Always Into You

Queen - Chapter 19

(Christopher’s POV)

The silence stretched between us, thick like the storm clouds gathering outside. Ambessa’s words hung in the air, a noose tightening around my throat.

You either become a king or you become forgotten.

For a moment, I could see it the life she had carved out for me. Power. Control. A world where I was untouchable, where no one could ever make me feel small.

But then, I saw her.

Tanya.

Her laughter. Her fire. The way she had saved me when I was drowning in the darkness.

I took a deep breath, my heart hammering against my ribs.

“I choose her, mother.”

Ambessa’s expression didn’t change at first.

Then.

The mask cracked.

Her lips parted slightly, her breath catching like she had been struck.

“You… what?”

I swallowed hard. “I choose Tanya.”

The words came out steady, unwavering.

“I don’t need your throne,” I said, my voice stronger than it had ever been. “I don’t need your name. I don’t need you.”

Ambessa took a step back, as if I had physically pushed her.

And then, to my utter shock...

She started crying.

Not the dignified, silent tears of a woman who had mastered control.

No.

She broke.

Her shoulders shook, her hands trembled, and for the first time in my life, I saw my mother, not Ambessa Hightower, the empire, the legend, the unshakable force, just my mother.

And she was falling apart.

“I did this for you,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “Everything. Everything was for you.”

I felt my throat tighten.

She looked at me, and in her eyes, I saw something I had never seen before.

“Do you think I wanted this life?” she asked, her voice raw. “Do you think I wanted to be Ambessa Hightower?”

I didn’t answer.

She didn’t need me to.

She exhaled shakily, staring past me like she was seeing ghosts.

“When I was nineteen, I was nothing,” she said. “A girl from nowhere. No name. No future. Just a pretty face in a city that chewed up pretty girls and spat them out.”

She let out a breathless laugh, shaking her head.

“Then I met Conrad.”

The name sent a chill down my spine.

Conrad Hightower. My father. A man I had never met. A man Ambessa never spoke about.

Her eyes darkened.

“He picked me out of a lineup like I was a goddamn commodity,” she spat, her voice laced with fire. “A wife for the heir. A perfect little doll to sit beside him while he ruled his empire.”

I swallowed hard.

“I hated him,” she whispered. “I hated every second. The way he controlled me. The way he” She stopped, closing her eyes. “But I had you.”

Her voice cracked on the last word.

“I had you, Christopher,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “And I swore, I swore on my own goddamn soul, that I would never let you be weak. That I would never let this world use you the way it used me.”

Her breath hitched.

“I built this empire for you. I sacrifice for you. I became this for you.”

She took a step closer, her eyes desperate, pleading.

“Don’t throw it all away,” she whispered. “Don’t leave me.”

For the first time in my life, I wanted to reach for her.

But I didn’t.

Because I knew, this wasn’t about me.

This was about her.

Her need for control. Her fear of losing everything she had built.

And for the first time, I saw it clearly.

Ambessa Hightower wasn’t invincible.

She was terrified.

And suddenly, the power she had over me for my entire life.

Was gone.

I exhaled, shaking my head.

“I’m not him, Mother.”

Ambessa froze.

“I’m not Conrad,” I said, my voice steady. “And I will never be you.”

Her lips trembled.

“This is your empire,” I said. “Not mine.”

Her breath came in short gasps now, her hands curling into fists.

“You ungrateful little”

And just like that.

The mask snapped back into place.

The pain disappeared. The desperation vanished.

And in its place.

Pure, icy rage.

Her tears dried up instantly, her face hardening like stone.

She let out a sharp, humorless laugh, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

“Oh, Christopher,” she said, her voice dripping with mockery. “You think you’re walking away? You think love is going to save you?”

She leaned in, her breath warm against my face.

“She will ruin you.”

I clenched my jaw.

“You will come crawling back to me,” she whispered. “And when you do, you won’t even have the scraps of what I built for you.”

I didn’t flinch.

I didn’t back down.

I just looked her in the eye and said.

“I’d rather be nothing than be you.”

The words landed like a bullet.

For a moment, just a flicker of a second.

I thought she might actually kill me.

But instead, she just stepped back, lifting her chin.

Then, with one last look, she turned and walked away, her heels clicking against the floor, her shadow stretching long behind her.

And just like that.

Ambessa Hightower was gone.

I exhaled shakily, my hands trembling.

Then I turned.

And walked toward my future.