When We Were Young

Eighty-five:

Eighty-five:

"I have every right to be here." There was a voice speaking. At first, Alina thought that it was Aleksander. That was the only person she could imagine would be in the room with her. But then the person spoke again. "I've waited long enough. The girl is my fiancé."

Fiancé? The thought made no sense in Alina's mind. She didn't have a fiancé. She was pregnant, and Aleksander was the father of her child.

"Your highness, I can appreciate the urgency that you have. However, this is my first reunion with my granddaughter. She has just been through something traumatic. At least let us have some time for her to awake, and to explain the whole thing to her. She does not know you."

"The same can be said of you, your majesty. Or did I read her file wrong? Did she not grow up in an orphanage not knowing her true heritage?"

Alina's eyes fluttered open. She was looking at a ceiling that had been painted with, what she could only assume was, Shu Han history. The smell of perfume wafted by her nose and there was a tall woman with black hair that was pulled into a bun, pinned together with an elegant, golden hair piece. She wore an emerald, green skirt with a white blouse and black shoes. She was talking to a young man that Alina could only guess was her supposed fiancé, Prince Rasmus. The woman that she assumed was her grandmother was blocking his face, and she couldn't tell what he looked like.

Alina could only imagine what horrors would await her if she made it known that she was awake with them in the room. She quickly shut her eyes closed again.

"If she does not wake up within a day, I will be taking her as mine," said Rasmus, "I have waited long enough. First there were those ridiculous restrictions because of her parents, and now she is finally where she should be and I am still without a fiancé."

"You will have her," said her grandmother, "but we need time."

"You have had time," he spat, "and you are running out, and I am losing patience." He stormed from the room, and slammed the door shut behind him.

Her grandmother let out a sigh. "The things that I must do...."

There was no regret in her voice, only resignation. Alina didn't know what she expected. She was pretending to be asleep, catching her grandmother in a private moment. And yet, she was so cold in the way she spoke Alina knew that she had no savior there. She was on her own, and it would be up to her to find a way out of it.