Chapter Twenty-One
R aven
“Why won’t you just tell him how you feel?” Anna’s perky voice interrupted me from my thoughts.
The meeting with the wedding planner went well, or as good as it could be. She took complete control of the planning, which was perfect because I wanted no part in planning a wedding I didn’t ask for.
The sky was gloomy, there was no sun out today. The clouds were covering the blue sky, and they were lower to the ground meaning a storm could pop up at any minute. I removed my eyes from the menu and looked at her.
“What are you talking about?”
People were gawking at us, the up and coming Queen out of her stone cold castle among the common folk in Amendia. Father had kept me locked away so long that it was hard for me to get out and be a normal human being. Anna had mentioned getting coffee before we headed back and it sounded amazing. Plus, I was tired from being talked to death by the wedding planner.
My arm was covered so no one could see there was an incident. I had to be on my best behavior at all times so it wouldn’t come back to the crown. The “common folk” as Father put it, could never see me weak.
I’d never met Father’s parents, they were absent from our lives, but it often made me wonder how they were as parents. He was so cold hearted to me, but great with my daughter. It didn’t make any sense.
“Slade. The whole kingdom knows you’re in love with him. They watched you both grow up, fall in love and suddenly fall out of love. But you never fell out of love with him did you?”
I gulped, and really wish I had the iced late in my hands now. Anna was the closest thing I had to a friend. A part from Lewis, she was the only one I really talked to or confided in. The friends I had growing up didn’t like the pressure of the crown on their backs and decided that it would be better to not be friends with me.
“No.”
Her eyes grew. “Then why not tell him? Or your father for that matter?”
I scoffed. “Father would never listen to me. And Slade, well, he hates me now. Why tell him when he despises me?”
“Next!” The barista called out.
My eyes glanced away from her and at the cheerful, blonde man standing behind the counter. I stepped up and told him my order.
I nodded behind me, “I’ve got her drink too.”
Anna moved forward and told him what she wanted.
“Alright, that’s twelve dollars and seventy-two cents.” I handed him my card and Anna thought it was the perfect moment to put her two cents in again.
“I’m just saying, you need to tell someone. Not just tell, shout it from the rooftops. That man deserves to be loved, and being loved by you? That would make him a fucking King.”
The man’s eyes grew wide, and he started making eye contact with everyone but us. His cheeks twinkled pink. I shook my head and put my card in the card reader.
“Would you like a receipt?” He still avoided my gaze.
“Yes please.” He handed it to me and I walked off to a table. I figured the least Anna could do since she was hounding me would be to get our drinks. I threw the receipt in my purse and dropped it into the seat next to me. I leaned back against the chair and avoided contact with several people who had their gazes locked on me.
“Excuse me, Miss?” I looked up when a sweet little girl walked over to the table. She seemed to be older than Julianna, first or second grade perhaps.
Her Mom was standing behind her with a smile on her face.
“Hi,” I said quietly. I never knew how to react when it came to other people. I didn’t treat them as common folk, they were citizens of this country just like I was. They earned their money by working hard, paying their taxes and just trying to make it by. I had no right to judge them. I was sure some of them had lived a life almost as horrifying as mine, if not worse. There was no need to throw status around.
The little girl had two blonde braids and bright blue eyes. As she grew older, I was sure she would only cause trouble for the boys in this country. She was beautiful, and looked almost exactly like her mom.
She gave me a white teddy bear with a red ribbon on it. I bet that’s for Julianna. The kids were quite fond of my daughter and always seemed to send gifts to her. But that little girl had a big heart and most of the toys she got, ended up going to the orphanage when we would visit. She always said, “Mommy, those kids don’t get to live in a big house like I do and have a lot of toys. We should give them some of mine.” She continued to amaze me day in and day out with her kindness.
I was brought out of my thoughts when she pushed the bear in my direction. “This is for you.”
My heart, my poor broken heart, melted. This was by far the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me. "Thank you, sweetie. That’s so kind of you.”
I carefully took the bear from her hands and was surprised by what happened next. She jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug. I looked to her mom, and she was still just smiling. Tears welled in her eyes and I wondered what this family had been through. For them to be so trusting of someone from the crown, maybe they weren’t doing so well.
I wrapped my arms around her and patted her back. Quickly after, I let her go, and she went back to her mom. Something nagged at the back of my mind and I reached in my purse. There was my receipt and a random pen I always kept on hand. I quickly wrote down my number and stood up.
The woman appeared to be around my age, and with a daughter similar in age, it wouldn’t hurt to befriend her. Especially if they are going through a hard time and need someone to talk to.
I kept it short and to the point as I handed her the paper with my number. “If you need anything, or just want to talk. Reach me through that.”
