The Truth of the Matter

Olivia's body refused to obey her. Wait. This was a dream right? Everything felt so real, but that just meant it was a lucid dream. Right? King Adarian chuckled. Her body looked up at him. When she did she realized once again just how hot this guy was. Her body must have agreed with her, because what came out of her mouth was, "So handsome."

He looked at her with a haziness gathering in his eyes. He leaned in and kissed her right next to her lips. From what everyone around her could see, it looked like he had kissed her lips. She looked at him confused. 'Did he just kiss me? I must be hallucinating. This is an effect of being drugged right?'

"You seduced me," King Adarian said huskily. "You would do this even in front of your fiance?" He looked pointedly in a direction while she remained held in his lap. She followed his gaze. There stood a man who; though not as hot as the king; was still very gorgeous.

This man stood there looking at her accusingly. 'Oscar!' She heard the voice in her head again. 'He's come… He can save us. He looks shiny. Iss the king sshiney?' She turned back to the king a little fast. And her body swayed.

This was bad. The voice in her head was muddled. Olivia wanted to take the wheel on this dream and end it as soon as possible. She could feel the heat from the man's body. Not to mention he was gorgeous. And he was holding onto her, keeping her in his lap. Did she dream this because she was frustrated?

Olivia felt her body grow heavy. Suddenly she was immersed in darkness. Had she just fainted?

…

…

Olivia woke to someone removing her clothes. She tried to push them away, but her limbs were so heavy. No wait! She couldn't move. She was paralyzed! What was happening!?

"There, there," Olivia heard the gentle tone saying to her. Her world went dark again.

…

…

Have you ever had a dream within a dream? This was what was happening right now. In the original, Olivia was supposed to be the bad sister. As a reader she hated Olivia Praxis. It was the classic story of raising a snake in the grass. But now Olivia Praxis's life was playing out before her like a dream.

After entering the Praxis household at age 8 Olivia had tried to fix Graciella's diet. She had asked the kitchen to help her put more vegetables in her new sister's food. She was treated just like a second daughter to the Praxis family, so she thought she could help Graciella get better. But somehow the vegetables were rotten when they came to Graciella's room. Olivia was then told by Marquis Praxis and his wife that she was not to try and fix their daughter's diet again. Olivia was no longer treated with affection like she had been, but they gave her a lot of money to spend, and many gifts. They spoiled her if you just looked at the spending.

When Olivia turned 10, Marquise Praxis needed to set up an engagement with one of his daughters for political reasons. If he could join his family to the Caliban name, then his family name would be attached to the king. Graciella was not happy with this union. She was the daughter of the Praxis family. This stray cat that their family had taken in should not be able to reap the benefits of the Praxis family name! Graciella decided to tame Olivia. Olivia needed to learn her place, like the maids before her had done. She would make sure the girl knew what would happen if she stepped out of line. The day Olivia was to meet Oscar for the first time, Graciella called Olivia to her quarters. There she had a maid take a drug. The maid went crazy and started trying to hit everything. She scratched one of the other maids faces pretty badly. The maid who was hurt was scared and ran from Graciella's quarters as Graciella's innocent laughter filled the room. Three other maids held back the crazed maid and knocked her out.

Olivia, horrified, ran out of Graciella's quarters. She had stopped by her own quarters first and grabbed some medicine she knew worked well on scratches. Then she went off to find the maid.

The Ducal Caliban family arrived as Olivia ran out of Graciella's rooms. They were unaware of anything going on within the home. Earlier the Marquis had ordered the girls maids to take the girls out to the garden. They would have the children meet there. While the Adults met indoors, they had some other maids lead the future Duke out to the garden where he would meet his future bride. There Oscar ran into the crying Graciella.

Graciella said how awful it had been, one of Olivia's maid had scratched Graciella's maids, and now her beautiful maid would have a scar. Olivia shouldn't have made her maid do that. She just didn't understand what was going on! Oscar comforted the crying Graciella for a moment. Then he went off to find his so-called fiance. If she had truly done as Graciella had said, then he would ask his father to cancel the engagement.

Oscar found Olivia putting a salve on the maid. "Keep it clean," Olivia said softly. "I'm so sorry that Graciella did this to you. Are you sure you don;t want to tell our parents?" The maid shook her head in panic, "No miss, it was just an accident." Oscar had seen Graciella right before this. The way she had looked so aggrieved over the situation had let him know this was not her fault. He was half convinced that it was Olivia's fault. But now… looking at how gentle Olivia was being with the maid, showed that Olivia was likely not responsible either.

