The Tale of a Mad King

Chapter 6

Leah's second pregnancy was not as smooth as the first one. She was sick and tired all the time. She could barely eat a piece of bread without throwing up. The physician had told her that the sickness would go away after her belly started growing as it did before. The months went by but the sickness only seemed to get worse as her belly grew. Alexander didn't seem to have much sympathy for her either. Just when she thought they were starting a true relationship he starts ignoring her again. What confused her even more was Alexander still got her gifts. Once every month Leah would find a gift on her pillow with a note saying it was Alexander. She just can't figure him out. Leah's given up at this point. Like Aiden said, "if he doesn't make time for you, don't waste tears on him". Aiden was a real help during this time. Always checking up on her and holding her hair back when she threw up. He always knew how to make her smile even when she felt like she was physically incapable of it. She thanked God for Aiden every day.

Even though the pregnancy was hard the birth seemed to be easier. It was the exact opposite of when she was pregnant with Cole. With Cole the pregnancy was easy and the birth was hard. It only took 5 hours before the baby girl was brought into the world. Her name was Victoria, meaning 'victory or triumphant'. Leah was holding Victoria when Alexander walked in. "Hello Alexander," she greets shyly. He nods his head at the little girl in Leah's arms. "Is she healthy?" Alexander asks. Victoria was born a month before she was due. It almost gave everyone a heart attack when Leah said her water broke. "She's small and very weak, but I'm sure she will be fine given time." She says confidently making him nod once more. "Would you, like to meet your daughter?" She asks confused as to why he's just standing there staring at them. "I will hold her later. I'm sure Aiden will keep you perfect company." He mumbles the last part bitterly. Leah didn't like his tone of voice at all. "Why yes, he will. Better company than you at least."

"Excuse me? What did you just say?" He practically growls in anger. Puffing out her chest and holding Victoria close she asserts herself confidently. "You heard me," she states. they stare at each other for a moment, neither one willing to look away. After what seems like an eternity Alexander breaks eye contact. Letting out a loud grunt Alexander punches the wall in rage. The loud noise waking Victoria and making her cry. Leah looks down and automatically starts to calm her scared child. Alexander stands shocked for a moment, staring at the small child. He stares until the midwives burst in to see what all the ruckus was about. One midwife asks him what happened and why there was a hole in the wall. All he did was shake his in response and stumble out of the room. As soon as he left Leah let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. The midwife goes to take the baby from her but Leah waves her off. She wants to keep her child as close as possible.

When Aiden heard what happened a few days later he was outraged. "Who does he think he is scaring his child like that?" Aiden yells waving his arms like a mad man. Leah was glad both children were in the nursery a few doors over. "I don't know Aiden honestly it scared me too. I've never seen him get angry like that." Leah utters "but you talked back to him." Aiden says smiling proudly. Leah smirks "yeah I did, didn't I? Who knows maybe one day I could even fight him." She jokes giving Aiden a playful punch to the arm. He dramatically grabs his shoulder gasping as if she had just torn it off. "Wow Lee be careful you could take down an army with that swing." He laughs and Leah laughs with him. "Spread the word Aid. Soon we won't even need soldiers." She says flexing her arms making him laugh harder. "We should warn all the other kingdoms, don't mess with queen Leah." He proclaims wrapping an arm around her. They both take a moment to catch their breath. "I like it when you're like this." He says "like what?" She asks "happy, you're not happy often. It's nice to see you look alive again." Leah smiles softly at his words. "You're too sweet." She says leaning up and kissing his cheek.

Eight years pass after that moment. Cole is now ten and Victoria is a week shy of being eight. Ever since the birth of Victoria, the tension between Leah and Alexander has only gotten colder. Alexander refuses to look at Leah and when he does it's with pure sorrow. Leah tries to be happy but you can always see the sadness when Alexander is mentioned. Aiden tries to help but even he can't keep Leah happy all the time and Alexander refuses to talk to him. Alexander seems so angry all the time. He spends all his time outside of the castle. Preferring to deal with things in person rather than signing some papers. Leah gets the feeling there's more to it than that but she doesn't ask. No point in asking when you know you won't get a straight answer. Or an answer at all. Leah was genuinely getting fed up with the way Alexander was acting. She doesn't even know what she did to make him act this way towards her. "I can't keep going on like this. He has no right to treat me this way. To treat us this way. He has no right to treat us like we're nothing," Leah exclaims. Aiden sits in the chair beside her "you're telling me. Except I think he has a reason to act the way he does with me." He says making her look at him confused. "What do you mean?" She asks "he saw what happened at Cole's second birthday."

