacious stone patios that overlooked deep blue water, still felt like home to Katy.

  “Could we go outside? I need some fresh air,” Katy replied.

  “Of course, hon.” Cassie walked with Katy through the brightly lit hallway and out toward the seaside veranda. The air outside carried the salty scent of the sea, and the weather was lovely. Still, Katy felt worn and drained. She sat at one of the outdoor dining tables, and Cassie sat beside her.

  Katy gazed out into the deep blue of the sea and thought of David’s blue eyes. I wish he was here, so I wouldn’t have to feel so alone and guilty.

  “So?” Cassie prompted, pulling her from that thought, both heart-wrenching and comforting at once. “What did they say?”

  “It was a three-phase plan,” she started to explain, feeling more drained at just having to repeat it all. “Starting with staying out of the public eye for a while.”

  Cassie shrugged. “Well, that part at least was obvious. Then what?”

  “Then volunteering and charitable works,” Katy replied. She was still staring out at the sea, speaking more on autopilot than anything.

  “And then?”

  Katy paused and focused on the sensation of a breeze mussing the thin strands of blonde hair that fell around her face. Southern Lorria was so beautiful. But it couldn’t change how she felt about this whole situation.

  “And then,” she said flatly, “a suitable engagement.”

  And you already know that a certain someone wouldn’t be considered “suitable.”

  Cassie’s brow furrowed, echoing Katy’s angry thought. “But what about David?”

  Katy closed her eyes and breathed in. “I can’t really talk about this yet, Cassie. I don’t know what my game plan is.” She opened her eyes and then turned to her cousin. “But there’s one thing I do know. I love David. And I’m not going to give up on us. I just don’t know how to say that to the king and queen yet.”

  Cassie didn’t immediately reply, and when her cousin’s eyes darted over to the veranda door behind Katy, she began to realize that she’d have to figure that part out much more quickly than she’d thought.

  “Could I have a word with my daughter alone, Cassandra?”

  “Of course, My King,” Cassie said, standing and offering a small bow in the king’s direction. Then she shot Katy an apologetic look before moving off, presumably to some other part of the summer home.

  The king came out and sat in her place. But he didn’t look at Katy. Instead, he turned his eyes to the Mediterranean Sea. And for a long time, they sat in silence.

  When the king finally spoke, his words surprised Katy.

  “You learned to swim right down there, in that little bay.”

  Katy blinked, watching her father’s face as he spoke. But his eyes were still on the sea.

  “Your mother and I hired an Olympic medalist as your instructor. Do you remember?”

  Katy nodded. It had been so many years ago, but she did remember. She’d had a little crush on the handsome young man who had brought home a silver medal for Lorria.

  “I still remember the night you snuck out to go swimming alone. You were only four or five. And while your mother and I tore the house apart looking for you, a wise old gardener went down to the bay. He pulled you out of the water half-dead. Then he ran you into the house, trailing saltwater all through.”

  Katy listened breathlessly to her father as he recounted the story she’d heard a hundred times. But it had always been her mother telling it, and generally in a lighthearted way to explain Katy’s “wild side” to guests at dinner parties. Katy had never really heard just how scary it had been for her father.

  The king turned to look at her. “A cook knew CPR, and he started trying to save your life. But for a couple of minutes, you didn’t breathe. Your mother cried in my arms while I stared and silently prayed for your life. And then, just like that, you coughed up some foamy seawater and began to sputter and cry.”

  The king’s eyes misted over as he spoke. Katy waited for him to continue.

  “Years later, your mother was finally able to joke about it. She’d say she knew you were rebellious from that night you took your starlit swim. But as for me,” the king went on, “I never found much humor in it. Because that was when I realized that I’d always have to protect you from yourself.”

  Katy looked down. It had taken a while for him to get to the point, but there it was.

  “When you ran off to America, I knew you were taking another midnight swim. Same thing when you brought that British boy home for winter. And then again, when you left with him. And now this, Katy.”

  Katy closed her eyes. Her father’s words stung. But she also felt guilty for the pain that she had caused him.

  “Your mother and I can’t force you to do anything, darling,” he said more softly. “But for once, I’d like you to consider your people’s feelings on the subject. And our feelings, for that matter. Imagine what it must be like as a parent, to watch your child drown herself over and over again, knowing that she won’t take your help or your advice.”

  And with that, the king stood and walked away from Katy, leaving her alone with her guilt and the soft sound of waves crashing onto the shore below.

  30

  David

  “Bem vindo ao Brasil!
Welcome to Brazil!”

  David looked up at the colorful banner over the airport gate and took a deep breath. On his shoulders he carried a backpack with just a few outfits and the necessities packed. But who knew how long he’d be in Bahia? A day or two? A week?

  Forever?

  David smirked to himself at the thought. He knew he was just being dramatic now, but at this very moment, it was hard to imagine going back to Harvard after everything that had gone wrong.

  But if Katy wasn’t in Brazil, then David didn’t want to be there too long either.

  Gathering his thoughts and his courage, David picked his way through the airport terminal, passing people traveling from all around the world. Airports had always held a certain charm for him. All the accents and backgrounds and plans coalescing for just a brief spark in time.

  Too bad Katy doesn’t get to enjoy things like this. As great as the privilege and luxury she’d always lived in might seem, David knew that she loved the thrill of anonymity, the casual joy of experiencing life among crowds of average people living their lives.

  But perhaps he was getting too philosophical for a weekday morning. Especially when he already had so much on his plate.

  Watching and observing the humanity around him, David made it out to the taxi area like Marcos had instructed him and then began to look around for his father. The sun was high and hot that afternoon, but the breeze coming off the South Atlantic Ocean made for pleasant weather. A far cry from Cambridge’s gentle spring. Around him, Brazil nut and rubber trees swayed gently in the wind.

  “Óla! David?”

  David turned to see a Brazilian man in cargo shorts and a T-shirt waving at him from the taxi lane. But the voice wasn’t Marcos’s distinctly academic lilt.

  Oh.

  “Carro,” the man went on, gesturing at the sleek new SUV idling beside him.