A/N: This story is based on the movies The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which are the property of Meg Cabot and Disney. No infringement is intended. I also want to take a moment to apologize to all my readers who have read my first Princess Diaries story, Quiet Strength. I realize I promised you all a sequel years ago. I tried to fulfil my promise and produce the sequel I promised you guys I would write but then I got caught up in other projects and I just completely lost all inspiration for it. I never intended for things to go south for me the way they did with that project but sometimes in life, crap happens, you know? Anyway, I do apologize to all of you from the bottom of my heart that that did not work out. However, I recently was toying with some ideas in my mind for a nice little PD fanfic (that I intend to be much smaller than Quiet Strength and Cherished were, lol!) and while I'm not one hundred percent certain how this story will go yet, I do hope-slash-believe that I will have this story wrapped up fairly soon for you guys. To everyone who stops by, I want to say a big thank you for checking my new fanfic out and I sincerely hope you enjoy it. ((HUGS)) to everybody out there who needs one (and I'm sure plenty of people do as we are living in such insane, even Biblical times, may Jesus help us all.) I wish you all a wonderful day and happy reading.

Chapter 1: Mia's Perspective

"Do you ever have any intention to start acting responsibly, Mia?!" Clarisse Renaldi, the Dowager Queen of Genovia, railed at her twenty-two-year-old granddaughter as they stood together in her office. "When, when, are you ever going to grow up and start taking your royal position seriously?! You're a queen, and it's high time you started behaving like one! You and Nicholas could be heard all over the palace, yelling and screaming at each other. Even Lady Marshall and I could hear your argument as we were having tea together in one of the sitting rooms. I've never been more embarrassed!"

With tears streaming down her face, Queen Amelia looked at her grandmother and quietly told her, "I'm sorry, Grandma. It's just that when I caught Nicholas cheating on me…again…I was so badly hurt that I just lost it."

"How many times have we been through this? You are the Queen of Genovia. You are the leader of our country. You can't afford to 'lose it!' Other people 'lose it!' You are supposed to find it! The people of Genovia are supposed to be able to look up to their queen. You are expected to live up to a higher standard of behavior, and you know that. I know that you're hurting, Mia, and I'm sorry. I truly am. But no matter what is going on in your personal life, no matter how much pain you may be in on the inside, you have got to put it aside and put Genovia first. A good queen always, always puts her country and her people ahead of herself. No exceptions. And putting your country ahead of yourself means that you must always maintain your composure and conduct yourself with dignity, no matter how difficult that might be. You must never, ever give other people a reason to gossip about you or think ill of you."

"I don't believe this, Grandma. Nicholas and I just broke up, like, twenty seconds ago, and you're already in here giving me lectures? Did it ever once cross your mind that I might need some love and encouragement and moral support right now? Is there any part of you at all that is the tiniest bit concerned about my well-being? From day one, you have always acted like you cared more about my performance as a royal than you did about me."

"Oh, tosh!" said Clarisse, dismissing Mia's words with a wave of her hand.

"Tosh, nothing! It's true! You never really cared about me, Grandma! You only cared about the things you hoped to get out of me. When we first met, you didn't even bother to apologize for the fact that you and Dad and Grandpa Rupert all abandoned me for the first sixteen years of my life. You didn't even try to act like you cared about how much it hurt me growing up without my father and my grandparents. The first thing out of your mouth was, 'I want you to give up your entire life, move thousands of miles away from the only home you've ever known, and be our princess.' From day one, I've just been a pawn for you to use in your own political agenda, nothing more. And even after all these years, nothing's changed! I'm still just your political pawn! Nothing more!"

"Young lady, that is both silly and ridiculous!"

"No it's not! You didn't even act like you liked me until I got my makeover."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"What if I hadn't agreed to be your princess and your queen several years ago? What if I hadn't gone through with the makeover and all the princess lessons and I'd never become the Queen of Genovia? What if I were still just the invisible girl I used to be with frizzy hair and bushman eyebrows? Would you still care about me then?"

"What a foolish question! Of course I would."

"I don't believe you. I think that if I had refused the position, you would've returned to Genovia and forgotten all about me, just like you forgot about me the first sixteen years of my life. I don't think I mean as much to you as you claim."

"Now what brought this on?"

"You brought this on. You act like you couldn't care less that Nicholas just dumped me for somebody else and broke my heart. All you care about is how well I perform as Queen. It probably didn't dawn on you for a fraction of a second to put your arm around me and show me some love and understanding like any other grandma would. All you care about, all you've ever cared about, is how well I perform as a royal. You don't care about me. You don't care if I'm alright or not. You don't care if I'm hurting or not. All you care about is yourself and your royal expectations being met."

"That's not true," Clarisse insisted.

