The Royal Finale - Annabelle and the King

Come join the horrorshow

The good old chat about everything that Mom had promised last summer had never happened. But that wasn't Mom's fault. It was Annabelle's fault for not reminding her about it.

Mom was struggling with remembering things in general these days, things like her duchy appointments, where she'd put her phone, sometimes even her words and how to pronounce them. This had been a bit scary for them all to start with, especially Dad, who'd feared the worst initially, then holed himself up in his study to do a shedload of research on causes of memory loss. He'd eventually come to the reassuring conclusion that Mom's forgetfulness was more likely to be a perfectly normal symptom of the approaching menopause. He'd gone with Mom to the doctors and this was confirmed, brain fog would be a thing for her from time to time and that was okay, and she was on some medication to help her think more clearly now. So, yeah, the fact that they'd never had that conversation was definitely not Mom's fault.

And so, a couple of hours ago, Annabelle had declared in front of Cordonia's royal court, overseas royalty, and other VIPs, that she was willing to accept her place in line to the Cordonian throne. Because it was the right thing to do. She didn't want to cause any fuss; fighting her future wasn't something she'd be able to do so easily if she'd been born into this after all. Instead she'd smiled dutifully up on that dais as everyone cheered and applauded and chanted long live Princess Annabelle, long live King Rick.

Let's hope he does live long. Because I don't know whether I'll ever be ready for this.

Right now, as the post-investiture celebrations continued, Annabelle was standing with her younger brother, watching on in horror from a safe distance as their dad, who'd had way too much to drink, was pitifully hitting on their mom, without success so far.

"Y'know, Jen," Dad was slurring, as he shot Mom a seductive look. "There's a lot of hot people in this ballroom tonight, but you are definitely the most hot."

"Thanks, I think?" Mom was having none of it, a controlled smirk on her lips.

"Yeah. For someone who's given birth twice, you look pretty good!"

"Oh my god," Annabelle shuddered as Mom shot Dad one of her deadliest glares.

"Ew, they're as bad as a couple of teenagers." Liam and Libby, the twin son and daughter of Uncle Rick's brother, Leo, arrived beside Annabelle. And it seemed that Liam was every bit as mortified as Annabelle was. "No. They're worse."

Annabelle smiled. "Come join the horrorshow." She and Liam often felt the same way about things, they were totally on the same wavelength. And Liam was totally cute. Annabelle only saw him and Libby once or twice a year, but every time she saw Liam, he just looked more kissable.

"I think it's sweet," Libby pointed out. "They've been together what? Nearly twenty years?"

"Eighteen years as of two days ago," Annabelle corrected her. "I only know because they exchanged cards."

"Eighteen years... wow. And Auntie Jen's still Uncle Maxwell's everything." Libby was totally awestruck.

"Is the feeling mutual though?" Liam pondered. "She looks like she's about ready to slap him into next week, and I don't blame her."

"Hey!" Annabelle took offense to this. "That's my parents you're talking about. And if your dad hadn't got my dad so shitfaced this would not be happening right now..."

"Yeah...." Dad was swaying around now, steadying himself by placing a hand on Mom's shoulder. "So I dunno if you know this, Jen, but I'm really good at people watching at these events. I'm glad I can practice that hobby on you. I mean, with you."