Page 69 of The Broken Queen

I closed my eyes and just listened. I was getting tired of fighting everything and everyone around me. My body was so heavy from all the stress that was placed upon me. I didn’t want to marry Zeke. I wanted so badly to be with Slade. I wanted a future for us; to be able to raise Julianna together as a family. Not this separated monstrosity and fear of whether or not I would get to keep my daughter.

“Open your eyes, Rav.”

I opened them, and he cupped my jaw. “I need you to go through with this wedding.”

I tried to pull back, but he didn’t let me. “Hear me. I need you to go through with this wedding. All the way up until you’re about to say I do.”

I held my breath...

”And then I’ll make my move.”

There were so many questions I had for him, but I just nodded.

“You saw everything in that file I gave you, but I don’t think you truly understood what you were looking at.”

I thought back to that moment, the moment he had handed me the file. My mind was going crazy, trying to think of how I could be free, that I never processed the DNA results.

And then it hit me...

Father wasn’t my biological father.

He was Slade’s.

My mind started racing, and I collapsed against him.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Raven

I sat up in bed with the file, looking through it while Slade sat next to me. We were both dressed, and I was trying to figure out how I was going to cope with this. The DNA results were staring me in the face. The DNA testing results indicated that Lars Alston is not excluded as the biological father of Slade King, with a probability of paternity at 99.99%. I read that and re-read it several times. He was Slade’s father...did that mean we were...half siblings?

Gross.I froze, thinking about the possibility. The things we had done...

“What’s wrong?” He must’ve noticed the change in me.

“Are we...” I gulped, not able to spit it out. “Are we siblings?” My eyes moved to his and his widened. I don’t know if he had even thought about that.

He shook his head and licked his lips. “No.” He rustled through the file and found some more results. The DNA testing results indicated that Lars Alston is excluded as the biological father of Raven West, with a probability of paternity at 0.00%.

My body relaxed. So we weren’t siblings.Thank God.I still couldn’t believe it. All this time I thought Father was truly my dad. All this time I questioned what I did to make him hate me. Or how a father could be so cruel to his daughter.It was all a lie.

“What exactly does this all mean?”

My thoughts ran wild.If Father wasn’t my real father, then who was mine? Why was Mother not with him? Did she cheat on him? Was he a bad guy? Did he not want me?I continued to flip through the papers as he started talking. “My adoptiveparents were friends with yours growing up. I never had the chance to get the full story from them before they died, but I guess the King paid them off because they found he murdered my real mother because she didn’t want to have any ties to the mafia. She wanted a normal life.”

I frowned. “Then why didn’t he just keep you? If you’re the heir to the throne, he should’ve wanted to keep you around and get you trained up to be King.”

He shrugged. “I’m assuming he didn’t want the reminder of her around, and thought it would be better for them to just take me and raise me elsewhere.”

“What brought them back here?”

“Lewis said they got tied up in the King’s bullshit and lies, and thought the perfect way to get back at him was to bring me home. I assume he never wanted me near you because he knew his lies would eventually catch up to him. He wanted you to be the Queen, to marry someoneelse,so he wouldn’t have to face his past. I think they were going to tell me the truth, and that’s what got them killed.”

It was such a weird reality, knowing my whole life was a lie. That Slade’s life was a lie. I glanced up at him, and wondered how he felt about it.How did he cope with the news?He was a closed book most of the time, “How are you handling all this?”

He swung his legs over the bed and stood up. “I’ll feel better when it’s over and he’s out of power. He’s corrupt and doesn’t need to be ruling the country.”

I placed the file down and glanced at my phone. It was noon, time for me to meet Anna at the dress shop. “I have to go.”

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