Chapter Twenty Three- That of Poison and Roses

Please.

Please.

Please.

I hadn’t been planning on saying it. Everyone’s words were a secret only to them, but to my knowledge, people always said things like sorry, safety, love, remember, or hope.

But for some reason, the word “please,” seemed right. It was all-encompassing.

Please help me find the truth about our history.

Please help me find the person that killed you.

Please forgive me for feeling so numb, so helpless.

Please forgive me for not being a good enough daughter, nor a good enough royal.

Please guide me in the right direction, towards the next clue.

Please guide me towards closure.

Please let me solve this case.

Please let me bring you to justice.

Please.

I haven’t begged much in my life, but here I am, on my knees, sending up a plea to a dead man.

My dead father.

I realize it’s been longer than I should be kneeling here, so I carefully work myself into a standing position, smoothing out my silver dress and moving out of the way so that my mother, the final one in line, can kneel down.

Across from me, I notice the Aldridge children saying goodbye to their father one by one. Adrienne and Odessa are crying on full display, while Jace and Nova do a slightly better job at wiping away their tears before they fall.

But Casimir?

His eyes are filled with more anger than sadness as he stands up from his father’s grave.

“Cas… he has a tendency to take things too far,” Jace’s words flood my mind, “And considering the way he left things with my father-”

“The sick bastard deserved to die,” Casimir had said, “It was bound to happen eventually.”

I force the words out of my mind, only barely listening as my mother and Queen Naomi do their closing speeches. From here begins a thirteen-day period of mourning before we’ll return to Thorne Palace, where my father’s grave will be moved back into the Thorne burial site.

I have thirteen days to figure out what happened to my father before I loose access to every clue hidden in the walls of Aldridge Palace. I have thirteen days before the only one allowed to continue searching is the Royal Guard.

I don’t intend to waste a single second.

After the burial, I’m going to go pay a visit to Casimir Aldridge.