The Rise Of A Queen

Chapter 4: The Mother Of Surprises

A R A B E L L A ' S P.O.V

Mother. Mother. Mother. The word just kept repeating itself in my mind, or maybe I was mumbling it aloud, maybe I was screaming it but either way the woman before me was claiming to be my mother.

The woman who birthed me, the one who carried me for nine months, the woman who first held me.

Then it suddenly dawned on me.

A memory came flooding to the fore front of my mind, and I was suddenly transported back to the competition. To that fateful day I decided to spend some time in the library, only to be cornered and ambushed by my fellow competitors.

Ivy was an entire collection of horrible traumatising memories that dredged up feelings I fought hard to bury.

One of the worst though was that day, the day she revealed some disturbing secrets about my sordid past.

"According to this your mother seduced one of the guards watching her. She had a full blown affair with him and used him to try and escape. Quite a scandal. She got caught, of course, and they found out she was pregnant with the guard's baby. She wasn't exactly stable either, she tried to kill you multiple times as well. She overdosed, starved herself and she even tried to beat you out her. Much to all our disappointments though, she was never successful. Then she had you and they killed her. Little baby Arabella, born out of a love affair, guess you're both whores."

If this really was my mother then...she was an evident psychopath. A woman who tried to kill me as a small helpless baby, and herself in the process. She was unstable, crazy and supposed to be dead so...either ghosts were real or that was all a lie.

Perhaps, it wasn't all a lie? Maybe she did try to kill me, and failed so she left anyways? Maybe she knew my father? Maybe he was with her too?

Or maybe she was liar, a crazy person with no blood ties to me at all? That did seem to be the most logical reason, the most sensible.

But there was a chance, a small chance that this was real.

"Arabella, baby hey can you hear me? Arabella, Arabella...." And just like that I brought back to the present.

There were lots of eyes on me, everyone staring as if I had gone crazy or something. The woman was still detained, two guards holding her back as she struggled to get closer to me.

I found myself looking at her, my eyes fixed on her wild appearance. She had dirt caked everywhere, leaves stuck in her bushy and wild hair and her clock was now untied, revealing her torn and ragged dress.

Yet, she looked just like me.

Our eyes a shimmering ocean blue that I had only ever seen on myself, small ears, and our lips were similarly shaped with the same rosy tone.

However, I couldn't help but point out the differences. Her nose was more angular than mine, her skin slightly paler, eyes narrower and she had this strange aura almost surrounding her.

"Arabella, baby," I turned to my left, my husband had his hands on my face, palms gently caressing my cheeks.

I don't know what I was expecting to see in his eyes but pity...sympathy was certainly not it.

As if his touch scalded me, I flinched and moved back. His hands immediately dropped to his side and concern now washed over him.

I knew what he was thinking. My poor naive wife who probably thinks that this f*****g stranger is her real mother.

Because deep down, I do.

I let out a shaky breath and then stepped forward. Everyone reached out to grab me but I held my hand up to ward them off. My footsteps seemed to echo, despite the fact that we were in an open space.

The women stopped her thrashing, and her tears eyes burned into mine, her lip quivering slightly. "I'm your mother Arabella."

"How do I know that is true? You could be lying," I was honestly stunned by how strong my voice sounded, or maybe I had only imagined that.

"I could...but I'm not. You know it in your heart Arabella, you do." I had response. This woman could be anyone, she could be a master at manipulation and trying to fleece me for money but her words hit me hard.

"Guards, take her away." I was too shocked to register Hardin's words, so I did nothing but stand there as she was carried away screaming to the dungeon.

"The necklace, Arabella, the necklace." She screamed and on instinct my hands flew up to the star necklace I almost never took off.

"Wyatt, go down and start the interrogation." My head turned so fast I thought I had whiplash. I stormed over to Hardin, watching fearfully as Wyatt nodded and followed after the woman.

"What are you going to do to her?" His hard demeanour softened, and he took my hand, gently pulling me aside.

"Wyatt's going to question her, find out what she wants, why she made up this ridiculous lie?"

"You think it's a lie?" Of course he did. Hardin was a rational man, who only believed something when he solid proof before him.

"Baby I do." He spoke so softly, as though the slightest raise of his voice would cause me to shatter.

"But what if it's not...what if she's really my mother?" I had only seen the dungeons a few times before but I knew what an awful and dreadful place they were. Some prisoners died upon shock of the horrific conditions.

"Why do you think she is?"

"She looks like me." His lips titled up slightly.

"Are you sure this isn't just your imagination making you see things?" I shook my head, but clasped onto his hands tightly.

"I'm not crazy."

"I never said you were." His voice was a little sharper than usual, and caught some unwanted attention.

