Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
I’m not sure why three people need almost twenty thousand square feet to live in, but our monstrous home was born of nothing more than the ego of our ancestors who fell into the riches of our ruby mines. Even though Bretaria was originally under British rule, our palace mimics neoclassical French architecture. It was meant to be grand and lavish—some would say ostentatious.
But I love the white brick and cut-stone facade, white marble columns, and gilded, wrought iron balconies that dot the exterior of all four stories. The black-and-white marble squares of the interior courtyard look like a huge chessboard, and given the semitropical weather, every room, balcony, porch, and patio are filled with verdant plants that flower year-round and perfume the air.
It’s my home, and it’s magical.
It’s also stifling, and that’s not just because of the massive twenty-foot stone wall that circles the outer boundaries of the palace lands. The wall was originally erected to protect the north mine from pirates and looters, but as the family’s wealth and associated notoriety became global knowledge, the wall was continued as to encircle the entire palace grounds. Every one of my family members is a high-value target. Me, my mother, and my father.
There are actual companies that provide kidnapping and ransom insurance for the wealthiest of the wealthy and those who travel to dangerous territories. However, it is often laughed about in our family that we are uninsurable. No insurance company would be willing to take on the risk of paying out a requested ransom if one of us were successfully kidnapped.
Instead, my father has taken our vast fortune—in the multibillions and rapidly growing—and invested it in an elite palace security force to protect us.
All of which means… I have to be careful making my way to Marius. I have to skulk in the shadows and cut through rooms with multiple entrances. I make a quick stop in the kitchen and snag some fresh cranberry muffins, wrapping them in a linen napkin and stuffing them into my backpack.
I then quickly make my way to the servants’ quarters on the eastern side of the palace in the basement. It’s an area about two thousand square feet and provides small but luxurious apartments for the top-ranking staff. That would include Netty; Armand, our household manager who reports directly to my mother; the head housekeeper Mary; the head land manager Jules; and the top dog of the security force, Dmitri, who intimidates me without even trying. He’s an imposing figure, very tall and barrel chested. He’s probably in his late fifties and can be incredibly austere. There’s a rumor that he’s supposedly ex-KGB. On the one hand, that is what intimidates me, but on the other, he’s my father’s most loyal and trusted person within all the palace, and I feel secure with him here.
At any rate, every one of those staff members is off tending their duties and managing the massive amount of people it takes to run the palace. As such, their quarters are empty. It’s a short dash through the common hall to the rear door that leads to a small parking lot for the household vehicles, available should one of them want to run into the city for something.
Seabirds call out to me as I hit the stony pavement and hitch my backpack over my shoulder. I cut between two cars, through a small hedgerow where an iron gate provides exit, and along a steep stone staircase that meanders down the butte.
At the bottom is the stone wall that circles the palace. A steel door is set into the thick wall with an electronic key code. It’s a direct port to the rocky shoreline below where another path cuts south to a small, protected harbor with a dock and boats.
Several steel doors sit along the perimeter of the wall, and all have different key codes. Those codes are kept secret—only me and my parents, as well as the head of security, have access to them.
I glance over my shoulder up the stone staircase carved into the side of the hill and search the parking lot that borders the staff entrance. I don’t know why I look. No one saw me come out here, and if they had, they’d be calling my name to stop. But no one is looking for me. It’s assumed I’m in my suite. It’s also assumed I’m a dutiful and prudent woman who understands that I shouldn’t go unattended outside the compound walls, and no one would ever think me daring enough to do so.
Still, there’s a measure of relief I’ve made it this far without so much as a hiccup, and I don’t hesitate moving through the door to the other side of the wall.
Rather than take the path that cuts right and leads to the dock, I turn left and meander along the trail that’s bordered by tall grasses. It eventually leads to a low-hanging cliff overlooking the Coral Sea, and it’s there that I find Marius waiting for me.