Royal 3 (Book three in my Selection Series)

Chapter 28

Present

"Lady Rosalyn?" One of her maids asked. "Are you alright?" I could barely make out their words. Baylee was standing there, seemingly scared to death. I would comfort her but everything I thought I knew, I now didn't. Happiness was barely an emotion inside of me and I couldn't decide what my most powerful emotion was. Sadness? Anger? Happiness? No—

Sick.

I turn and flee from my room, down the staircase and out of the garden doors. The guards didn't question it and let me outside. I run past the garden, past the field, and out to one of the trees at the edge. There, I vomited whatever I had ate from breakfast that morning and sobbed.

A part of me remembered all of the good, all of the new things I'd experienced. But the rest of me remembered the attack, Delanie, and even Emily who I probably wouldn't ever see again. I step back and lean against the trunk. Immediately I became nauseous again. I turned back around and threw up again, my throat burned with the bad taste.

I feel someone behind me touch my shoulder and pull my hair back out of my face. I cough and turn around to see North. I immediately reach out and wrap my arms around his torso. He instantly does the same, hold my head against his chest.

"I remember." I say quietly, my voice muffled by his shirt. I feel his hands tighten on my shoulders and the back of my neck. North touched his lips gently to the top of my head.

"I'm so sorry." He whispers softly. I felt guilty for thinking it was so much easier when I didn't remember it all. Delanie's death haunted me, but so did the gunshots. So did the people who fired the guns— the ones who aimed to kill.

"North?" I look up at him, barely resting my chin on his chest. He looks down to me, pain in his eyes. "I love you."

He smiles, his eyes brightening a bit. "I love you too. Don't leave me again alright?"

"Okay." I say quietly and lean completely on his chest. I could hear his heart beating and felt the warmth from his chest under his T-shirt. I stood there for a long time, my heart a balance of happiness and pain.

I didn't return to reality for a very long time, and when I went back up to my room, Bailey was sitting on my bed with my maids. They all turned to me as soon as I stepped through the doors.

"I'm so sorry." I told them quietly. "Seeing the dress— it helped me remember everything I'd forgotten."

I told North I could do this alone but the silence was almost too much to bare alone.

The first one of them to react was Baylee. She throws her arms around me and squeezes me.

"Rose, that's amazing!" She gushed with a grin. "Have you talked to North yet? Does he know?"

"Yes I've already talked to him." I say grinning as she pulls away slightly.

"Do you love him, Rose?" She asks me quietly. I smile to myself and sit on the edge of my bed.

"I didn't know what love was until I met him." I say softly. "I just don't know if it's enough. There are a lot of girls here."

"He loves you too, he really does. I was listening to him and Aaron talk last night and he was so upset because he didn't know if you were ever going to be okay again." She tells me quickly.

"Sometimes love isn't enough." I say quietly.

"That's not true." She tells me. "Come on lets go talk to them."

"Them?" I ask as she pulls me out of the room.

"North and Aaron are close because neither of them will say anything to anyone else and they don't see each other often so they write a lot." She tells me as we go down the hallway. "North is probably talking to him as we speak."

I nod, genuinely interested. She pulls me up to the Royal's floor and I hold back hesitantly.

"Nobody cares, Rose." She tells me and pulls me up again. I follow her up, but watch around me hesitantly. The two boys, North and Aaron were at the other end of the hallway. I couldn't help but smile slightly when I saw him.

"Lady Rosalyn." Aaron greets me with a short smile. "Congratulations."

"Thank you." I say with a small smile. I pass a look toward North and grin. Aaron seems to notice the look between us.

"Mother was looking for us earlier. Let's go find her." He holds out his hand for his sister and she takes it, following him.

"Bye Rose." She tells me with a smile. I wave toward her and when they were out of sight, North takes both of my hands in his own.

"Are you doing better?" He asks me, concerned. I look away slightly.

"Yeah I think so. It's hard to think about, you know? It's a lot to take in." I mutter. "I think it's becoming more normal— or at least as normal as it can get."

"I'm sorry." North runs his thumbs along the top of my hands.

"It's okay." I say with a smile.

"Come, follow me." He says and pulls one of my hands to the far end of the hallway and up only the roof. The breeze around me made me feel refreshed and renewed. I stand there for a moment and close my eyes. When I open them again, North was watching me and stepped closer.  

Our faces were so close I could feel his breath against my face. I missed the comfort of his touch and the softness of his skin. I reach my arm up behind his neck and lean closer to him.

"I missed you, Rose. And it was almost worse than you being gone because I had to see you every day but knew that it might never be the same." He says softly.

"You aren't going to lose me again. I promise." Deep down I knew there was only a small chance that this would ever work out, even if I wanted it more than anything.

North smiles and I was the first to stand on my tip toes and kiss him softly. I felt my stomach tighten along with his hands around my waist.

"I love you." He whispers. 

"I love you too." I say quietly and kiss him again. I let him hold me closely and we stand there, enjoying the things we've always taken for granted.

A/N

I'm very sorry for how late this is but I wanted to revise my work before her accident and recapture their relationship before everything went wrong so it wasn't forced☺️ Thanks for reading!