Nicholas practically crushed into Lilyanna when he stepped out his room. He grabbed on her slender shoulders for support, which was a poor judgment due to the difference of their size. As she backed off, he followed and pushed the both of them into the wall.
“Are you all right?” He asked sheepishly.
“I think so. I have some news to tell you that you would never believe.” Lilyanna blurted out as Nicholas shifted his weight from her.
“I already know that you are a princess, and that we might be brother and sisters.” He said in a hurry.
“No, and yes. We are not brother and sisters.” Lilyanna chewed on her bottom lip; the glow in Nicholas’ eyes faded and replaced by the hurt from the cruel reality.
“It’s a lie.” Nicholas was retreating back to his chamber and she accompanied him in his distress.
“How could you do this to me?” Alexander gripped firmly on Elizabeth’s shoulders.
“I don’t know what came over me at that time. It was all too late to change anything when I started to regret.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? As soon as you started your ‘regretting’?”
“I couldn’t, and I wouldn’t. I can’t risk Nicholas’ life. He was becoming like a son to me!”
Alexander’s laugh was soft and faintly bitter, not really a laugh at all. “ And not me? I loved him as my own, or so I thought.”
“What was done is done. There’s no changing it. Why not just accept it as it is?” Elizabeth saw the moment of weakness in his eyes.
“Accept it? Do you honestly think the King of Spain will accept an explanation as ‘I’m truly sorry, but it seems like my wife had lied to me and switch the babies, so I don’t really have a son but a daughter?’”
“I had forgotten about the engagement.” Elizabeth confessed.
“Let me be. I need time to think about this.” Alexander waved his hand in obvious annoyance and Elizabeth left the room with a sigh.
“How did things turned out this way?” She asked herself as she headed for Nicholas’ room.
Elizabeth walked unsteadily to the elegantly decorated room down the hall. Trying to think of something to say; anything! She went straight into the room, only to find it empty.
“Nicholas? Lilyanna?” She asked, keeping her voice low. Then she heard faint whisper on the balcony. Elizabeth knew it’s wrong to eavesdrop, based on years of good-manners. But she couldn’t help it, she needed to know what her new daughter and her supposed son think about the reversal of the situation. She crept along the curtains until she could hear Nicholas’ voice.