Fragile Desires (18+)

Thirty-Seven | Complicated

The crisp autumn air sent a shiver down my eight-year-old spine as I chased fallen leaves around the manicured gardens of the Lyon palace. 

Laughter echoed in my wake, but it wasn't mine. 

It belonged to the stern-faced guards who would occasionally break into a smile as they watched me play.

Their smiles were a treasure—a rare glimpse of warmth that pierced through their usual stoicism.

Back then, the towering walls of the palace felt like the edges of the world. 

My world. 

My parents, though busy with royal duties, always made time for bedtime stories whispered in hushed tones and picnics under the shade of ancient oak trees. 

There was an unspoken rule, though, a secret language only they seemed to understand. 

Certain hushed phone calls, frantic exchanges of coded messages, all punctuated by worried glances my way.

I knew, even as a child, that something was different about our lives. 

Unlike my friends who lived in sprawling houses beyond the palace gates, our home life buzzed with a constant wave of tension. 

 But when I pressed my parents for answers, their smiles faltered, replaced by a forced lightness that never quite reached their eyes. 

 "C'est un secret d'état, mon coeur," they'd say. 

Which inherently meant: It's a state secret, my heart. 

Their hushed conversations were always for grown-ups, not princesses who play with leaves.

The memory fades now, details blurring with the passage of time. 

But the echo of that secrecy lingers, a seed planted deep within me.

Especially since I have yet to be queued in on the carefully curated secrets.

- Azzy

♛Chapter Thirty-Seven: Complicated♛

Silence reigned in the penthouse, contrasting the tense emotions burning within me. 

The click of our heels against the cool marble floor echoed, each click a punctuation mark on the unspoken tension hanging heavy in the air. 

Every time I blinked, I saw a reminder of the tangled web we'd woven—tangled not just in the unspoken words, but in the kiss I initiated, which still sent shivers down my spine. 

Everything felt so unsaid—it seemed to leave such a heavy tension clinging to the air.

But I only ignored it.