"Greetings to the future son of the Jennovian Kingdom." I curtsied.

"Rise, my future moon." Gladiolus walked towards me. He took my hand and kissed it affectionately. "Come, let us eat."

Gladiolus escorted me gently to my seat and helped me settle down. After that he took his own seat and waved to the maids to prepare the dishes. Breakfast was laid on the table carefully by the maids and they stood by the side after.

I quietly started to eat my breakfast in peace not looking at Gladiolus as much as possible.

"The palace is quite lively today." Gladiolus started conversing. "It is Satiana’s coming of age ceremony after all." I nodded with his words.

"I am very grateful to Duke Matias, having him sponsor and arrange this for my little sister." Gladiolus continued. "I was so busy with the war that I wasn’t able to take care of her at all."

I looked at Gladiolus and he had a warm and gentle smile talking about her sister. This just made me think of how close they are to each other.

"You look quite close to your little sister." I said flatly.

"Well yes, she is my one and only sister after all." Gladiolus said. "I love her very much."

It seems like his sibling affection for Satiana is genuine. Unfortunately their mother, Queen Patricia doesn’t even see Satiana as her own flesh and blood. "But your mother doesn’t." I scoffed thinking of how their mother hurt Satiana’s feelings since birth.

Gladiolus looked sad when I pointed that out. "Yes that is true." He sighed. "I think you know what my mother has been thru after the defeat of our home country of Atlantia."

"Your mother has told me." I replied.

"My mother has gone thru hell with the Jennovian king. She was raped and become his sex slave before she was given a title of concubine." Gladiolus said. "I know she had reasons why she didn’t love Satiana as she loves me."

Angered boiled inside of me. "But that doesn’t justify what she is doing now!" I shouted. "Satiana is also her won flesh and blood. If she didn’t like her in the first place, then why did she carry Sati for nine months. Why did she even let her live just to suffer in the end?"

I wanted to at least here from Gladiolus that my aunt had even a bit of love for Satiana. She didn’t abort Satiana when she was in her womb, so at least I have an inkling that my aunt cared for her own daughter.

"That... was because she was planning on having her as a bride for me." Gladiolus said with a low voice.

My eyes went wide with what I heard. So Aunt Patricia only let Satiana because she was to be Gladiolus bride in the future.

’How sick is she?’ I thought to myself.

"But she is your sister, even if you are only half siblings." I said with anger and surprise.

Gladiolus looked at the maids. "Leave us." He ordered.

The maids bowed then left one after the other. Gladiolus and I were the only ones left inside the room.

"Alicia, you know how our family works right?" Gladiolus looked at me seriously. "To keep out blood from the Almighty One pure, we practice inter marriage in the family. My father and mother were whole blooded siblings."

Yes I know of this bit of information, but still I can’t but feel sick with the practice of incest. Maybe because I wasn’t a product of incest and I wasn’t brought up to believe that having a pure blood is the royal family of Atlantia’s sacred rite.

"Even though, it isn’t right." I replied.

"When mother saw Satiana for the first time, she shunned her completely." Gladiolus continued. "My sister doesn’t have the physical features of the royal family of Atlantia and thus knew mother believed that she didn’t have strong magical powers. Looking at it now, mother was correct."

It is true that Satiana has low magic power but still she is aunt’s daughter.

"Mother wanted my wife to have strong magic powers, for us to have powerful offspring. And thus Satiana was out of the question." Gladiolus said. "I was also happy at that time because when I saw my little sister I only felt love for a sibling to her. I cannot see her as my wife in the future."

This was the first time I thought that Gladiolus said something right.

"When mother found Aunt Leticia, she knew of your presence." Gladiolus continued. "At first mother only observed you from a distance. She knew that you were taken in by your father as an ’adoptive daughter’ and mother was not yet sure if you have the qualities to be my wife."

"Aunt knew of my presence inside Alvannia. Did she know how I lived there?" I asked sarcastically.

"I only knew of you and your predicament when I was older." Gladiolus looked guilty. "When mother knew that your magic power was quite high, she knew that you were the bride for me."

"But your mother knew!" I shouted in anger. "Your mother knew how I lived as a forgotten princess in Alvannia. She had saved my mother but never told me of her presence until I came here. You took me away from my loved ones when I was happy, but when I was sad and hurting you just let me be alone there?"

"I...I am sorry." Gladiolus looked nervous looking at me this angry. "If I have known about you earlier, I would have saved you myself."

"That is only an excuse!" I shouted at him. "You only see me as a tool for your revenge. You and your mother never looked at me as a family even before!"

I was letting out all my anger now, after hearing all their excuses and all their lies. I am sure that Aunt Patricia schemed all of this selfishly and never even thought of me and my mother’s feelings.

"No, Alicia. Please don’t think something like that." Gladiolus stood up and walked towards me and kneeled right before me. "My feelings for you are true. I have never thought of you as some tool or the likes."

Gladiolus looked at me with sincere eyes. He was trying to show me that his feelings are sincere and true.

"The first time I laid my eyes on you, I knew for certain that you are the one for me." Gladiolus took my hand and pressed it on his cheeks. "I fell for you at first sight. I then knew why Sati was not meant for me, it was because you are the one for me."

I believe that his feelings for me are genuine but what disgust me were his delusions. Why would he think that we are meant for each other? Has his mother injected such thoughts into him?

"You are mine, and mine alone." Gladiolus said with eyes filled with desire. It made my skin crawl.

Then I felt his hand pulled me forcefully to his and it caught me by surprise. His lips locked mine into a kiss.

edited by: nalyn

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