Lady Illea (Lady Illea #1)

Chapter Forty

Daddy made a face. "Oh my God"

I giggled.

"This tastes awful"

"You have to drink it" I said. "The doctor said it will help you with the pain"

     Daddy crinkled his nose at the small white cup and placed on the night stand next to his bed. Even after nearly dying on a metal table he still had a remarkable sense of humor. The glint in his eyes, while it had dulled, was still rich with amusement and still as green as they always were.

    The sun was finally setting on daddy's last day in the hospital. For an entire week Emilie, Leslie, and Thomas and I have remained sleep deprived; roaming the halls of the hospital at late hours. I made my decision and it was quite clear. I'd go back to the palace, retrieve my things and come back home. I could manage paying of the mortgage on my own and because of the whole "Curtesy of the Royal Family" thing I didn't have to worry about my father. We were getting a nurse, who could do what I never could.

   Watch daddy like the little kid he was 24/7.

  Thomas and I were on better terms now and maybe if I squeezed my eyes and blinked hard enough the entire selection would be just a dream. And all the feelings that came along with it. I tried telling myself that it was better this way, that it would have always happened this way.

    But a part of me still roamed the halls late at night, waiting by the front desk for the precise moment that a Prince ran through its front doors. And I checked the mail constantly, for some kind of letter, for some kind of hope that I could possibly hold onto that maybe Will missed me just as much as I missed him.

    It was an aching reality that hit me likea category five storm. I was angry with myself to feel that way because he was probably obviously dilly dallying with his other girlfriends in the palace. Hugging them, kissing them, holding them. Well you know what I don't care! I'm home now and nothing else matters to me. I have a family to take care of.

   Apprently daddy being hospitialized was all over the news. In fact it is still currently in the papers. Tomorrow morning when we leave there's going to be a swarm of paparazzi around the hospital ready to document my father's home coming. How nice. 

   I don't know how I feel about that.

   I don't like being in the spot light, I don't want the attention turned to me, and only me. Even the last Report centered around how the girls felt about my leaving and how they hope everything was ok. Will looked distress but then again I didn't watch for that long. The Queen and King extended their love and I just hoped that I could be in and out of the palace in three days as quick as possible.

"Allie"

I blinked. "Huh?"

Daddy chuckled and pulled off his reading glasses, setting his newspaper down. "I was talking to you"

I squinted. "Oh right. I'm sorry. Just...tired"

Daddy being able to always see right through me heaved a sigh, and folded up his newspaper. "You were thinking about the palace weren't you"

'"I wasn't...."

"Don't bullshit me Allie you're a worse liar than your Aunt Caroline"

   My jaw dropped.

   I wasn't used to my father swearing so seeing that he did was a huge shock to me. I almost laughed but I wasn't very fond of the comparrison he made. Aunt Caroline died three years back, she was daddy's older and only sibling. There was a fifteen year age difference and everyone always knew Caroline was a naive prune who couldn't tell a lie for the life of her.