"He's mad about that? You were drunk. Did he even talk to you about it?" She scoffs starting to pace. Aiden shakes his head in reply. "No? Listen, I understand why he would be upset but he could have at least tried to talk to us about it. Instead of holding it inside for years on end and making everyone miserable." Leah finds herself ranting. All the pent up anger coming out in waves. "Leah calm down, Alexander is a special breed of man. He's prideful and has a bit of an anger issue. Once he gets an idea in his head he sticks to it no matter how stupid. If you want to get something through his thick skull you're going to have to knock it into him." He says grabbing her shoulders. "Well, if that's what it takes then that's what I'll do," She tells him. Aiden sighs  "just be careful okay. I don't want your feelings hurt any more than they already are." "You need to stop worrying about my feeling so much Aiden. I appreciate everything you do for me but you need to start worrying about you. I'll be fine." Aiden smiles proudly. 'She's grown up' he thinks. She's not the same girl crying because her husband didn't love her. She has become a woman of dignity and self-respect. "I know you will, you always are."

Making her way to Alexander's office Leah could feel all the confidence she had earlier slowly draining out of her body. She had to confront him though. For her sanity and the sake of their children. Children deserve parents who could at least tolerate each other. Not ones who could barely look at each other. Knocking on his door she holds her head high. She was not going to let him tear her down, not this time. Hearing him say 'come in' she knew there was no going back now. "Alexander?" She calls as she's opening the door. Alexander looks at her shocked. "Leah, what are you doing here?" He asks quickly standing from his seat. "I need to talk to you about something." She says "what is it?" She quickly takes a deep breath. "Why do you always act so cold?" Leah asks "what do you mean-" "you know what I mean Alexander. You always act so distantly, you never talk to me or your brother. You barely look at us and when you do its like we've wronged you. I get you being upset about what happened on Cole's second birthday but you never even tried to talk to us about it. If you did we could've solved this before it got out of hand. I don't see why you have to bottle everything up. Seriously, stop being so selfish. Look at what you're putting the children through. They can barely stand in a room for five minutes with us without feeling like they've done something wrong. I don't even know what I did to make you act so horribly towards me."

Alexander stands there shocked for a moment. Then he gets angry. "You don't know what you did? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID?! That's just hilarious. I see how close you are with my brother. I see how you spend all your time together. How he holds you like you are lovers. How he came close to putting his lips on yours. Don't try to deny it." He asserts making her scoff. "Is that what you think? That we are lovers?" He gives her a pointed look, answering her question. "Alexander, throughout this entire marriage I can truthfully say that the only person I've ever loved is you. I've loved you since the first time we've met. The first time you kissed my lips I knew I was yours. Aiden is my best friend and yes I love him but not as much as I love you. The reason he hugs me the way he does is he's comforting me. I was so upset over you, over why you didn't love me. He was there for me when you weren't. He was drunk when he tried to kiss me. He's felt so guilty over it for years. He's apologized to me more times than I could count." Hearing this all of Alexander's anger dissipates. "Is... Is this true?" He asks "would I be saying it if it wasn't?" Alexander looks down in shame. No matter what he thought she'd done Leah was never one to lie. If she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to do she would admit to it right away. Leah walks over to him and puts her fingers under his chin forcing him to look at her. "Alexander please say something."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He utters grabbing her hands. "It's ok, I forgive you. Just tell me why you've never talked to me." she says "I don't know. I guess I was afraid." This makes Leah laugh "the great Alexander William was afraid?" she jokes. Alexander rolls his eyes "yeah yeah laugh it out. I was afraid, I didn't want to know if my suspicions were correct or not. If I had confronted you and you confirmed my suspicions my heart would have been torn apart. If I had confronted you and you said you hadn't done anything then I would have had to deal with the shame of humiliating you. So I never said anything." He presses his forehead against hers. "You really are a special breed of man." She giggles "you could say that again. I am truly sorry" he says looking in her eyes. She smiles brightly up at him "it's okay, really. Just promise to talk to me whenever you have these thoughts again." "I promise to talk to you about everything from now on."