Her eyes widened a bit, but a small tear fell from the corner of her eye. She nodded. That right there told me that she needed someone in her life. That something was going on and she needed a friend.
She mouthed a “thank you” to me and pulled her daughter away. I sat back down just as Anna arrived with our coffees.
“What was that about?” Her mouth moved from side to side as if she didn’t trust what just happened.
Most of the people who worked for the crown were always on watch for anything that could go wrong. It was their job to protect us, but it was my job to trust that not everyone would be out to hurt me. The only person who could do severe damage was the same one my heart belonged to.
“Nothing, just a family being sweet.” I took a sip of my latte and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. So good.
“Right. Well, back to our earlier conversation, you need to tell Slade.”
I shook my head, “No. You don’t understand. He just came back and he came back specifically for Julianna. We didn’t end well. He hates me.”
I took another drink but I was wishing it was stronger...something else.
“It doesn’t matter how he feels, it matters how you feel. You need to get it out in the open, tell him before you walk down that aisle. If you don’t, you’ll regret it and wonder what would’ve happened.”
I wondered all the time what would’ve happened if things were different. If he didn’t hate me as much as he did. The way he walked away from me that night, as if I was an insignificant ant on the bottom of his shoe...
“You went to the cops?”
I had just put Julianna to bed and walked out of her bedroom when I ran right into a fuming boyfriend. He was so mad there was steam coming out of his ears.
My eyebrows scrunched together,“What are you talking about?”
“There’s a warrant out for my arrest, Raven. That can only mean one thing. You framed me for your mom’s murder.” His words were a heavy blow to my gut. He was shoving a knife inside of my chest and twisting it.
I couldn’t say anything. How could he accuse me of something so horrible? Was he okay? He wasn’t acting like his normal self. Did something else happen that I wasn’t aware of?
His arms were stiff, and his hands were curled into fists. His silver gaze was so dark that it almost looked like little hell’s fires were inside his eyes. He was looking at me like I was someone he didn’t recognize. Like I betrayed him.
The hallway was dark, there was no one around but me and him. It was late, around eleven, and I was ready to get to bed. Julianna had been sick, and it wore me out. I didn’t have time for the silly games him and Elijah normally played on me.
“I didn’t, I wouldn’t do that! You didn’t do it! I’m not stupid, Slade.” My emotions were all over the place, how could he accuse me of this? I would never do that, and I knew he didn’t do it.
Before I could blink, his hand was wrapped around my neck. My eyes grew wide, he was squeezing me tight, like he wanted to kill me. I was his girlfriend, his daughter’s mother. Why the hell would he be trying to kill me? I didn’t frame him.
I clawed at his hands as I heard keys jingling in the distance. “Please,” I whispered. Something in him cracked, and he backed away from me.
I couldn’t read what he was thinking. He was so angry, and his face was a stone mask that I couldn’t figure out what was going through his mind.
“Tell my daughter that I love her.”
A piece of my heart cracked..
“Tell her I will come back...for her.”
Another crack.
More keys jingling in the distance and things started piecing together. The cops were coming for him and someone had let them through the door. No, that couldn’t happen. He didn’t do it!
They were getting closer, and all the sudden I heard crying in the background. My stomach clenched, they couldn’t take him away. He was everything to me. But why did he believe I would do something like that to him?
Mother’s murder was never solved.
Murdering the Queen was serious business. Death penalty business. I wouldn’t do that to the man I loved. We had a daughter together, she couldn’t grow up without a father.
He looked at me with no emotion. It was like I was a stranger, no longer the woman he loved. No longer the woman he was devoted to. It was a switch that flipped inside of him. There was a line between love and hate and he had crossed it. There was no going back now.
“You and I are finished.”
Those few words broke every resolve I had. I crumbled to the floor as the cops came running in, shoving him to the ground and putting his hands behind his head.
I screamed as they dragged him away. I realized that it was over. Julianna was crying for me, yet I couldn’t go to her. I sat there on the floor, unmoving as I watched them take the love of my life away for Mother’s murder.
This was something I would never come back from.
“You okay?” Anna’s concerned gaze was looking through me, trying to find answers. She may have been the closest thing I had to a friend, but I didn’t trust her. She worked for Father, she couldn’t know that I was looking into Father, trying to figure out who killed Mother.
I swallowed. “I’m good, I think I’m ready to go home though. Kind of tired.”
Her eyes brightened, “Of course! We’ve been gone all day and you are still trying to recover. I’m sure Julianna would love to see her mom too. Let’s go.”
I grabbed my purse, the bear, and coffee and followed her to the door. All the while thinking about what she said, knowing she was right.
I did have to tell Slade how I felt, but the outcome wouldn’t be pretty.