Your Majesty

One

Nicholas

"Nicholas!"

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't live. Without Natalia, my life was meaningless.

Yes, I was the heir to the throne. I'm next in line to rule the kingdom. That's great, none of that matters to me. What matters to me is that my wife and my son are gone, and I have no idea where to even start looking.

My mother was coming. I could hear the sound of her heels clacking in the hallway. She was walking fast, determined. She burst into the room, taking in the scene in front of her. My room was destroyed. My hand was still bleeding, I'd wrapped it in a t-shirt and the blood had gushed through the white fabric.

Domenico came in after her, his phone in his hand. He took one look at me, and shook his head. "Look at this, my lady," he said. I stood up and walked over slowly, eager to see if he had some kind of information about where Natalia had gone, but not eager to be too close to my mother at the moment.

On the screen was a surveillance video. Natalia walks out of the palace, wearing a black hoodie, her hood pulled over her hair. Her bump was extremely visible, and she put her hands in the pocket. Samira walks up. "My lady, I'm so sorry to meet under these circumstances," Samira said. She bowed in front of Natalia. "f*****g sorry w***e," I spat. My mother shot me a look, and our eyes went back to the screen. Samira was showing her a video. I hadn't known she'd recorded. Goosebumps came over my arms, as I watched Natalia's facial expression register the truth of what had happened.

After the video was finished, Samira approached Natalia, and Natalia stepped backwards. "Do not touch me. You can have him, I do not wish for either of you to contact me again." With that, Natalia took one look at the camera. Tears were streaming down her face. She then pulled her hoodie down further, and walked down the steps.

"Where did she go?" I asked, the anxiety obvious in my voice. Domenico switched to a view of the entrance of the palace. She enters a black car, unmarked, no license plates. "I assume it was the car of someone she knows, she gets in to the passenger seat, not the back. The fact that there were no plates means they knew enough to outsmart security, or Natalia requested it herself," Domenico said.

My mother didn't even glance at me. "What do we do?" she asked Domenico. "There's not much we can do your highness. She's an adult, she left by her own free will. We can't hold her hostage. The only option we have is to offer a reward for any information that anyone may have that would help us to locate her. We could make it seem as though we don't know that she left on her own free will. However, even if we track her down, Nicholas would have to convince her to return on her own accord." My mother sighed. "Nicholas," she said, her voice dripping with disappointment.

"I don't want to hear it, mother. I cannot live without her, without my son. I cannot live not knowing where they are, and whether or not they're safe. We need to do something, call someone, you and dad have so many connections, who could she possibly know outside of the palace? We've been married for four years. Investigate every last family member until we find her, and give me the opportunity to beg for her forgiveness. I'll go on my knees for her, and I wouldn't do that for any other human being. Please, we need to do something," I pleaded. The anxiety that had consumed me made my words come out very quickly.

"You've done enough," my mother cut me off in a harsh tone. With that, her and Domenico left the room. My mother let the door slam behind them. I slid down the wall and sat on the floor, applying pressure to my still bloody hand.

For three months, word was put out by the Palace that Natalia was missing, and any information leading to her whereabouts would be awarded with $1.5 million. That was chump change for a billionaire like me, so I raised the stakes to $4 million after two weeks. The search yielded plenty of results, but no solid leads. Domenico worked closely with the authorities to rule out every single lead. My hopes of finding her diminished little by little with every time he told me that the lead went nowhere.

The fact that no one knew where she'd gone, in a country that admired and loved her as much as they did, made me worried that she'd gone underground. More specifically, I was worried that she'd returned to her ex-boyfriend, Matthew Vega. Matthew Vega was a very dangerous man, so much so, that I'd had to beg Domenico to join me in not telling my mother that Natalia had ties to him. Not just ties though, she was, at one time, Matthew's prized possession. Matthew was one of the largest mafia bosses in Italy, and the way she'd described their relationship, I was surprised he didn't try harder to take her back.

He'd wanted to marry her, and he very much wanted a child. At the time, Matthew was 28, and Natalia had been 23. Natalia hadn't felt she was ready for a child, and Matthew was very insistent that he wanted to begin trying to have a child immediately. His list of enemies had grown significantly, and he was worried about how much of a target he was becoming. He was worried he would be targeted, and not have the opportunity to have a child to carry on his family name, and his legacy. Natalia had wanted to pursue her interests before having a child, and she had wanted to go into Nursing.

Matthew tried several times throughout our marriage to reach out to Natalia. Somehow, he continued to find the number to every phone I gave her. He sent multiple men to the Palace, to relay his demands to Prince Nicholas, and the royal family themselves. However, he was smart enough not to come in person.

In the beginning, when I first found out about Matthew's connection to my wife, I'd felt a twinge of jealousy. I'd wondered how Natalia could go from living a life on the edge with Matthew to my boring Palace life. Being royal had it's perks, but it also meant spending a lot of time indoors, sequestered from the rest of the world, which was vastly different from the lowkey luxurious lifestyle that I imagined Natalia had with Matthew.

When she first moved in to the Palace, she'd asked if she and I could go out to stores, restaurants, or if she could go out with an approved girlfriend as long as she had a guard with her. This was what she'd grown accustomed to with Matthew. I had to burst that bubble by letting her know that it didn't work like that with me. We could go out, but we mainly went out only for vacations, and stuck to more remote locations where there was less risk of unsavory characters. Often, my family would accompany us, but they traveled less since my father fell ill. Everything we could need or want was delivered to the palace. If she wanted to go dress shopping, or something of the like, she had to plan at least two weeks in advance, to be sure that Domenico could assign a couple of his best guards to accompany her, and one to drive her as well. In addition, it had to be a stand alone shop, because the perimeter would be secured and the store closed down with maybe one employee, until she was finished shopping and on her way. She found comfort in the fact that she could invite a friend or a few family members to the palace though. They just needed to be checked and cleared at the gate every time before entering. She mainly invited her mother and her younger sister, Ayla, but it made her happy every time they would come. My mother would always lecture me on the fact that a girl who was raised a commoner, could never understand our lifestyle behind the walls. She'd claimed that they were used to partying, and always being out of the house. This was true to an extent, but Natalia settled in well.

Looks and personality wise, Matthew was also the complete opposite of me. He was the "bad boy" type, where I had no choice but to be a born rule follower. He was covered in tattoos, where I am not allowed to "alter my body," in that way. What made me the most upset, was the way that most women regarded Matthew. Almost no one knew much about him, and he kept it that way on purpose, but there were rumors anyway. I'd seen much talk of him amongst the commoners on social media. The women were infatuated with him, and the mystery and thrill of the thought of being with someone like Matthew Vega.

I was sure that Natalia had enjoyed the thrill of romanticizing a criminal like Vega, and the adrenaline rush that came with it. Matthew would leave their home in a bulletproof vest, in a bulletproof car, and she would be left wondering if he would make it home safely or not. I guess the thought of that would be exciting to a woman. To me personally, it just felt irresponsible, especially if the guy really wanted a family as badly as she'd said he did.

I worked hard to keep Natalia away from Matthew. Mainly for the matter of her safety. She may disagree, but I felt that the guy was unstable, and unpredictable, and that is a terrible combination. I also worked hard to keep Natalia away from him, partially for the sake of our marriage. She always swore that she loved me, and only me, and that our life in the Palace was more than enough to satisfy her.

However, a very small part of me always worried that if I let Vega get to her, he would be able to convince her to leave me.