The Choice

Maria watched Arthur leave but made no attempt to stop him after he had pulled away from her.

She felt like the worst person in the world and wanted to comfort him like he had for her, but she did not know how she could, so she let him go.

She had seen the pain in his eyes, and it shattered her to see a man that was usually so confident suddenly look so broken.

It also hurt her because he was right-- part of her really was falling in love with him, and she hated it.

Maria wanted to fall in love with the type of man who was innocent enough to make wishes on coins and throw them into fountains, not the type of man who teased and embarrassed her for his own amusement.

Even still, she had come to see these last few days that there was so much more to Arthur than what she first thought.

He knew how to be there for her when she needed him, and he made sure that she was taken care of whenever it was just the two of them.

He certainly was not the worst person Maria could end up with; in fact, she could tell that he really did appreciate and admire her for the person she was, which was more than she could say about his brother, Julien, or even Rafael.

But then there was Henri, who also occupied Maria's heart and mind.

He seemed to admire and cherish her just as much as Arthur did, and he liked her for exactly who she was.

Maria thought she would consider herself lucky if she had fallen in love with one man, yet here she was falling in love with two of them.

Not that it really mattered, though.

She had seen the pain in Arthur's face, and she had been the one to cause it; she wasn't sure that she would be able to fix it, or if she even wanted to.

Maybe it was better if she could convince her family to choose Henri for her, and she could let Arthur go knowing that he probably hated her now.

It would be easier for both of them to move on that way, she thought.

Maria, feeling totally spent from the day, laid down on the floor in the middle of the library, and looked up through the glass ceiling.

She tried to clear her mind, and focused on the changing colors of the sky as it went from light, to sunset, to dark.

When the sky and the room around her went black, she knew that she had to get up and go face everyone in the dining hall.

She needed to be the one to explain where Leonardo had gone, and she had something else that she had decided that she needed to say to all of the suitors, too.

Maria made her way back down the spiral stairs and across the hall to the dining area.

She was tired and ready to be done with the day after the emotional rollercoaster she had gone on, but she was not in the clear yet.

She walked into the dining hall and immediately looked for Jason.

He was standing by their parents and when she locked eyes on him, she immediately went up to him and grabbed his arm to pull him away.

"Mar, what are you doing?!" he asked, shocked because of how rough she was being and because it made him think that he was in trouble somehow.

When they were far enough away from everyone else to talk without anyone being able to hear them, she let go of his arm and looked him dead in the eyes before she asked, "Do you promise to back me up no matter what I say?"

"What is this ab--" he started but was immediately cut off by Maria.

"Do you promise?" she asked over him with assertiveness.

"Of course," he said, but at this point he was really concerned about whatever his sister had planned.

Satisfied, Maria walked to the table to take her seat, and sat down without looking at anyone.

The staff brought over everyone's meals after everyone had taken a seat, and Maria tried to work up the nerve to say what she had to say.

Before she could start, she heard Rafael say, "Shouldn't we wait for Leonardo before we begin?"

On hearing that, Maria felt her body go cold, as she knew that this had to be the time she let everyone know what had transpired earlier that day.

She cleared her throat, looked up, and immediately locked eyes with the man who was sitting across from her.

It was Arthur, and he no longer had the pain in his eyes that he had had just hours before when Maria broke his heart, but he had the typical deadpan expression that he usually reserved for the nightly dinners.

Her heart pulled to be near him just from the basic capturing of his eyes, and her stomach twisted with guilt.

Maria swallowed hard and broke their gaze before she stood up and opened her mouth to speak, "Actually, Leonardo will not be joining us as he decided to leave the palace this morning".

"He WHAT?!" came the booming voice of the King, who had daggers coming from his eyes, "He left without warning? Without thanking us for housing him this last week?! What is the meaning of this?" he asked, staring at his daughter.

Maria looked at the King with a blank expression and said, "In lieu of attending our date today, he had left me a note saying that he could not see me as his wife, that I was not a woman he wanted to marry--" but she was cut off by the King.

"How DARE he! I swear if he ever crosses my path I wi--"

"Father, please," Jason interrupted.

Maria's face was now showing difficulty with holding back her emotions, so she was grateful that Jason had kept his word.

The King had turned bright red in anger, but he let out a breath and waved his arm at Maria to continue.

Maria turned back towards the rest of the men, and looked down at the table before she continued, "Admittedly, at first I felt humiliated, but after taking time to think about it, I'm grateful he made that decision. I don't think it would be fair to me and I don't think it would be fair to any of you either to be trapped in a marriage with a person you could not see yourself being with, because after all, marriages are life-long. I refuse to imprison any of you and be the reason for your suffering, and I just ask that you do the same for me. So, if any of you don't want to be here or have already decided that you cannot stand the thought of being married to me, I'm giving you an out to leave right now, no questions asked".

The room had turned so silent that Maria could hear her heart beating in her ears.

She breathed hard to calm herself, and closed her eyes out of fear of what everyone's responses would be.

After a moment, she heard a chair move across the ground, so she opened her eyes and turned her head towards the sound.

Rafael had gotten up and looked at the princess with a pained expression.

He reached for her hand and brought it up to his lips to give it a kiss before he dropped it and looked into her eyes as he said, "I'm sorry princess, I think I should go".

Maria had expected that if anyone was going to take advantage of the opportunity that it would be Rafael, but it did not make it hurt any less to be so openly rejected.

She felt tears sting her eyes, and she blinked hard to push them away before she nodded her head and forced her lips into a small smile.

Rafael nodded back, turned to bow at the King and Queen, and then left the room, and everyone in it, behind.

And then there were three.

Maria waited, and waited, but no one moved or made another sound, so she finally asked, "Anyone else?"

"I'm not leaving unless you ask me to," Henri answered.

She whipped her head towards him and saw the pain he felt for her in that moment.

"I'd like to stay," Julien said in a soft voice, and Maria turned to meet his gaze and offered him a courteous nod.

With that, she slowly looked in front of her at Arthur, who still held the same blank expression he had earlier, but Maria could see the glimmer of something behind his eyes.

In all honesty, she was terrified that he would want to leave, even if she still thought that it was what was best for them both.

She knew that she loved him, and as selfish as it was, she wanted the time to think of what to say to him to give them both the closure and proper goodbye that they would need.

Even though when she was in the library she had decided that it would be easier if he just hated her, looking at him now, she knew that she did not want him to, and she would use their boat date tomorrow to prepare them for their farewell.

She owed him that much, at least.

He stared at her for a moment with eyes that looked like they could see into her very soul before he responded simply, "I think you already know how I feel".

Maria felt her heart throb at Arthur's words, and she let out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding before she sat back down.

She picked up her silverware and started to eat, and everyone else looked around at each other before deciding to join her.

They ate in silence until Queen Kalli quietly said, just loud enough for everyone to hear, "I didn't care much for Leonardo".

With that, Jason started laughing and others slowly joined in too, causing the tension in the room to dissipate.

After that confession from the Queen, conversations started to pick up again and Maria felt Jason reach for her hand under the table and give it a squeeze before he returned to his food.