Once Upon a ….. Sometime.
By Skyflame
Chapter ThirteenCeleste paced her room anxiously and said to her husband with worry in her eyes
"Maybe we should never have kept it from her, will she hate us now, and what will she think of Serena when she knows the truth. I know that they are friends now, but will the truth destroy or strengthen their relationship? Oh Tristian I am so worried, our children should never have had to go through any of this. Also I want you to do me a favor and talk to your youngest daughter while I am with Mina. When we arrived I saw the anguish on her face, and if she is anything like you it will have been from having to hide the truth, especially since she couldn't greet us properly."
So as Queen Celeste gathered her courage to go tell Mina the truth, King Tristian went in search of his youngest daughter who he had been missing since she left the castle in Sapphire Coast. Finding out Serena was with Prince Darien in his chambers Tristian was hesitant to seek her out in case the prince didn't know about her past, but decided to find her anyway. If necessary he would think of an excuse as to why he wanted to speak with her to offer to the prince.
When Darien opened his door and saw King Tristian there he bowed and saw the worry on his face. Realizing the King was unsure about whether Serena had told him about her past he invited him in and said
"Come in, you must be looking for Serena. I must say that I am glad that you are here and I can get to know my angel's family before the wedding, even if it was surprising to find out she really is a princess. Anyway I'm sure you will want some time alone so I will be back later and look forward to getting to know you King Tristian, as well as Queen Celeste" then kissed Serena's cheek and left her with her father.
Once the prince had left the room Serena threw herself into her fathers open arms and said,
"I am so happy to see you. I hated not being able to greet you properly, and I hate having to hide the truth from Mina." Tristian looked down into his daughters sparkling sapphire eyes and said
"I thought that may have been how you were feeling, when I left the room your mother was going to speak to your sister about you. I would have gone with her but she thought it was something she should do alone, so I got to come and see you. I missed you so much Serena. I almost died the day you were lost. Anyway that is enough of that I want to ask you a very important question, and I want you to answer truthfully" when Serena nodded he continued by asking
"Do you honestly want to marry Prince Darien? You are a princess and will soon we acknowledged as such so can marry anyone you choose, in fact prince's would be lining up for you just as they were for your sister. But I won't have my daughter marrying for anything except love, so if you don't love him tell me and I will get you out of this engagement."
Serena looked up at him with love in her eyes and calmly stated
"You are beginning to act like an overprotective father, but you don't need to worry I love Darien with all my being. He is everything I could have dreamed of and more, especially since he has been there for me with my sickness and learning about my past. In fact when he found out about my disease he was so worried that I wouldn't want to marry him that he didn't want to tell me. But since then he has supported me in every decision I make and despite everything I know he will be with me until the end."
He looked at Serena guiltily and said
"I'm sorry for questioning it, but I want nothing but the best for my little princess and it sounds like you have found it. Now what is this about having a disease, surely my baby girl isn't sick especially when she looks so good." Trying to avoid the topic she hadn't meant to bring up she answered
"Don't worry about it my other father acted the same way over my engagement as you did. I know it is just because you both love me and want what is best" then walked over to look out the window.
"Serena, you didn't answer my question. What is this sickness you spoke of?" at which point Darien entered the room and saw his love looking out the window, tears rolling down her saddened features and the King's strained face as he asked about her illness.
Understanding that Serena had accidentally said something to draw attention to the illness without meaning to, he walked over to the window seat and pulled Serena into his arms soothing her before looking up at her father who was now distraught over causing his daughter to break down into tears. Darien whispered in Serena's ear and when he felt her nod he said
"King Tristian, if you would like to sit down I will try to explain. As you can see it is a bit upsetting to Serena, as she didn't want to tell you since you had only just found her again. Serena has a very rare disease, which we didn't know about until the night she agreed to marry me and we announced it at the ball. We were told it could strike anytime in the next 5 years and will be fatal, but beyond that we don't know very much about it and we have no idea how she got it" as he hugged Serena close to him and rocked her in a soothing motion.
Tristian was shocked but it sounded vaguely familiar to him and he wondered why, making a mental note to ask Celeste about it later.
Meanwhile Queen Celeste was sitting with Mina while she talked about how Darien and Serena had done leading up to their engagement and how perfect they were for each other, just as Andrew was for her and how she was looking forward to having her as a sister-in-law. At this point Celeste gathered all her courage and said
"Mina darling, there is something very important I need to tell you about the past and I just hope you wont hate your father and I as we thought it was for the best."
Mina looked at her mother confused and asked,
"Mother, what in the world are you talking about?" Celeste just looked out the window and answered,
"This isn't easy for me to tell you but you deserve to know the truth, for your sake as well as for someone else so I will try to explain. For 19 years your father and I have been keeping a secret, not just from you but also from everyone who didn't know the truth. Anyway you remember how we would always come here in the summer, well in the summer 19 years ago something horrible happened, or so we thought and so we kept the truth hidden even though the pain of the event tore at our hearts."
The look on Mina's face showed she didn't understand but Queen Celeste just took her daughters hands in her own and continued.
"The day that you were born was one of the happiest days of Tristian and my lives but one that was equally as joyous was the day that started only minutes later, which was when your twin sister was born."
Celeste saw the shocked expression on her daughter's face but ignored it and went on
"You know that you only have half a heart necklace, well your sister had the other half. Anyway we loved you both so much you were our two special angels, but when you were 6 months old something horrible happened. Your first nurse had always complained about having to look after two of you but we thought nothing of it, anyway we were here for the summer and she took both of you out for a walk in the woods but only returned with you. She told us that a wild animal had attacked her and it had eaten your sister. It broke our hearts to hear that and so we kept her short existence a secret, in hopes that her loss would not affect you but I have always felt that on some subconscious level you have always known about the missing part of your life."
Mina looked up at her mother with pain filled eyes
"Why are you telling me this now, its over" Celeste looked into her eyes and answered
"We thought so too until recently when we discovered that your sister is actually alive. She had only recently found out that her parents had not always had her in their life and when they told her what they knew she decided to find out about her past, so came in search of it and found us."
"So you are telling me I have a twin sister you never told me about and you thought was gone, but now you have found her again. How do you know that this girl isn't an impostor who found out things and wants money or something? And if she really is my sister I want to meet and get to know her."
"She most definitely is not an impostor, she knows things about when we lost her that could not be explained any other way. She has the other half to your necklace, she wants nothing from us and the two of you are almost identical in looks just like when you were babies. Now about getting to know her, the fact is that you have already met her and know her fairly well. When she left the castle we asked her to keep what she had learnt a secret until I was able to tell you myself, so don't blame her for not telling you right away. I know that she has hated not being able to tell you especially since she feels telling the truth is so important, and it will have been hurting her. Mina your sister is in the Chateau at this very moment in fact I sent your father to go see her."
"Mina darling, its Serena"
