The Selection - Aarmau

Chapter Twenty One

Aaron's life deteriorated instantaneously.

It all fell apart. First, Melissa went back to New Asia.

She was his best friend, the type of friend you have a bond with for life, and she added an optimism to his outlook that he wasn't born with.

He'd been to New Asia once when he was 16, right after she wed. It was beautiful, but it made him sad to be going home without his sister. He also hated seeing the optimism in her eyes burn out after the I do's.

She had made him promise her something before she left. "You better bring Aphmau to come see me once you're out of Illea."

And that was the next person he had lost. Aphmau. The girl he wasn't supposed to fall in love with. But of course he did, because how could he not?

She talked about the guys at home who were interested in her, and he wasn't surprised in the least that they were after her. And now he was convinced that he had lost his chance. Because now she was home.

It felt lonely, incredibly lonely, for everyone there. He noticed Aphmau's maids, Daisy and Cassandra, sat on the stairs of the gand staircase, and Daisy was crying.

Because Aphmau had a gravity to her. She made everyone happy. Especially him.

The day after she left, the ring was handed off to him, the one he was going to ask her to marry him with. If it only arrived days earlier, they could be on a plane out of Illea right this very second.

He sat in the Great Room and ate breakfast, glancing over to the empty chair that Aphmau once occupied.

He poked at the eggs and toast on his plate with his fork, mind absent, until a couple guards burst through the large wooden doors, startling him and the two other girls inside.

"Your Majesty, it's your mother."

...

It happened so quickly.

After the guards came to Aaron, he rushed towards the hospital wing, and his father was already there. But it was no use.

She was just, gone. One of her maids had gone into her room to check in on her, and she was there, unresponsive. It made it official, he no longer had anyone that he loved there.

He stayed in his room, miserable by everything. His gaze fell on his old crown. The princes crown. He pulled it from the case it was sat in, and by it, a note fell out.

He'd gotten it on his birthday when he was young, it didn't fit his head anymore, but his mother had gotten it specially made for him.

For my little prince,

Happy birthday

Love, Mom

A lone tear fell onto the paper, and he folded it, putting it on his nightstand with the crown itself.

He looked out the window at the deadness in the garden. It felt strange, he felt strange. A strange sense of apathy washed over him.

He had lost everything and everything in the course of a week.

...

Aaron sent Michi and Katelyn home the very next day. No winner. His father said it was alright if he passed it off as a grieving period, but that he was supposed to pick from the two of them who he'd marry.

So now, the palace was really empty.

His father was always locked in his study working on things for the country, he never took a break to mourn the death of his wife.