THE BLOOD ROYALS Book 2: Long Live The Queen!

Chapter Thirty Nine: Tribute To A Fallen King Part 1

Carperia
Morning of the funeral...
Renée's POV
The five days that have passed have been heavy. The crashing weight of death is proving difficult to carry for the House of Kaelan. I haven't come across the Queen since Reli introduced me at the hospital on the first day we met. His sister is also scarce. I have been around QM. She's still inconsolable. It breaks my heart to see her mourning so painfully for her only child. I'm mostly in her room consoling her because she's on her own when Reli is out and about involved in the funeral plans of his father.

Reli has surprisingly kept it together since we got to the hospital. He hasn't broken down. He's everyone's pillar. He is staying strong even when sad, he finds something encouraging to say even to a servant or two who express their condolences. It seems the king was loved in this palace. The grief can be seen even in the faces of the guards. They still stand guard outside his chamber even if it's empty. I hear it's tradition in readiness for Reli to occupy the space.

Today is the day of the funeral and I can't help but think of the General, my father. We are not speaking to each other. Of all his daughters, I'm the one he can beef with the longest without wavering. When I was 12 years old, I was suspended from school for cheating in an exam and leaking the answers to the whole class. Everyone got a straight A, even the dumbest ones who usually camp around D to F. I had a valid reason to do it. The teacher set the exam to punish the class for a missing a reading. Just a week before that reading, a student from our class passed away and we had to go through compulsory counselling. She was a popular student and very liked. We were all sad and no one had time for the reading but this teacher took offense and called us lazy. I broke into her office, I stole answers to that exam and I shared them with the class. My father didn't bother to ask me why I did it. Typical of the General he was quick to drop the hammer.

I was grounded for three months and put through summer school as if I needed it. He didn't speak to me unless he was adding to punishment.

I'm not blind to his bias towards me. He never treats the other three with such indifference. There is something about me that just pisses him off and I'm not sure what it is. He has it in his head that I'm the black sheep of the family and somehow that being harder on me than the others is for my own good. You would think he should love me the most because I look exactly like his dear wife but no.

I love my father. He's a good father but not a good father to me. To me, he's the guy who is quick to punish me when I mess up. The General's daughters aren't saints. No. We all have faults. Reina is deeply rebellious. I'm a troublemaker. Charle is destructive and Laila is spoilt. But I'm the bad one it seems. Bad enough for him to turn his back on me like this. He cast me out knowing damn well I have nothing. He forbid anyone in the family from helping him.

My stubbornness and I decided we don't need him and that we will make it on our own so that one day I can show him my middle finger.

It's these thoughts that keep me from calling him even now when I am terrified he will die some day and I won't be there to say goodbye.

I deleted the message I have composed.

"Hey, why aren't you dressed!" Reli asked me. He is tying a black tie around his neck.I reached out to help him. "I thought you would wear your army uniform."

"It's optional. I want to attend this funeral as his son, not a General."

"That's thoughtful." The devilish side of me would wear red to my father's funeral.

"Why aren't you dressed?" He asked again.

"Should I attend the funeral? Am I allowed to?" I asked him.