Page 128 of Tabloid Princess

“Mummy. Did Oliver make you mad?”

I reached over and brushed at her hair. “No. Not at all. I’ve made myself mad.”

“Emily told me her parents always shout.”

I nodded slowly. “I’m very sorry for Emily, but I won’t let that happen to you. Do you understand?”

“I know, Mummy.”

I rolled onto my side and screwed my eyes shut, unwilling to let my angry tears fall.

Nana’s words hammered home in a painful and excruciatingly real way.

What the hell had I been expecting?

The next day, a glance outside the front door would have told you the street was clear. The press remained out of sight. As though Bill and his magic team of bodyguarding ghosts were still in total control.

But there was no control.

At the end of the street a mob of press waited. News vans, trucks—not all of them British—were visible from the window of Daisy’s room.

The tabloid princess had hit the headlines. Princess Leia.

I’d never felt anything so suffocating.

Every picture of me I’d ever had taken had been printed.

A photo of me—I don’t even know who’d had it—with Daisy in my arms at the hospital the day she was born had been paired with the image of three of us in my garden. Illegitimate child of royal lover threatens the throne.

I scrunched it up and screamed as I threw it across the room.

The image below hurt just the same, but in a different place. A skinny child with blonde dirty hair hung over the balcony waving at the person below. Another picture I’d never seen, didn’t know where it had come from, couldn’t even remember having taken. Daughter of addict destroys the monarchy as palace split over secret romance

A red burning rage settled in my stomach and I stomped down the stairs. A member of the security team sat at my tiny kitchen table while Nana flapped around.

“I need to go to Tesco and get some food.”

The bodyguard looked up. “No, Ma’am. That’s not possible.”

“Am I prisoner here?”

His face flickered with a frown. “No.”

“So I can go out?” My behaviour hinged on ridiculous, but I couldn’t stop it.

He shook his head. “I’d suggest against it.”

We both jumped as the front door knocked. “Mummy, shall I get it?” called Daisy.

“No!” Nana, the bodyguard, and I all shouted at once. Her lips trembled and I rushed to her side, gathering her up and squeezing her tight while Nana went to see who was there.

My mouth fell open as Freya stepped in. If the prince made my shitty little house look just under average, then the six-foot supermodel made it shrink to a fox hole.

“What are you doing here?”

Her lips pursed and then she fluffed her black hair out over her shoulder. “Contrary to popular belief, I’m not an utter bitch.”

“Hm.”