© 2013 Astrix Star
Chapter 9 - Cat is out of the bag
**
"Why didn't you have me line up with everyone else?" I ask Prince Kaiden as we stood in the courtyard of the palace. "I have black hair and blue eyes."
Prince Kaiden has his back to me, "that doesn't mean anything."
"But you said that the woman you slept with has-"
"The what?" He turns to me with a smirk.
I stare at him curiously, "’the what’ what?"
"What did you say, ‘the what’ that I slept with."
"The woman. Wha-"
"Exactly," He steps towards me but doesn’t really make eye contact, "the woman I slept with. You're not a woman, you're a girl. An annoying little girl who wouldn’t come up to the ankle of the woman I spent the night with. That's why I didn't have you lined up; because I know it wasn't you."
I look at his eyes trying to find something - anything - in them, but he looks away, "But it was me."
He swallows, his Adam apple moving, "no it wasn't." He turns to glare at me, "stop lying. Did your mom set you up for this too.”?
"This too?"
"Oh don't act all innocent," he sneers at me, "you've been annoying me since forever. Following me; giggling with my sister and the other girls. I didn't mind that. It was annoying, but I could handle it. But this? Expecting me to believe that I slept with an immature, annoying, little girl just so I marry you and you become queen? Then what happens when the real woman comes, or will she even come? You probably paid her enough money to stay quiet."
I couldn't stop the tears falling down my eyes, "why would I wait a whole month to tell you this if my mom was behind all this?"
The question throws him back a little bit, but he laughs it off, "ok, ok, let's say I believe you. What are you going to tell me? That you're pregnant?"
"I am," I tell him, my eyes wide, my heart beating at finally letting the truth out.
"Well, if that was true," the Prince walks up to me slowly, "you wanna know what I would do?" I nod, my heart calming down, knowing that he would never turn his back on his child, "I would send you away. Both of you. And I would never look back." I stare at him in shock, "I would rather lose my heir then be tied to a childish, incompetent child for the rest of my life."
"Is that what you would really do?" The tears are back, and I resist the urge to touch my stomach. Where my baby - because it's mine and mine alone now - grows.
Prince Kaiden sighs in annoyance, although something flashes in his eyes, and as desperate as I was, I saw hope in that flash, "yes. That's exactly what I will do. Now get out of my sight before I decide to exile you anyways."
**
I look out the window of my room and sigh.
I didn't have to wonder how they found out. After my mom found out that Kaiden was Dalia's father, she found a new love towards her granddaughter. A love that couldn't be kept quiet and that the whole of Kostas had to know.
It was no longer a secret that the Crown Prince had a daughter. Just like it isn't a secret that the mother is Jadelynn Katerina, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Newland.
It's all the local news channels can talk about. Some have said that it might even be considered treason, running away with the future queen of Kostas. Old pictures of me were being shown on the TV, and people that I know and some that I've never met have been interviewed. What makes it worse is that they're all acting as if they know me. Saying false things, some even insinuatingly calling me a slut. Saying that I probably ran away after realizing I couldn't get the prince. And that coming back was probably a scheme to marry the prince, seeing as he never got married.
My mother hasn't spoken to the press yet, but she loves the attention. She has always loved the attention.
The Royal family hasn't made an official statement either, nor have they come to our house, something I am very grateful for. They are the last people I want to speak to.
Dalia, much to my mothers' and the press' dismay, hasn't gone anywhere near the gardens since the photographers showed up a few days ago.
She has been spending time with my father, getting to know her grandfather.
It wasn't until the day before my father's surgery that the monarchy showed up at our home. The press had disappeared from our doorstep - seeing as they weren't getting anything - much to my mother's dismay.
"So that was your secret?" An angry Magdalena question when I step into the foyer with my daughter, "this is why you left?"
"Mag," Prince Kaiden tries to calm her down.
"No!" Magdalena glares at her elder brother, "you don't get to talk! Not when it's YOUR fault that we were deprived of my niece's company. I still haven't forgiven you for treating my best friend like that!" I inwardly sigh in relief at her words, "don't get any ideas," she turns to me, "I am overly pissed off at you. You should have told me. She's MY niece."
"And she's my daughter," I calmly tell her. "I made the decision that was best for her."
"By depriving her of the royal life she deserves?" I look over at the queen. "By depriving my son of his heir? I expected more from you Jadelynn."
The look of disgust she gave me for some reason made me lose all the respect I had for her. She looked at me as if I was nothing more than a lowlife. Heck, a lowlife would have received a better look.
"Your son deprived himself of his heir."
"Do not blame my son!" She exclaims, "He did-"
"He did what?" I look down at Dalia as she glares at the Queen, "what did he do aside from hurting my mommy? HE didn't believe her when she told him that she was the one! HE was the one who didn't listen - who didn't WANT to listen when my mommy wanted to tell him the truth!" The entire room is quiet, looking at Dalia in shock, "HE'S the one that didn't want me."
"That's not-"
"My MOM was the one that raised me," Dalia interrupts Kaiden, "she was the one that spent nine months with me inside her, the one that had to wake up and feed me. The one that has had to take care of me. The one who is there when I'm sick. She scares the monsters away at night. She does everything." Dalia's voice starts to crack as she cries, "you are nobody to stand there and yell at my mom. You don't know ANYTHING. And you should stop acting like you do."
"Dalia."
"I don't want to be a Princess," she ignores me, "I want nothing to do with you people. I'm happy with my mom and where we live. And HE can get another heir, because I don't want to be his." And with that, she runs out of the room.
