Chapter 889: The Troubled Queen

"Speak to your mother and do not ignore my words, Liam." Queen Serena glared at him.

"Is... is this about you marrying father?" Julian tried to guess and received another hint of pain as Queen Serena's grasp dug even further.

"I love him. I love your father and I love you," Queen Serena started to babble as she gazed at him. "You're my son, my flesh and blood… so, of course, I love you. But why do you have to make me grieve?"

"I-I'm sorry, mother." Julian tried to say but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Whatever occasion he was in, Julian was more than ready to get himself out of any mess. He had a good head on his shoulders when it came to danger and such.

However, Julian didn't want to hurt the queen. It was not simply because he was afraid of what might happen to him if he accidentally hurt a member of the royal family of Verona, but also because he didn't wish to hurt someone who was weaker than him.

This wasn't something he would do under any circumstances. However, the queen looked at him with a gaze that gave him the chills and she refused to let him go.

Julian finally pushed Queen Serena away and watched her stumble back into the ground.  When she hit the carpet in Prince Liam's room, she suddenly laughed all of a sudden and looked at him with a pleased expression.

"Of course, you're just like me," Queen Serena said. "You are truly my son."

Julian hesitated and looked out of the door of his room. He hoped someone heard the ruckus and chose to come over, but it didn't seem to be happening at all.

"What do you mean?"

"We hurt our own family," Queen Serena spoke nonchalantly.

Her words gave Julian a bad feeling. What did she mean by that, he was wondering.

"W-What? What do you mean?" Julian asked with a nervous voice. He remembered something and then asked. "Is this about your sister… my aunt?"

"You would have never been here if she was still alive," Queen Serena said with a whimsical smile. "We would have always been in the shadows, hidden by her… all the glory for herself. I had to do it."

Julian's stomach twisted painfully. "What did you do…?"

"I…"

Before she could say anything else, the door suddenly opened and the king walked in. His face held a certain relief when he saw Queen Serena. "There you are, I thought you were supposed to be on the balcony, Serena."

Queen Serena froze as if caught in strange circums

tances, but then quickly turned to her husband and smiled. "I'm just wishing our son a goodnight. Since he was sick earlier, I just wanted to check up on him."

"I see, that's fine," the king said. "It is getting late, so I think we should return back to bed."

"Of course, that's a good idea." Queen Serena went over towards her husband and immediately hugged his arm. She gave him a lovely smile filled with a look of adoration.

"You know what, dear. What if we have a cup of tea before we go to bed?" the king asked. "I like it when you make me a good pot."

Queen Serena quickly nodded. "Alright, I'll go ahead then and prepare it just as you like. Have a goodnight, Liam. Go to bed."

"Yes, mother." Julian nodded and tried not to let the tremble in his voice be obvious.

"I'll just have a couple of words with our son," the king said as he opened the door for his wife.

"Alright, dear." Queen Serena smiled. "I'll see you. Don't be late."

The words uttered by Queen Serena left a mark on Julian that he wasn't quite able to wash away. Luckily, the King of Verona arrived and took his wife away, and only checked on Julian or rather if  "Liam" was alright and not shaken up.

Queen Serena first left and went ahead, and when it was just the two of them, the king gave a weary smile towards Julian. There was a certain look of visible tiredness in his eyes that wasn't just because of age.

"Your mother must have drunk a little more than usual, son," the king said with a hesitant smile before he closed his door. "Have a goodnight."

When the two were finally gone, Julian returned to the bed and fell on the bed. "What the… actual thing happened?"

It was apparent that the Verona's royal family was far more complicated than it seemed on the surface. The king seemed good, wise, and the kind of person that Julian thought would be a good man and father.

The king of Verona was a far cry from the awful king of Ashland that was Rowena's father… but when it came to the mother, she gave him chills.

Not only did it seem that Queen Serena was suspicious of Julian not being her son based on their conversation, but there was also a strange paranoia and attitude that when she said she "hurt' her own family, he wondered if she actually meant it.

"She immediately shut up when the king arrived… so maybe he doesn't know," Julian said to himself. "But it seems that he's aware that there's something wrong with his wife. She's rather troubled."  &n

bsp; 

Troubled was not even the right word.

"The way she phrased things, it's like she did something to her own sister." Julian's palms were now sweaty at the thought of it. It really seemed like Verona was better than Ashland on the surface, but they also had their secrets.

However, just because he became aware of it…

"I… I may have questions, but it doesn't mean that I'm supposed to get answers," Julian said to himself. "Whatever is happening here is not my problem. I just need to get away and be reunited with Rowena. That's all I have to do."

With renewed determination, Julian sat up and looked around the room.