Laurel and the Selection (Laurel's Selection #1)

Chapter Fifteen- Laurel

        Livia visited every night since then. I spent lots of nights with her debating whether to tell the Queen or not. Eventually, I came to the decision to tell her about Livia (not about her visiting me at night) and what she told me. Surely she knows about Livia, especially since she has such an important role as being a spy.

        "So, do you have any ideas on who the spy is?" I asked Livia one night.

        "Well, we have some idea," she replied, "We're thinking that he or she has to be close to the royal family and the Selection itself." 

        A name popped into my head instantly. Sylvia. She had close bonds to the royal family, being the person planning and overseeing the Selection for quite some time now. It all made sense. Sylvia knew about everything, and she was trusted so she knew a lot. But why would she give away information? 

        I told Livia all about what I had thought about. That night, she and I had decided to tell the Queen our theories exactly two days from then- which is today.

        I woke up and ran through my script in my head. I let my maids prepare me in a silver tea dress, and headed down to breakfast. Luckily, the Queen was there. I ate as quickly as I could and walked up to her.

        "Um hi, I have some news. It's pretty urgent. Can I talk to you in private?" I asked awkwardly. 

        The queen thought for a moment, then nodded. She stood up and annouced that she was going to talk to me in private. Queen America led me to her office and sat down in her large throne-office chair. 

        "So uh I met this Northern rebel the other day named Livia, and she warned me about the Southern rebels who were ummm trying to kill me, and she told me the truth about who I am, and that there is a spy," I stuttered the whole way there. My cheecks burned up and I finished and looked up at Queen America.

        "Livia's right. You are the heir of the throne, and my daughter. I can't imagine how many questions you have right now, and I'll let you ask them," Queen America- Mother- told me slowly. I tried to think of the most important, urgent question I had to ask first. 

        "What's the story behind this?" I asked. 

        "Good question," she told me. "When I was pregnant, the rebels were at their strongest. Your father and I knew that you weren't going to be safe, and that once your birth was annouced, they would kill you. So, you were born in secret. No one knew. Only your father, the doctor, me, and the family that we were going to give you to knew. And once you were born, we gave you to them to take care of until the Selection. Meanwhile, we swapped babies with them, and that gave us Christian. It was all part of the plan, in fact, it was the only reason why we even had a Selection this year. He would chose you, and everything would be back to normal, with you safe." 

        And that was a lot of information to take in. Blair wasn't really my sister. My parents weren't my parents. I was fighting for a guy who wasn't even the prince. Was Sloanne even my real best friend? I only had one more question, though.

        "What happens next?" I asked the Queen. 

        "Good question. We're going to pretend that this never happened. But remember that you will get chosen either way. Try your best still, though, even though it's not going to matter. This is great preparation for when you become the Queen of Illea. As for what happens after that, I'm not sure. We will definetly get this mess with the rebels sorted out before you take the throne, I promise," Queen America stood up. "I have to go, but you should get back to the dining hall."