Page 40 of The Broken Queen

Jumping back to where I was, hitting the bag, letting my knuckles and hands bleed until I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. I had tried my best to figure out what they meant, but I couldn’t figure it out either. I did know one thing out of all of this, the King murdered my parents to get information. He felt threatened, and got rid of them so he could what? Stop someone from taking his Kingdom?

My heart ached in my chest, my parents were gone because of the King. They raised me, loved me, and gave me a good life. They supported every decision and wanted me to be happy. They were good people, and he murdered them in cold fucking blood. A wave of emotions swirled inside of me. I wanted to grieve, to get revenge, to break something. There was a huge part of me that felt guilt at not being able to help them. I should’ve helped them. Why didn’t I? How could I sit there and listen to their screams?

I was a teenager; what help could I have given them? Then I remembered something. Dad’s eyes met mine, and they somehow told me not to interfere. To let it play out. Why? What was he wanting me to know?

As my hands kept moving, I wondered who they were talking about. We moved here because dad wanted to work for the King, but it made me wonder if that was all a ploy to hide why we were truly there in the first place.

What were they up to? Was it worth risking their life? Was it worth leaving their son behind? I was so angry with them and yet so sad that they were gone. My emotions were raging, and I didn’t know how to cope with the bullshit.

“Want to tell me what’s going on, son?” Lewis piped in once again and I didn’t know how to answer him. He worked for the King and Queen, but he was only loyal to Raven and the Queen. His brown eyes always showed some type of defiance towards the King when he talked, as if he didn’t respect him. When it came to the Queen or Raven though, he had their back through and through.

I stopped and tried to catch my breath. “How well did you know my parents?”

I thought he was going to say something, but he was quiet. Too quiet.

“Well enough.” He hid his emotions with a mask so I couldn’t read what he was thinking.

“They made me leave my home to come here and work for the royal family. They never told me why we had to pick up and leave so fast, and I’m assuming you know more than you’re letting on.”

He pursed his lips, his kind brown eyes showing signs of regret. “What are you hiding? What were they hiding from me?”

“I can’t give you the answers you desire, yet, but I can tell you that they were here for you. No one else. The rest, well, I’m sure you will find out on your own soon enough.”

He placed a piece of paper down on the white plastic table near him, gave me a pointed look, and walked out of the room.

Sweat dripped down my face, and I wondered if I should open up a can of worms by reading that paper. My heart threatened to beat out of my chest. I had a feeling that the small piece of paper was going to change my life somehow. It had already changed drastically in the last year; seeing my parents murdered before my eyes, Raven’s pregnancy.

My shoulders rose and fell with my ragged breaths as I wiped the sweat away with my towel. I gravitated towards thepaper, my fingers itching to reach out and touch it. The small gym was quiet, not a soul in here except for myself. The lights were dimmed, not super bright but not dark either.

I picked up the paper and sucked in a ragged breath. I could read what was on it and everything would be fine. Raven and I were going to have a baby together, I would eventually take her away from this place and we would be a family. I just had to get her out from under her father’s grasp.

As my eyes read over the few short lines on the paper and the DNA samples at the bottom, my heart dropped.

I was right. This insignificant paper would indeed change my life forever.

Lewis had my back that day. I think initially, he was trying to find a roundabout way of telling me the truth without telling me so he wouldn’t be compromised. What I found out that day changed everything. Lars had no idea I knew the truth and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible, because if Raven found out, her whole viewpoint on everything would change. I would eventually lose her...for good. I didn’t know how to feel about that.

My eyes drifted from the ground to Lewis’s confused ones. “He has our back, trust me on this.”

While he was a man of very few words, he had always looked out for the three of us. Raven, Julianna and myself would always be in good hands as long as he was around.

I only hoped he would still be on my side even after he learned what I had planned. I was going to take Lars down for good, even if that meant hurting Raven in the process.

Chapter Twenty-One

Raven

“Why won’t you just tell him how you feel?” Anna’s perky voice interrupted me from my thoughts.

The meeting with the wedding planner went well, or as good as it could be. She took complete control of the planning, which was perfect because I wanted no part in planning a wedding I didn’t ask for.

The sky was gloomy, there was no sun out today. The clouds were covering the blue sky, and they were lower to the ground meaning a storm could pop up at any minute. I removed my eyes from the menu and looked at her.

“What are you talking about?”

People were gawking at us, the up and coming Queen out of her stone cold castle among the common folk in Amendia. Father had kept me locked away so long that it was hard for me to get out and be a normal human being. Anna had mentioned getting coffee before we headed back and it sounded amazing. Plus, I was tired from being talked to death by the wedding planner.

My arm was covered so no one could see there was an incident. I had to be on my best behavior at all times so it wouldn’t come back to the crown. The “common folk” as Father put it, could never see me weak.

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