So this chapter ended up being extremely long and so I decided to split the chapter up into two parts, I hope you enjoy!!
Last Chapter Recap- Jenifer
I think I had cried myself to sleep on Oliver's lap because the next thing I knew it was daylight outside and we had arrived at the castle.
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I woke up in a hospital bed.
I had no clue how I ended up here but I knew this hospital bed better than my own bed.
It was mine.
When June and I had been born and 1st diagnosed, Father had built our own hospital in the castle just for the two of us.
I looked over to my left and saw June in the same place as me. I looked down at my own body and realized that the hives had almost disappeared on both me and June.
She was still asleep but I just knew that she was definitely feeling better.
If we are home, where are my other siblings?
I stood up from my bed. There were no doctors around and nothing stopped me.
That was of course until my siblings plus Lucus walked in.
"Oakley James Price what are you doing?" Janae said as she entered and came over to push me back down.
"I was going to come look for you."
She rolled her eyes. "Well, good thing you didn't because Father doesn't even know we are home yet and you could have got us caught. Again." She added that last part just to embarrass me.
"Wait, what do you mean Father doesn't know we are here?"
"We arrived here a couple hours ago Your Highness but I didn't want to tell the King you were here until you and Princess June woke up and were feeling better because I know that the King is going to want to speak to you," Lucus said.
He's going to want to speak to me.
"Thank you, Lucus." I turned to Janae, "Look, the hives have almost completely gone away on both me and June." I showed her my arms and legs where you could barely even tell that they were there.
She smiled "That's great, let me check your temperature, that will be the real test."
She put the thermometer in my mouth. Right after she did that June started to wake up.
"How did we get here?" She mumbles as she slowly sits up. Oliver goes over to her and helps her sit up, "Lucus brought us here but Father still doesn't know we are here."
"Ugh, Lucus can you please just take us back to where we were and pretend that we ran away again," June said.
"I'm sorry Princess, no can do."
Janae approached me again and removed the thermometer, "No fever! How are you feeling?"
"Much better than I was."
"Yeah me too," June added.
"Well your Highness's I am very glad that you are doing better but we really need to get you to the King."
I did not want to do that. Maybe if I pretended that I was still sick then we could procrastinate this more.
No, it was time. I had to go and take care of this, there was no more hiding and no more running away.
"Did they say what was wrong with us?" June asked.
"We didn't get a doctor because we didn't want to risk Father finding out we were back yet but I was able to sneak into the library and do some research and I think they were stress hives. Stress most likely from the fact that we were separated," Janae told us.
"We didn't know where each other was and were very scared. This was how your body's reacted to that." Janae continued.
She was interrupted by Oliver, "So what I'm hearing is that this was all Lucus's fault. If he hadn't kidnapped Oakley then this would not have happened."
"I did not kidnap him, Your Highness." Lucus defended.
"You very much did. You stole him from his home and his family. That is kidnapping."
"No, Prince Oliver. I was following The King's orders who by the way is your Father. If your Father, The King, told me to find you and return you to him and your actual home, that is not kidnapping."
"It very much is." Oliver continued to argue.
Lucus rolled his eyes. "Well, if Prince Oakley and Princess June are feeling better then we must let your father know you are here. It has been difficult enough to hide you already. We need to do this."
"Why do you always add 'Prince' or 'Princess' in front of their names? Why not just say 'Oakley and June'?" Owen asked Lucus.
I had honestly forgotten that the twins were here. Owen was holding Jenifer's hand and the two of them had been quietly standing in the corner.
I saw Jenifer shoot her brother a glare that meant "Why would you ask such a stupid question?"
"Well, Owen those are our official titles and our Father prefers them to be used. We don't really care but it's a matter of respect," I told him.
"So do we have to do that? Call you 'Your Highness' and add 'Prince' or 'Princess' in front of your names?"
I laughed at the thought of that "No buddy, you don't."
I sighed and then stood up again before helping June up as well.
I was still in the clothes that I had been in for the past two days. I felt disgusting.
I was dreading seeing my father. I dread seeing him most days but I was especially dreading it right now.
I was scared to see him.
But I couldn't let them know that. I looked at my sibling's faces and they were all scared too. This was no time for me to be scared as well. I needed to push the fear down and get it together for them.
We followed Lucus out of the hospital wing and down towards the throne room where I supposed my parents were waiting.
I grabbed Jenifer and carried her on my hip. Oliver did the same with Owen.
I don't know how Father will react to them but I know that it will probably not be good and I didn't want the twins to be any more scared than they already were.
I promised them that they would be safe and could stay with us and I was ready to fight my father for that promise.
We approached the doors of the room where my Mother and Father were inevitably waiting.
I was of course standing in front with Oliver to my right standing slightly behind me and the girls directly behind the two of us.
This was our normal formation when we approached Father. I needed to be in the front because most of the time I was the only one who spoke to him.
He would often tell me that I was the only one worth talking to out of my siblings.
