"Falling deeper as we go
It's no wonder you're not alone
Guess these feelings take me home
And take me home, yeah, yeah"
love ride - Christian French

oOoOo

Saturday afternoon, Kaden arrives at the penthouse around noon.

"Ready to go?" He asks as he walks into my room.

"Almost. One more minute," I say, finishing my makeup. He's taking me home today to meet his family. Apparently, his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are going to be there too. I'm totally not freaking out.

I glance at myself in the mirror and smooth my hair down one last time.

"Am I dressed up enough?" I ask him, biting my lip.

Kaden scans my outfit. "You look beautiful as always. There's nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about? I'm literally meeting your entire family at once!"

"You'll be okay. My grandma idolizes you already," he reassures me.

"Do they know the whole backstory of all of the articles?" I'm a people pleaser at heart, so their opinions of me matter a lot more than they should. I'm trying to work on this, but it's not like I can just wake up and suddenly not give a shit about what people think.

"They know the truth and that's all that matters." He checks his phone. "We really should get going. I told my mom we'll be there at one."

"Okay." I take one last look in the mirror before standing up and following him out of my bedroom.

Kaden leads me out of the penthouse and into his car.

With each passing minute, my anxiety levels rise. What if I say or do something that they don't approve of? Do they secretly loathe me after all the drama? How much do they know about me? I know next to nothing about his family.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Kaden's voice startles me. I turn and see him glance at me before turning his eyes back to the road.

"Tell me about your family. I don't want to walk in blindly."

"Okay," he pauses to think. "Well, you already know about my sister, Soph. She's eighteen and is practically the same person as Maeve. My cousins Alexandria and Amelia-- Alex and Mia for short-- are twins. They're fourteen and always getting into some sort of mischief. They're really into soccer. Their brother, Gabe is your age. To be honest, he's kind of a douche. Don't tell him I said that, though... He likes partying, drinking, and sex."

"And their parents are... Angela and Mark?" I ask tentatively.

"Yep," he nods. "Aunt Angela is my mom's sister. Her other sister, my Aunt Andrea won't be there, though."

"And then what about your parents?"

"Isabella and Dave. They own an Italian bakery. I think I've mentioned it before?"

"Mhmm," I hum.

"You met my mom on FaceTime on Christmas. She's really nice and accepting. Same with my dad. He enjoys football. If you even bring it up, he'll go on and on for ages about the Patriots."

I laugh. "Duly noted."

"And my grandma is crazy. Prepare yourself for a lot of intrusive questions. She also doesn't grasp the concept of personal space. My grandpa is pretty passive. He just sits back and watches everyone and tells the stereotypical 'back in my day' stories."

Just as he finishes, we exit the highway.

"Okay, that makes me feel a little better."

He quickly looks in my direction. "Hey, they will all love you. If anything, my family will concentrate on embarrassing me."

I nod, hoping they do. I need new blackmail material.

oOoOo

Ten minutes later, we pull into Kaden's driveway. His house is pretty nice. It's the stereotypical middle-class suburban house.

As soon as he parks the car, the front door flies open and a short old woman runs in our direction. Well, it's more of a speed walk.

Before I get the chance to grab my backpack from the back seat, I am engulfed in a hug. I'm taken aback but relax after a few seconds.

"Vostra altezza, è meraviglioso conoscervi!" The woman, who I presume is Kaden's crazy grandma says. (Translation: your Highness, it's wonderful to meet you)

"Chiamami Kate, per favore. È meraviglioso anche conoscerti." (Translate: Call me Kate, please. It's wonderful to meet you too)

"You are so much prettier in person!" She exclaims in English, pinching my cheeks. I hear Kaden laugh behind me.

"Don't laugh at her. You're next," she scolds. I love her already.

"Kate, meet Nonna."

I awkwardly wave at her. She grabs my hand and drags me inside.

