Shut Up, Cinderella

The Royal Family

"Mom...?"

Cinder followed Gem's gaze to the woman who had just arrived. If the king was noticeably his father, this lady was the spitting image of the prince. She had the same copper hair, the same wide eyes, though her features were worn out with bitterness and grief.

"The Queen Rosalya, dear boy," Marigold whispered to him, "King Emerald's wife."

Queen Rosalya strode in, holding up her opulent skirts. "Gem, what is all this talk about leaving?" she said again. "Don't tell me you'll actually run away!"

"Tell me about it, Rosa," King Emerald said. "This son of ours is threatening to elope with a commoner unless we let him marry this person."

Her eyes fell upon Cinder. They didn't actually resemble her son's upon further inspection, he realized; where Gem's eyes were brown hers were blue. Between that, her red hair and pale skin, Cinder guessed she had to have a lot of foreign roots.

"What's the problem with this person?" she asked, turning back to her husband. "Let him marry who he loves! Anything, as long as he doesn't run off and leave us!"

King Emerald sighed. "Of course you would say that."

"And you wouldn't?"

The queen's cheeks flushed with anger. "Don't talk to me about sacrificing love for power and duty," she hissed. "I know you had someone you loved before. You weren't allowed to marry her either, and look where it got you!" She gestured furiously. "You'd think you could be at least wise enough to not want the same thing for your son!"

King Emerald, the same King Emerald who had maintained his cold, composed aura for so long, took a startled step back.

"It was for the better," he tried to defend himself, convincing no one. "If I had married someone of her status—"

"If you had married someone of her status, you would have been happy!" The queen's voice grew louder. "And so would I! Because no one would ever have forced the two of us into this sorry excuse—this joke of a marriage!"

"Rosa, calm down—"

"No, I will not calm down!" Her voice was unstable, a harsh echo reverberating off the walls. "I know you loathed me from the beginning! I at least tried to give you a chance! Because I thought maybe you weren't that bad—maybe we could be a functional family!" Tears glinted in her eyes. "Do you want the same thing for your son? Do you want to tear him from the person he loves and force him into a loveless, miserable marriage that his own children will suffer from just like yours did?"

King Emerald closed his eyes.

"Rosalya, that's enough."

She flinched back. "What—"

"I told you before," he said. "Gemstone isn't just any child—he has a responsibility. Imagine the scandal if he married a—"

"Imagine the scandal if he ended up in a marriage like ours!"

"Shut up, both of you!"

Gem's voice was shaking, cracking with anger and frustration. Cinder immediately stepped closer to him, placing a calming hand on his back. His parents, however, ignored him completely.

"Gemstone is young," King Emerald said. "There are plenty of viable options for him that aren't peasants—shoemakers. If he falls in love with one of them, no one will need to force him into a marriage he disagrees with."

"What if he doesn't? He knows the nobility!"

"In that case, there are other kingdoms with nobles and royalty that he has yet to meet!"