He was constantly pointing out their flaws to me and then telling me how much he disliked the three of them.
He would then turn it around on me and try to get me to speak about their flaws.
In my eyes they had none.
Sure Oliver might 'play around too much' but that was my favorite trait of his and something I envied. I wish I was as carefree and as funny as him.
Janae might not 'follow directions like she is supposed to' but I would do anything to be as smart and as kind as she is.
And June was Father's second favorite to me, he didn't dislike her as much as the other two and would sometimes even praise her for the things she did.
But that didn't stop him from his occasional comments of 'she forgets her place' and 'your mother told me that June has been doing...' followed by some lie.
Then of course there was the fact that both June and I were sick. Words like 'How unlucky am I to have my heir be born sick and not be able to do anything?'
He would tell me my flaws too but he would punish me until I 'fixed them'.
I can hear him now, drilling rules and expectations in my head my whole life. "Oakley, sit up straight." "Oakley, you need to be stronger." "Oakley, you are too emotional." "Oakley, why are you stupid?" "Oakley, Oakley, Oakley..."
It was exhausting.
Lucus opened the doors to the room to present us to our parents "Your Majesty's, Prince Oakley, Princess Janae, Prince Oliver, and Princess June as well as..."
"Jenifer and Owen? What are you doing here?" My father angrily cut Lucus off.
What? How did he know them?
I saw Jenifer go wide-eyed in fear when she saw my father.
I turned to Owen who had the same look of terror in his eyes.
"Why are you not with your parents? Where is Odin?" My Father continues.
"Sir? Pardon me for asking but how do you know them?" I asked him.
"How do you know them? Where did they come from? Where did you find them?" He turned the question back on me.
"We found them while we were on the run sir," I told him.
He came up close to me and I felt like melting into a puddle of goop on the floor. I forgot how intimidating he was.
"They need to go back home, now." He said looking at Jenifer in my arms.
It looked like she was about to cry. I held onto her tighter.
"Sir we can't send them back. Their parents are not good people. They hurt them and their home is not a safe livable environment." I told Father, hoping that he wasn't going to kill me for talking back.
"Oh, so you've been to their home? I thought you said that you found them. Your lies are not adding up James." He yelled in my face.
He calls me by my middle name 'James' when he is most angry at me.
Mother was the one who picked out our first names. Father got to pick our middle names and he said that his biggest regret was letting Mother pick my 'stupid-sounding name.'
"Sir, we found Owen on the street and then went to their home to save Jenifer who would have probably died if we didn't save her. She was tied up, severely bleeding, and starved. We can not send them back to their parents."
"I think you are forgetting who you are speaking to son. I do not take orders from anyone, especially not you." He got up in my face and dropped his voice.
"How. Do. You. Know. Them.?" I used the same tone against him.
He smirked, "I'm their Uncle."
What?
He turned toward Jenifer who was now shaking in my arms, "Did you forget about your Uncle Leo little one?"
I pulled her away. "Don't talk to her like that, leave her alone."
"I don't like this newfound attitude you have James, sounds like I have a lot to fix after you decided to run away from my protection."
I rolled my eyes at him. Something I would have never done a month ago.
"Oakley, what are you doing? Stop making him angry," June whispered in my ear from behind me.
She was right, making Father angry was not going to help me at all but I couldn't help it. I was so mad at him for taunting Jenifer and Owen right now.
He knew who they were and didn't tell us. What other secrets does he have?
Father has always said that we have no other family. That both Mother and him were only children and that their parents were all dead.
But if he is their uncle then that was a lie.
Unless he's lying about that too.
But the way that the twins reacted was as if they knew my Father, as if they recognized him.
Which should be impossible, how would they? Obviously, Father and the twins knew something I didn't, and I hated that.
"Jenifer, have you ever seen him before?" I asked her.
I should've known better, I got no response. It was hard enough to get her to speak to just me, let alone speak in a room full of people.
"Owen?" I looked over at him who looked just as scared as Jenifer in my brother's arms.
Though he did manage to say "Yes, I've seen him before. He has come to our house. He's daddy's brother."
Brother? Since when has Father had a brother and why did he never tell us?
My father knew about the conditions that the twins were living in and he did nothing about it?
My father glared at Owen, "Didn't your father teach you to keep your mouth shut?!" He yelled in his face.
"Don't yell at him like that!" I tried to step in between Owen and my Father, passing Jenifer off to June in the process.
Father grabbed me by my shirt collar, "Listen here son, I've had enough of you and your disrespect. You don't get to break my rules, run away for an entire month, and then return thinking you are allowed to speak to me that way. You better be in my room in 5 minutes and ready for the beating of a lifetime."
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AN: Merry Christmas Eve!! I started writing this chapter and knew that it would be a long one but once it hit 4,000 words I knew that I needed to split the chapter up.
Part two will probably be posted tomorrow because I have most of it written so consider it a Christmas present from me to you!!
Sending you much love this holiday season!