He slammed me against the wall, his face angry.
"Don't think for a second that you can try to get inside my head." He growled, breathing heavily. A moment of silence passed between us where I could feel the tension in the air. I looked down, afraid...
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"You're a liar. You're a dirty, filthy liar," I yelled. How dare he try to earn my trust by feeding me sob stories.
"Lea, calm down," he said.
"Keep my name out of your disgusting mouth," I continued, standing up. Every second longer I spent here made me more and more annoyed. He stood up with me, tightly holding my shoulders.
"Think about this logically Lea," he spoke to me sternly.
I scoffed in his face loudly. What a hypocrite.
"Logically?! You are not allowed to talk to me about being logical while you're over here talking about magic and enslavement and twins with powers." But the longer I stood there saying these things that sounded ridiculous, the more a small part of my brain was starting to believe I did fit into this equation he was describing.
"You're telling me none of this stuff resonates with you?" he raised an eyebrow.
"...No," I lied.
Because in truth, everything I had seen so far seemed familiar, like I had seen it in a dream. Those three people I had first seen when waking up reminded me of a life I had forgotten, and yet I didn't even know their first names.
"I don't believe you," he narrowed his eyes and sat back down, crossing his arms. To be fair, I didn't believe myself.
"Well...you don't have to," I turned my back, walking towards the door. Flustered, I put my hand on the knob, holding it there. I was ready to leave, walk out of here, and never come back. At least, that's what I was telling myself. But I couldn't do it. Because a small part of me deep down was screaming at myself that he was right.
I let go of the doorknob and turned around slowly.
"And even if I did believe some of it, what could I do?" I exclaimed, crossing my arms.
The corners of his mouth lifted in a crooked smile as he realized I was coming to terms with all of this.
"A lot, actually."
"Like what? I'm only sixteen...mister" I didn't know what to call him. I just realized that I had no idea what his or anyone's name was here.
"You can call me Michael. And by the way, that's false," he added.
"What? My age?"
"Mhm. You're actually nineteen, just like Jackson, 4 years older than Liv."
I sat there, annoyed. Had my whole life been a lie?
"So, if I was a...princess, then my parents are the king and queen?" I asked him, putting the pieces together. I thought about how many people would die to be a princess. I wasn't one of them.
"Were," he corrected me, nodding his head.
"But my mom's...dead then," I confirmed.
He looked away to hide the sadness that engulfed his features, giving a faint nod.
"You loved her" I declared, plain as day. Every time I mentioned the queen, he seemed to be overcome with the realization that she was gone. The look that crossed his eyes was unmistakable. I read about that kind of love in books, seen it reenacted in movies, but it was different in real life.
He said nothing, staring at the wall behind me. I sat back down in the chair across from him, just basking in the comfortable silence for a few minutes.
"She was my best friend," he whispered, looking down at his hands.
"Whenever I was scared someone would treat me differently based on my status, she would always tell me she loved me no matter where I stood," he drew his knees up to his chest. Even I was starting to feel saddened by it.
"I'm sorry."
My two words seemed to break him out of his trance and he looked back up at me, in deep thought.
"No, don't be. I'm not. I didn't fall in love with her on the condition that she would live longer than me. There are no conditions in love, so there shouldn't be any regrets. So if today she isn't with me, I still love her the same."
"You were in love?" I asked him. I thought he meant they were childhood friends and they loved each other as friends. Being in love was a whole other thing.
"She was my friend, my wife, my love and-," he started.
"Your wife?! But that meant..." I trailed off. His wife. That meant he was king. Which meant he was also..
"Dad?"
He just nodded his head. It all added up. The adoration in his eyes when he looked at me, the way everyone seemed to just know who I was, and the love that surrounded me from everyone. Without even thinking, I got up and gave him a hug. He missed me too. I could feel it in the way he melted into it.
"I missed you, sweetie," he said, still embracing me.
I could see some of the light showing in his eyes again. It must have been hard for him. His whole family was gone. His daughter turned on him, his wife was killed, and his other daughter was lost somewhere on earth.
"Let's show you to your room, and then we can discuss everything tomorrow, sound good?"
I nodded my head. I couldn't get over the fact that for once in my life, I actually had a dad. A family. A real family.
