Page 42 of Maid for the Alien Prince

“My mother died at a young age. I never knew her. I never knew she came from a royal family, and although my father suspected it, I don’t think he really knew either. Then, about six months ago, my father succumbed to a cough that he’d had for the past two years. We tried to get medicine but couldn’t afford it. It came down to choosing between eating or him getting the medicine. He always chose the food. He didn’t want me to suffer because of his illness. Sometimes I stole the money and ran to the pharmacy to get the medicine anyway, and although he was angry at me, he soon forgave me.

“His cough got better… for a while, at least. But we couldn’t keep buying the medicine he needed. Eventually, he fully succumbed to it, unable to breathe between wheezing gasps. I worked his shift at the factory, wasting what little time he had left, when I should have been at his side. But it was the only way we could survive. I wasn’t there when he died.”

Tears shivered in his eyes and he turned away from me. Not that he was really looking at me anyway—his mind stretched back years to the origin of all that pain and anger buried deep inside him.

“After his funeral, Ges came to me and told me I was descended from the royal family. I didn’t believe him, but I went through with the DNA tests and when they came back positive, I realized he was telling the truth. I saw a way I could get back at the royal family.”

“Why did you need to get back at them?” I asked. “Up until then, they hadn’t done anything to you that they hadn’t done to anyone else.”

“Yes, they did. Some of them knew the truth. I believe they all knew but I will never know for sure. They knew my birthright, they knew the inheritance I should have had. They knew I should have been able to afford to hire the best doctors and surgeons, to pay for any medicine I needed to save my father. I could have saved my mother too. Instead, they remained silent. They told me nothing. And they were willing to let me die the same grisly fate my father had. I’m certain he caught it from all the dust in the factory he had worked in for the past thirty years.

“They stole him from me. They stole my time with my mother, my father, and every opportunity that I might have had. They took it all. Then, when the truth came out about who I truly was, they tried to deny me that too. They used every trick in the book, exploited every loophole they could take advantage of. They might have gotten away with it too, if we hadn’t bribed the judge into making a fair and honest decision.

“That’s why I want to destroy the royal Alwon name. That’s why I don’t care if someone steals from me or this house, because every item they take is another piece of the royal family’s respectability chipped away. Let it all burn.”

It was a lot to take in.

And I realized then why my father had felt comfortable stealing from the palace—because the new Prince no longer cared. Because, to his mind, he was not a real member of the royal family anyway, and everything he had inherited was tainted with their greed and dishonesty.

Tainted with the death of his mother and father.

Still, it didn’t feel right to me, like he wasn’t making the most of the situation. His anger was so visceral, so real, that I wondered if he could ever see through it.

I cleared my throat. “My father was manager at his palace for twenty years. During all that time, he had fired more servants than I can count for stealing. Then, after you inherited the palace, something changed. I think it’s the change in how the palace is run, that he felt okay with taking your heirlooms.”

“What did he need the money for?”

Now it was my turn to look away from Rayaw. For an operation to fix my hip. But I didn’t want to share that with him, to lower myself in his eyes, just as he felt lowered in the royal family’s eyes.

After learning the truth about me, he might not want me anymore. That wasn’t something I was willing to lose.

Not right now, at least.

Perhaps later, once our deal was over, I might tell him the truth. But not until then.

“On bills and… other things,” I said evasively. “My point is that by being here under you, you drew out the worst in him and the other servants. By allowing them to steal, you’re doing them a disservice, and doing more harm to them than you are to the royal family.”

“But if your father hadn’t stolen from me, you would not have returned to pay off the debt. Then we would never have met.”

He squeezed my hand. “Yes,” I admitted. “I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.”

He frowned. “Silver lining? But all clouds are purple.”

“On this planet. Not back on Earth.”

“A silver lining… Hm. I think I would like to see that one day.”

“The expression means that even in darkness, there is some light.”

He smiled at that and kissed the back of my hand. “Yes, great light.”

“You know,” I said, “when I read the news reports about how a new royal had been discovered, that you would be taking your rightful place in this palace, I had been skeptical. I think it was a common feeling at the time. I mean, I grew up here. I know as much about the palace as anyone. My father was Head of the Household for more than twenty years.”

I shut out the angry emotions that surged within me at the thought he had been kicked out for a single act of indiscretion and continued on.

“And then I realized the royal family really hadn’t treated us well. We are slaves to them, nothing more. There was never any chance of rising up, of improving our station in life beneath their bootheel. We were born as servants and we would die as servants, and no matter how hard we try, we will never step up the ladder of success. It is always impossible.

“But then you came along. A true half-blood prince, denied his rightful place in the royal hierarchy, and I began to hope—we all did—that maybe you would be different, that you would not be like the other royals. You wouldn’t blindly take advantage but might actually give back to the people.”

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