"You-"
"Stop it!" Kaiden angry voice rings in the room.
"Kaiden-"
"No," Kaiden looks in the direction Dalia went to, his eyes teary, "she hates me."
"That's an understatement," Prince Natalio chuckles, but receives a glare from his parents.
"It's only because Jadelynn-"
"She what?" Kaiden asks her, "She told her the truth. She told Dalia the truth. I deserve this, it's my fault."
"No it's not," the Queen tries to touch him.
Kaiden looks at her for a moment, and nods, a sad smile forming on his lips, "you're right. It's not my fault. It's yours."
"What?" We all wonder.
"You knew, didn't you?" Kaiden asks her as his mother glares at him. "You knew it was Jadelynn. You were the one that told me not to line her up. You were the one that took the idea that it could had been her out of my head by calling her immature and reminding me of all the times she was a pain in my butt and telling me that her mom would probably put her up to saying she was the one as yet another scheme to have her be queen."
"What?" I whisper to myself in shock.
"You knew she had been my first choice," the more he speaks, the more I am left flabbergasted, "and you knew I was going to be right."
The Queen sighs, "of course I knew it was her. Just like her mother."
"Catherine?" My mom is in shock.
"Don't try to act shocked," I had a feeling that there was more to this than I thought as I look between my mother and my godmother.
"Not this again," the King goes to sit down at the nearest seat.
"What is going on?" Magdalena asks curiously.
The Queen lets out an exasperate sigh, "your father and I were in an arrange marriage."
"We know," Natalio states. "What does that have to do with Aunt Katerina?"
"She's not your aunt," the Queen hisses.
"We know," Natalio rolls his eyes, "but she's dad's best friend. We just-"
"She's not your aunt," the Queen repeats, "she just so happened to be really close friends with the Crown Prince and the Newland Duke heir. So close that she had BOTH eating from the palms of her hand. Even after I married Estefano, he still hung on to every word SHE said. I was no one in front of her. Me, the future Queen of Kostas."
"So you made me hate Jadelynn because you hate her mom?"
"And because I want her nowhere near my home," the Queen glares at me, "the little slut probably got under your sheets and pregnant on purpose."
"Yeah," I glare back at her, "that's why I tried so hard to stay away. I want nothing to do with you, or your family. Now more than ever. I'm glad I went away. God knows what you would had done to me had I stayed."
"I can't believe you," I roll my eyes at Kaiden, "you're one to talk. You're so gullible." Kaiden doesn't reply to me, "I'm so done. I really can't deal with this anymore."
"I'm disappointed in you mother," I hear Kaiden say as I walk out if the foyer and head to the stairs.
I find Dalia in my father’s room, asleep in his arms. I smile at the picture in front of me.
"They seem to get along," I jump and turn around, backing away when I see how close I am to Kaiden.
"Yeah," I whisper and motion him to step back. We walk out of the room, me closing the door quietly.
"I am sorry," Kaiden looks at me in the eyes, "I should have never paid attention to my mother."
"No, you shouldn't had," I tell him.
"I know it's going to be hard to earn your trust and Dalia's, but I want to try. Will you let me?"
I heave a sigh, and look him dead in the eyes. As a kid I was always able to tell what he's thinking. It took practice; he knows how to mask his expressions very well. But there was always something in his eyes that would give his true feelings away. That night, now that I think about it, he avoided eye contact as much as possible. But looking at them now, there was a hint of sadness in his eyes.
I bite my bottom lip, and hold a smirk when I see his eyes travel there. I couldn't forget the promise I made myself and even though he was played by his mother, it was still him who insulted me and hurt me.
"I won't deny you the rights you have as a father," I tell him, "I've already deprived you of your daughter for long enough. You can try to create some form of relationship with her."
"What about you?" He asks, his eyes begging me to forgive him. "Can I create some form of relationship with you?"
"I'm sorry," I tell him, "I don't hate you. But I'm not that naive little girl anymore. I've learn my lesson. It was ridiculous of me to think you knew it was me behind that mask."
"I had a feeling."
"What?"
"I don't think I'm helping my case, but since the cat is out of the bag for everything," Kaiden sighs, "I thought that it was you. I hoped that it was you."
"What?"
"I wouldn't had known how to describe it back then," he begins to explain, "but after you left... At first, I didn't really think about it since I was under the impression that it wasn't you. But after the first month I started missing you." I raise my eyebrows at him in surprise, "and as time passed, I missed you more. I don't know what this means to you, but I was going to call off the wedding."
"What? Why?"
"Because it wasn't the same," he replies, "it didn't feel right. I just couldn't marry her."
"But Maggie said that you were upset."
"I was." He answers, "I was upset because I knew that my hunch had been right. That you had been right. And I had treated you horribly."
"You did," I felt bad saying it, but it was the truth.
"And I am forever going to be sorry."
"I know."
"I love you Jadelynn," his words leave me in shock. "I love you and I'm sorry I didn't value you when I could."
I had no words to say. I just stare at him in shock and completely flushed.
He steps closer to me, moving my hair from my face in the process, "please allow me to make it up to you."
The moment my eyes met his loving ones my mind left the rest of my body. I wrapped my arms around his neck, "Prove it."
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**What do you guys think of this chapter? good, bad, so-so? plz comment, tell me what you think.
Aso, this story is almost over, maybe a few more chapters, 5 at the very least. hopefully I'll finish it by the end of the summer. But we'll see....
Take Care,
Astrix Star