Catherine remained quiet. She looked down at her lap again as the queen stood up from her throne and walked over to where she was standing."I believe you know that I have never hated you."Catherine said nothing."I've come to realise that you haven't betrayed me because you're afraid of losing me. No, Catherine. You have done this because I deserve to live. And I think that I have come to realise what it means to be truly alive."Catherine glanced up at the queen and saw that she was smiling kindly at her. The queen gently placed her hand on Catherine's arm. "I'm sure you have many questions," the queen went on."but you mustn't worry. I will answer all of them."A small smile crept onto Catherine's lips. "Thank you," she murmured quietly."Now, you have been through hell these past few weeks. If you feel ready for some food and rest now, we can talk later. For now, though... we should get you ready to leave. I know that you must be hungry after all that you've done today."Catheri

Catherine froze in horror. No. No way. She was dreaming. This can't be real. Surely this wasn't real. Catherine slowly crept forward again, making sure she was careful not to be seen. She was only a few feet away now."I'm sorry. It seems that we didn't keep it a secret. We didn't have any choice though, Your Highness.""You didn't have a choice," her mother snapped angrily. "There has to have been something you could've done!""But you have to understand! She was too young for this," her father pleaded."No, Julian. I don't understand anything right now!" her mother shrieked. "I am sick of this. Sick of you. I can't believe that the king trusted you so much! Well, he should have. He should have never placed faith in you at all!""But, Your Highness! You know how hard it was for me to find someone like her!""Enough!" her mother shouted as she shot her husband a cold glare. "This isn't helping. All it does is cause me pain. If I could have my way, I'd kill both of you.""Kill... me

Catherine gave her a small smile. "It's alright. I'm just a bit stressed out. You know, I haven't seen my parents in weeks, and I feel like I can't breathe sometimes. And the whole time, I've been wondering what has happened to them... if they are okay... if they have any idea that the baby was theirs."The queen frowned as she rested her hand against the side of Catherine's neck and tilted her head slightly, examining her features. Catherine felt her eyes widen as she realized that the queen was actually checking if she had a fever. The queen quickly dropped her hand as if she was burned when she found that Catherine wasn't fevered."I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Please forgive me, Catherine."Catherine blinked rapidly in confusion. Why was she apologizing to her? The queen didn' t need to apologize, she thought. In fact, it was the other way around. If anything, Catherine should be apologizing to her."Don't worry about it," Catherine replied. "It's fine. Really. I don't

"Good," the queen responded coldly before turning back around to stare at the reflection of herself in the mirror.Catherine stared down at her hands. The moment she heard the click of the queen locking the bedroom door behind her, she quickly pushed herself away from the bed.Tears started rolling down her cheeks as she rushed over to the open window and flung herself outside, falling to the ground below. She landed hard upon the grass, causing her dress to rip slightly as she struggled to catch her breath. She held her stomach in an attempt to stop the flow of blood from escaping from it.She laid there for a while, letting everything wash over her. Eventually, however, the pain in her stomach subsided and she slowly got back to her feet. Then she climbed back onto her bed and lay down on her side as she hugged the pillow she used to comfort herself every night. She closed her eyes, resting them for just a minute. When she opened her eyes, she realized that she needed to start wri

There are only four days left. I'm sure that you will come around sooner or later. Maybe she won't hate me if I tell her about us. Maybe she'll agree to become my wife after hearing that I love her. Who knows? I hope that happens! Bye, Princess Catherine. I wish you good luck in finding your happiness. I'm sure you deserve it. I'm sure you'll get married one day. Hopefully, I'll be there to cheer you on from the sidelines. Until then, I wish you good luck and God bless you. Sincerely yours, King Dexter.“So what are we supposed to play?” Julian asked as they both sat down on the bench in front of the pond. The two of them had played football before, but they hadn’t really gotten much chance to do that lately. Now that things were starting to settle down around the palace, they didn’t have a lot of free time to hang out outside like they used to.Catherine shrugged and reached into her pocket for her ball. “I don’t know,” she admitted as she dropped the ball and watched it roll aw