Chapter 9

“What are you talking about?”

Ashton scoffs and gets up and shouts, “Look at you pretending like your mother, huh.” Did he just say, my mother? This means he knows something about my mother. My mother whom I don’t even remember if I met her. After looking around, all the people were staring at us and I knew I can’t talk about this here. I don’t know if it was my instincts or what but my magic automatically took us both somewhere in the middle of nowhere. There were only high mountains around us.

Ashton was so surprised at this that he fell. After he came to his senses, he shouted, “What the hell is this?” I didn’t care about him being startled or whatever. The only thing I care about is I am finally getting a clue to find my mother. “Just quit acting already. You already know that I am a princess and so eventually you would’ve guessed that I have magic as well. I can’t bear to talk about this matter there at a café where a bunch of people are going to enjoy our show. Now you got your answer so now it’s my turn to ask. What do you know about my mother?”

He looked at me like I was insane but I don’t care about that. He finally opened his mouth after staring at me for 5 minutes, “Your mother also lied to us about you not killing my brother, Richard. She told us that you didn’t kill her but my brother, Nicholas saw you using your magic with his own eyes. My dad told your mom to just speak the truth and he won’t do anything but your mother kept lying until the very end. When we took the case to court so she disappeared with the dead body of Richard and then we tried to find you but you also disappeared.”

I didn’t realize that my tears were already rolling down. I finally knew where was it all wrong. I sat down on the rough grassy surface and he sat down as well. I wiped my tears and started, “All that you all are thinking is wrong. Look, I was just 2 at that time. I don’t remember what happened and I am sure that even what you are telling me right now is told to you by your family. My family didn’t even tell me about all this, it’s just that when I was 15 I heard my parents talking about how I keep my worries to myself and that my real mother was also like that. At that time I got to know that the person I call mother is not my mother. I decided to keep this a secret from them and find my mother on my own. I have been finding her for over 6 years. Now about me killing your brother so yeah that is not possible because there are some rules for using our magic. If we kill anyone with our magic so our magic disappears right away. We lose our magic and I still have mine. So at least in this life, I can't kill your brother.”

Ashton also had some tears in his eyes. He took his head in his hands and stayed like that for 20 minutes. I was also lost in my thoughts about how in the world is this possible. Why would my mother take someone’s dead body with her? In fact, why would my mother disappear when we have such a shred of solid evidence that proves my innocence? Where in the world she would hide that not even our magic can find her? There are so many more questions that I have but I need to find her to find the answers to them. I am hurt that she left me but right now I let myself be weak and think about that so I won’t be able to find her. For the past 6 years, I have at least cried once a week thanks to the people around me. If I didn’t have those people in my life, I would’ve cried every day.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my hand. I looked up to see Ashton looking at me with full seriousness. He stood up and gestured for me to stand up as well. He held my hand and said, “Let’s go.” I got really confused and asked, “What? Where?” He took a deep breath and spoke, “To find your mother. We can’t depend on our elders anymore. They couldn’t find your mother in 19 years. Can you imagine 19 years? Now we are going to take the lead and find her on our own. My family is too much angry to even hear about it. Once they find you, they won’t even ask for an explanation. They would kill you right away because now all they need is a person to vent their anger on. That’s why we can’t include my family in this. Now, what about your family?”

I think about it for a moment and I know the answer right away, “Of course, we can’t include my family. Mary’s wedding is in 4 days. The next week there is an event of Addy inheriting 8 hospitals from Uncle Gratiano. Then next week my mother has her art exhibition. After 2 months there is going to be a grand ceremony where my father will be announced as the next King. So, in short, my family is busy. And also apart from that, they think that mom has died and your family has killed her. Right now they are not doing anything because of me that I will get to know the truth and it will be a mess.”

Ashton had a neutral face as he spoke, “Then let’s take advantage of their waiting and we should start our searching.” “Yeah, you are right. By the way, I have a question. Why were you best friends with my brother knowing that he is the prince?” His face turned into an expression where only guilt could be seen as he spoke, “I was using him to get to you. But trust me sometimes I forgot that he was my best friend for a reason, he is such a warm-hearted person that it didn’t feel like he was a prince. It felt like he is one of us.” I don’t why I am feeling so proud of him. I wanna hug him right now. Oh no, what did I just think? He is an annoying brother and nothing more.

“It’s ok. You don’t need to feel bad anymore, it wasn’t your fault. Anyone would’ve done that but yeah you owe him an apology. Of course, not now after everything is resolved and revealed.” He did feel a little better after listening to my words because at least now the guilty expression wasn’t there. Suddenly he remembered something and jumped, “Oh no. I have a really important meeting. Can you send me to my office with your magic? And yeah you can come to work tomorrow. First, come to my office, we will talk about the details of the work there. Come at 10 am. No late and no early.” I rolled my eyes at his bossiness and said, “Whatever.” Before he could respond, I sent him to his office right away.

Now I used my magic and went to my car. I sat in the driver’s seat and my phone was on the passenger’s seat. I took my phone and nearly dropped it when I saw 12 missed calls from Kathy and 11 missed calls from Lisa. There was 1 message from both of them. I first opened Kathy’s message.

Kathy:

Come to your studio apartment right now.

Then I opened Lisa’s message.

Lisa:

Come to your studio apartment right now

What in the world is wrong at my studio apartment? Maybe unicorns have finally made their visit to my house. I quickly start the engine and start driving towards my studio apartment while listening to ‘what you made me do by Taylor Swift.’

As I was just about to enter the apartment, I heard the sound of something breaking. They are dead if it’s my favorite vase. I enter the apartment only to be welcomed by two furious eyes. Kathy spoke with a stern face, “Get your damn friend out of the apartment. Trust me I have never met such an arrogant person in my life. She is nothing like you described her.” Well, Ok. Whatever. Where is my vase? Now Lisa sarcastically laughed and said., “Trust me, I feel the same about you. You are such a rude person.” I still can’t see my vase anywhere in the room. “Shut up guys. Where is my vase?” They both said in unison ‘huh’. Fear is evident in their eyes. Kathy picked up her bag from the floor and spoke, “I am sorry but I’ve gotta go. Felicia just called and said there is an emergency.” And before I could say or do anything, she took leave. As if on cue Lisa ran to the bathroom and shouted, “I’ve gotta take 1 hour to bathe.” I pulled my hair in frustration. “Fuck you both.” I picked up the broken pieces of the vase and put them in a white cloth bag. I hugged them and parted them away from me with a promise of revenge.