✧—♚ broken crown.

Emilia giggled at Judith’s description and shrugged. “Well, when you put it like that,” She paused, letting out another giggle. “I don’t know. It sounded fun. Perhaps we can go and just enjoy ourselves.” 

Emilia smiled, warmly. “I couldn’t possibly eat all of this.” She said, her stomach lurching just looking at the food. “I’ll just...um, I’ll have some juice? I’m not super hungry right now.” 

“Uh, excuse me – can I ask for your advice?” Simon had turned around to the person closest to him out of instinct, having drabbled with two different type of night lamps for over five minutes now. “I’m going to redo my daughter’s room later for her three year old birthday and I’m trying to find something in the middle of childish, and yet mature enough to grow into for another three years. Blend furniture with decorations. Does that even sound wise or should I just keep it childish all together? I really wish I could ask her but you know… it’s a surprise.”

Emilia smiled at the man speaking about his daughter. It was so lovely to see this young father really care so much for his daughter. “I think she’d love that, definitely.” The princess said, gently, nodding. “All little girls love surprises from their fathers. Trust me. You’ll be a hit.” 

“James deserves to know who his mother is,” Lucas answered simply. “And he deserves to know what his sister has suffered.” He found himself wondering how James could have missed this. Was he blinded by love for his mother? Or had he chosen not to see, because what was in front of him was so horrible? He tensed as Emilia spoke, anger like he had never felt filling his heart. He had never raised his hand to anyone, let alone a woman, but he thought he was angry enough to easily slap Rose Vanderbilt across the face. He felt how cold her hands were and tried to warm them up between his own. He helped security get Emilia out of the car, deciding to follow her up and make sure she was safely tucked in.

“Lucas Harrington, come here right this moment.” Rose went after him, security behind her. She took his arm, turning him around. “How dare you. I’ve always been like a second mother to you, Lucas. How could you be so cruel? You don’t know a thing about Emilia, the heartache she has caused or anything about my family, but I do know a thing or two about yours, don’t I? Your rocky marriage, your delinquent little sister that we all know is far from perfect? I have much in the vault, love. Don’t test me. Besides, Emilia isn’t w o r t h the hassle, I can assure you. When it comes down to it, sweetheart, queen beats senator, every time. Take it from me: Emilia might be madly in love with you, so in love that it’s pathetic that she even thinks she could be worthy of anyone, for God’s sake, but I’m not charmed by you. Be sure of that, Lucas.” Little did they know, Emilia was on the staircase, having woken up when her security took her upstairs. She was coming downstairs to thank Lucas, when she heard their voices on the stair well speaking. She felt tears fill her eyes as her mother spoke, threatening Lucas, and of course, another b l o w  to her being. Not worth the hassle. She leaned against the stairwell wall, tears falling down her cheek, listening to see if Lucas would say anything else. 

Emilia held back her security guards that stepped up on the mouthing man that came across her. She instead smiled, quite softly and shrugged. “No worries, love. All I wanted to order was a lemonade, but if that is so hard, I’ll go to the manager, order it again and tell him or her that you’ve refused to serve Princess Emilia, of England. No worries.” She said, smartly, raising an eyebrow.

“What?” Riley asked after plucking a random coffee from the counter. With a failed attempt to hide the name scribbled upon the takeout cup – the one that was not hers – she sighed at the futile attempt given how her exposed badge clearly stated that her name was not faith. “Listen, I’m in a rush and it’s just not faith’s day. 

“Oh, no, no, Detective, I’m not Faith. I was just giggling to myself. You must really need the caffeine.” Emilia smiled, warmly. 

“I’m sorry to bother you —” Emily stepped forward with an apologetic look on her face after having realized that her phone had died during her visit with her father, thus making it impossible to call her mother. “I was hoping I could use your phone. I promised my mom I’d call her, and she’ll worry if I don’t. I promise not to take too long.” 

“Oh, of course, lovely. Here you go.” Emilia said, with a warm smile, handing over her iPhone. “You’re sweet to call your mother to not make her worry.” 

