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heart.” He straightens. “All right, that’s an exaggeration. But it was beautiful. Like I said, green in the sunlight. But it would look purple in here, under these artificial lights. Alexandrite. I liked it because of the colors, and because it matched my middle name.” He looks at the fake crown, wistful. “My mother helped me pick it out. My father didn’t like it. He wanted diamonds. Much more traditional. But my mother insisted. She said it was for my bride, not his.”
    His voice quavers, and in that instant, I know that his mother is dead.
    There’s no way I can take the crown from him now. I hold back a sigh. I’ll do it, this once. But I can never let my emotions rule me again. Now that I’ve decided, it’s just a matter of switching them back. I’ve done it once. It shouldn’t be difficult to do it again. There’s not even a camera in this room.
    All I need to do is distract him for a moment. I dig my nails into my palm. All that planning for nothing. I give myself three seconds to mourn all the money I’m about to lose. There’s no way this will be worth it. Steeling myself, I get ready to undo everything.
    I’m unzipping the hidden pocket in my bag when the door squeals open. A man strides through the entry. He puffs for breath as he closes the door behind him. His chin is covered in stubble, like he didn’t have time to shave this morning. I’m sure this fiasco has had him running around all day.
    “Your Highness.” The heavyset man bows to Damon. “I’m Director Arian. We’re doing everything we can to figure out what’s happened.”
    “And what exactly has happened?” Damon’s voice is like ice.
    “A security breach, Highness. We didn’t pick it up until early this morning, when we checked the crown’s metallic signature and it didn’t match our records.”
    “So someone broke into the museum last night?”
    The director purses his lips. “We have no evidence of a break-in.”
    “Then what did happen? I made sure that the museum used safeguards, sensors and cameras, a special vault at night. Are you suggesting that someone defeated all of those measures?”
    “That’s what we’re trying to discover, Highness.” The director’s head shines with sweat. “If you’d like, you can review the security footage, but we’ve yet to find any anomalies.”
    “Show me the footage.”
    The director fumbles for a disc, then pops it into a reader. A display flickers to life, showing the museum as it was yesterday morning from three high angles. As the cameras sweep over the crown room, I feel a jolt when I recognize myself. I hope Damon won’t. The images are in black and white, and constantly moving. Besides, the grainy image of me is now walking away. I hold back a smug smile. Security must have already reviewed this segment and found it fine if they decided to show it to the prince.
    I back away slowly, edging closer to the false crown. The men are ignoring me completely, engrossed in trying to solve the mess I’ve left for them. Returning the crown should be easier, but I still have to be careful. The museum is under a lot of heat right now, and I’m sure security would love to blame someone besides themselves.
    Sidling up to the table, I feel for the real crown in my bag. I suppress a sigh as I grab hold of it. It was lovely to carry freedom in my bag, if only for a moment.
    Time to let go. There are probably fewer security features here since we’re behind a steel door, but I still want to be quick. My hands blur as I swap the crowns back.
    An alarm blares. Yelling out, I clap my hands over my ears. The sound is so loud that it’s painful.
    Arian jogs to the wall, punching five numbers into a pin pad. I wish I could see the code, but his shoulders block my view. The alarm stops. He turns to stare at me, eyes narrowed.
    “S-sorry,” I stutter. “My bag brushed something.”
    The director visibly relaxes. “Don’t worry about it, miss. Please do be careful, though. All