The Rejected Luna Queen novel Chapter 38

Princess Sophia's POV

Saying that I was shocked at all that was happening would have been a great understatement. Sadly, I didn't have any better word for the way that I felt.

I watched as Aurora's mother; if I could still call her that, given she had been confirmed to be my real mother, confessed in the presence of everyone and I didn't know exactly how to feel about that.

"You have to forgive me," she begged with tears in her eyes. "I just had to switch them up. I didn't have any other choice. I had never imagined that my daughter would live the kind of life that I lived. A life of pain, sorrow, anguish and irrelevance. J wanted something better for her. I felt she deserved something better. What mother would not wish to have her child do better than her?"

She waited a bit as if she was expecting an answer to the rhetorical question that she asked, and when none was forthcoming, she went on.

"I did what I did many years ago to guarantee that for my daughter; to give her a better life," she continued, still sobbing. "I wanted her to wake up in the morning and not bother about what she was going to eat or drink or how she was going to serve someone else or get punished or beaten up for each mistake she made, just like her mother. It was so selfish of me and I know that, yet, it was the best I could do for my daughter."

As I heard those words, I felt a tear drop from my eyes and I noticed that she avoided any form of eye contact with me as she spoke. Everyone else just stared at her with utter disgust and she deserved it. No one could dispute that fact.

"I have paid for my crimes in the cruellest of ways. I lost my wolf just so that she could end up with Alpha Bane, cementing her place as royalty and making sure she was never going to live a life of suffering." Turning to my "mother," she said, "I know I should have thought about your child, who had to spend her entire life as a maid instead of as royalty, but at the time, I wasn't thinking about that. I was just being a mother."

She did all she did for my well-being. I knew that and it almost made me not think of her as evil. But then, I couldn't help the anger that arose from within me. She was simply very wicked and unapologetically so and I felt like walking right up to her and slapping her hard right across the face. But she was my mother and she loved me. How could I hate someone like that?

I began to understand why she was the way she was. I knew why she loved me so much, even more than Aurora, who was supposed to be her daughter. It wasn't that it didn't feel weird at all at the time, I just brushed it aside, thinking she was just a very loyal servant who had some issues with her child.

The fact that she had to go through the great length of getting a mask for me, just so I could win Alpha Bane's heart at the expense of her child was something that baffled me. Yet, I was naive enough to dismiss it as just loyalty. I felt I deserved everything that I got from her. I was the Princess after all, so I deserved such treatment and even more.

Just then I remembered something that struck me so hard; the chef, who said a lot about me to Aurora before she died.

It dawned on me that it was my mother that had her killed and it was all because of me. That thought caused me to shudder as I realised the length she was willing to go to achieve her goal.

Mrs Scott's face looked ghostly pale with so much fright as she got done with her confession. She knelt before my father and mother, awaiting judgement.

Not knowing what else to do, I ran to my parents, dragging my chained hands and feet as much as I could to get to them. I couldn't have myself dragged into this mess that my mother had created; a mess I had enjoyed all my life. I couldn't bear being abandoned by the royal family. I might not be their real child, but I'd been their daughter for many years. Surely, they weren't about to let that all go. I had to make sure of that.

"She has to be lying, mom," I said, trying to see if I could get them to disbelieve her claims, as true as they were. "Dad, you can't believe her, right? I mean, how could she have done all that?"

My words didn't seem to yield anything fruitful. If anything, it seemed to annoy them the more as they just stared at me blankly and said nothing. I had to try something different.

"Even if her words are true, mom," I continued, changing up my tactics with the hope that this one was going to be more effective. I couldn't bear to lose them. They were all I had. "I had no idea whatsoever. She didn't say anything at all to me. It's all her fault. Dad, please listen to me. I didn't know about these. I'm innocent. She's the one to blame. You both are my parents and I've known you all my life as my parents. Please, don't abandon me for a crime I didn't commit. I'm innocent. It should count, right?"