Clara wasted no time hurrying up to her room and throwing a bag together. She didn't need much, mostly just the simple dresses she had brought with her to begin with.

"I was told you rushed in, not taking the time to talk to anyone. You ran past my mother, dismissed your maid...Clara, what's going?" Bran had come into her room, but Clara didn't turn towards him. She needed to pack fast and get out of here. She had planned to send a letter back explaining what was going on, but she should have known Bran would come to her.

"Mr. Andrews' is sick and I made a promise to go back, Bran. It's time I returned." Clara paused and glanced around her room trying to think of what else she needed.

"No. We have so much to do here for our wedding, surely Ian has a very capable staff. You-"

"Bran, please." Turning Clara looked at him, begging for him to understand and not waste more time. "I have to go. He's done so much for me. He was there when I was close to death my self. He needs me and I have to go..."

He was quiet for a few moments, simply looking at her, reading her. "You love him." It wasn't a question.

"What?"

"You love him." He barely blinked an eye as he said it. "You've never taken off the ring he gave you even after I gave you one. You play and stare at it when you're lost in thought, but never mine. You get so defensive when we talk about him and you just...change... You soften and smile and...it's written all over you. You're in love with Ian."

Clara shook her head, looking away, and spotting her hair brush. She didn't have time for this. "I'm marrying you, Bran, I-" She tried to move to get the brush, but his hands on her arms stopped her.

"No." There was little emotion playing on his face and Clara realized for the first time she wasn't the only one good at faking her emotions. "I was an idiot to think you could love me. Nothing ever goes the way I want it too." His eyes softened for a moment as he brushed the back of his fingers tenderly against her cheek. "Please remember that I truly did fall in love with you, Clara. I really did want to marry you."

Clara stared up at him confused and slightly frightened at the way he was talking. "Bran-"

"What did Ian tell you about how he was changed?"

"What?" Of all the things to talk about, he wanted to know how Ian was cursed now?

"Trust me, Clara. Just tell me what he told you."

Hesitating she tried reading him, but he was back to the emotionless stranger he had been moments before. She didn't understand what was going on, but he wouldn't let her jerk out of his hold either. "He told me that he and a good friend were hunting in the woods. That they found an abandoned cottage with a room beneath the floor boards filled with gold and silver. They took some, but when they returned a witch greeted them. They were supposed to return everything or else she would curse them. His friend did, but he didn't."

Bran barely reacted to the story. "He would put the blame on himself. Ian always was the better man." Releasing her he turned away, but she found she still couldn't move.

Clara didn't understand anything Bran was saying. "Bran, please, what's going on? Why-"

"Sit, Clara. I have a story myself to tell you. You aren't going to like it, but if you are in love with Ian..." He shook his head as he turned back to her with eyes that betrayed a lifetime's worth of pain and regret. "I've hurt my friend enough."

Clara sat on her bed watching Bran pace back and forth like a caged animal. He was tense and conflicted, but every time she tried to speak he silenced her.

"Ian and I have been friends since we were young. His father was a gardener here and used to bring him. His mother died shortly after he was born so while his sister went to a neighbors, his father brought him here. He was supposed to work, but he was the only boy close to my age in the castle so we became fast friends. We would play for hours every day and grew far closer than brothers." Bran stopped his pacing by a window and stared out it with unseeing eyes.

"I was jealous of Ian as we got older. Even though I was a prince, his good looks attracted ladies more. We were both miserable though. I was just starting to reap the consequences of my father's actions and was being drilled hard on the crisis. I didn't just have a family, but an entire kingdom's problems on my shoulders. Ian's father at the time was in poor health and him and his sister were barely staying afloat. And no matter how I tried he wouldn't accept my charity. He was barely any happier than I. We were both in desperate need of something to help our families.

I escaped from the castle one afternoon, angry that I was having to pay for my father's mistakes. I started out just going for a walk but then I stumbled upon the cottage. It looked abandoned. There had been nothing left inside. Well, you know this story. I found gold and silver and took some home. I purchased the ships with it and put Ian in charge of them so I could pay him and help his family. Ian wanted to return to the cottage with me, but I wouldn't let him. I was being selfish. I wanted all of it to help the kingdom and myself." Bran paused and looked away from the window.

Sighing he turned around and sat down on a trunk by the foot of her bed, still not looking at her and looking more defeated than ever. "You know this part too. The witch was there, told me to bring it all back or I'd be cursed. Even paralyzed my leg as a reminder. I was able to bring all of it back besides what I had used to pay for the ships." He rubbed the leg that was no longer paralyzed, but he could still feel phantom aches in from time to time.

