Royal love

Chapter 86

It's dark outside, Hayden and I slept through the whole day. Hayden and I are sitting at the table across from each other now. Everyone else is still playing board games and cards but I can't focus on that. All I see is Hayden. That's all I care about right now. I just want to be alone with him, he gives me a sense of peace, calm. I think he feels the same way about me.

Out here, we're exposed. We remember our past think about our present and worry about the future. The others don't know this feeling. And I'm glad. It's a miserable, tugging like feeling that pulls at your heart, trying to rip it out. It causes your hands to shake, your stomach to do flips, your body to go numb, it makes you dizzy, you can't breath. But I can always feel it coming.

And I don't feel it as strongly right now, which means it's coming, just not yet.

Hayden coughs. "Guys," he says. Everyone stops talking, stops playing their games. "We need to talk."

Mateo leans in. "About what, doc?" He asks.

"Me."

"So self absorbed," Jody says jokingly. Everyone laughs. Not Hayden. Not me. I'm too invested in what he needs to say. "Sorry," Jody says once he realizes Hayden's being serious. "Go on, please. We're all listening."

"My father is dead," Hayden says. Before anyone can say anything, he puts his hand up to stop them. "I don't need your condolences, he was a bad man." That doesn't mean you can't miss him, I think. "He did bad things to me and others and he deserved it." I know he doesn't believe that. Everyone nods and he continues after clarifying his stance with his father.

"The thing is, now that he's dead, I'm supposed to take his place as leader."

"No," Daniella says in disbelief.

"Yes," Hayden corrects. "Now, I can choose not to but I might not survive that, or I could take over the mafia but that would be my life. I would be as bad as my father. If I don't become the leader I can't choose the next one so someone much worse than me could get up there, if I am the leader I could be killed if I'm not doing a good enough job. I'm in a tough situation. And I want your thoughts."

There's a short silence as everyone soaks everything in.

"You need to take over. There's too much of a risk if you don't," Levy says.

"None of us want you to die," Rowan says.

"I could die either way."

"But you have a higher chance of dying if you don't take over," Noah says, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

There's another short silence before Sam speaks. "What do you want to do, Hayden?"

The silence keeps going after she asks. Hayden rolls the question over in his mind. "I... I don't know."

"Why?" I ask. "Why don't you know?"

Hayden takes a second to respond, like he's thinking of the words to explain it to me and not sound stupid.

"My father engraved the mafia life into me. That's all I know, killing, torture, drugs, stuff like that is what I grew up with. But all of you lived normal lives and I don't know if I want a life like that after the things I've done, I don't know if I'll ever be normal. It's hard to explain, you guys won't be able to understand to the full extent."

"I say be the mafia leader, it seems the easiest for you. And it would be cool to have a friend in the mafia, I could threaten people with it," Jody says. "'I'm going to get my mafia friend to kill you if you don't leave me alone," Jody says mocking a deep voice.

"You wouldn't be able to do that," Hayden says.

"Who's going to stop me?" Jody asks sticking his tongue out at Hayden.

"Your 'mafia friend'" Hayden says using air quotes.

"Well I think you should try to live a normal life," Sam says, interrupting the back and forth. "It's not like the mafia, you won't have to live doing the same thing all the time, you could live a nice life of peace and happiness."

"Okay," Jody says. "Let's do a vote." Noah sits up in his chair. "Raise your hand for mafia." Noah, Rowan, Jody, and Mateo raise their hands. "Okay now for normal life." Daniella, Sam, Levy, but before I can raise my hand, I'm interrupted by Grayson.

"Dinners ready!" Grayson yells from the kitchen.

Everyone basically completely forgets about Haydens problem. They jump up and run to the kitchen for a plate of food. I don't. I sit across from Hayden and watch as his face breaks as he realizes nobody really cares about his problem as much as he does.

___________

Hayden and I are sitting on the raggedy couch, the others are sitting on the floor, Sam is asleep in Graysons bed. There's an old school TV that Grayson got from his attic playing a DVD of tangled in front of us.

"What do you think I should do," Hayden whispers. I can tell he's been thinking about this the whole evening. He hasn't smiled or laughed at all. And I can understand why, everyone discarded him the second they could get something they wanted.

"Hayden, you—"

"Adeline. What do you want me to do? I want whatever you want, remember? I chose you." Nobody is paying attention to us but he's whispering anyway. "I don't care what these idiots want. I only want your opinion."

My heart is pounding again. Why did I wait so long to let myself love Hayden? I close my eyes and take a deep breath. When I open them, Hayden is staring at me. Waiting. I don't want to be selfish. I don't want his life to be something he doesn't want, so I tell him I want what I think he wants.

"I want you to chose the mafia," I say. It's a lie. I want him to live with me in the palace, I want him to help me rule France.

"No you don't," Hayden says. He looks hurt by what I said. "If I do that, I'll probably never see you. I'll never be able to talk to you."

"You could if you wanted to," I say.

"No, Adeline, I couldn't. Our worlds don't mix. Your a princess and I'm a monster. What happens to the monster in every fairytale? He's defeated. I need to choose one, Adeline." He stares at me, his eyes look like they're shining in the dark room. "What do you want?"

"Live in the palace with me," I say. I feel so selfish for saying it. "You can rule France with me, I'm going to be coronated soon. Especially if... you know." Especially if my parents are dead. The thought makes it hard to breath.

"Okay," he says. "I'll live with you in the palace." He smiles. I can almost see a weight lifted from his shoulders. I rest my head on his shoulder and he rests his head on my head.

"When are we leaving this place?" I ask. We've been here for a full week and I've been known as a missing princess for the whole time, and longer. I want to see my mom. If she's not...

"Tomorrow," Hayden says. "We leave tomorrow."

I smile at his words. I'm going home. I'm finally going back home.

Word count: 1263
12-26-24
3:23 pm
(Not revised)
The books coming to an end guys I can't decide if I'm happy about it or sad 😭😭