"They're here!" She shouts as we walk inside. I try to take in my surroundings as I get dragged into the kitchen.

I instantly recognize Kaden's mom over by the stove. She's cooking something that smells delicious.

"It's nice to meet you finally!" She exclaims, enveloping me in a hug. "We were beginning to think Kaden was hiding you from us."

"It's great to meet you too," I laugh. A man walks into the kitchen. He looks like an older version of Kaden, so I assume it's his dad.

"You must be Katherine," he says, extending his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Banshee," I say as I shake his hand.

"Call me Dave. Is Kaden still outside?"

I turn around, just noticing he's not here. "I think so. He brought some bags, so I think he's unloading the car."

Dave disappears, presumably going to find Kaden. Nonna leads me to the kitchen table and practically shoves me into the chair.

"So, I have heard that you are a princess. No?" She asks.

I nod slowly, unsure where she's going with this.

She claps her hands together. I see Isabella roll her eyes and go back to cooking.

"Does this mean that Kaden will be the King of Amaria?" She asks excitedly.

I choke on air. "Well, we have only been dating for a few months, so we'll have to see where this goes."

"Do you love the boy?" She stares into my eyes. I fidget under her scrutiny.

Why does this feel like an interrogation?

"Yes, of course."

"I knew it!" She shouts. Suddenly, her eyes widen. "I need to start wedding plans. And knitting for grandbabies!" What the fuck? Doesn't she know I'm only nineteen?

Isabella fails to conceal her laughter.

"What's going on in here?" Kaden asks from the doorway. I frantically catch his eye. Please save me.

"Just getting to know Kate," his grandma replies innocently.

"Well, you can do that later. I'm going to show Kate around the house." I stand up, eager to escape. If I stay any longer, I'm afraid she'll start talking about baby names.

"Thank you," I whisper to Kaden as he leads me away.

"Lemme guess, she asked about our wedding and babies?"

"Yep."

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "Typical."

"So this is the living room..."

oOoOo

After Kaden finishes showing me around, we go into his bedroom. We sit on his bed. I look around the room, observing the sports posters and trophies. It's pretty similar to his room back at school.

We relax in peace until his mom calls us back into the living room.

I meet his cousins, and we sit down at the table.

"So you're, like, a real princess?" One of the twins asks me.

The other twin elbows her sister. "Of course she is, you dumbass."

"Linguaggio! Abbiamo dei reali in nostra presenza," their grandmother scolds. (Translation: Language! We have royalty in our presence!)

I chuckle. "Yep, I'm a princess."

"She has a sister who's about your age," Kaden adds.

"Yeah, she actually told me to tell you guys that she's coming here after spring break." I turn to Sophia, "She wants to meet you, actually."

I eat my pasta as the twins and Sophia start making plans for Maeve's stay.

"So how are you dealing with all of the things being said about you?" Kaden's aunt asks me. I see him shoot daggers at her.

"It's okay," I whisper to him.

"I'm just not looking at social media. People always say nasty things, and I choose to ignore it. I don't want to waste my energy on the haters."

"Well said," Kaden's dad says.

"Just so you guys know, the whole situation isn't what it looks like. The media is blowing it out of proportion," I add, glancing at the table.

"We know, honey. Kaden explained everything to us."

I reach under the table and squeeze his hand in thanks.

For the rest of the meal, they ask me a few questions about what I do and what it's like to be royal. I answer everything as truthfully as possible.

After we finish eating dinner, Kaden's mom brings a cake out from the kitchen. It's decorated beautifully, with flowers and sprinkles all over the top.

"The cake looks beautiful. Is it from your bakery?" I ask.

"Yes. I made it this morning," she responds. I watch as she cuts slices and passes them around the table.

"It's delicious, Isabella," I say after I take a bite.

"So delicious that Kaden used to devour it like an animal," Gabe snickers.

"Shut up, man. It was one time," he groans.

