You Have My Heart, Lady Illea (A Lady Illea Novel)

Chapter Thirty

I swallowed hard. "I didn't expect this to be so..."

Tiny look at me. "So what?"

"Well..." I looked around. "They're all dying."

"Yes," Tiny acknowledged. "But they're not dead yet."

I looked at her, shocked to hear something so rude to come out of her mouth.

"Which is why we're here," she continued. "To make their last days on Earth meaningful."

Tiny skipped away as did Krystal and Ora and eventually everyone else. I had to have been standing there for a half hour at the least. Cecilia had a group of children surrounding her as she animatedly read them a story book. Krystal and Tiny were beaming as they placed tag with the kids that had an exuberant amount of energy while Ora and Godfrey sat on the floor doing jigsaw puzzles with the more handicap ones.

Then I saw Will.

I didn't mean to stare but that ended up happening anyway. He was caring bundles of roses and was walking around handing to them to every little girl he saw and the man behind him was giving out toy cars to the boys. I was melting into butter just watching him. He looked content and happy and then Cecilia looked up and saw him and I realized...

What a beautiful King and Queen they would both be.

Damn it. The thought of it hurt and I had to look away to spare myself the ache. Then all of a sudden I felt a tug on the bottom of my maxi dress. I looked and saw a little girl around 4 years old with a bandanna wrapped around her head and strange tubes in her nose.

I knelt down and smiled at her. "Well hello."

"You like an angel," she cooed. She gently reach up to run her fingers through my loose hair. "I want hair just like yours."

I smiled at her but I felt a bit sad deep down inside. "You'll have hair just like this someday. When you're all better."

She shook her head at me. "I won't get any better."

I wanted to ask her what she meant by that but something stopped me. I blinked a few times and looked up, reaching for the guard beside me. I read his name tag and it said Barnes.

"Officer Barnes," I said to him.

He seemed to puff his chest. "Yes, Lady Alessandra?"

"These children...are they...?"

A moment of silence passed between us and he understood my question without me having to say the words. He nodded sadly. "Terminally ill."

In other words, Can die any day now.

My knees were shaking and I bent down to face the little girl. "What's your name?"

"What's your name?"

I laughed. "It's Alessandra."

"My name is Naya."

I smiled at her. "Well then Naya. Where are the rest of your friends?"

Naya turned and pointed to the far corner of the room. There were two children in wheel chairs, one on a bed, and four sat on the ground playing with trains and dolls.

Naya turned back to me. "They're very shy."

"Are they now?" I asked.

She nodded. "Daddy says shy people are usually the nicest."

I laughed again. "What does your mommy say?"

The little girl looked confused and she scrunched her eyebrows together. She had the most captivating blue eyes. "I don't know. Mommy left a long time ago. Daddy says she'll be back soon, I just don't know when."

My mouth parted but I couldn't say anything. I knew what that meant but I took everything inside me, bundled it up, and shoved it down so deep I'd never be able to find it again. My mouth was dry when I spoke to her again.

"How old are you sweetheart?"

She held up six fingers.

Being so ill must have made her younger than what she was.

Naya took my hand. "Come! I want you to see my friends!"

I didn't want to go but I went along anyway.

***

I spent four hours with the children and I kept track of the times Naya smiled. 340 times. I made Naya smile 340- no wait. 341 times. She was smiling at me now and I smiled back at her. We had completed four puzzles, three games of Monopoly and now were on to our fifth picture book. I didn't mind reading it to them.

It was fine.

I knew that before the selection i wanted to be a doctor. Before the selection I loved the children in my neighborhood and being here with Naya I didn't realize how much I missed all of that. I missed home, I missed Carolina. It felt so strange, so weird, that even after being in the palace so long and implanting roots there I miss my province. Would that feeling ever went away if I married Will?

Would I always feel like I was missing a part of me?

"My mommy used to read me stories," Naya said much later as we were stringing together necklaces. "Lots of them."

"Do you miss her?" I asked.

Naya shrugged. "I get scared sometimes why."

"Why?"

She continued with her necklace. "Because mommy has been away too long. I'm scared I'll forget her."

You won't forget her, I wanted to say. You'll just forget the hurt.

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I MEET KIERA CASS AND WE TALK FOR A GOOD FOUR MINUTES AND SHE WAS WONDERFUL AND SIGNED ALL MY BOOKS AND CONGRATULATED ME ON MY BOOKS AND ASFDLSDLLKKDHDJH SHE'S THE LIGHT OF MY EXISTENCE AND I LOVE HER SO MUCH OK I'M DONE.

I just wanted to take the time to apologize for how careless I was about the previous chapter. I wrote it before meeting Kiera and for some reason I just forgot to mention there are certain things that might be considered spoilers.

I'm going to make it up to. How, you may ask?

BY giving you another spoiler.

By the end of this story a certain couple may or may not be married (this doesn't include the epilogue because I think the epilogue might be a flash back hmmm)

So enjoy that and remember I'm queen of plot twists *wink wink*

I'd just like to clarify that every single thing (aside from names) in the last chapter were all fake. I just took one event (which it really isn't specified) from The Heir and turned it into something completely different.

EVERYTHING THERE DID NOT HAPPEN.

I can't believe I was so careless and inconsiderate. I'm truly so sorry. I feel awful.

I'll update again today.

XOXO Lilly