Flo and Rory were all watching me with sympathetic eyes, yet I could still see the worry. Xander's face was stone cold hard, his expression letting nothing show.

"Let's go up to our room." He said quietly, tugging me towards the Palace and for once I didn't object.

I immediately took a seat on our king sized bed, the soft sheets giving me a familiar sense of comfort. Hardin slowly clicked the door shut, and then walked over to me, kneeling down, as his reached out to hold my hands.

"Arabella I've seen people like this all the time. She's just preying on your kindness and hope. Okay, she could be a criminal planning to kill you or a mentally unstable woman who has convinced herself that you are her child."

I narrowed my eyes. "That's weirdly specific."

His lips curled up into a smirk, yet I could see a glimmer of sadness in his eyes. "It happened to me, a year before the competition. This woman claimed to be my mother, my father was away on business and she found me when I was all alone so it was just me and her. She managed to convince me it was true, up to the point where I got a DNA test. It came back negative and it hurt me because...I had hope."

"She looks just like me." I whispered to myself, eyes fixed on the stain on the carpet I kept forgetting to get removed.

"I know baby but...maybe that's why she's pretending? People have told her you look alike so she tried to use it as her ticket to money. Lots of people do crazy things for money. She might have been desperate."

That sounded about right. It sounded logical, reasonable and probably what was happening. The woman wanted money, and the best way to do that would be to play on the emotions of the generous Queen who believed almost anything.

Even the fact that a random woman could possibly be my mother. But there was though...a possibility, and I had to try, didn't I?

"Hardin, she could be my mother. There's a chance, it's small but it's there." He sighed, partly out of frustration.

"You're talking about a minuscule chance, and even if she was...baby, this woman abandoned you, left you to be raised in the academy. From what you told me, she didn't care for you so why now? Why when you're Queen with power, respect and money? She doesn't deserve you as a daughter."

His words were hurtful but true, she had 21 years to find me. Yet now, she chose to sought me out. I wouldn't be used anymore, I was done with being seen as some kind of object.

The academy used me, the labs used me, hell even Xander used me at first. Hardin was the only person who didn't.

Sliding off the bed, I sat on his lap and buried my face into his chest. The silky fabric of his black shirt, becoming instantly soaked by my tears, sobs racketing throughout my chest.

"Shh, baby it's okay."

"It's not okay Hardin! Nothing about this is okay!" His arms held me tighter, trapping me against his chest, but I welcomed his touch openly.

"What do you want me to do? Want do you want to do?"

"I'm scared Hardin. My past is something...something that still haunts me and I thought I was past it all but clearly I've got some unfinished business. This woman could hold the answers to my past, about the labs, my conception, my father. What if he's alive too?"

Warm palms cupped my cheeks, forcing my head up. His silverly grey eyes, were boring down into mine, and just by staring into his beautiful orbs I found myself slowly calming down.

"I want to see her." I managed to mumble out.

"She could be dangerous."

"She could know the truth. I have to take that risk." He shook his head, and shock overcame me.

I know I may look a little spoilt right now but Hardin had never denied me anything before. He was the perfect husband who understood that just because I was his wife, it didn't give him the right to control my actions.

We were progressive as a couple, fair, equal in our marriage, despite the fact that he had the right to control me. He was the King after all and King trumped Queen.

"Hardin, I wasn't asking. I'm going to talk to her."

"Not yet, not now." I moved off him and stumbled backwards. He reached for me but I shuffled away. Pain flashed in his eyes, hurt overcoming all of his features but I still stayed back.

"You can't control my actions."

"You're pregnant." I shook my head, sick of people using my baby as an excuse. As though my baby is a weakness, my pregnancy is a disease that's dragging me down but that's where they're wrong.

I'm doing this because of my baby. I want my child to have a stable and loving home. A place where they feel safe with parents who can provide them the best life, and I need closure to be that parent. To close one chapter, before I moved onto the next.

"And because I'm pregnant, I'm incapable of talking to someone?"

"You know that's not what I meant?" Standing up, I stormed towards the bathroom, slamming and locking the door in his face.

His fist pounded against the wood, the door creaking at its rusty old hinges but yet it still kept strong.

I needed space, time away from reality.

Sinking down to the floor, I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face into my hands. This day had been a long exhausting one, and now it had taken an even worse turn.

Hardin and I rarely fought and whenever we did it was about stupid pointless things that we would always forget about. This though, was probably the biggest fight we had during the course of our marriage.

This woman had barely been in our lives for two minutes and she had begun to leave destruction in her wake. I wondered what she could if she really was my mother? Would he presence destroy my marriage, because it was already beginning to c***k.

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A/N: Who do you think is right?

Hardin or Arabella?

And what about Arabella's 'mother'?

Real or not?