Clara Spencer

Chapter 4

The letter was beginning to wrinkle as she held it with a tight grip. Her eyes fixed on this monumental piece of paper. How could a couple of pages change her life so fast? It wasn't until she saw wet spots on the parchment that she realized she was crying.

Her parents lied. It wasn't as if it was a small white lie that was inconsequential, this was a massive lie. She shouldn't be crying, she should be mad. How could they hide something like this?

On the other hand though, it was so nice to hear from her Mama. Her words brought her so much comfort. It made her wish she had found this letter much sooner.

While she was in a better place than she was a couple of months ago, a small part of her still carried some guilt. The guilt that plagued her ever since the night they died. Maybe this was the universe playing some cruel joke on her. She basically killed her parents so now this is her punishment. To find out that her whole life was a lie.

Hearing footsteps coming up the stairs, she wiped at her eyes and frantically tried to look more put together. She didn't want to worry June.

"So- I've been thinking more about what exactly you should do with this place. Perhaps you should rent it instead of sell it, that way yo-" June cut off mid sentence as she came into the room and saw the wide open bookshelf. "What the hell?! Did you break the wall or something?" She asked incredulously.

"No." June's eyes landed on Clara at the sound of her voice. Her brows immediately furrowed in concern.

"Are you ok? Have you been crying?"

Clara made a weak attempt at calming her down, "I'm fine." It did not seem to appease June as she only got closer and sat next to her on the floor of the closet.

"You don't look fine," Clara looked down, not wanting to look her in the eye. June had other plans though as she grabbed Clara's chin and brought it back up.

Inspecting her eyes, June remarked, "Don't try and play it off, your eyes are red."

Bitterly admitting defeat, Clara rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'm not fine. I just found out some of the most earth shattering news a person could get. And I haven't quite processed it all yet."

Confused, June asks, "More earth-shattering than when you found out your dad had a belly piercing?"

Clara let out a small laugh, recalling that memory. "Yes but less disgusting." Passing her the letter, Clara said, "Just read this. If I just told you, you wouldn't believe me."

So while June read the letter, Clara's mind was reeling with the information she received. Although, watching June's reactions did amuse her. From sad to shocked, her facial expressions were on point. By the end of the letter though, June was shedding some tears.

"Clara....this is so beautiful. Your mum's amazing!" June said with teary eyes.

"She was amazing." Once again Clara's mood dropped only being able to summon a small smile to give to June.

June expressed regret at her choice of words. "Oh girl, I'm sorry." She reached out to give Clara a warm hug.

Clara accepted the hug and buried her nose in June's jacket. "It's okay." They remained like that for a couple of moments before June suddenly pulled back.

"Oh my god, Clara, do you know what this means? You're Princess Diana's daughter!"

"Biological daughter," Clara corrected.

"Exactly!" Immediately going on her phone, June murmured, "I can't believe I never noticed it before."

"Noticed what?" Clara looked at her, confused, wondering what June was doing on her phone.

"How much you look like her!" Pulling up a picture of Diana, she showed it to Clara. "You look exactly like her. Even before knowing you were related to her, I should've seen the likeness."

Clara rolled her eyes at her. "I do not look that much like her."

"Yes you do!" June said, moving her hands erratically. Seeing that Clara wasn't giving in, she grabbed Clara's hand and stood up. "Come on. Let's find the nearest mirror." Reluctantly Clara, let herself be dragged towards the loo. Grabbing her by the shoulders, June positioned Clara across the sink and directly in front of the mirror. Holding the phone next to her head with a picture of Diana, she let Clara get a good look at herself. "Now do you see what I mean?"

Clara stared at her reflection, her eyes looking back and forth between her reflection and the reflection of Diana's picture. The more the time ticked by, the wider her eyes grew. "Wow."

"I know, right?" June smiled in satisfaction. "You'd nearly be twins if it wasn't for your long hair. If you were to cut it short it'd truly be uncanny."

Clara scrunched up her face. "Ew, why would I cut my hair like that? That's such a mum hairstyle."

June let out a snort. "Agreed." Putting away her phone, June looked back at Clara. "So, what are you going to do now?"

Clara took a deep breath. "Honestly? I'm not sure. I'm still trying to process everything that my Mama told me."

"Okay, but what about the other letter?"

"What other letter?" Clara frowned with a puzzled face.

June stared incredulously. "Diana's letter! Have you not read it yet?"

"Oh! Right. I haven't gotten to it yet. I didn't get a chance to sort through everything in those file cabinets."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

After spending some time rifling through the papers, they came to find out that these were all about her. Her birth certificate, her adoption papers, medical history, etc. They did find the letter amongst those documents, though Clara chose to wait until the next day to read it, as she had had enough bombshells for the day. She was looking over her medical files when June spoke.

"You know, looking back at your parents' behavior now, I can see why they were so paranoid." Clara looked up from the file she was reading.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I always hated how they didn't let you do certain things, and I hated how sad you were that you couldn't do them," June gave Clara a sympathetic look. "But they were just afraid of people discovering your secret. Because if people found out, then most likely the media would follow. I mean, look at how badly the media treated Princess Diana. They're the reason she's dead!" Clara pondered this. "Your parents most likely wanted to shield you from that."

"Probably. But the letter didn't really talk about them." Clara, remembering her Mama's words, continued, "My Mama actually mentioned the royal family. That they were the ones we were hiding from."

"But why would they fear them? You're Prince William and Prince Harry's half sister. They wouldn't harm you."

Clara shrugged. "I don't know. Mama did say that it was Diana that wanted to hide me from them. Maybe she feared that they would use me against her for the chaos she caused. She did expose the Royal Family to the public for not helping her with her mental illness and her husband's affair."

June's eyes grew wide, an idea coming to mind. "Clara, you need to read Diana's letter!"

Clara rolled her eyes in response, "I already told you I would tomorrow. I've reached my limit today." Clara made to stand up but June roughly grabbed her arm to get her attention.

"No, this can't wait! What if Diana hid you because you actually belonged with the Royal Family? She suffered so much when she was royal, she could've been trying to protect you.

Is there a chance you might be Prince Charles' daughter?"