nodded, twisting my lips to the side.
Mona shook her head. “She’s not his fiancée. Yes, it’s an unspoken rule that they should marry since her father is the next in line if–God forbid – the king passes away without his sons having an heir. It would offer the two princes the role at ruling a state or region instead of nothing if they didn’t marry his daughters, but it didn’t happen–and thank God for that!”
“Yeah, the prince explained some of it to me, but...why didn’t Prince Fahd marry one of his daughters then?” I wondered. If it was so important like Mona, and the prince before her, had explained to me, why wouldn’t the younger prince marry his cousin from that uncle, at least?
“Oh, he did. She’s younger than Princess Talia. It’s frowned upon here for a younger sister to marry before her older one, but with Prince Mazen having to delay his marriage for college and so on, Prince Fahd had to marry earlier than him, and their uncle didn’t mind at all.”
“Princess Rosanna is Princess Talia’s sister?” I asked with shock.
“Yes, Princess.”
“That means that Princess Talia is...”
“The queen’s niece,” Mona said, nodding.
“Wow! I had no idea.” No wonder the queen hated me so much.
“And she’s still waiting,” Mona said, I assumed speaking of Talia. “And since she told you that, I guess she’s still hoping.”
“Oh, you can’t imagine.”
“Did she say anything else?” Mona asked, but didn’t wait for a reply. “Because whatever she said, she’s a liar–just like her brother.”
“Brother?”
“Prince Jasem, God rest his soul.”
“Oh, God! When did he die?” I gasped.
“He didn’t, just wishful thinking, Princess,” Mona grinned, and I smiled, shaking my head.
“So, Jasem and Talia are Rosanna’s siblings,” I thought out loud.
“Yes, but Princess Rosanna is their half-sister, and you’d think she came from a different father as well, given how pure and tender she is.”
“It’s good to hear she’s different. Prince Fahd seems like a great guy; he doesn’t deserve an unkind wife,” I said.
“He is, and he’s loved her since they were little kids, but it’s a given that those kids grow up with the idea of loving each other, as they are promised to each other from birth by the unspoken rule.”
Did that mean that the prince is also… No, I won’t think that way. It hurt.
“There must be huge pressure on Princess Rosanna to carry on with this pregnancy,” I said.
“True, but the queen is not pressuring Prince Fahd to marry another. If the king passes away with only Prince Fahd having an heir, and Prince Mazen not, he’d be the one who would take the title.”
Oh! God! Too much to think about!
Mona frowned and tilted her head to the side, as if she was listening to something.
“What?” I asked her.
“I think I heard the bell ringing.” Her frown deepened. “It’s too early for lunch.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” I told her.
“I’ll go check, Princess. Excuse me.”
I nodded and then went to the bedroom. It was only a minute after, that I heard knocking on the door, but before I could reply, Mona entered, which was unlike her, to just come inside without asking permission first when she wasn’t expected.
“Forgive me, Princess, but–” She was interrupted by the door opening further, and when I looked, wheels were pushing the door open.
I smiled broadly when I realized that it was the Queen Mother in her wheelchair making her way inside the room, blushing slightly at the fact that I was in a tank top and sweatpants–no elegant dress or twenty pounds of diamonds on me–and I wondered how indecent I looked in her eyes, with the way I was dressed.
My smile dropped when I saw that the one wheeling her inside was the queen, her face as hard as ever and her eyes looking at me as if I was something disgusting, like rotten rubbish.
Tailing the queen was a line of women I didn’t know, two of them carrying white cloths in their hands.
I swallowed thickly, fear consuming me all of a sudden.
“Hello, Princess Marie,” the queen said, “How was your night?”
Seriously? She was asking about my night?
I tried to smile, but I couldn’t. “I-it was fine, thank you,” I replied, watching as she pointed with her index finger to the women and then to the bed.
“Well, that’s good to hear,” she said. I was too confused to dwell on the sarcasm in her voice, as I watched the women go to change the lavender sheets and replace them with white ones.
“Uh, w-what’s