“Oh, God. Here, let me help with that.” The brunette said, picking up the books that were spilled on the ground. “It happens to me all of the time, too. No worries. Here you go.” Emilia offered a warm smile to the blonde. 

Robyn was definitely not snooping on her ex boyfriend’s Facebook. She just happened to open her browser and click on Facebook. And she noticed on her top news a picture of her ex with a girl. One that he seemed to be getting very cozy with. So ten minutes later, she was deep in the girl who was tagged’s page, not noticing the person who came up behind her until they asked what she was looking at. “Nothing!” She said as she shut her laptop. After an awkward pause, she sighed. “I was snooping on Facebook,”

“Oh, goodness! You scared me! Haha, snooping on Facebook? Is this a Canadian thing? Gosh, I don’t even have a Facebook.” Emilia said, bringing over the both of them coffee. “Here you go, love. Ha, what were you doing, may I ask, snooping on Facebook?” 

“I shouldn’t show you this. But, I’m so happy… Okay, I’ll do it anyway.” Madison said showing the ultra-sound of her baby. “My husband and I don’t want to know if it’s a boy or a girl. I mean, not yet.” She smiled at the person in her front.

“Oh, my gosh! How adorable!” Emilia exclaimed, nearly spilling her tea as she reached over to get a better look at the ultrasound photo. “Oh, goodness! Whatever it is, it’s so beautiful. Oh, this is so precious. Congratulations.” 

“Okay, so I went out and splurged on myself and splurged I mean I may have bought this dress from Alessia Harrington and I look ridiculous, don’t I?” Though Druella owned many dresses and skirts, she had never once bought something so fancy and worn it on a whim, rather than out to galas and other important events. 

“Thee Alessia Harrington? Oh, she must be so happy.” Emilia giggled, seeing Dru and smiling. “She is sort of blowing up right now, after that Caitlyn Jenner dress. People are calling her a young Chanel.” She said, sighing. “I have to agree. She’s pretty incredible, but you look dashing, Dru, honestly.” 

Of course Nora would realize she didn’t have her ID with her moments before it was her turn with the bouncer. “Fuck.” She muttered more to herself than anyone around her, frantically digging through her bag. Hoping that she’d magically find it somewhere in there, no such luck. “I can’t believe I lost my ID. Do you….do you think they’ll accept my birth certificate as identification? Probably not right? I’m such an idiot.”

“Oh, no, no. Don’t worry, love. Henry, this is a friend of me. Please, let her in.” The bouncer smiled at Emilia and nodded. “Of course, Princess Emilia.” He said and Emilia smiled, looking back at the female. “There you go. Problem solved.” 

Emilia felt herself being scooped up by her brother and she n e e d e d that. For so long, she’d been scooping herself up, going on and dealing with this and she felt guilty that she felt some relief that he could take care of her now. Emilia was clearly so broken, clearly so hurt. She felt hot tears spill down her cheeks as she hugged at her big brother, wanting him more than anyone at that moment. She c l u n g onto him, afraid that if she didn’t cling enough that he would somehow disappear. “You d-don’t deserve this, Jamie. You don’t deserve this. I love you so much...You s-shouldn’t have to deal with this. It’s not fair to you. You need to t-take care of you too, because Dad was so important to you as well and he’s not here and you have to deal with it and it’s not fair that you lost a mother as well.” She cried into his chest, feeling only for her big brother and not for herself, not for the torture she had to be put through on top of losing her father. Emilia never had a mother to begin with. Her mother had always treated her with disdain. Never a kind word, a loving gesture, none of the love that James got. Emilia had always thought it was her, even at a young age. She would b e g for her mother’s attention, but fail each time. It wasn’t a bad childhood though; she had her nannies, her father, James, but still. There was an aching to her being, a heart that was always broken---a girl needed her mother. 