"It is so true! It's always been true! And you want to know something, Grandma? With all due respect, I've had it. I have officially had it with trying so hard to win the approval of someone who never thinks I'm good enough! I'm sick and tired of feeling as though I have to be perfect twenty-four-seven in order for you to love me," Mia told her grandmother truthfully, and in the next moment, she angrily stomped out of her office and on upstairs to her suite.

A few moments later, Clarisse's husband and former Royal Head of Security, Joseph Romero, walked into Queen Amelia's office.

"If I may say so, Clarisse, that did not go very well," Joseph told his wife.

"Mia and Nicholas were shouting so loud, the entire palace could hear every word they were saying! The palace grapevine will be gossiping about this for years to come, and I don't even want to think about what's going to happen when somebody inevitably leaks this little episode to the press! Tell me, Joseph. Is this the way a queen should act?"

"My dear, there's a time and a place for everything. There's a time for scrutiny and criticism of a young royal's personal behavior. However, there is also a time to put all political concerns aside – to put the dowager queen aside – and just be a grandma to your hurting granddaughter."

"Are you actually trying to tell me that you think Mia is right about all the things she just said to me?" Clarisse asked angrily as she put her hands on her hips.

"Clarisse, my dear, you know I love you more than anything in this world. And it's precisely because I love you so much that I must tell you the truth. Before I was your husband, I was your Royal Head of Security and as such, I was privy to all Renaldi family secrets. I've observed you with your granddaughter for years. I've seen how you act with her. I don't believe that in your heart of hearts, you care more about politics than you care about Mia. I know that you love her dearly, as do I, and I know that you are just as proud of her as I am. However, for many years now, I have also been aware of the fact that even though you do love Mia with all your heart, she is not always aware of the depth of the love you have for her because far too often, you keep your true feelings buried. I understand that it's a natural consequence of the royal position you held for so many years. You were raised in an environment where showing your true feelings was frowned upon. But you're not in that environment anymore, Clarisse."

"What exactly are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you no longer have an excuse for keeping your true feelings for your granddaughter suppressed, as you have a tendency to do at times. Clarisse, have you ever, just one single time in the entire history of your relationship with Mia, looked that girl in the eye and told her that you love her or that you're proud of her? Have you ever once told Mia just how much she means to you or how grateful you are to have her in your life?"

"Well quite frankly, I think that if anybody needs to start showing some gratitude, it's Mia, not me. That girl's been handed the world on a silver platter, and she takes it all for granted. How many twenty-two-year-olds get to have royal status, live in a palace, have servants to attend to their every want and need, get to attend state dinners with diplomats from countries all over the world? Is it really so much to ask for her to grow up and start appreciating all her privileges by taking her royal position seriously for once in her life?"

"Sometimes, my dear, people get so caught up in their own feelings that they cannot – or simply do not – try to put themselves in the other person's shoes like they should."

"You're absolutely right. That is a real problem with Mia."

"Oh no, I wasn't talking about Mia. I was talking about you."

"Me?!"

"Yes, Clarisse. You. Darling, I realize that the path you've walked all your life has not been an easy one. I realize that it was painful and difficult having to get married to a man you didn't love at age nineteen; having to ascend the throne and become a queen and accept responsibility for an entire country at age twenty. The burdens you've had to bear all these years have been terribly heavy. I get that. But sometimes, I think that you get so wrapped up in your royal position and in yourself that you just can't see anything – or anyone – else. Since you first connected with Mia a few years ago, have you ever once looked at things from her perspective? Have you even tried to?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Several years ago when you first met Mia, you were obviously in a terrible position. You had recently buried both your husband and your son and you barely had a chance to grieve before you found yourself having to fight the von Trokens for your throne and your country. The burdens you had to bear back then were indescribable and you carried those burdens with remarkable dignity and grace. You were and are an extraordinary person. No one disputes that, me least of all. But Mia is an extraordinary person as well, and I don't think you fully see that. There are things about Mia that, frankly, you continually take for granted."

"Such as?"

"She is astoundingly forgiving and generous."

"Forgiving and generous? You mean with me?"

"Yes."

"What precisely have I done that I needed Mia's forgiveness for? And what has she done for me that was so generous?"

