Chapter 50: It's finally over!

Charlie

"Wait!"

"Time's up, McCrae!"

Nicole rushed towards me and engulfed me in a bear hug. "God woman! What took you so long?"

"I'm here now, aren't I? Besides, I wanted to make a classy entry. Right, Xavier?" I glanced at him and he mirrored my smirk.

"Absolutely. A classy entry for a classic occasion,"

Nicole grinned, looking powerful more than ever. I turned my attention from her to the villain of our story.

"And I believe that doesn't belong to you, jackass!" I yelled, smirking.

Everyone stood there in shock and kept whispering mostly about how their Princess looked like me. Some were even thinking that I did plastic surgery to frame the Princess.

That was straight-up crazy!

Air-headed Princesses, after all!

I couldn't make out much of the conversation as my focus was now on exposing this bastard in front of all of us.

"NO! NO! NO! Abso-fucking-lutely not! You cannot be here, Robinson! You cannot take what is rightfully mine!" McCrae cried.

"Shut it, McCrae! Admit it, you've lost!" Augustus yelled, stomping towards the throne.

"I have not! I don't surrender! What proof do you have?!"

"My thoughts exactly. What proof do you have Prince Augustus?" The King questioned him in front of the crowd.

How can a King be so blind to everything!?

"Proof? You wish to see a proof? I shall provide proof," Augustus said, nodding to the guards.

"Stop this instant! The King orders you!" King Aurelius demanded.

"You have no power over me anymore, Father. I suggest you keep your mouth shut,"

This made King Aurelius furious.

The guards opened the door to reveal his sister, Princess Hazel Xavier. I had the opportunity of meeting her on the way to the palace. We were lucky that she had done some digging on her own. Alongside her were Michelle, Amber and Prince - McCrae's Fiancée and associates.

The room filled with gasps as Hazel sauntered towards the Kings with confidence.

"We never come unprepared, Your Majesty," I smirked at King Aurelius whose face went pale at the sight of his own daughter.

Oh, I might have forgotten to mention that I ended up exposing McCrae's filthy past to his fiancée. At first, she wasn't ready to believe but then Hazel managed to help her see the reality.

How I met Hazel isn't important - so I'll skip that.

Hazel took out a folder from her bag and dived straight into the page where everything was written.

"This, my dear father, is the proof," Hazel smiled. Seeing the pale face of both King Aurelius and McCrae made me wanna dance at that moment. However, I tried to keep my composure as much as I could.

Finally, this was the moment we've been waiting for so long!

I couldn't believe it was happening right before my eyes.

I stood with the others, crossing my arms against my chest as Hazel went on with the crimes McCrae had committed. Abusing his own girlfriend, violence, acts of treason, illegal businesses and many more. I couldn't remember all of them even if my life depended on it. But it was enough for me to express my disgust towards him.

I spared a glance towards my friends to see their reactions. Samuel was fuming in rage and struggled to keep himself frozen on the spot and not kill that bastard right there and then. Nicole had a blank face but I could see her trying her best to stop Samuel from doing anything stupid. Francine and Jamie were purely disgusted (they didn't know that McCrae was involved in many other crimes) and as for me, I was just standing and enjoying the show.

By the time Hazel was finished, the whole crowd broke into chaos as they now didn't know what to believe anymore. This was bad for Titania. Like really, really bad.

But as the wise men once said,

If you want to stop crimes, you need to get your own hands dirty.

"Ladies and Gentleman, please maintain silence," Augustus spoke sternly and within a moment, everyone was silent.

He cleared his throat. "I understand everything sounds preposterous at the moment but you can trust me that this shall all make sense soon. However, before that, we need to apprehend the criminal,"

McCrae looked horrified and was trying desperately to find a way to escape. He frantically looked sideways and as soon as he found an opening, he dashed straight towards it.

Unfortunately for him...

"Uh-huh, not so fast, cousin. You need to be there for the execution," Samuel grabbed him by the arm and smirked. Jamie called the guards for the handcuffs.

McCrae struggled in his hold. "NO! NO! YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME! YOU CANNOT WIN! THE CROWN'S MINE! TITANIA SHALL BE MINE! AURELIUS, YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU STANDING THERE FOR?! HELP ME!"

Augustus raised his eyebrow at his father as if to challenge him. King Aurelius backed down immediately and shook his head, violently.

McCrae's gaze fell on Michelle who dramatically pulled out her engagement ring and threw it on his face before storming out of the room. Prince grinned and mouthed "You deserved it," and followed Michelle out of the room along with Amber who simply shook her head in disgust.

The FBI helped the guards to restrain McCrae. They wanted McCrae to go through the trials in the US but as McCrae was originally from Titania, they stepped back and let us handle it. The criminal records that the FBI had of McCrae were a great help in bringing him down today. Before they left, I made sure to thank them.