Emilia smiled at his sweet ways, the way Jesse was entirely a gentleman. She could relax around him,  be herself around him and she knew she would be accepted for her, not as a princess. He had no idea how much that much to her. “There is more to it, but I’m afraid I don’t wish to bore you, my love. You fill with me such comfort, you have no idea.” She said, thanking him for the drink and sipping at the it. “As always, you make a splendid drink.” She watched what he motioned and giggled, nodding. “Lovely! You’re a regular natural.” She said, signing it back to him, Emilia being an expert in sign language, as some of her other friends back home were deaf as well. “You do? My goodness! Way to slip that in, Jess! Let me com and see you perform! I want to see my darling up there and play so beautifully.” 

“Your words are way to kind for this world I swear, Emilia.” Danielle laughed softly, smiling down at the younger woman. “No one can ever be as charming and beautiful as Cinderella, dear. It’s just how she’s made.”

Emilia giggled, blushing. “Well, I try. You make it easy to compliment you, Danielle.” She said, placing a piece of stray hair behind her ears. “Well, you are definitely just as charming and beautiful, if not more so. Gosh, I love the story of Cinderella, though. I used to want to be like her. It’s quite an odd experience, however, to hear these fairytales and be an actual princess. Always baffled me.” 

“So? Emilia, you and your mother are completely different people – that is very clear. She’s a shallow, cruel, bitter person who expects everyone to conform to her own standards, whether or not they fit for that person. The only person who is being let down here is you. Listen to yourself. You sound like you’re reading from a script, and it’s because you are. A script that your mother programmed you with. But it’s not true.” He shook his head. “No, you don’t deserve it. Would you think that anyone else deserved it, if you heard about this? You deserve the same amount of love that you give everyone else, Emilia. In fact, you probably deserve even more. She does it because she’s not a good person. That’s it. Whatever reasons she may have don’t matter in the face of that. You’re just as easy to love as James. I don’t know why she favors him. Maybe because he’s the boy? Maybe because she doesn’t see herself when she looks at him, the way she does with you? She pushed herself to be perfect and probably wasted her life that way, so she’s trying to impose the same torture on you.” Lucas shook his head again, swearing to himself that if he ever saw Emilia’s mother again, he would make sure to her let know just how heinous he thought she was. Queen of England or not. “Emilia, doesn’t that mean anything to you? The fact that all you ever hear from your own mother are hateful, horrible things? Doesn’t that seem wrong? All she ever does is hurt you, and that’s her fault. Not yours.” He sighed softly, brushing her hair out of her face as she fell asleep against his chest. “I love you, too.”

It was affirming to hear all of these words, by someone she loved so much. Emilia smiled softly with her eyes closed at his words, drifting off into a slumber that had no cruel words, no shoving her to the side, no commanding her to do a thousand push-ups and sit ups while insulting every inch of her frail body. Emilia felt the limo drive smoothly as she shifted, half asleep on Lucas’s warm chest. “...It d-does...Th-That’s why I had to pretend everything was okay...for J-James. I lost my mother so long ago, that is if I ever had one. James didn’t deserve to lose one, too.” She whispered, the poor princess. “She’d only let me eat once a day...I used to go through the garbage for food, like an animal...She eventually found out, made me run three miles until I passed out and locked the doors on me...James c-couldn’t know that. Neither could my father.” Swallowing hard, Emilia reached for Lucas’s warm hand, hers ice cold due to the weather outside and the fact that Emilia had barely any fat on her to warm her. She heard the limo stop, stopping at James’s apartment, where Emilia was staying and immediately, her own security opened the limo, noting the sleeping princess and helping her out of the car.

Emilia could practically hear her heart beat in her chest, it was that loud and intense. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife and she was simply floored by James’s word and incredibly touched. She was much too frightened to say a thing to her mother, the woman who had basically kept her own daughter as an emotional punching bag all of these years. Emilia felt her heart fall in her chest though, as he called their mother no longer his and she felt a terrible sense of guilt, doing this to their relationship, as if it were all her fault. Biting down on her lip, Emilia felt a few tears slip down her pale cheeks as she refused to make eye contact with her mother, James asking her to leave, to walk away, after calling her a pig.