"No it wasn't," his grandma chimes in. "I remember that you used to smash your face into your birthday cake every year."

"It's true," his mom says to me.

"What is this? Embarrass Kaden time?" He asks frustratedly.

His mother ignores him. "I have a whole scrapbook of pictures. Would you like to see them, Kate?"

"Sure," I smile. Kaden lightly kicks me under the table.

"You're supposed to be on my side," he whines.

"Oh please, Maeve has already told you so many embarrassing stories about me. It's my turn to hear some."

His mom and aunt get up to grab the scrapbooks.

oOoOo

A few minutes later, they return with huge bins. They uncover them and take out five full scrapbooks.

"This is Kaden's baby one." I'm handed a book. I take a seat on the couch next to Kaden and open it.

The first few pictures are from the hospital when he was born.

"Awww, you were such a cute baby."

He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, clearly unhappy with where this is going.

I flip through the pages and see his first Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Across the room, the women examine the books of toddler Kaden. Every few minutes, they take pictures out and place them in a pile.

I hand the book back to them when I'm done.

"See, that wasn't too bad." I nudge Kaden.

"Just wait. It's about to get much worse," he mutters.

Kaden's mom hands me a picture of Kaden as a toddler. He was covered in paint and had red and yellow handprints on his stomach.

"You look cute in this one." I tilt the photo so Kaden can look.

His mom starts laughing at one of the pictures. She turns it around so I can look.

It's a picture of Kaden holding onto a German Shepherd's tail. It looks like the dog was towing him across the room.

"He used to tug on Roxie's tail all the time. She would drag him across the floor," his dad laughs.

"Was that how he fell down the stairs and cut open his head?" Kaden's grandma asks.

His mom nods.

"Well, that explains a lot," I smirk and nudge Kaden.

"Kate, you need to see this one," Sophia says. I look over and see Alex and Mia laughing at the picture she is holding.

"Is that the kindergarten one?" Kaden groans.

"Yep," she says with a wicked smile.

I try to stand up, but Kaden latches on to me and pulls me back to the couch.

"Lemme see," I say as I struggle to pry his fingers off my arm. He pulls me back onto the couch and holds me down.

Sophia walks over to give me the picture, but Kaden intercepts it.

I try to wrestle it out of his grip. "How bad could it be?"

He shifts to sit on top of the picture so I can't grab it.

I distract him long enough to grab the picture out from under his thigh.

I start laughing immediately.

It's a picture of Kaden sticking out of their washing machine. He has one of his mother's bras around his head.

"He used to walk around the house and use my bras as a slingshot for his toys. I think I have a picture of him wearing one... It should be in here somewhere."

Kaden's face turns bright red.

"Mom stop it," he hisses.

I take the opportunity to snap a quick picture of it before handing it back to his mom.

"Hey, my parents are going to bring out a ton of worse photos when we see them over spring break. It's only fair I get to see yours too."

"I totally forgot you were taking Kaden with you to Amaria," his dad says.

I nod. "Yeah, he's going to come with us for the week. I have some work to do, but we'll fit in some sightseeing."

"What do you have planned?" his aunt asks.

"I'll obviously show him around the palace. And I'll take him around Carcalles to see some of the attractions. We might go to our house on the Amalfi coast for a day or two, but we'll have to see."

"Nipote, you need to take pictures of the palace. We want to see what it looks like from the inside," his grandma orders.

"I have pictures on my phone if you want to look at some now," I offer.

She nods excitedly.

I open my album of photos on my phone and pass it to her. She puts her glasses on and violently taps at the screen before Mia shows her how to swipe.

For the rest of our visit, I converse with Kaden's parents and listen to stories about his childhood.

oOoOo

Thanks for reading chapter 39! Please vote and comment if you liked it <3

Just 3 more chapters until the end of the book. (As I'm publishing this chapter, it's actually done) The next update will be a triple one, making it the last one! Can't believe we've reached the end.