The only thing you could do was stare at him from where you were standing, seeing his chest raising and falling with every breath he took. He looked so peaceful, as if he didn’t have a single thing to worry about. The truth was a big weight on top of your shoulders, you wanted to shake him awake and yell him everything you had been able to figure out last night. How everything had fallen into place, how you had completed the puzzle you had been looking for for months now. But you knew that you weren’t the one who was supposed to tell him, you weren’t the person to let him know who his real mother was. Wouldn’t she want him to know? If you had to believe her then she had done more than once everything it took to protect her son, but then why hadn’t she told him about her yet? There were so many secrets, so many problems, it was driving you wild. It was like your body and mind couldn’t get any rest, not even for a minute. You were working on overdrive and you had no idea how long you would still be able to take it. This man, you cared for him so much and you wanted him to be happy. It wouldn’t take long before he would notice that you weren’t sleeping next to him anymore. Within a few minutes he would sense that you were gone, missing the heat coming from your sleeping form, the weight from your body against his. He would come looking for you, you were sure he would, because you had never disappeared from the bed before without telling him where you were going. But right now you needed this moment, and you couldn’t tell him where you were going. He would figure it out sooner or later, but at least then he wouldn’t have been able to stop you. 

So you turned around on your feet, feeling your soles hit the tiles of the room before reaching for the door and pulling at the handle. A soft gasp lingered through the room and you quickly turned your head to see that the prince was already starting to move under his covers. It made you smile, knowing that he was so aware of you that even the first moment you weren’t with him, he would know that something was off. Even in his sleep he was attached to you, aware of everything you did. Before he would open his eyes and see you standing there you slipped through the small crack of the door, coming face to face with the guard standing at your door. He shot you a suspicious look when you closed the door ever so softly behind yourself, and you quickly made sure to smile innocently at him. “If the prince asks for me, tell him that I’m visiting his aunt.” You muttered, making sure your voice wouldn’t be audible at the other side of the wood. As a reply the guard nodded, but you could feel his eyes on you as you stepped down the stairs, reaching the big hallway. Because it was this early in the morning there were many servants walking around, all trying to finish everything before the royal family would wake up. It was obvious that they hadn’t expected you yet, because some of them seemed startled as they bowed for you and tried not to show you that they weren’t ready yet. But you just nodded politely at them before walking towards one of the side room, pulling the doors open and disappearing in the light. There were so many windows in this room and the sun was already standing high, falling right on your face, warming your cheeks. For a second you could only close your eyes and enjoy the feeling of freedom and safeness which you hadn’t felt for a very long time. 

Someone cleared their throat behind you, and your reflexes were quick to react as you spun around, coming face to face with the woman you had seen last night. Suddenly an awkward feeling came over you, how were you supposed to call her? Were you supposed to bow for her? After all she was the mother of the next king, only he didn’t know it yet. Though she seemed to leave formalities behind as she took a few steps towards you, but stopped once there was a decent distance in between the two of you. Maybe she feared you more than you thought, which was a good thing. You still didn’t know if you trusted her, you needed to give that some more thought. “Thank you for wanting to meet me here, your majesty. It mustn’t have been easy for you to sneak away from your fiancee.” She started, her eyes pointing straight at you, as if she was trying to show you that she also wasn’t afraid of you, and that she didn’t trust you neither. It was almost rude, but you decided to ignore it as you squeezed your eyes at her and laced your fingers together in front of yourself. You realized you must look like a child, standing here in your nightgown and on your bare feet, it almost made you blush. You were supposed to represent the future queen, but here you were, looking like a little girl in front of the mother of your soon to be husband. “Let’s hope it’s the last time you’ll ask me this. I don’t like to keep things from him.” You said, and you were sure that she could hear that you weren’t here to make friends. This woman was hiding so many things, how were you supposed to believe a single word she said? Who knew what other secrets she still had, but your gut told you to stay here and listen to what she had to say. She let out a deep sigh and walked around you to cross the room and stand by the window, where she stared outside. From the back she looked like a very normal woman, but from the way her shoulders hung you could tell that she was someone who had been through a lot of misery in her life. 

“I’ve called you here because I wanted to talk about something we both really care about, the wellbeing of my son. I can tell that you love him, I see it by the way you look at him.” She muttered, her back still turned to you as she spoke. For one reason or another you didn’t like it that she had studied you, or that she thought she knew anything about your feelings for the prince. She didn’t know you and you didn’t feel like she had the right to say those kind of things. But you swallowed your frustrations, because just like she had said, this wasn't about you, this was about the man who was now slowly waking up in his bed and sensed that you weren’t there with him. “I suppose that’s why you’re here then, for his wellbeing.” You said, walking over to her so that you could stand side by side, both facing the garden and seeing the servants preparing the last details for the wedding. There were still so many things that had to be taken care of, and here you were, not even having the time to worry about that right now. You could feel her gaze on you, but instead of looking at her your eyes followed the back of a maid who was walking away with some flowers in hand. “His wellbeing is all I ever cared about.” She made it sound like an accusation and you quickly felt attacked, so when you turned your head to look at her, you made sure to stare her down. “Then what are you doing here with me instead of telling him the truth?” Were you being too cold towards her? Should you show her some mercy because of everything she had been through? The woman tilted her head to the side, taking you in as if she was only seeing you for the first time. 

“He has been lied to his entire life and now that there’s finally someone here who is capable of telling him what”s truly going on, you’re wasting your time. For so long he’s thought that everything that happened is his fault, that he has done something to make his parents hate him. When his father told him that you were dead he was devastated. If he wants to solve this mess then he needs to know what’s happening around him, he needs to know where all of this hate is coming from. Now he is blaming himself and it’s killing him. He can’t believe that his parents would do something like that to him, his own flesh and blood, but it’s all based on a lie! If you really cared about him you would tell him! The royal family is still out there and his mother is still trying to destroy us, if we want to stop them then we have to stop this and figure everything out. We don’t have much time left. They didn’t get us last time, but I’m sure that as soon as the queen sees her chance, she’ll try again and she won’t stop until we’re all dead. Is that what you want?” Your heart was beating like crazy inside of your chest and even though it wasn’t warm inside of the room you could feel the sweat forming und