The Unknown Truth |Dreamwastaken|

Chapter 14 ~ No me subestimes, cariño.

~Layken's POV~

I wiped my face with the sleeves of my bathrobe. It didn't quite do the trick. I'd been crying for a solid twenty minutes, and even an entire paper towel roll wouldn't have been enough to hide what I'd really been up to.

I was going to have to peel myself off this bathroom floor at some point. I couldn't convince myself to meet anyone's eyes. I was a mess after all, a miserable, disastrous mess. Crying seems like the only good thing left in life that I'm good at.

What did I do wrong?

If someone would have showed me this moment in a crystal ball the second before I turned eighteen, I would have wondered what could possibly have happened that would cause me to make a string of horrible decisions.

When I heard the door open up, I immediately tried to wipe my face again. "Layken?" I heard the steps as Queen Amanda walked in. "Hey." I tried to smile, but never made an effort to get up on my feet. "We've been knocking on your door for ten minutes." Her voice was calm, pitched low.

"Is breakfast ready?" My smile was holding. Good. Good, that was good. "Do we have plans today?" A photoshoot perhaps. Or maybe an interview. A ball? "What happened?" I was crumbling in front of her. In front of my soon-to-be-mother-in-law.

"Nothing. I..." I didn't manage to finish the sentence. I heard her come closer but I didn't dare to look at her. My closed eyelids were all that was keeping the floodgates shut, and they weren't doing a good job of it, either.

I startled when she started kneeling in front of me. Right by my side, studying me with a worried frown. Her hand came up to my chin and lifted it up, until I had no choice but to meet her eyes. She cupped my cheeks with both her hands, looking at me with a worried expression.

"Did you guys fight?" Was that considered a fight? "I don't know." My voice trembled. It kept disappearing somewhere, melting in the tears. "We saw him leave." I stared at her. "He looked angry." And I know why.

I curled my face onto my knees. This was embarrassing. I was crying in front of the queen of Sylvian. Huge, heaving sobs, the kind that made my nose all snotty and my stomach hurt. Thick, salty tears ran down my cheeks and dripped off my chin onto the floor.

My face felt heavier with all this wetness on my skin. It made the corners of my eyes sting every time I try to wipe them off, and there was nothing I could do about it. Maybe I'd finally broken, split apart for the world to see.

I'd always known I wasn't normal, me with my fragmented nightmares and memories. But I'd been able to hide it behind smiles and laughter. At least, I tried. I pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes. I was losing it.

I looked up to gaze at Queen Amanda who still hasn't left my side. "I want to go home." I sobbed out. "Please." I needed them. My mom. My parents. Everlyn.

~Dream's POV~

"Give it to me." I grasped Celeste by her throat, resisting the urge to squeeze until I wiped the smug look off her face. I'd never raised a hand to a woman out of the bedroom, and only if they consented, but I was so close to losing my shit.

After I saw that small, faint scar on Layken's hand, which I recognized from the same one I have on the side of my neck, I nearly had the coachman break every horse's leg to get here. By the time I arrived, I had realized the gathering Celeste's father had held was about to end, with just a few stragglers that remained. I didn't even know about the gathering.

I found Celeste, laughing with her cronies in the dining hall, but it had only taken a glare from me for her to excuse herself and follow me into an empty hall. "Why don't you tighten your hold a little?" She purred. "You know you want to."