"As I said a few moments ago, I realize that what you were going through back then was unbelievably hard. But Mia was going through things that were also incredibly painful. I don't think you ever fully appreciated the extent of the depression, clinical depression, that Mia was suffering from at the time. For the first sixteen years of her life, Mia grew up believing that her own father didn't love her enough to talk to her or write her or spend time with her. Sure, he paid her school tuition and sent a birthday gift every year, but she had no way of knowing if he was doing those things because he actually loved her or simply because he felt obligated to. And the fact that, from her perspective, it appeared that her own father was choosing not to be in contact with her, that probably made her feel that he didn't love her at all. And I don't think you've ever truly understood just how devastating something like that can be to a person. I don't mean this harshly, my dear, but we both know you've lived a very sheltered life. You were born to parents who loved and adored and spoiled you. You grew up with both your mother and your father there every single day, loving you and guiding you into adulthood. Have you ever stopped to think about how painful it would be for you if your own father and grandparents abandoned you? You never have to struggle with your self-esteem, Clarisse. You've had your political opponents to deal with through the years, yes, but the vast majority of the time, you are surrounded by people who respect you; who will gladly put you ahead of themselves. Mia, on the other hand, was frequently surrounded by people who subjected her to constant verbal and emotional abuse and bullying for most of her young life. And she had to put up with that on top of getting rejected by her own father and grandparents for sixteen years. Try to imagine what your self-esteem would be like if you'd lived Mia's life for sixteen years. Try to imagine how hard it would be to believe you had worth if your own father refused to talk to you throughout your childhood.

"And finally, try to imagine yourself as a young sixteen-year-old girl, who meets this grandma who never called or wrote to her; who, as far as you can tell, doesn't seem to care that much about you. What is the first thing that she does? Does she apologize for never being there? Does she utter one word of reassurance to you that she cares about you? No. The first thing she does is blurt it out that you're a princess, and she tells you that she basically wants you to give up the only way of life you've ever known, leave your home and your mother behind to move thousands of miles away to a country you barely know anything about, and eventually accept responsibility for thousands of people as their queen. If you'd lived Mia's life up to that point, if you'd been a shy, insecure girl who struggled constantly with your self-esteem, how would you feel in a situation like that? Would you really feel like your grandmother gave a darn about you? Or would you run out of that meeting with your grandmother the way Mia did, feeling unloved, used, and terrified by all the burdens your grandmother wanted to throw on your shoulders so suddenly?"

Clarisse visibly winced in that moment as the full effect of Joseph's words began hitting her.

"Yet regardless of how much Mia and her feelings were basically tossed under the bus for the sake of your own political agenda, she's always treated you with nothing but the utmost respect, and she has made big personal sacrifices for your sake, so that you will be happy with her and be proud of her. Even though you didn't exactly make a lot of effort to make Mia feel cared for in the early days of your relationship, Mia put all of that aside, put all her years of hurt and anger and depression aside, and she started taking princess lessons that she obviously hated, and she chose to give up her privacy and step into the limelight where she would be exposed to endless criticism. Which, I might add, was always much harder for her to bear than it is for you. Accepting her royal title, continually pouring so much effort into attempting to live up to your expectations of royal perfection after the way you've made her feel for so long, actually is remarkably forgiving and generous. I don't mean this harshly, but it's just a cold hard fact that it actually would have been understandable had Mia refused to even try to love you and make you happy after the way you made her feel in the beginning. Sometimes, Clarisse…I don't think you really understand that. Mia has an absolutely enormous heart, and sometimes, I think you really do tend to take that precious heart of hers for granted. Sometimes…I think that you honestly believe that Mia owed it to you to accept her royal title, become the Princess and later Queen of Genovia, and take over for you so that you could finally retire and live your own life. She didn't owe that to you at all. She never had to give up her own life the way that she did and take your place on the throne, but she did it anyway because she loved you and in her great love for you, she was willing to forgive you for how you hurt her and look past that and try to please you anyway. Many young people would not have done that, Clarisse. Especially nowadays."

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said soberly. "You know, Joseph, I…I honestly never thought about it like that before. I…I never stopped to consider…"

"You never stopped to consider where your granddaughter was coming from because you were so caught up in yourself and your own perspective – which, given your situation at the time, was understandable. But my point is, it's not understandable any longer. You're beyond all of that now. Genovia is no longer in any danger of being taken over by the von Trokens or by Nicholas Devereaux. You are no longer the reigning queen. You no longer have that excuse to stay locked in your own perspective and not try to understand how Mia feels and what she's going through. Mia was wrong when she accused you of caring more about politics than you do about her. We both know that. But that isn't the point. The point is, very often, that's how Mia feels. I think she said the things she did because deep down, she's always felt that you care more about politics, more about how well she performs in her royal position, than you do about her. When Mia was telling you how she felt just now, you just said 'Oh, tosh!' and brushed her off. I don't think you should be so dismissive of what your granddaughter is trying to tell you. I think it's high time that you finally faced up to the fact that you have been putting politics ahead of your relationship with Mia for a long time now and that Mia's well-being has not always ranked as high on your list of priorities as it should have. When Nicholas broke Mia's heart just now, you were concerned only about yourself and how embarrassed Mia's fight with Nicholas made you feel. Many other grandmothers would have only been concerned about one thing: their granddaughter's broken heart. You need to think about that, Clarisse," Joseph told his wife with brutal honesty, and it was obvious by the look on her face that his words really stung. However, even Clarisse knew deep down that they were words she needed to hear.

Joseph then walked out of Mia's office, leaving Clarisse alone with her thoughts.