Hey, guys!

So, if I am being honest, I didn't plan on updating for another whole week, but then like... 10 minutes ago my mind went "Hey, you could technically post all of OUAD by the one year anniversary. So now I am posting a chapter tonight.

TRIGGER WARNING FOR ABUSE! (Like more so than usual. Please message me if this triggers you and I will give you a rundown of the chapter.)

Chapter Eleven

Adrian stood with his back against the door, his heart thumping wildly in his ears. She knew. She knew.

This wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to stay a secret. Sure, he would have told The One, but it wasn't supposed to be common knowledge. He knew that he wouldn't get in trouble for it, but Beatrice and Jensing could be if Illea found out.

He swallowed. It was one of the few moments in his life where he had to ask himself what his father would do in a situation like this. King Abernathy would probably send her to prison or have her executed or something though… Adrian couldn't do that. He wasn't like that.

She deserved the truth. They all did.

"Christine, I can explain," he told her. He internally winced at how desperate he sounded. He sounded more like someone caught cheating on their girlfriend than… Well, whatever he was. Although, he wasn't sure how far off that was. Sure, it had been a long time since he and Jensing had created life, but this was brand new news to the selected.

"I'm sure you can," she said. Adrian could tell that she was still very angry with him. "You can explain to me and all of the other selected."

Adrian nodded. He had to. He couldn't keep this secret from them. It had been wrong of him to keep it from them for so long anyway. It wasn't fair to them.

"Well, let's go," she said, and Adrian gulped. He was so dead.

Adrian knew that if the girls didn't kill him for his secret, his father would kill him for releasing it. It made him nervous. He couldn't stop tapping his fingers against his thigh. He wasn't sure how to explain this to them, but he knew he had to.

Adrian looked up as the door opened, then winced when he saw who it was. She would probably kill him too…

"Adrian, what's going on?" Jensing asked as she sat down beside him. There was a small hint of panic in her normally calm and measured voice.

He looked to her, their eyes locking. She looked just as afraid as he felt. "I blew it, Jen," he said. "Christine found out about Bea."

Jensing inhaled sharply and nodded slowly. "So you're going to tell them?" She asked. There was more fear in her voice than Adrian knew she wanted to show.

Adrian nodded. "I have to. It would be wrong of me to continue to keep this a secret," he told her. "I won't let anything happen to you or Bea. I'm going to keep you both safe. I promise."

Jensing shook her head and looked away from him. "Adrian, haven't you learned by now? You can't make promises that you aren't sure if you can keep."

He grabbed her hands. "Jensing, I will not let anything happen to you. I will do anything to make sure that no harm comes to you or Bea. You're still under my protection even if we are no longer together."

"Thank you," she said. "I just hope that you really have that kind of power."

The door opened again, and Adrian watched as all of the girls walked in. Adrian shrank back in his seat. He still had no idea how he was going to explain this, but he knew that he had to.

The girls sat down, then Adrian cleared his throat. "I've been keeping a secret from you," he said. He continued before anyone got the chance to speak. He knew that his nerves would keep him from telling the truth if anyone interrupted. "I have a daughter."

"She's ours," Jensing spoke up as a small amount of chatter and gasps broke the silence. "Adrian and I dated a year before the selection started. We broke up after some circumstances caused us to see that we weren't right for each other, but we had Beatrice a few months later."

"I'm sorry that we lied and hid this from you all, but it was for the protection of Bea and Jensing," Adrian said. "Something like this could get them into a lot of trouble, so they're under my protection. I won't let anything happen to them. We're hoping that you all understand why we kept this secret and why it must remain a secret for now."

"And before anyone asks, we are no longer together and Adrian is fully committed to you all," Jensing said. "I don't want to be the cause of any more distrust between you and Adrian."

Adrian looked from Jensing to his selected. He could see the looks of betrayal in their eyes. The looks of disappointment. He couldn't stand it. He bit at his lip. None of them would ever trust him again… There was no explaining himself for this one. He had no excuses. He had broken the law and kept it from them. He was no better than a criminal. He was a criminal. He had broken the law because he thought he was immune from it, but no, he had consequences for breaking the laws too. Even if it wasn't prison or death, the looks on the faces of the people he loved was worse than any other punishment he could ever receive.

