Missing Royal

by Konstanz Silverbow

  “Yeah, it is,” I say, laughing with her.

  “We might have lied just a little bit,” she adds.

  “Oh?” I don’t know what else to say. I can hope they are joking and aren’t really spending money on jewelry for me after all.

  “We already picked something out for you. We just had them change the stone. I hope you like it.” She grabs my arm and leads me inside. Again, Dad’s taking care of the door.

  “Welcome back, Mrs. Tetreault,” the boy behind the register greets her. She seems so happy—buying stuff for me, no less. And I just don’t understand it. “Your set is ready. And is this the lovely lady it’s for?” He gestures to me.

  “It is! Can she try it on?”

  “Of course. It’s paid in full, so it’s yours to take. I just need you to sign here, saying you’re satisfied with the changes and that you’ve picked it up.” He places the box on the counter with a paper beside it.

  My father turns to the paper as my mother goes for the box. They seem to be a match made in heaven. And they make a pretty amazing team.

  I take a deep breath, not knowing what to expect before I take the box from my mother’s hands, place it back on the counter, and pull off the lid. The first thing that comes to mind is that this isn’t for me. It’s too fine, too beautiful—it’s fit for a queen.

  Silver flowers cascade down with perfect emeralds set in the center. I very carefully pull it from the box and put it on.

  The necklace hangs low enough that if I were wearing a ball gown, the gems would fit perfectly between my throat and the neckline of the dress. And the earrings that match are stunning. They end just before touching my shoulders.

  I have to try and not cry as I turn to my parents. I’m losing the battle as tears pool in my eyes. “Thank you. It’s absolutely stunning! It’s something fit for royalty.” I want to tell them I don’t need it, that I don’t want it, that it must have cost a fortune and they should return it and keep the money.

  Instead, I spin around and look in the mirror. I feel like a queen. “We’re glad you like it.” My father puts his hand on my shoulder and smiles at me in the mirror. I see tears in his eyes as well. “It was made for a princess indeed.” I just smile at his words.

  “Thank you, sir. Have a good day.” My mother waves to the man behind the counter and begins walking to the door. I grab my jewelry box and follow after her.

  Once safely back inside the car, I remove the necklace and earrings and return them to the box. There’s no way I can walk around all day wearing them.

  I look back up, overjoyed by this gift—as much as I don’t need it. We’re all in the car, ready to leave. Only we’re not leaving. I’m about to ask but mom turns around to speak to me before I can.

  “We thought we would go to breakfast, as you didn’t eat before we left. How does that sound?”

  I nod, happy with just about anything we do at this point.

  We leave the jewelry store parking lot and drive south for ten minutes. I can’t take my eyes off the necklace, so I hardly pay attention to the road or where we’re going.

  I can hear my parents talking but it seems to be muffled as another voice hits me. Your time has come, love. It’s time to come home.

  I take in a sharp breath, filled with emotions that aren’t my own. Pain, longing, excitement. I clench my teeth, holding in every noise so my parents don’t look back. I don’t know what’s going on but I can’t take these voices—or this voice, I suppose—any longer. Whatever it is, I’m sick of it.

  We pull into a parking lot, thank goodness. It means I can eat and pretend the past thirty seconds never happened. I stash my gift beneath the seat and get out as soon as the car is parked and head to the doors, ready for food. I put a bounce in my step and a smile on my face.

  We are seated immediately and I look on the menu right away, despite knowing exactly what I want. Eggs Benedict and chocolate milk. It’s my go-to breakfast. My go-to meal, really.

  “Hon, are you all right?” Mom puts her cold fingers over my hand. I look into her eyes and see worry. But more, I see pain. I don’t know why. She didn’t hear anything in the car or she would’ve said something then.

  “I’m wonderful. Thank you for the gift!” I smile, and this one is genuine.

  “Can I take your order?” the waitress asks, interrupting Mom’s reply.

