To Love A Princess

Chapter Sixteen

“I can’t believe this,” I said aloud, pacing the room and forth.

My heels clicked against the tile with every move I made. Every time I thought about the escapade between my father and I, it made me either want to burst out into tears and cry my eyes to a point where I’m dehydrated. Or, punch a wall so bad that there’s either a hole or my fists are broken.

“What I can’t believe is that he really hid it from you for so long.” 

“Not from you, but from both of us. I know your father didn’t tell you either. And they should have since it does involve us.” 

“Mhm.”

I turned around and saw Damen stuffing his face into a cherry filled pastry. Shaking my head, I crossed the room and leaned against one of the wooden chairs. Sometimes I question as to why our fathers thought it was a good idea to marry us off. Damen can be quite disgusting sometimes. Apparently it’s worse when he’s in his own kingdom. Once I had finished crying my eyes out, I had decided to travel to Kinsburry since I don’t come here much and I needed to get out of my own palace. I obviously couldn’t go to Olivia because she doesn’t know my mother is… well the details aren’t important. And I wasn’t going to tell her after I denied the fact that I liked her when she asked me not too long ago. Plus if I were to tell her what happened it would only make things awkward since I can’t be in the same room as her anymore. 

We were currently sitting in his study and one of the maids had baked us some pastries as we talked. His father had gone away on some business so he wasn’t going to be back for some time. Not that it mattered since we weren’t going to do anything. His study was different from my father’s. Damen had a larger desk and it was a light oak color. It kind of resembled the color of oats. The walls were beige and the chairs were the only dark colored thing in the entire room. The bookshelf that was behind his desk matched the color of the desk, and there was a large window on the opposite wall where the door was. Whereas my father’s study was pretty dark. Just like his soul apparently. Who am I kidding? He has no soul. 

“Damen please focus,” I groaned. 

“Isabelle listen to me. I understand you’re hurt, upset, feel betrayed but then again can you really blame him? He was just doing what he thought was best for you,” he told me. 

“How can you take his side like that?”

He put his hands up in defense as if he was surrendering or something. “Hey, calm down now. I never said that I agree with him. All I said was that I can’t blame him for trying to do what he thinks is best for you.”

“But here’s the thing,” I began. “Everyone’s doing what they think is best for me, but what about I think is best for me? I mean at the end of the day, I’m the only one who knows what’s best for me.” 

“And I agree with you. But you’re looking at it from your point of view, not his. Maybe you should try and see things from his perspective. From what I’ve heard, everything is so one sided and you’re always talking about how he does x,y and z, but have you ever thought about why that may be?”

“He’s just another arrogant man with a bunch of power and wealth. They do things just because they can and no one can stop them.” 

“Isabelle be serious about this. I’m trying to help.”

I sighed. “See things from his point of view?” 

“Yes. Try to fully understand why he does the things he does.” 

I tapped on my chin giving it some thought. Damen looked at me and laughed. “Don’t think about it too hard or else you’ll give yourself a headache.”

“What would I gain from this exactly?”

“Hm, I don’t know. A better look inside of his head, a better connection with your father. The list goes on so shall I continue?” 

“I think I got it. But you know you might be right, you might not be. But I guess I’ll give it a try.” 

“Just wait and see the results. I promise that you won’t regret it.”

Let’s just hope not. 

*****

When I returned home, I decided to take Damen’s advice and see every situation from my father’s point of view. Taking a deep breath in and out, I slowly walked up to him, catching him in the middle of admiring some paintings of him and mom, then our family portraits. He must have heard me because he turned his head and gave me a weak smile. 

“Where have you been?” he asked worriedly. “I was going to have the guards come after you.”

“I’m fine. I was with Prince Damen.” 

Put yourself in his shoes Isabelle. Try to really get in his head. If you’re not doing it for you at all, do it for mom. She needs to rest 

“Isabelle I can’t apologize enough for all of this. Please know that I’m truly sorry.”

“Dad I get it,” I sighed. “I’m not saying this because I want you to stop apologizing and beating yourself up over it. You did it because you didn’t want me growing up with marriage on my mind twenty-four seven. You wanted me to live my life as normal as possible and I guess I didn’t realize it until now. And all this time you were just trying to keep me happy, on track, and overall prepare me for when it’s my turn. And I really didn’t realize that until today. So I think I’m the one who owes you an apology and I’m so sorry that I’ve been so rude to you.”

He did nothing but pull me into a hug and I hugged him back, feeling my life become whole. “Isabelle we will get through this one way another. I promise to start listening to you more and not just put your ideas on the back burner.”

“And I promise to actually just follow your lead and go with the flow. And to control my anger.” 

We stayed silent for a moment, and I knew if mom could see us, she’d be smiling from ear to ear.