You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

34
BRIDGET
“IS EVERYTHING OKAY?” SABRINA ASKED AFTER I EXITED THE BATHROOM.
She’d knocked to check on me, and I real­ized I’d been gone for al-
most half an hour.
“Yes. I just had to deal with some last-minute prep for an event
next week,” I said, ashamed of how eas­i­ly the lie rolled off my
tongue. “Apolo­gies.”
“No need to apol­o­gize.” Sab­ri­na ges­tured to her sis­ter and best
friend, who’d passed out on the couch while The Dev­il Wears Pra­da
played on-screen. “At least you’re awake.”
I let out a small laugh. “We should go to sleep soon. You have a
big day tomor­row.”
“You’re prob­a­bly right. I can’t believe it’s almost here.” Sab­ri­na
fid­dled with her engage­ment ring, look­ing over­whelmed and a lit­tle
lost. “It feels sur­re­al. I want­ed a small wed­ding, but…”
“You got a three-ring cir­cus?” I sank onto the couch next to her.
“Wel­come to the roy­al life. Even if Nik abdi­cat­ed, he’s still a roy­al by
blood, and every­thing he does is a reflec­tion of the crown.”
“I know. I just hope I don’t embar­rass myself.” Sab­ri­na gave me a
ner­vous smile before her expres­sion grew seri­ous. “Brid­get, I know
we don’t know each oth­er that well, but I want­ed to thank you for
agree­ing to be part of my bridal par­ty. Tru­ly. It means a lot to me.”
“Of course. You’re going to be my sis­ter-in-law.”
When Niko­lai first told me about his abdi­ca­tion, I resent­ed her. It
wasn’t some­thing I was proud of, but it was true. If he hadn’t met
Sab­ri­na, he’d still be Crown Prince, and I’d be liv­ing my life in New
York.
But as I stared at her now, I real­ized I wouldn’t go back to my life
in the U.S. even if I could. It had been an illu­sion of free­dom, noth­ing
else. I’d been trapped in the same day in, day out monot­o­ny of fake
smiles and mind-numb­ing events. Being crown princess came with
more rules and a small­er cage, but it also came with more pur­pose,
and that was the one thing that’d always been miss­ing in my life.
Some­how, some­where along the way, I’d grown into my new
role. It would take a while before I was ful­ly com­fort­able with it, but
I was get­ting there.
“Yes. Good ones, I hope.” Sab­ri­na squeezed my hand. “I love
Niko­lai, and I’d be lying if I said I’m not hap­py he abdi­cat­ed. But I
also know what a huge bur­den it placed on you, and for that, I’m
sor­ry.”
“No apolo­gies need­ed. You did noth­ing wrong except fall in
love.”
I knew that. I’d always known that. But it wasn’t until I said it at
that moment that any lin­ger­ing resent­ment I had toward Niko­lai and
Sab­ri­na fad­ed away.
It wasn’t their fault. There were no wrong choic­es. If Niko­lai had
cho­sen the throne over Sab­ri­na, it would’ve been dev­as­tat­ing for
him, but it would’ve been under­stand­able. If he’d cho­sen Sab­ri­na, as
he had, that was under­stand­able too. Love or coun­try. An impos­si­ble
choice when the future of a nation rests on your shoul­ders.
The only thing at fault was the sys­tem that forced him to choose.
“My broth­er adores you,” I added. Niko­lai and I weren’t super
close, but I knew him well enough to spot the dif­fer­ence. He
changed into a dif­fer­ent per­son when he was around Sab­ri­na, a hap-
pier one, and I would nev­er begrudge him that.
Sabrina’s face lit up, eras­ing some of the ear­li­er stress. “It still
feels like a dream some­times,” she admit­ted. “To meet some­one who
sees me for who I am, faults and all, and loves me regard­less.” She
squeezed my hand again, her eyes wise beyond her twen­ty-five
years. “I hope you find that kind of love one day, too. Whether it’s
with Stef­fan or some­one else.”
Trust me, princess. I would rather end my own life than ask you to do
any­thing that might hurt you.
I forced a smile. “One day.”
But lat­er that night, as I stared at the ceil­ing and thought about
Rhys, Stef­fan, and my less-than-cer­tain efforts to repeal the Roy­al