The maid had said it was an accident. Though this was not something he could resolve, and the maid seemed to be fine, this event still tainted the meeting of the young fiance's.

The three of them would often visit each other, and each time the girls were very amiable. Though Olivia seemed to distance herself from Graciella. It was almost like she was afraid of her.

Olivia was 13 a year before her debut. She was to get a new wardrobe to reflect that she was getting older. When the tailor arrived with all their designs, Graciella picked out all of Olivia's clothing. She only picked the most expensive and gaudy designs. Graciella claimed it was because she wanted only the best for her beloved sister, and Olivia was so good to her, by letting her choose. The tailor was happy because she had made such a huge sale. It didn't matter too much that the styles chosen for Olivia should have been for an older girl. The Marquis and his wife approve of the wardrobe once they heard that Graciella was the one who had chosen it for her sister. Their daughter was such a good girl.

When Olivia turned 14 right after her Debut, Graciella made Oscar fall for her by playing the victim saying Olivia tried to feed her poisoned chocolate. "I'm not sick anymore. Maybe she thinks if I'm not sick she will be sent back." Graciella looked up at Oscar guiltily. "She's just not confident in this household yet."

"It's been years since she came, and she knows your parents would never send her away. They spoil her too much. Look at the clothes she got for her Debut." Then he gestured to Graciella's understated outfit, "Now look at yours. It doesn't cast nearly as much."

"Oscar this is just the style that suits me," Graciella looked down embarrassed.

The truth of the matter was, Olivia had been innocent the entire time. Her sister had set up an elaborate series of framing her, that would cause it to look like Olivia was a villain. She had a feeling that what she had witnessed was just the tip of a very large iceberg. Olivia was not even free to choose her own wardrobe. This was also chosen by her sister, the so called innocent heroine. Even though she knew that history was always written by the victor, Olivia did not expect this to be true of fiction as well.

She knew how the book went, and she knew that Olivia had forced her fiance to remain with her and marry her, in spite of her having seduced the King. But now that she had seen the event unfold before herself, she knew. Olivia had been drugged, and this was what caused it to look like Olivia seduced the King.

…

…

Olivia could feel something cool and wet touching her. It was grazing her face gently. She didn't know what was going on. She could hear the steady speaking from last night. And She was slowly able to open her eyes.

"We just got to get this fever out of you. Miss? Are you awake?"

Olivia nodded. She still couldn't move of her own free will.

"Who…?" Not to worry Miss, I'm one of the palace maids.

"The palace?" 'How did I get to the palace?' Olivia was frustrated. She wanted to control this body, and she wanted to think her own thoughts, and she wanted to speak her mind!

"His majesty brought you here to take care of you. He wanted his physicians to take a look at you."

"My sister…" Olivia could hear that this body wanted to apologize to the King immediately. This body was still unaware of who was drugged. The king or Lady Lowenheim. Either way, she was unable to stop that evil thing from trying to destroy a relationship.

"Was she at the ball last night too?" The maid asked curiously.

"Yes," Olivia felt the body being angry. Her body moved to sit up, but pain came through. She winced.

The maid smiled at her as she helped her sit. "Take it slowly. You had a nasty fever last night. I won't be surprised if you stay sore for a day or two."

King Adarian walked into the room. Olivia's body reacted immediately, throwing the blanket that had fallen to her waist over her shoulders to cover her chest as she cried out in shock. "Ah!"

"Don't fret I already saw everything last night." He smirked at her as he came closer. "Don't you remember seducing me Lady Olivia?"

"I-"Olivia heard herself say. 'I didn't though! What am I supposed to say? I'm sorry your majesty, I really didn't have that intention as I was drugged? Pile that on top of the fact that he was either drugged, or almost drugged and I'm going to be killed!' She looked at him with wide eyes, 'Just let him think I seduced him then! It's the safest option.' "...I was drunk" She finished her sentence and looked down. She still held the blanket to her chest. 'Did we really do IT last night?' Olivia Carter remembered hearing that after you do it for the first time, your body will be sore. Olivia Praxis blushed. She could feel King Adarian's eyes on her. "Did we…?" She didn't continue. She really couldn't ask.

"Did we... what?" He asked.