The guards rushed towards us with handcuffs. Francine was given the honours to handcuff him.

"I despise you, cousin." She spat.

"Likewise, Princess," He said with gritted teeth.

Before he was taken by the guards, we all wanted a moment with him - to give a piece of our mind.

"I never had anything against you, cousin. But now that I'm with Nicole, she gives me a reason to hate you every day for the rest of my life," Samuel spat.

Nicole slapped him across the face.

"I would've done more than just slap you, you bastard! But I realised that you're not worth it. Plus, my dear Sammy said he had something better planned for you,"

Next, he was brought in front of Jamie and Darlene.

"We could've been exactly how we were, James if only your greed and hatred towards Sam didn't blind you,"

Darlene simply nodded at his words.

Finally, he was standing in front of me.

I smirked, stepped back, and mock saluted him exactly how I did chapters ago.

"Remember when I told you that hope to God that we never meet again, cause I'll make sure to personally invite your family to your funeral? Well, guess what Mr Jackass-Billionaire-McCrae? They're already invited,"

He spat on my face, struggling to get out of the guard's hold to punch me In the face.

"Believe me, Robinson. I shall make you pay for everything you did, you filthy nobody!"

I laughed. "Yeah, right. If you make it out of your execution alive, that is,"

"I shall sh-"

I waved at him. "Buh-bye!"

As soon as McCrae was out of sight, the King stepped forward and requested everyone to be present at the execution site to witness the execution of Sir James McCrae - oops! Just James McCrae. His title had been officially snatched from him when the crowd realised his true colours.

Everyone walked out of the throne room until it was just the eight of us along with King Aurelius and the King of Titania.

The King's face turned bright red when he faced Francine and Samuel.

"Children, I..."

Samuel raised his hand, cutting his speech off.

"Save it, old man. You two should get going and perform your final duties before handing over the crown,"

Both of their eyes filled with guilt. King Aurelius was ashamed of what he had done and as for the King of Titania - he was more ashamed of the fact that he wasn't a good father to his kids.

He was more of a King than a father.

So it was understandable if his kids didn't wanna talk to him or obey him, anymore.

They left without uttering another word.

————• •—————• •——

The people of Titania cheered as McCrae was hung to death- they were informed of everything that McCrae had done thus far to take the crown. The Kings and Queens of different countries did not cut off any ties with Titania on one condition.

If they crowned Francine as the Queen.

Well, that was exactly what Francine had wished for a whole year and her dream was finally becoming a reality.

Her reality.

However, somehow she was still hesitant about the whole thing.

"Francine Elizabeth Maxwell hesitating? Do I hear that right? The woman who always knew what she wanted from the very beginning is hesitating right now?" I mockingly asked her.

She was holding her glass of wine and watching people.

"Am I really cut out for this? I know I've always wanted to be a Queen but..."

I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Look, I'll admit - I may not know much about royalty but I do know that you were trained for this. Besides, your subject needs a Queen like you. Imagine all the changes you can bring to this Kingdom!"

She chuckled. "Starting with abolishing that nonsense rule "Royalty cannot mix with commoners","

I laughed along. "Yeah, that way I can always come here without anyone questioning me,"

"Oh, don't worry about that - you'll always be welcomed here, Charlie," Francine smiled. "And thank you for the motivation, I feel like I can take over now,"

"I'm glad I can be of help," I smiled back.

After a while, she turned to look at me.

"Why was King Aurelius's face pale the moment that girl showed up?"

I smiled. "She's Princess Hazel Grace Xavier, Augustus's sister,"

She raised her eyebrow. "Really? Then why was she never introduced?"

"Her tomboyish ways," I simply answered.

"Ah, well I did have a feeling about it," She said, looking at the distance now. "She shall be a great addition to our team,"

"We might need her in the future for digging buried matters,"

"Maybe? Who knows? Only time can tell,"

We stayed there for a while enjoying a comfortable silence before Phobias showed up.

"What's up, Phoby?"

"I suggest you, Miss Charlie, that you refrain from calling me nicknames," Phobias said, trying to sound annoyed but I could the end of his lip resisting the urge to smile.

"You know you like it," I taunted.

"Miss Ch-" Before he could speak further, Francine cut him off.

"Phobias, you were here for something,"

He shifted his attention to Francine. "There is someone who wishes to see you, m'lady,"

Francine looked at me for a second, furrowing her eyebrows for a second.

"Do you know about this?"

I shrugged my shoulders. Who would wanna meet the future Queen?

"Do not worry, m'lady. You might be acquainted with that young man,"

Suddenly, Francine's face lit up and she quickly followed Phobias sending me a quick 'see ya later' gesture.