  “Yes. We’d like two breakfast specials and your eggs Benedict with two glasses of orange juice and a glass of chocolate milk.” Dad orders for all of us. It makes me happy, knowing he knows exactly what I want.

  As soon as the waitress writes down the order, she leaves, and my mother takes my hand again. “We’re so proud of you, dear. We just want you to be happy. And you never know when some good jewelry will be needed. Especially as you get older and move on.” She wipes tears from her eyes and I’m a little taken aback.

  Is she crying? Over jewelry? “You’re right. Thank you. I don’t know when I’ll need it but I can’t take my eyes off it.” I laugh, a little worried now.

  “Your mother’s right. We’re very proud of you. You have become a beautiful, strong, smart young woman. We’re sure you will succeed in every aspect of your life. If you set your mind to it, nothing can stop you.” My dad adds, tears in his eyes too.

  I laugh. “Guys, I’m only seventeen! You still have me for a whole year. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.” I smile, shaking my head and talking with my hands.

  “That’s.” One word, and I recognize his voice. One word and my eyes shoot up to see why Valentino is standing beside our table. “Where you’re wrong.” He looks so solemn.

  I look back and forth between the three of them. The tears my parents are crying—they aren’t happy tears. And the look on Valentino’s face? Yeah, this says something is serious.

  The question is, what can it possibly be that involves both my parents and my horseback-riding teacher/best friend? “I—I don’t understand. Why would I be going anywhere?” At this point, I want to wake up from this horrible dream.

  My mother? She’s no longer silently crying. She’s sobbing. Dad wraps his arm around her to comfort her but he’s hardly crying any less. “I can’t tell her,” she mumbles.

  “Please,” my dad says to Valentino. One word, and he seems to know what it means.

  Valentino turns to me but still avoids meeting my gaze. “Shanice, I’m here to take you home.” I’m about to protest but he must have seen it coming because he puts a hand up to stop me. “Your real home. You’re not from around here. In fact, neither one of us are.”

  “I know I didn’t grow up here—we moved here when I was seven. But what does that have to do with anything?” I’m growling, almost yelling at him. And I feel bad. But at the same time, I want answers.

  “Shanice.” Mom takes my hand again. “He’s right. Things are more complicated than that. You see, your father and I wanted kids for a long time but we knew it could never happen. One day, we got an offer we couldn’t refuse.”

  My dad picks up where Mom leaves off as she bursts into tears again. “We were offered you. The chance to take care of you, to be your parents for a while—at least until your birth parents could take care of you again. They said we could have you until you turned seventeen.”

  Mom takes over again. “It was a hard choice. We knew it would affect you. We knew it would take its toll on all of us. But since the moment we laid eyes on you, we knew we couldn’t give up the chance to have you be ours—if only for a while. And it’s been the greatest seventeen years of our lives. We don’t want to say good-bye but we have to.”

  “Did it ever occur to them that I wouldn’t want to leave? That I would choose to stay with you?” Tears spring into my eyes. Since when were they not my parents? Why couldn’t my birth parents take care of me? It doesn’t make sense. I’m so lost. So confused. So hurt.

  She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I suppose they never thought about it being an issue.”

  “Why? Why did th
ey have to let me go in the first place?” It’s all I can get out. Tears are now streaming down my own face. I was right. Something is going on. They’re getting rid of me—sending me away.

  “Your life was in danger. You’re important at home, more important than you could possibly imagine. They had to protect you, no matter the cost. And now that you’re old enough to know the truth, they need you. They need your help.” Valentino stays mostly calm. He speaks through gritted teeth. His eyes remain dry.

  “And how do you fit into all this?” I ask him.

  “Who’s the first real friend you’ve had?” He sits beside me now and takes my hand into his.

  I look into his eyes, knowing he’s aware of the answer. But I say it anyway. “You.”

