American Royals

The day before the engagement party, Nina returns to the dress shop to pick up her altered dress. Although she was nervous when Daphne offered to help her find a dress, Nina felt like she couldn’t say no. To her horror, the dress shop employee tells her they no longer have her dress. They insist that Nina called the store to cancel the dress order right after putting the dress on hold. Nina tries to tell them that she didn’t call and cancel, but the gown is gone, and “someone purchased [it] a few days ago” (321). The shop employees are unhelpful and unfriendly to Nina, even borderline hostile, and she realizes that “these [are] the people leaving all those ugly comments online” (322). She leaves the store and begins to panic, wondering how she will find a suitable outfit before the party. Nina realizes that she might have been too hard on Sam during their fight, and she decides that she will have to break her silence, talk to Sam, and beg for her help and forgiveness.

Samantha is shocked and delighted when Nina appears at her bedroom door and awkwardly tells her she has a “wardrobe emergency” (324). Nina explains that there was a “misunderstanding” with her outfit for the party, and now she needs Sam’s help. Sam is thrilled and brings Nina to a secret vault full of exclusive designer dresses for the queen and princesses. As Sam rifles through the dress options, Nina confesses how much she missed Sam, and the girls hug and make up. They apologize for all the hurtful things they said during their fight, and they “[catch] up on everything they [have] missed over the past several weeks” (328). Sam admits it’s been hard to accept Beatrice and Teddy’s engagement, but she and Beatrice are on much better terms. They wonder why Daphne wanted to help Nina shop for her gown, and Sam considers telling Nina about her father’s illness but decides to keep it to herself. Sam assures Nina that she is happy for her and Jeff: “[Sam’s] two favorite people in the world, realizing how awesome each other are” (330).

Daphne strides into the engagement party, confident she is the most beautiful girl in the room. As she waits for Jefferson, Ethan swoops in and asks her to dance. Ethan flirts with Daphne as they dance, and Ethan asks Daphne what she really wants. Daphne flashes back to May of last year at Himari’s birthday party. Things had been “rocky” between Daphne and Jefferson, and Daphne “had a panicked fear that when [Jefferson] graduated high school” a week later, “he would break up with her” (335). Ethan found Daphne crying in Himari’s pool house and implied that Daphne didn’t love Jeff. Daphne admits to Ethan that it has been exhausting, having to be “constantly charming” (338) to everyone. Ethan suggested that Daphne should be with him instead, and they slept together. In the present, Daphne’s mother scolds her for distracting herself with Ethan when the royal family is entering. Daphne is shocked and furious to see Nina at Jeff’s side, wearing a dress more beautiful than the one from the dress shop.

As Nina takes in the beauty of the engagement party, she and Jeff dance and discuss the royals around them. They discuss Teddy and Beatrice, and Jeff says that although Teddy is a nice guy, he “kind of thought there was a vibe between [Teddy] and Samantha” (344) when they were in Telluride. Still, Jeff trusts Beatrice’s judgment, and he believes that when two people are in love, “nothing else matters” (344). Nina thinks about how hard it has been to be in the spotlight over the last few weeks, but she realizes that she loves Jeff too much to give him up because of ignorance and hatred. Although she was worried that she would lose herself in an attempt to fit into Jeff’s world, Nina decides that their love will be enough to overcome any obstacle.

During the engagement party, Beatrice is exhausted by the constant stream of guests she has to greet. Teddy takes over and greets the guests while Beatrice takes a break, but to her shock, she runs into Connor, who is dropping off a wedding present. When they’re alone, Beatrice can’t stop herself, and she kisses Connor, and she feels like she’s been “living in an oxygen-starved world and now [can] finally breathe” (350). Connor apologizes for resigning and asks Beatrice if he can come back and be her Guard again: after all, being away from Beatrice is far worse than watching her marry and have children with Teddy Eaton. Beatrice decides she can’t hurt Connor like this and announces she is “calling off the wedding” (351). Connor worries about what this means for Beatrice’s future, but she promises to talk to her father that night after the party ends.

In the bathroom of the engagement party, Nina listens as partygoers gossip about her and accuse her of using the prince’s money to buy her dress. When she leaves the bathroom stall, the girls hurry away, and Nina tries to remind herself not to let hateful comments get to her. Daphne joins her, and Nina suddenly has a revelation and asks Daphne point-blank if she was the one who canceled her gown order. Daphne searches the bathroom to ensure they are alone, locks the door, and then admits that she was the one behind it all: She told the paparazzi how to find Nina, helped supply the unflattering photos of her, and canceled Nina’s gown order. Daphne warns Nina that she “[has] no idea what it takes to be the prince’s girlfriend” (356) and that the king and queen “will never give Jefferson permission to marry [Nina]” (356). Nina is stunned but tries to fight back against Daphne’s verbal attacks by saying she loves Jeff.

Nina leaves and tries to tell Jeff about what happened, but to her horror, Jeff jumps to Daphne’s defense and insists that Daphne would never do something like that. Nina realizes that things will never work out with Jeff because he will always be the Prince of America, and although neither of them wants to, they agree to break up.