The Forgotten Princess Rose
Chapter 191

Chapter 191: Chapter 191

Zayne forced Kiara to her feet and led the way to find her other siblings.

"I was wrong. I should have turned to you in the beginning. I was a bit foolish not to have noticed from your actions that you would attack us. At least let me know. If I had shown interest in the engagement and helped you with the slaves, would you have loved me?" Kiara asked.

"No," Zayne answered.

"I see. She has you wrapped around her finger so much-"

"It doesn’t have anything to do with her. I would never love a woman like you. I would be impressed if you would admit you are a heartless woman," Zayne said but he knew it would never come.

As smart as Kiara was and how aware she was of her surroundings to make use of others, she couldn’t see that she was a heartless woman who forced others to love her instead of letting it happen naturally.

"I am heartless? I could marry any man in the kingdom but I picked one who couldn’t tell me his family name or offer me any riches. How am I heartless when I was ready to give him a better life and go up against my father’s wishes to do so? I was good to him," Kiara argued, the betrayal of Alexander abandoning her still lingered.

How many princesses would do what she was willing to do for Alexander? She was ready to go into a fight against her father so that she could have him.

"Loving someone means wanting the best for them even if it means letting them go. You forced him to your side, and he ran away in the end. Let us end this talk here since you will never understand. Is it here?" Zayne asked, noticing the change in the palace’s decor where they walked now.

When Zayne first stepped into the palace and then walked around with the royals, it had been well decorated with the walls seeming as though they glistened in the light.

Where they walked now was dark since there wasn’t any space for light to be let in to see where they walked. Lanterns were the only source of light but they weren’t close to each other.

It reminded Zayne of a dungeon.

Kiara covered her nose with her right hand and tried her best to watch where she walked. She had never been in this part of the palace and it was for a good reason. She looked at the walls after noticing something was on them when she walked by.

"Who did this?" She wondered, confused by the badly drawn portraits.

The portraits looked as though a child had drawn them.

Had her mother played with the children here by having them think a painter was coming only for someone with no talent in art to produce this?

Zayne let go of Kiara, leaving her in the hands of Finn. He took a lantern from the wall and used it to find his way to a door. There was a noise coming from the room like something large had fallen.

Zayne opened the door, narrowly dodging a piece of wood aimed at his head. "Don’t," he warned the attacker. "I am not here to kill you."

A princess stood in front of her siblings with the only weapon she could find to attack the intruder.

Willow didn’t believe Zayne’s words. "You are here to kill us."

Kiara peeped inside the room to get a good glance at the siblings she never wanted to see. "You, why are you here?" She asked, surprised to see a palace maid among them. "She isn’t one of my father’s children. She’s a maid."

"I am not a maid," Willow answered. "I had to dress as a maid to find us food when the queen punished us. We are not worth anything so please leave us."

Zayne counted the others behind Willow and ended with four princesses all of good age but they were small, clearly not properly fed. "I am not here to harm you. I am freeing you. The king and his heirs are dead. There is a search for the queen. You will be fed and placed elsewhere. Is one of you sick?"

Willow turned to look at her younger sister cradled in the arms of another sister. She was hot and had not opened her eyes since morning. "She is sick and we don’t have anything to help her. We pleaded with the maid who came to us for medicine but she said it was out of her hands. I couldn’t find any medicine."

It was a grave risk but Willow had no other choice. She was forced to dress as a maid and gather what was needed but it was hard to get medicine.

Kiara couldn’t believe her ears. All along one of her father’s bastards had been walking amongst them. "You have been stealing from us-"

"He is my father too!" Willow yelled, frustrated that one side of her birth was ignored. "I am still his child even though I do not want to be."

"Are there more of you?" Zayne asked, going forward to see the ill princess.

"There were more of us but someone came to get them and they never returned. They threatened us to stay quiet or they would sell us. We are not acknowledged but a princess would sell well," Willow repeated the crude remarks. "I would rather die than be sold."

Zayne tilted his head, getting a better look at the princess holding the sick one. The princess bowed her head to hide her face but Zayne already figured out the secret hidden in this room. "You’re a boy," he revealed.

Willow turned around, surprised that it was figured out already despite the disguise. "We are all princesses here."

"There is a boy amongst you. You’ve grown your hair over the years to help with it along with the dresses. The fact that no one pays attention to you helped you to hide a prince here. I know it is because the queen would kill him. I am only curious who helped hide there was a baby prince. Come," Zayne said, reaching to take the sick princess.

Prince Silas hugged his sister’s body, not wanting to let her go into the arms of a stranger.

"She will die by night if you leave her here. You can join her to the doctor," Zayne offered, still holding out his hands. "You look too weak to carry her. If you drop her, you will make it worse."

Silas looked to Willow for an answer.

"Let him hold her," Willow decided. They had already lost too many siblings.

’Well, this is pathetic,’ Kiara thought. The sight wasn’t as moving as others might see it. ’Mother, you’re disappointing.’

Why didn’t her mother just kill all the bastards when they were born? Now she left a prince to fall into Zayne’s plans.

Zayne lifted the princess. Seeing the surviving bunch he wondered if Rose would have any interest in meeting with the rest of her siblings. So far, this group was better than the others excluding Anna.

"Princess Kiara will be kept here until I decide what to do with her. The door will be guarded at all hours of the day and if she steps outside-"

"No!" Kiara interrupted Zayne’s order. She could not stand in this filthy place meant for bastards.

"Kill her," Zayne finished, leading the group of royals out of the room.

Kiara bit her lip to refrain from pleading not to leave her here. She would not have the bastards see her in a pathetic state. She gripped the side of her dress, holding in her anger as the door closed behind the group, leaving her in darkness.