Normally Adrian would leave the room when he was embarrassed or didn't want to deal with the looks of disappointment from the others in the room, but this time he forced himself to sit there and take it all in. Every look of disappointment and hurt, every expression of betrayed trust. He forced himself to stay sitting down until every selected left.

He let his darkest thoughts take over. The ones that told him how stupid he was, the ones that reminded him that he didn't deserve any of the selected and that they all hated him. The voice that told him that it would have been better if he had died in the attack. That he should have died in the attack.

Then in the cold, empty room, with no one but his thoughts to keep him company, he fell into a cold dreamless sleep.

King Abernathy found Adrian in one of the parlors. He was curled up on one of the couches and King Abernathy could tell that he had been crying by the wet marks that stained Adrian's cheeks.

King Abernathy sighed, then walked over and crouched down beside the couch. He watched for a moment as Adrian slept on. His breathing was slow and deep, but every once in awhile his body would release a small shudder.

He remembered when Adrian was a toddler. Adrian had suffered from nightmares and it had been common to wake up with Adrian sleeping in between him and Aurora. It was one of the things that he missed about baby Adrian.

But the moment of kindness and fond memories was over quickly as he remembered the reasons why Adrian was a thorn in his side. King Abernathy straightened up, then shook Adrian.

"Wake up," he snapped. He shook him again, hard enough to make Adrian's head fling forward.

Adrian opened his eyes before startling and pulling away from his father. "Father, I-" King Abernathy cut him off.

"We need to talk," he told him. "Now."

King Abernathy pulled Adrian up off of the couch, then dragged him into his office. His movements were rough, he didn't even think about being gentle. It was out of the option.

He pushed Adrian in front of the window in his office. "What do you see?" He asked, but his words came out with a shout that caused Adrian to wince.

"The.. It's the Angeles City skyline," Adrian stammered. He looked up to King Abernathy. "Father, I don't understand."

King Abernathy pushed Adrian closer to the window with a shove. This time Adrian yelped and held out his hands to stabilize himself as he fell forward against the window. Luckily it held his weight.

"What is it, Adrian?" He asked, his voice was anything but calm. He grabbed a fist-full of Adrian's hair and forced him to look out the window. "What do you see?"

"I see the skyline, the city.. The umm, I see the palace wall, the sky? Grass?" Adrian rambled desperately, then let out a hysterical sob. "Father, I don't know! What do you want me to see?"

Abernathy shook his head. "If you used your brain, you would know that what you saw outside was the country that you will rule one day," he said. "But you never use your brain, do you?"

He didn't let Adrian speak. "If you used your brain, you never would have dated that girl, you never would have gotten her pregnant, and you wouldn't have told the selected that Beatrice is your daughter!" He told him, his voice getting louder as he continued. "If you used your brain, Anastasia and Aurora would still be alive!"

"But you never use your brain!" He shouted as he began to walk around Adrian. "It's just sitting there unused in your head being just as worthless as you are!"

He chose to ignore the tears that were spilling freely out of Adrian's eyes. He ignored the fact that the window could have broken beneath Adrian's weight when he pushed him against it. Instead he focused on what mattered. Adrian had killed them, Adrian had killed Ana and now he had no choice but to use Adrian as his heir. He wished that Adrian had died instead of Ana.

But now he actually needed Adrian. He couldn't just use him until Ana was old enough. He was stuck with Adrian. He was stuck with the biggest mistake of his life.

King Abernathy took a deep breath and counted to ten. It did little to help his anger. "Perhaps you don't remember that I was the one who protected Jensing and Beatrice from being punished, I kept them hidden from the public," he said. "I told you that I would only protect them as long as you kept the secret."

Adrian stood straighter, but it did little to help him look like he had any sort of power in this conversation. "They're under my protection now," he told him.

"Oh!" King Abernathy exclaimed, his tone mocking and condescending. "Prince Adrian is going to protect his ex girlfriend and daughter! How valiant of him!"

Adrian shrank back at his father's words, but King Abernathy cut him off before he had a chance to defend himself.

"That's so brave of you, Adrian, but there's only one problem," he told him. He patted Adrian's cheek roughly. "Everything you touch falls apart. You ruin everything that you try to help with. And you always will."

