The trembling hand of Queen Elbereth greeted me when I returned home to the palace. "You are that girl's daughter!" The queen's eyes are full of anger. Apart from the guards around, no one could stop her. "Why didn't you stop messing with the family I built? How could you set the king to meet Catina when I'm still around?"
I did nothing but let the queen do to me what she is doing now. Letting the queen slap my face many times just to vent all of her anger until it became numb.
"I knew there was something off about you the moment I saw you," the queen said as she lifted my head by my chin. “Are you so desperate that you are willing to sacrifice your mother just to be with Augustus? How pathetic! Perhaps you don’t know that Augustus and Felicity are engaged. It’s hopeless. As part of the family, they will never be the ones to choose who they will love. Only blue blood is worthy of Augustus, and that is not you, who is just an ordinary woman.”
I clenched my fist. I know. Why do you have to tell me over and over again?
“Does it hurt to know that you share the same fate as your mother? Being ordinary sucks! So shake off your delusion." She gets her hand off my chin. “Leave the palace while he’s not around; you will not like to see his reaction when he sees you being dragged away. This is how cruel the world of a royal is,” my eyes followed the queen as she walked away.
After the words the queen gave me, I went to the room, where I locked the door. I was spacing out the whole hour thinking about what was said and what happened. It's like I'm deaf, not listening to their every knock.
“What am I gonna do?” I asked myself as I bent my knee and put my head on it. “I don’t want to go yet.”
I don’t know what to do right now and feel like I need to talk to someone. But no one’s around; Walden, who always teases me, is currently in the province taking care of his sick grandma. Lincoln is busy creating his masterpiece to enter an art contest. Mishe and Abel, who don't answer my call, seem to be at a party. There’s someone in my mind that I bet does nothing but watch over his pub.
I sneaked out of the palace to go to that guy’s pub. I was just standing there, having second thoughts. One of his men recognizes me. Unlike before, they let me in right away, even though I didn’t say anything. “I’m surprised. I didn't think you would come back here after our argument.”
“Me either,” I replied.
“But I’m glad you’re here. I won’t have to kidnap you as part of my plan.”
I heard what he said, but my mind right now is so occupied with something else that I don’t care if he kidnaps me at all. When Rocco notices that I am not paying attention to what he is saying, he sits at the coffee table and faces me.
“You’re not worried that I’m gonna kidnap you? What’s with you?”
“I decided to take the crown,” Prince Augustus said all of a sudden.
I glared at him, confused. “But you don’t want it; you hated to be the king. So why would you suddenly say you wanna take the crown?”
“Yeah, because I didn’t have a reason to be the king back then. But now…” Prince Augustus put his hand on the top of my head. “I have. I want to be the king because that’s the only thing I can do to help your dad. With that power, I can prove that your dad is innocent, and I can take him out of jail. That's the reason you're here in the first place, and that's why you agreed to be my personal maid. I will continue the king's promise. So, can you wait for me until I become king? Can you bear to be my personal maid first?
I smiled. "Okay," I was so moved by every word he said that I didn't realize he was making a decision for me rather than himself.
I sprung up abruptly, which startled Rocco.
“What the… you scared me,”
"Hey, prince’s uncle, can you not kidnap me now? I have to go to someone before he does something he'll regret.”
“Well, it does not actually kidnap you; the prince just wants me to take you to this place that I’m not gonna tell you.”
“Okay,” I said without hesitation. “Take me with him.”
“But didn’t you say earlier you would go somewhere?”
“It’s okay; he’s the one I’m talking about.”
Prince Augustus has met Rocco. They both talked, but Rocco didn't mention it to me when we met. They came up with the plan to kidnap me. I should tell the prince that this will end here. We traveled for more than 3 hours. I didn't think that the place they planned to hide me was this far. But it turns out that it was the place where Princess Damiera and Mr. Augustine, the prince's parents plan to live. Since losing Mr. Augustine, that house was left abandoned until it became old. Why do I feel like that tragic incident will happen again? As if everything in the past was fated to repeat itself, suddenly something is piercing inside me, causing me to feel anxious.
The light of the moon shone through, I could see the surroundings of what we were passing through. Rocco entered a field, and not that far, we heard some noise—noise coming from a motorboat. The car stalled, which means we are here. Rocco was the one to get out of the car, while I was having second thoughts. Now I’m afraid to face him; I can’t...
Rocco notices that it takes me a long time to get out of the car. He opened the door of the passenger seat, but he did not force me to get out. Rocco didn’t say anything; instead, he let me take my time, whether to take my feet out of the car or to stay.
“Last task, Gemma. Can you be the one to tell Augustus that he's gonna marry Felicity? In exchange, I will clear your father's name. I will get him out of jail with no criminal records, including your house and everything else I took from you. Your life will return to normal. Life without Augustus”
I slowly took my foot out of the car. "I'm going to break his heart, Prince's uncle. If I call you, that means it’s over, and when that happens, can you pick me up?”
“Hmm-mm,” he nodded. “I know the past will happen again. When you break his heart, please don’t make it painful; at least say that you will still love him.”
“No.” I shook my head. “For what else? I’m going to leave him anyway, so why should I say I love him? Saying you love someone before leaving them will hurt the person more.”
I fixed myself, forcing a smile just to look happy for him. I can do that for the last time. The moment he opened the door, his hug was the first thing I felt. "So he really kidnaps you?"
“Hey, I have…”
I couldn't finish what I was going to say when he pulled me away. "I'll show you something,"
We were running between the trees, with nowhere to go but the end of the forest. We came to a halt in the middle of a weed-infested field, where there was a wooden house. Rocco told me that the house my parents wanted to live in was not the hacienda but this one. The simple wooden house is surrounded by withering grass. It looks far from the fields of barley I see in other countries, but for me, it's very special. "I know, not now, but I'd like to live here one day."
Unlike my ears, which listen to his every word, my gaze is far from his eyes. My heart can't bear to see his happy face while I plan to destroy it.
Prince Augustus held my face, which was looking away, and turned it to him. I'm still not keeping my eyes on him, but he still insists. His eyes were telling me that we had a chance, that I could still love him, and that I didn't need to choose. The more I look at him, the more I want to stay. I couldn't hold back anymore; I hugged the prince tightly. and secretly shed a tear while I was doing so. I'm sorry; I wanted to tell you that I'm choosing you, but I just can't. There are many times that I want to choose you, but I would be selfish if I did that. I'd rather choose the happiness of my family than keep you in mine. A tear fell from my eye. I'm sorry, you are the one I choose to let go of.