  “Home isn’t on this world, Shanice. It’s why you’ve never fit in. It’s why you’ve never had any real friends. We’re from the same world. I volunteered to come and take care of you, watch over you, and bring you home safely when the time came so you didn’t have to go it alone. And the time is now. Your world, our world, needs you.”

  I slide my hand from Valentino’s grip as my palms start sweating. My heart is racing. I’m not sure if this is a joke or if they’re serious or if I heard wrong. “Where is home? How do we get to this other world? This doesn’t seem real.” As I say that, I realize that it does. I’ve never fit in. Never. It makes perfect sense in an odd, twisted way.

  And the fact that I don’t look like either of my parents? It explains quite a bit there. I suppose I always assumed I had one of my grandparents’ skin and hair. That, or I was adopted—and that one seems to be the truth.

  “Where’s the one place you’ve always been attracted to but never gone?” Valentino’s question makes me think hard.

  “Every day we go riding, and where’s the first place you ride?” he adds, hinting.

  “The gate?” I never really understood why I always choose to ride there. I thought I just liked the forest. The serenity of it all. Then again, I’ve always wanted to be on the other side of the gate. Always.

  So it wasn’t just the mystery—it was my world calling me home. “So you’re saying that gate leads to another world? The one where you and I belong?” I ask, just for clarification.

  He nods. I look back at my parents. “Is this for real? Are you all being serious right now?” I want to believe that this is a joke, that Mom and Dad know I’m absolutely madly in love with Valentino and brought him in on it.

  “I assure you, it isn’t.” Such sadness in Valentino’s eyes as he says it.

  “Then answer me one more question. Who am I?”

  I see the panic in Valentino’s eyes before he looks at my parents. They both keep silent, leaving it all on him to tell me the truth. But he squares his shoulders, drops my hand, and turns to face me.

  “You are Shanice Calaria, princess of Umare, daughter of Roan and Ivy.”

  I want to laugh. I also want to cry some more. Did he really just say what I think he just said?

  “My name is Shanice Tetreault. And princess? Did you just say I’m a princess?”

  “To be specific, you are the only princess we can locate. And your world needs you to help find the other missing royals.”

  I ignore his last statement, bubbling with more questions. “Who are you?”

  “Princess, can we please save this for the road? We really must be going.”

  “What? Now? Are you serious? I just found out, like, two seconds ago. I haven’t even processed it yet, and you want me to just up and leave?”

  “I’m sorry. We have to. We must be to Avonathia before nightfall.”

  He closes his eyes and breathes in. “The other world. Now I’ll leave you to your breakfast. Once you’re finished, you’ll want to go home, take a shower, and say your good-byes.” My heart sinks as he stands and walks away.

  I want this all to be a joke. I need this all to be a joke. I wipe away my tears just as my parents wipe away theirs and we all dig in to our food. I won’t allow this to ruin my last meal with my parents. I will enjoy every minute of this.

  Once it’s over, it’s over. That’s it. No more do-overs. No making up for lost time. One meal, one last good-bye. I don’t dare ask but I have a feeling that once I leave, I won’t be able to come back.

  The ride home is silent, tense, almost awkward. I don’t know what to say, and clearly, neither do they. I’m afraid to speak, fearful of the tears that will pour and become unstoppable.

  Even wondering if I had been adopted, I never cared to search for my birth parents. They did not raise me, they did not claim me. But now—now I don’t know what to think. A princess? My parents are royal. My father is a king and my mother a queen.

  As we pull into the driveway I grab my jewelry box, holding it a little more tenderly now, understanding the true significance.

  “This … ” I have to take a breath. “You picked this because it was fit for a queen. That wasn’t just a metaphor, was it?” I bite my lower lip, unable to control my emotions.

  “No.” mom says.

  “We wanted to send you home with a little something from us. Something to remind you of home. This, our home. We vowed to take care of you, Shanice. We promised to let you go just the same. It isn’t easy for us but at least we know we did all we could for you.” Dad finishes.

  The pain that wells inside me is too much to bear. I can’t take this good-bye.

