Another Path

Chapter I:That Girl

"Please, have mercy on me, Edward!"

He looks to his concubine, Anastasia. As she stared at me with a tiny smirk, I can feel my blood boil.

"Wait! Your Highnesses!"

A man with wavy blonde hair covering his left face approached us.

"You can't just cancel your engagement to the crown princess!"

"Of course I can, who's gonna stop me?"

He gritted his teeth and held my hand.

"Fine, if you don't want her, I'll take her."

This all started around 3 months ago. My fiancée, the crown prince himself, brought another girl home. The girl came from a fallen noble family who fell a few years ago because they lost their money. Because of that, the girl doesn't possess great manners.

"Greetings, lady Aresca!" she said while bowing down.

"It's 'your highness' for you, Anastasia."

"Come on, don't be too harsh on the her, let's go, Anne."

Just like that, they left me and went inside the palace. With my ladies in waiting, I also got in the palace. Rose Palace, the place where every crown prince and their fiancées live for 7 generations. I've lived here for 3 years although our engagement went way beyond.

Me and Edward practically grew up together as a couple, but our bond is closer to a sibling like bond. Maybe it's the reason he keeps bringing girls to 'our' home. Before Anastasia, he brought many girls, but this is the first time he brought a noble girl. The girls before her were probably prostitutes from Elckreigh street.

Days went by, but she still didn't leave the palace. Maybe Edward is actually planning on marrying her instead of me. She started wearing some of my old clothes, using my jewelries, eating my snacks, and sitting on my seats. One day, I caught her eating my portion of blueberry tart.

"What are you doing?" I looked at her with an unpleasant look.

"Eating, are you blind, lady Aresca?"

"No, are you stupid? And for the last time, I'm not 'lady Aresca', Anastasia"

"You're mad because I ate your tart? I thought nobles weren't childish"

"Well, turns out I am!" I said as I grabbed the plate with the tart from her and pressed it hard against her face, ruining her styled ginger hair.

She looked at me in disbelieve until someone came to us.

"What the hell is going on?"

Edward stormed towards us with his emerald eyes glaring. I truly thought he was going to side with me, but I was wrong.

"Ethel Luz Abigail Aresca, what in the world were you thinking? Throwing tarts at people for no apparent reason? I thought you were sophisticated!"

"I had my reasons, unlike the 'future of the Kingdom' here who wouldn't even listen before making a decision"

"Stop with the nonsense, Ethel, if you keep acting childish like this, I might have to marry someone else when I turn 18."

"Edward, it's fine, let's just go."

The next day, I overheard my ladies in waiting talking in the garden.

"Did you hear? I heard that yesterday Prince Edward bathed 'that girl' himself!" Lady Dorothy said.

"Really, I heard that they slept together." Said Lady Florence.

"Our poor lady, imagine her face when she heard all these rumours..." Lady Blanche said.

I came out of my hiding spot.

"Your Highness?!" Lady Blanche screamed, followed by Lady Dorothy.

"How long have you been there?"

"Long enough to now my fiancée possibly bathed someone else and slept with the person" I said while forcing a smile on my face.

"We are so sorry, your highness..." said Lady Blanche.

"It's fine."

It would be a lie if I said that I didn't know that one day he'll bring someone else, I just didn't expect it to be this early. After all, all my life I've been trained to be a perfect queen in public, not for the future king. My path has been carved out by my parents all the way until I became queen, but in the end, there'll still be imperfections that holds me back. My job is to make my parents proud and lead this kingdom with Edward, but I feel like there's another path I can take, and it seems more appealing.