"I mean I think I have an idea, but I'm just wondering if I'm right," Eva said, looking down at her wine and swirling it around in the glass, before taking a sip.

He took in a deep breath and let it out before saying, "It's ummm. Rosalie."

She nodded and said, "That's what I thought. She had actually mentioned something to me about being in love with you and that you couldn't marry her because she's not a princess."

"Yeah," he said, nodding before taking a bite of his steak and they ate in silence for a minute. "It's complicated. She's told me a few times that she's in love with me. I'm not there yet, but she wants me to be. I mean I've got feelings for her. I care about her a lot and we've always been really close ever since we were kids. She's mad that I don't feel the same way she does and she tries to make me feel guilty about it, like I'm a bad person for not loving her, but I'm not going to lie and tell her I'm in love with her if I'm not."

"I saw you two arguing at the wedding," she said, taking a bite of her steak.

"Yeah. She was angry that I went through with it and I told her I didn't have a choice. If I could've married her I would have, but she wouldn't accept that."

"So ummm. Where does that leave us? I mean, I'm your wife and we're supposed to be making heirs to the throne right now, but you have this other woman that's in love with you."

"Honestly?" he said, shaking his head. "I don't know. My parents and your parents knew I wanted to marry Rosalie and they still made me go through with this arranged marriage. My Dad said if I didn't, he wouldn't pass the throne down to me. He was going to give it to my idiot Uncle and cousin instead and there's no way in hell I was going to let those morons be in charge of running Spain. I wouldn't trust them to babysit my dog."

She sat there thinking about it. "So what are we going to do Paulo? We're already married and Spain needs heirs."

He sat there thinking and said, "I know. I was drinking on our wedding night because I was going to try to go through with it. I was going to try to block Rosalie out and sleep with you but I just," he said, letting out an exhale and hanging his head, shaking it. He lifted his eyes and looked at her. "I just couldn't do it. She's in love with me and I couldn't do that to her. I can't do something like that to someone I care about, not even for my country. It would've broken her heart."

Eva looked at him and saw the sincerity in his eyes.

"Maybe you could find yourself a boyfriend to secretly get you pregnant," Paulo suggested.

Eva shook her head. "No. It has to be your baby in order to rule Spain and I don't want this to blow up into some huge paternity scandal if they find out it's not yours and people will think I'm a cheater. My reputation would be ruined."

She looked down at her wine and said, "Plus I made a vow at our wedding Paulo. I swore in front of God and my family and my entire country that I would be faithful to you. I didn't make that promise lightly. Loyalty is extremely important to me. I hate cheaters and even if you gave me permission to do it, it just wouldn't feel right."

"No. You're right. That's a bad idea." He thought for another minute before saying, "Maybe we could do artificial insemination, where the doctor takes your egg and injects my sperm into it in a lab and then puts it back in you." He nodded and said, "That's it. That could work."

"I'm sure our parents wouldn't approve of us having a test tube baby. Do you think we can do all that without them finding out and getting suspicious? I don't know about your Dad, but mine always knows everything that happens. It's impossible to keep a secret from him."

"Yeah. Mine's the same way. Damn, this is such a fucked up mess," he groaned, resting his elbows on the table and putting his face in his hands, letting out an exhale as he rubbed them across his face and up through his hair, clasping his hands behind his neck.

"A mess is putting it mildly. Why didn't you tell me any of this before the wedding? I wouldn't have gone through with it."

"I tried to," he said, dropping his arms. "but I didn't want to do it with other people around and then I ran out of time and it was too late."

She took a bite of her food, chewing up her steak and thinking.

"Hey, wait a minute. Do you remember you said your Dad told you that if we didn't consummate our marriage it could be annulled? Why don't we just call your parents and explain the situation to them and quietly get our marriage annulled? Then you can marry Rosalie and I can find someone that actually wants to be married to me."

Paulo took a sip of his wine and said, "I guess it's worth a try. I should just call them now and get it over with."

Eva went to get up and said, "I'll give you some privacy."

He reached out and grabbed her arm and said, "Stay ...... Please."

Seeing the look on his face made her feel for him and she slowly sat back down and said, "Okay."

Paulo pulled out his cell phone and dialed his parents'phone number, putting it on speakerphone and laying it on the table between them right as his Mom answered.

"Paulo! It's so good to hear from you! How's the island?"

"It's good Mom. It's good. You did a great job picking it out."

"What about Eva? Does she like it? Is she having a good time?"

"She is. Mom there's actually a reason I'm calling and it's important. Can you get Dad on the call too? I really need to talk to you both. It's important."

"Oh," she said, sounding surprised. "Ummm. Sure. Let me just go get him. It might take me a few minutes."

Paulo hit the mute button and said, "Now we wait," letting out a nervous exhale.

Eva turned her head and looked out at the ocean, listening to the crashing waves against the shore until finally his Dad's voice said, "Okay. I'm here. What's the big emergency?"

