do this. And to me of all people? What was going on in the world? What kind of world is this anyway?
Oh, my God!
I couldn’t register the fact that I had just celebrated my wedding. I had just celebrated my wedding with people I didn’t even know! How could I be so stupid? How come I didn’t pick up on all of the signs that it was my own wedding party along with my brother’s?
They gave me all of those diamonds, just like they gave them to Janna. The prince put all of those jewels on me, just like Joseph did with her. My arm was hooked in his as we walked to the hall. Just like our siblings.
They wanted me to wear a wedding dress. A freaking wedding dress. Huda said it was a tradition. Of course it was. The bride should wear a huge, white wedding dress, not a silver one like the one I was wearing!
A tradition.
Oh, my God! She said I had to wax as well? Why did they want me to wax? Was it for the fact that I’d be sleeping with the prince soon? Tonight?
Oh, God! I’d never let that pig touch me!
I shot up into standing position like the couch was on fire and looked around, finally really taking the room in. The sheets on the bed were white with red rosebuds all over them, shaped like a giant heart.
God! Oh, God!
I felt a bit lightheaded as I imagined myself on that bed doing what they expected me to do.
I ran to stand next to the bed where I saw colored lights coming from a window on the wall beside it. I looked closely, searching for a way to escape from that window but found none since it was blocked by iron bars from the outside.
With hurried steps, I made my way to the door in the corner of the room, which turned out to be a bathroom, just like I had expected – a freakishly huge one, at that. I looked all over the bathroom for any sort of an exit but all of my efforts to find one came out fruitless.
My hands came to my collar and I yanked the button that held my robe together over my body and let it fall to the floor; it was choking me. I gripped the same hair that my brother had just let go of not ten minutes earlier and groaned in frustration, my tears out of my control.
That was it. There was no way out for me. No way at all.
My eyes caught my reflection in the mirror and I didn’t like what I saw. It was a sad girl with black tears running down her cheeks and a broken heart caused by her brother’s unfaithfulness.
In my frustrated state, I didn’t realize I had picked up a bottle of lotion from the counter and smashed the mirror with it until I saw the shattered pieces flying down to the floor.
Once I saw those broken pieces, a thought crept into my mind: I have to hurt the prince. There was no other way. I’d give up my own life before I gave up my body to him.
After I washed my face and ran a brush through my hair, I sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for him.
I had a sharp piece of the mirror in my hand, holding it securely but carefully, so as to not let it dig into my skin, hiding it with the robe I’d put on once again. I had no idea what I was going to do, other than I was going to protect myself with it. There was no way I wasn’t going to fight him; if it came down to it, and he wouldn’t be threatened, then I’d just have to hurt him, and I’d run away when he went down. Once again, I didn’t know what I was going to do once I left this room, but at least I’d be out of it.
God will help me.
As expected, I heard a knock, and immediately my heartbeat sped up. The door was opened just a moment after the knock without me telling him to enter the room.
What I didn’t expect though, was that it wasn’t a him by the door, but a woman wearing black clothes, who looked to be in her late thirties or a bit older. She entered the room and closed the door behind her.
“Princess Marie,” she said, and bowed her