King Abernathy watched as the words sunk in and Adrian shuddered. He squeezed Adrian's shoulder, then sat down at his desk.

"You can go now, Adrian," he said. He felt much calmer now. "That was all I needed."

Adrian knew that he wasn't allowed to be out of the palace, but he couldn't stay in there any longer. He knew that he couldn't be gone long before someone noticed, but he had to leave. He had to take a break from being Prince Adrian.

He ran away from Angeles City, the thought of it making his stomach churn. His father could have killed him in his office earlier. Adrian had felt the rage that boiled off of him earlier. His father had wanted to kill him.

The memory of being pushed against the window was still painfully fresh in his mind. He had been certain that the glass was going to break underneath him. His still-injured arm had screamed in protest as his entire weight had been forced against it. He had thought that he was going to die.

He shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself as he suppressed a sob. It was cold outside, but he refused to go back to the palace so soon. He knew that he should have worn a coat, but that would have been too noticeable.

"You're a long way from home, Your Highness."

Adrian turned around, then backed away from the man he didn't recognize. He only looked a few years older than him, but he had no idea who he was. "Who are you?" He asked.

The man smiled, then bowed. "My name is Sebastian," he said. "What are you doing out here, Prince Adrian?"

Adrian winced. He forgot that if he ran into anyone he would have to go back to being the perfect royal again. "Please, Mr. Sebastian, just call me Adrian," he said.

Sebastian nodded. "Of course," he said, then cleared his throat. "So, what brings you out of the palace?"

Adrian hesitated. He didn't actually know Sebastian, and he had already almost died once. He tried to hold back another shudder as his mind flashed back to the feeling of his father's rough hands shoving him.

"Stress," he said. It seemed like a safe answer, even if it wasn't exactly the truth. "Everything is stressful when you're the crown prince sadly…"

Sebastian let out a soft hum, then leaned against one of the trees. "I'm the heir to my father's company," he said. "It might not be the exact same thing as being the heir to a country, but it's pretty stressful."

"So why did you come out here?" Adrian asked. He looked around. The field around him was empty, no people, no animals. It was quiet. They were the only two around. Adrian couldn't help but wonder if Sebastian tried something, would they ever find his body? Would his father even care to look?

Sebastian smiled. "Adrian, would you believe that you can see the best sunset and sunrise from this field? In the morning you can watch the skyline of Angeles City light up as the sun creeps above the buildings, then at night you can watch the best sunset ever as it sets just over that forest right in front of us."

Adrian had seen the sunrise and the sunset from the palace, but never from this field. "It's a bit dark for a sunset," he said. "Shouldn't you be heading home by now? It's cold tonight."

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. "Shouldn't you be at home, Your Highness?" He asked as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, then took a step forward. "Are the rumors true?"

Adrian turned towards him. He frowned. "What rumors?" He asked. There were so many rumors about the royal family that it was hard to know which one he was talking about.

"Do you really not remember anything from your selection? Is that why you didn't just marry The One?" Sebastian asked.

How could he explain this to him? It wasn't just a big publicity stunt or any sort of message to the rebels. Was he even allowed to explain it to anyone? His father was already angry enough, if he found out that he not only left the palace but told some random stranger about his amnesia… Who knew what would happen. He wasn't sure the window would hold his weight again.

"Because the rumors are true. I don't remember," he said. "Now I need to be getting back before my father notices that I'm gone."

Sebastian seemed to deflate a bit. "Okay," he said. "Well, can I see you again? Can you come down here again sometime?"

Adrian shrugged. He wasn't supposed to talk to a stranger, much less spend time with them in an empty field. His father would kill him… "I don't know," he said. "Maybe."

Sebastian nodded, but he seemed so sad. A bit too sad for some random commoner who had no connection to the prince. "Well, Merry Christmas, Adrian."

Adrian smiled for what felt like the first time that day. He hoped that he never had a day like this one again. Sure, it was the day after Christmas, but Sebastian's words meant more to Adrian than Sebastian would ever know.

"Merry Christmas, Sebastian."

So, for those of you who made it to the end, this is a very dark chapter. Sorry about that. Please follow, fave, and review! I would love to know what you thought!

Thanks for reading! Love y'all!