  “What if I don’t want to go? What if I’m not ready? This right here—this is the life I want.” I open my arms toward them. They both pull me into their grasps.

  “Oh, Shanice, I wish it were up to any of us. But we all know you’re not really happy here. Your life is empty of so many things you desperately need. Your life is much greater than this. You’re royal, whereas we are just two people. In your world, we would be commoners. And just as much as we want to keep you as our own forever, think of how your parents, your true parents, want you there.” She’s stronger than I could’ve ever imagined.

  “Mom, I don’t need friends. Not more than I already have. And no one is worth more than another. Not even royalty. And I’m not ready to be royal. It may have been a wish upon the stars as a young girl but now? Now I want no part in it. And my parents gave me up long ago. That was their choice, and as such, my staying would only be the consequence of that.” I need to make her see my view on this.

  I know she doesn’t want me to go, so why should she force me to leave?

  “My dear, dear, child. You are wise. It is true—royalty is not worth more. But you are living a life filled with nothing when you could be living a life with everything. And you know well that your parents did not willingly let you go. They asked for our help in order to protect you. Now your world is what needs protecting, and it has called upon you for help. As much as it hurts, as much as it will always affect you, you must be brave. You must live up to your full potential. While you’re here, friendless and fighting for this life, you have no idea what you’re missing in the life you should be living.”

  I dry my tears on my sleeve. I soak in every word as I fill my lungs with the cool air of January. “You’re right. But it doesn’t mean that I won’t miss what I have here. And I’m not ready to leave yet.”

  “Come on. You should take a shower, and then I’ll help you pack your things.” She leads me inside the house. I allow it. As suggested, I take a shower.

  I let the water roll over me, warming me, helping me relax. But every time I think of what is to come once I leave the safety of this shower, more tears begin to spill.

  And I don’t stop them. I let them all free. Everything hurts. My chest aches. I can’t say I don’t look forward to seeing beyond the gate and even perhaps spending more time with Valentino but I don’t want those things to come at the cost of leaving behind the only life I’ve ever known.

  “Shanice.” Knocking at the door pulls me from my pity fest. “It’s time, honey.” I nod, aware she can’t see me. I wrap a towel around me as I step
out of the shower. Slowly I brush the tangles from my hair and braid it back once again. I dress and leave the bathroom, knowing it’s the last time I’ll ever use it.

  I go to my room and begin digging through my belongings. I start with my closet, flinging all my clothes on the bed. All my shoes are pushed into the middle of the room. I dump every drawer out and rummage through every paper and book.

  I grab my journal, only a single entry inside it. I set it on the floor away from everything else. With it, I put the embroidered napkin and the jewelry box with my birthday present. I throw my favorite riding boots beside those. I go back to my closet and riffle through all my camping gear, grabbing the first aid kit and a lighter which I slip into my pocket.

  “You can’t take much. Once there, you will wear the clothes they give you, you will be trained to live as they do, taught to act as they do, and they will not want anything from this life lingering to keep you stuck in the past.” Valentino stands in my doorway, still looking sad.

  “Some things I’m not leaving without. If they have a fit about it, too bad for them.” I don’t mean to take out my frustration on him. I just want to make it clear I’m not leaving everything behind. Not everything.

  I grab the family photo from my desk, still in its wood frame. They want me to forget but they better realize that I will never allow that to happen. I can’t and I won’t. These two people have taken care of me since day one, and I won’t allow this new life to destroy all my good memories.

  “Can I ask you a question?” I turn back to Valentino. I am so afraid to ask this but if I don’t know, I may never get another chance.

  “Of course.” He takes a step closer.

  “In the past, you have gone to ask me things and then changed your mind. Were any of those times due to the fact that I am a princess?”

  “Sometimes. More because we can’t date—not in the traditional sense, anyway—and my task is to be your friend. If I mess with the plans awaiting you, they could have me killed.” I didn’t know it possible but he seems to grow sadder.