Chapter 28

Rowena

A soft sigh escaped my lips as I kicked off my shoes in the doorway of our mansion. It had been a long, but satisfying, day. I had new patients for my clinic, I was gaining more traction as a combat manager, and I had a date with Adrian planned.

Everything finally felt like it was coming together. I couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, I would finally be taken seriously at the warrior camp. Maybe now people would begin to respect me rather than treating me like an outcast.

It wasn’t long before the sound of sizzling and the scent of something cooking caught my attention, and I followed it to the kitchen.

“Hey, Mom.” I rounded the corner to find my mom standing at the stove, cooking her famous carbonara.

“Hey, honey,” my mom said as I slid onto one of the barstools across the counter from her. “How was your day?”

I couldn’t seem to hide my smile. “It was really good, actually,” I said.

My mom smiled. “I’m glad to hear that.”

We sat in silence for a few moments as I pulled my phone out and began to scroll. My mom and I had always had a comfortable relationship; despite the fact that I was the black sheep of the family from the outside, we had always had a loving home life.

“Huh,” I muttered under my breath as I scrolled through a news article. The headline was titled ‘Missing Princess’, and a description was given.

“What is it?” My mom glanced up momentarily from her cooking, and I held my phone out to her so she could see the article.

“Missing princess,” I mused. “From the Northern Kingdom.”

My mom pursed her lips and set down her wooden spoon, taking my phone. I watched as she scanned the article for a few moments before handing it back to me.

“That’s interesting,” she said. “I wonder where she could be.”

I shrugged and kept scrolling. But my eyes widened then; “Listen to this,” I said. “‘May have curly brown hair, blue eyes, and a snowflake-shaped birthmark on her earlobe.’ Does that sound familiar, or…?”

As I spoke, my eyes caught my own reflection in the window behind my mother. A girl with a curly head of brown hair and my family’s signature bright blue eyes stared back at me. As for the birthmark, well…

“I do have that birthmark, you know,” I teased, poking my earlobe with a smirk. “It’s kind of snowflake-shaped, isn’t it? Maybe I’m the missing princess.”

My mother, with her back turned now as she strained the pasta over the sink, almost seemed to stiffen. But it was such a momentary reaction that I almost wondered if I had even seen it at all. When she turned back to face me, she was smiling right along with me.

“Well, if that’s the case, then I guess I don’t need to feed you this carbonara you love so much,” she teased. “I suppose your new royal family would happily feed you. Maybe even something fancier, like caviar.”

I stuck out my tongue and made a mock-disgusted face. “I’d never stop eating your carbonara, even if the king and queen of the Northern Kingdom offered me all the caviar in the world,” I said, grinning.

My mother chuckled and set a plate of food in front of me. “Good. And for what it’s worth, it would come as quite the surprise anyway since I did carry you in my belly for nine months.”

“Don’t worry. I know I’m yours and dad’s daughter.” I took a bite of my pasta and smirked slightly. “It still wouldn’t explain why you and dad never took pictures of me before the age of two, though.”

“Now, Rowena.” My mother placed her hands on her hips and shot me a warning look, although I knew she wasn’t being entirely serious. “You were a very sick little girl. We didn’t—”

“I know, I know,” I said softly, poking at my pasta with my fork. “You didn’t want any pictures just in case I didn’t make it.”

My mother sighed and reached across the counter to give my hand a squeeze. “When the doctors told us about your ailment, it was advised. But now, looking back, I wish we had.”

I smiled slightly. “It’s okay. We’ve got plenty of pictures now.”

Before my mother could answer, the sound of the door opening caught our attention. A moment later, Eric walked into the room. He didn’t meet my gaze.

“Eric,” my mom said. “You’re just in time for dinner.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Eric planted a kiss on our mother’s cheek before fixing himself a plate and sat down a couple of seats down from me, avoiding my eyes the entire time. My mother and I exchanged confused glances for a moment before she cleared her throat.

“So,” she said. “Tomorrow’s Friday. Do you two have plans?”

“Rowena has plans,” Eric said without looking up. “She’s got a date, actually.”

“A date? With that nice boy, Adrian?” my mother asked. “He was such a gentleman.”

I blushed, wishing secretly that I could kick Eric under the table. “Uh, yeah,” I admitted. “We’re going out for dinner and a movie tomorrow night.”

“Oh, honey, I’m so glad. Let’s go shopping for an outfit tomorrow. What do you say?”

I smiled. “Sure, Mom. That would be nice.”

“Just be careful, Rowena,” Eric suddenly said, lifting his head to meet my gaze for the first time; and his eyes were icy, so much unlike their usual shimmering shade of blue. “You know how that guy treats women.”

My mother gasped slightly. I, however, was not perturbed.

“He treats girls a whole lot better than you, Eric,” I retorted.

Eric’s jaw clenched, and without another word, he returned to forcefully stabbing his pasta with his fork. It was clear I had struck a chord; although whatever that chord was, I couldn’t be sure.

Finally, wanting to break the tense silence, I cleared my throat and faced him again. “Do you want to practice swimming again tonight?” I asked tentatively.

Eric froze. There was a long, tense silence as his fork sat motionless and upright in his pasta. His fingers were wrapped so tightly around his fork, in fact, that his knuckles were starting to turn a pale shade of white.

And then, he simply stood and grabbed his jacket off of the back of the chair.

“Not tonight,” he said coolly, already slipping his coat back on and striding out of the kitchen. “I forgot I have a date.”

My mother and I stared incredulously after him as he stormed out of the kitchen, leaving his dinner mostly untouched on the counter.

A moment later, the door clicked shut behind him; and a moment after that, we heard the sound of his car engine starting and peeling out of the driveway with a rev.

It was clear that, for whatever reason, Eric was in a bad mood; in fact, he had been since Adrian had asked me out. I had thought that he would be happy for me to get a date, but… I guess I was wrong about that. But why?

“Did I say something wrong?” I asked, turning back to my half-eaten dinner and the space that my brother had left empty.