After she left I was wandering into the open area outside the palace where everyone was gathered. There was a feast for the celebration of their new Queen and the execution of McCrae. Although the coronation was postponed for a week - the people of Titania still wanted to remember this memorable day.

Hence - the feast.

Soon, I was joined by Samuel and Nicole. They were giggling about something, walking hand-in-hand and enjoying their lovely time together.

"I don't wish to bother you two lovebirds," It was a refreshing change to look at them being all mushy-gushy. After all of this tension looming over us, she deserved a nice break. Nicole had completely healed now, her bruises faded over time and the makeup did a pretty good job in concealing it.

"It's us bothering you, Charles! Not the other way around," Nicole laughed.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well, you see..." Samuel started. "We're here to invite you to our wedding next month," Nicole finished.

My eyes almost came out of their sockets.

"WHAT?" Honestly, I was genuinely happy for them. I may have my doubts about Sam but now I see him as someone worthy of Nicole's love.

"Cherie, I do not know if you're shocked or happy,"

"Ahem..." I cleared my throat. "Of course, I'm happy for you both. You two deserve all the happiness there is in the world,"

"Does that mean...?" Nicole asked, her eyes sparkled with hope.

I sighed with a slight smile in my voice. "Yes, he passed the test with flying colours,"

Nicole jumped in excitement and engulfed me in a bear hug again and just screamed 'Thank You' a million times over in my ear.

"Geez, woman! You're hurting my ear!"

She playfully smacked my arm and hugged me again. I hugged her back, smiling at how amazing this moment was. As soon as we broke apart, I hugged Sam.

"You hurt her, you invite your own funeral. Is that understood?" I whispered in his ear so that Nicole couldn't hear us.

"I believe I swore to love her forever, didn't I?" He whispered back.

"Good for you to remember that,"

"I wouldn't dare forget it, Cherie. I don't have a death wish,"

We both chuckled at that.

We broke apart and I bid them farewell as they walked towards the palace to discuss their wedding preparations and all.

Within a minute, I was joined by the Lorenzo siblings.

Man, when will I get my 'me time'?!

"Did you hear the news?" Jamie asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Sam and Nic getting married next month? Yeah, they personally invited me,"

"That is so cute! I can't believe those two are getting married so soon! They met just a year ago," Jamie exclaimed.

"Maybe when you find the one for you, nothing seems so fast anymore. Even if for us, they met just a year ago, for them - it might be centuries in the past,"

Darlene stared at me in shock.

"Who are you and what have you done to Charlie Robinson?!"

Jamie agreed. "Yeah, this isn't like you at all! Does that mean....?"

"Guys! I'm just stating the truth, that's all,"

"Uh-huh, and what changed your mind all of a sudden?" Darlene asked me, raising an eyebrow.

" 'Tis not a what, sister. 'Tis more like a who. Am I right?" Jamie asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Oh stop it, you two!" My cheeks heated up at that moment.

"Damn! Never thought I'd see "Charlie Robinson" blush!" Jamie exclaimed.

"Shut it now! Enough already!" I was still blushing hard and I just wanted these two to stop more than anything else in the world right now.

"Alright, alright. We shall stop," Darlene said. "However, know this Charlie, you might not be the only one with those feelings,"

With that, the duo walked off.

Finally, it was sunset and I found myself admiring the sky from the garden.

Hazel chose that time to show up.

"Charlie Robinson," she called from afar making me turn to see her.

"Hazel Grace Xavier,"

She sauntered towards me and stood right by my side.

"Isn't the sunset beautiful?" She asked, admiring the natural beauty.

"Yeah, it is." I agreed. "But something tells me that you're not here to admire the sunset with me,"

She smiled, looking at the distance. "This shows that all endings are supposed to be beautiful in all our lives and that things always end on a happy note,"

"Your point is...?"

She looked up at me.

"Everyone deserves their happy endings, Charlie. You deserve yours too,"

"What are you talking about?" I feigned innocence. I was still hesitant about the whole idea of getting together with Augustus. He was a good friend but...

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. He feels the same way, Charlie. 'Tis just...he's never gone through this before. He doesn't know what to do," She explained.

"But..."

"No buts, no ifs," She raised her finger, silencing me. "My brother's on the rooftop waiting for you. He sent me here to tell you that,"

"Why me?" I mean, I've never heard guys liking me before. So it was hard to believe that he did. What did he even see in me?

She chuckled. "He didn't even know the answer to your question until he knew you, Charlie. Funny, how you were the one he was searching for all his life,"

She ushered me towards the rooftop. "You should go before the sky turns dark. The darkness will just ruin the moment,"

"Okay, okay! I'm going. Geez, what is wrong with you guys?!"

She didn't answer but I could feel her staring at me until I turned the corner.