"How...how did Ian end up cursed then?" Clara didn't understand how he had ended up cursed when everything was falling on Bran's shoulder's. What had he done?

Sighing he shook his head sadly. "Before the witch could curse me I told her Ian had the last of the coins. I begged her to give me another chance and she did."

"You were a prince! Couldn't you have just given her it all back? Bran!"

"Clara, these coins were different. There were engravings on them that I had never seen before. She wanted her gold back. Not anyone else's." He hesitated a moment. "I told Ian what happened and I-I begged him to take my place. I was going to be a king, I couldn't be cursed! Who would take the throne then?"

"Oh, Bran..." Clara could hardly believe what she was hearing. Ian hadn't done anything to deserve what he was. All he had done was protect his friend. And even then Clara could find little to blame Bran for. He should been brave enough to take the curse for his mistakes but his intentions in taking the gold in the first place had been honorable.

"I tried to make it up to him. I gave him the house he's in now and his very own ships, but he hasn't spoken to me the same since..."

Clara sighed and moved to the end of the bed where she could take his hands. "Bran, your heart was in a good place when you took those coins. There has to be something you can say to Ian now. Maybe if we go to the witch-"

Bran shook his head. "I've done that."

"You have?"

"Yes. When someone loves him for what he is and not be tricked by wealth or anything else, the curse will break for him. But until she has her coins back she will still get her revenge." Bran still couldn't look at her.

Clara stared at him and shook her head. "But I-I loved him and it-"

"Did you tell him? Did you love who you knew to be Gray? Trickery won't work, Clara. You have to love Ian for what he is, not what he could be." Bran glanced up to see her shake her head. "It gets worse-"

"But I love him! If I go and tell him I could-"

"Understand this, Clara. If you go and he changes back...she will come after me." Bran searched her eyes.

"Then why are you telling me all of this, Bran? You could have never said a word and I would never have known."

Bran hesitated and looked away again. "Remember that I love you, Clara." Sucking in a breath he studied his hands. "He told me everything about you after he realized he fell in love with you. The moment he bought you from your stepmother...I had to do something. I haven't been able to set the kingdom right yet and if you broke the curse..." Letting the hopeless thought go, he glanced up at her. "...I've seen you in the market with him and I knew who you were the moment you stepped into ballroom that night..."

"Bran-"

"Let me finish. I knew I had to get you away from Ian and when you showed up that night the path was perfectly laid out. Initially I only invited you here to get away from him, but...I did fall in love with you, Clara. When I asked you to marry me...I truly meant it."

Clara knew he regretted what he did, but she couldn't seem to get over the fact someone else had played her yet again. Everywhere she turned someone else was lying to her. Manipulating her. "Everyone lies to me. Everyone treats me like a plaything. Well, I'm not a toy! How could you! All because you're afraid of what the curse would do to you? Look what's it done to Ian! He was innocent of everything! All he's done is look out for you! And he still carried on with his obligations! And what do you do to him?" Standing up she backed away from him, disgusted by him.

"Clara, please! I know that. That's why I'm letting you go. That's why I told you! I didn't think you actually loved him before. After I fell in love with you I didn't think it mattered what my original intentions had been. But now I see you do. Please. Please, forgive me. I'm trying to make it right!" Bran stood up but didn't move towards her. His blue eyes were dull, mournful, and pleading.

She shook her head. "If you want to make it right, than stand up and face the consequence for what you did and stop making everyone else pay for your choices." She grabbed her bag, forgetting her hair brush. "In that you are exactly like your father."

Not able to look at him any longer she fled from the room. There was only one person she wanted to see now and she was praying she wouldn't be too late.

((I'm not sure if these little author's notes annoy you guys or not, but I have to say THANK YOU so incredibly much for all of the comments, favorites, alerts, and views! It means the world to me to know you all are reading this story and enjoying it :) I also wanted to let you know that the story is finished. I have all the parts uploaded and just waiting to be published :) A chapter a day unless something comes up then definitely every other day. There will be 26 chapters in all. Within the next couple chapters I may ask you all for your opinion on a future story I've been toying with, but first I want to see if my ideas can even pan out. :) If they don't I may have to tweak the ending to this one a bit, haha. But I'll let you all know. But thank you so much again for reading! And definitely continue to let me know your thoughts ;) ))