Paulo looked across the table at Eva and she gave him a nod of the head, encouraging him to go on.

"Mom, Dad. You both know we talked several times before the wedding about how I wanted to marry Rosalie but you insisted I go through with this arranged marriage or you were going to take my throne away. I didn't want that to happen so I went through with it and I tried to make this work."

"What are you trying to say?" his Mom asked.

"It doesn't feel right to do this to Rosalie. She's in love with me and being with Eva just makes me feel guilty. We haven't consummated our marriage yet so we want to get it annulled so I can marry Rosalie, and Eva can marry someone she's in love with. If you won't let us do this, I'll abdicate the throne," he said firmly. "I mean it. I'll give it up and let my cousins and Uncle have it."

There was silence for a minute and both of them waited to see what his parents'reaction would be.

There was some whispering and then finally his Dad said, "Son. We were trying to save you from the pain of this, but Rosalie not being a princess isn't the reason why we said you couldn't marry her. That was just an excuse we came up with to protect you from the real reason."

"What are you talking about?" Paulo asked, scrunching his eyebrows.

His Mom spoke up and said, "One of the maids came to me and claimed they overheard a private cell phone conversation that Rosalie was having in the garden. She was talking to a young man and she told him it wouldn't be long until she could convince you to marry her. She was bragging about using her beauty and strong connection to our family to manipulate you. She told him she would only have to be married to you for a year to be eligible for the monthly alimony stipend members of the royal family get for the rest of their lives after a divorce. She was promising this man that they could be together after that and he'd never have to work another day in his life. She told him she loved him."

Paulo furrowed his brow. "No," he said, shaking his head. "There has to be a mistake. I mean, we all know Rosalie can be a manipulative schemer to get what she wants, but she would never do that to me. I'm one of her best friends."

The Queen exhaled and said, "I didn't think she'd do that either, but you don't have to take our word for it. Luckily the maid had started recording at the beginning of the call because she was suspicious about why Rosalie was sneaking around in the garden. The maid was able to get the whole conversation on video without Rosalie catching her. I've got a copy and I'll send the link to your phone. I also had our security team start following her after that and they caught her going to a young man's house and they have pictures of them kissing on the porch before she follows him inside."

"No. There's no way. Send it all to my phone because I won't believe it until I see it for myself."

Paulo hung up and a few minutes later his phone started dinging with messages and Eva sat there and watched his face as he watched the video, taking it all in and shaking his head in disbelief. After he listened to the full conversation he tossed his phone onto the table and let out an exhale.

"Wow. She's an amazing actress. I really believed her when she said she was in love with me, and I actually felt really bad and guilty for not loving her back. I felt like a bad person for not feeling the same way she did and I was even willing to marry her to make her happy even though I didn't love her. I can't believe she would do this to me. She's been a good friend for years and we were so close. "

He sat there zoning out, staring off in the distance for a minute before getting up and walking down to the beach without saying a word.

For the next three days they barely spoke a word to each other. Paulo seemed depressed and angry and it was obvious he wasn't in the mood to talk, so Eva didn't push him to. It was strange how they were still able to find a routine without communicating. He would get up early in the mornings and make coffee and disappear for a couple hours for a run on the beach. She would make breakfast and then do yoga outside by the pool and he would come back from his run and eat the left over breakfast she made alone.

They would do their own thing for the next few hours, which was usually her reading a book while laying by the pool, swimming in the ocean or drawing and for him it was swimming, going for a run or surfing in the ocean. In the evenings he always made dinner and she washed the dishes and cleaned up after. They had become like roommates that barely spoke to each other, but knew they had no choice but to put up with each other.

At dinner on the third day, they both sat there in awkward silence again and she was looking out at the ocean sipping her wine when he finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry I haven't been very fun to be around for the last three days," he said, letting out an exhale. "I've just been trying to wrap my head around the fact that one of my best friends tried to run a scam on me. She was willing to ruin my life over money so she could get some man she wanted. That's a lot to process."

Eva nodded and gave him a sympathetic smile, taking a sip of her wine. "It's okay Paulo. I understand."

"Hey, I have an idea," he said, taking a sip of wine too. "We have five days left on this island and we can make them as miserable and boring as the last three days or we could just start over with a fresh slate and use the rest of the time we have here to relax and have fun as friends with no pressure."

"Friends?" she asked, swallowing hard, trying to tell if he was serious.

He had a straight face with no hint that he was joking.

"Yeah. Friends," he nodded, taking a bite of the chili he had made for dinner. "I'm just not in the right head space for anything more than friends right now."

"Ummm. Okay," she said hesitantly. "This week we'll be friends then." She figured being his friend was better than the silent treatment she had been getting.

He lifted up his wine glass in the air to toast and she lifted hers too and he said, "To friends."

"To friends," she said half-heartedly, letting out an exhale as she clinked her wine glass against his and took a sip.