Cicatrice

Chapter XXXIV

QUEEN ESTELLE BELSHAW

"...Mother?" I question, feeling my heart drop slowly to my stomach. "What do you mean, 'mother'?" I continue, tears welling up in my eyes as I put two-and-two together. Eddie stares at me with broken eyes, a look of regret on his face.

"What on earth are you doing here? Why is she calling you Eddie? We thought you were dead for chrissakes!" the Queen bellows, slamming her cane into the marble tiles, her eyebrows knitted together in fury.

I interject before Eddie opens his mouth. "Who are you, Eddie?" I interrogate, furrowing my eyebrows as my arms folded against my chest. Perhaps it would stop my heart from falling apart.

"Why, he's the Prince of England, of course. My son!" the Queen sneers as my mouth slowly falls open, my heart cracking, and tears falling from my eyes.

"Is this true?" I ask, but I already knew. I knew I had been lied to this whole time.

Betrayed.

He gives me a saddened, slow nod.

It felt as if Eddie had just stabbed me in the back. He ruined everything we had because he deceived not only me, but the entirety of the kingdom. 

"All this time... I thought you would be the first man to never have lied to me," my lips quiver as I stare at him in pure disgust. The crevices formed in my heart began to fall apart, down and down and shattered.

With that, my vision became blurry as I tried with the best of my ability to run away with my pregnant belly, grabbing the hem of my dress. I didn't know where I was headed. No place had felt like home anymore, not even the person who felt closest.

"Estelle, wait please!" I hear Eddie's pleading call from behind me, yet, I run as fast as I could. 

Tears streaming down my eyes, my face flustered red. What had hurt me the most was that I had been carrying his child; for nine, long, excruciating months, yet, he wouldn't bare the thought to tell me he wasn't a hopeless little servant after all?

He was a Prince. 

⁂

With myself isolated all alone in my room, I brush my brunette waves in the gold-trimmed mirror. My tired eyes were bloodshot and puffy from all of the pain and anguish I had endured prior. When I stared into the mirror, I couldn't recognise myself. All I saw was a faded version of the person I used to be. I never knew a knife could cut so deep, but here I was, carrying the betrayers child.

And now I felt truely alone. 

As that thought passes my mind, I hear a light knock at the door, Eddie revealing himself through the crevice of the door, a look of empathy and sorrow written all over his face. The look of his face was enough to make me sick to my stomach, fire burning within my blue eyes. 

"I don't wish to talk to you, Eddie," I speak monotony. 

It hurt just to say anything. 

"Este, if you'd just let me explain-" he starts, timidly walking into the room.

"I don't want you to explain!" I interject, standing up and slamming my hairbrush into the mirror, shattering the glass to pieces, much like my heart. Tears fall from my eyes as I march over to him, angst threatening to take over my entire body. 

"How could you lie to me for so long?" I screech, beginning to throw hits toward his shoulders, using all of my might, anger and sadness on him as he tries to back away. "All of this- nine months, you had to tell me, but I had to hear it from someone else!" I scream, my hands hurting from all of the slapping and punching.

My vision became hazy. Even though I had been getting plenty of rest, I still felt exhausted, and I hadn't realised I collapsed on the floor, sobbing with my head in my hands. The room remains silent as I hear Eddie slide down beside me on the floor, his hand reaching for my shoulder, but I push him away. 

"Don't touch me!" I sob, not batting an eye.

"I know you're upset, Estelle. But please... if you could, let me explain. If not for me, for our child..."