Princess Leonor : Viva la Reina! (English Version)

18. The Horse

It was Carlos' first day of school. He would be entering preschool at Colegio Santa Maria de los Rosales accompanied by his parents.

The media crew was ready to take important pictures of the day. The 4-year-old shyly waved his hand. He was ready for school with a small dark blue bag. Sofia and Alex were grateful that there was no drama that day. Considering, sometimes their child throws tantrums for no reason.

After dropping Carlos off, Sofia intended to meet Leonor. She peeked out of the palace window. She saw Leonor sitting on the edge of the pool. But Sofia immediately stopped.

From the window, Leonor was seen holding something. It was undeniably a cigarette. Next to it was a beer bottle with a very well-known brand in Spain, Estrella Galicia.

"Something's not right," Sofia thought. Leonor had stopped drinking alcohol since she decided to have a child. And she had never smoked in her life.

Sofia's feet hesitated whether to move forward or backward. But her curiosity finally won. She walked towards where her sister was sitting.

Seeing Sofia, Leonor quickly put out her cigarette and crushed it with her foot. She didn't expect Sofia to have returned from Carlos' school.

"I thought you were still at the school." Leonor tried to smile. Her hand moved the beer bottle out of Sofia's sight.

"Carlos is a good kid. He wanted to be left alone. I hope he can quickly make new friends," said Sofia.

"Yes, that's right. Hopefully."

After a few moment of silence, Sofia asked her.

"Leo, what's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean? It's nothing."

"You think I'm stupid? Here!" Sofia took the beer bottle that Leonor had hidden.

Caught red-handed, Leonor tried to make an excuse. "I only had a little drink. I haven't had a drink in a long time."

"That doesn't make sense. You're still breastfeeding your children."

"They're already over a year old. I want to wean them. Besides, there's still frozen breastmilk in the freezer from my pumping all this time."

"Then what is this?" Sofia picked up the cigarette that Leonor had stepped on.

"I was just trying it out. Never mind, don't worry about it." Leonor tried to get up from her seat. But her hand was suddenly grabbed by Sofia.

"You know, you can tell me when you're ready." Sofia's eyes stared straight at Leonor.

"Okay. I'll leave now, my dear sister," said Leonor as she released her hand from Sofia's grip.

Sofia could only give up. She entered the palace.

_________

Unlike Sofia, Leonor did not go to the palace. She headed for the stables. She reached for the reins of her brown horse.

Leonor didn't care about the heat of the summer weather. She spurred her horse faster. As fast as the images that crossed her mind.

Je t'aime, mon petite chou

The words in French for "I love you, my little darling." were written on Umberto's laptop screen. But the message was sent to gabrielle.arnault@gmail.com. Leonor saw it by chance this morning.

She didn't want to confront her husband, so she opted to drink beer and smoke outside, until Sofia found her earlier.

Meanwhile, the horse's pace did not slow down. Leonor's tears fell unstoppably. Airpods in her ears played Lana del Rey's song - Born to Die

Don't make me sad, don't make me cry
Sometimes love is not enough
And the road gets tough, I don't know why

Unexpectedly, a tree branch laid in front of her. Suddenly her horse fell. Leonor's body was thrown several meters to the left and a large rock greeted her head.

*

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