After leaving Kaytee and Liam’s room, Leo goes back outside to sit around the fire with everyone else.
“So, are the royal couple trying to make a baby?” Olivia laughs.
“No, Liv, Kaytee was talking to her friend Alex, she is coming here too see her while Liam is in meetings at the UN Summit. From what Alex was saying, Kaytee, has a real wild streak, and I cannot wait to hear all about it.”
“Oh no, I know that look. Let me guess, the best friend is hot, am I right?” Drake smirks.
“Liam will kill you Leo, you know that right.” Maxwell adds.
“Guys, I just got dumped, again, or have you forgotten?” Leo sneers. “Is that all you think I am capable of, seriously?” Leo get up and storms back into his house, he goes into his bedroom.
Leo paces back and forth in his bedroom, Is that all they think I have to offer someone? Is all I am is a good lay? Why doesn’t anyone see the real me? He decides to take a shower; These 3 question keep swirling through his head. This is not the man he wants to be remembered as, he was not just Leo the fuck up. There was more to him, deep down he knew it. He just did not know how to become the man that he was supposed to be. How could he stop running? He looked over at his mother’s journal, maybe reading this will be the first step to stop running.
Journal Entry One,
My darling boy,
I am not going to bore you with dates, I just want you to know how we came to be in the situation that we now find ourselves in. How I have missed so many years of your life.
I was 21 years old when my parents threw me into the ring of suitors for your father’s social season. I really did not want to do it, I hated court, but I was a Countess and it would look bad if I didn’t enter. I felt that my adult life was just beginning, and I was not ready to become a Queen and raise a family. I have not experienced life just yet.
Constantine was 25 years old, and he was known to be somewhat of a playboy. He was a vision to behold, but I knew that every woman wanted him. His bed was never empty, if the rumors were true. I did not care to be a part of that group of women.
Anyway I was. entered and was presented at the opening ball. I am sure you are aware of how each suitor is presented, having gone through one yourself. I truly hated to hear that you chose Madeleine, as I have always believed that she is your sister, but I digress.
Constantine was quite the charmer, but I was having none of it at the time. I think that is the main reason he chose me. I was his greatest victory, once I had let all my guards down, he knew that he had won. Your grandfather motto was always “If a King can bend the will and heart of the Queen, so to will he bend the will and heart of a people.” Kind of a fucked up motto, now that I have written it out. I was the more or less, his greatest challenge.
But it wasn’t always like that between us. After the social season, Constantine and I had a year long engagement, he agreed with me, I did not want to be known as the” teenage” Queen. After our engagement tour, I was moved into the palace, and began my proper training of how to be an obedient Queen.
I am not sure how much to go into but, I think you should realize your father was not always the bastard that you have come to know. Once he was a very good man, he was loving and patient, but your grandfather was a tyrant, and he used your father’s grief and fear, to morph him into the man, who separated us. I will save this for another day.
I was mentored by your grandmother, Queen Merriam and Lady Ophelia Nevrakis, though they both had very different ways of thinking, I learned something valuable from them both, however when I was alone with Lady Ophelia, she shared the gossip and darker stories of the court.
Well, at this point I guess it would be best to start at the beginning of this madness. I believe with all my heart, this started with your grandfather. King Saul. He was a bastard and he would not rest until Constantine was just like him. He was cold, sadistic, and a complete male chauvinist. He treated his horse better than he treated his Queen. Constantine loved his mother. She was the center of his world. But between his father and the rumors of this court, Constantine was very insecure and confused about who he was as a young man.
Like I said, your grandfather wanted to raise Constantine to be just like him, but Merriam’s influences was stronger. Mostly due to the fact that your grandfather, was distant and cold to Constantine. He could never do enough to win Saul’s approval. So, he found comfort and approval from his mother. I truly believe that had Merriam lived, the Constantine, I knew and loved would have survived, and we would have never been parted. Her death left a young man under the influence of a tyrant, and no one could reach him, not even me, and God knows that I tried. I really don’t want to believe that your father put the plan in motions to separate us, and to force me out of our home, but there were times that I did not know where Constantine began and Saul ended. Your grandfather drove a wedge between your father and I, and set the foundation of the hell that you and your brother are living through. I feel that you need to know the darkness within the family so that you and Liam can rise above it.
The first closely guarded secret is that Constantine is not the true heir, but the spare. His mother was said to have been birth to a stillborn daughter one year before she gave birth to Constantine. Your grandfather never wanted daughters, only sons would claim the throne after him. Rumor has it that the child lived, and was given to someone your grandmother trusted and raised far away from your grandfather’s reach. As they never spoke of the daughter, and he made it seem like the child was never his, he would rather people whisper behind the his wife’s back that she cheated, than for them to know the truth. Your grandmother never confirmed or denied the fact that the child lived. She moved to the other side of the palace after Constantine was born, and they lived their happily until your father’s sixteenth birthday. He was moved to the royal heir wing and began his formal training as the Crown Prince.
Leo sets the journal besides him on the bed. His father never talk about his grandfather, now he had a clue as to why. There is so much that he and Liam where sheltered from, would this be the reason so many Nobles, treated them they way they did? With such disdain? He knew his father could strong arm a Noble into bending to his wishes, but he has also seen such compassion in him. Their father was a walking paradox. Leo knew if he continued to read, all innocence of that he had left about his family would be gone. He knew that he and Liam would need to travel this road together, especially now that Liam was expecting a child of his own.
Start writing…