Chapter 21 - I Miss Everything About You

It had been a week since Kimberley left Leo at the altar and fled, a week since she ran and took his heart with her, a week since anyone had seen her, and 5 days since Lilly and Mikey broke up. While Riley and Violet searched tirelessly for their missing sister Lilly mostly stayed in the apartment and kept to herself. On this rainy afternoon, Lilly sat on the living room couch flipping through Kim's wedding binder with tear stained cheeks.

"Why did you do it, Kim?" Lilly whispered as she turned a page. "What was going through your stupid head? What was going through my stupid head?" She sighed, "How did such a happy day turn into a disaster?"

Lilly's head turned at the sound of the front door opening and saw her two older sisters enter, their raincoats drenched and their bodies shivering.

"Awful weather!" Violet gasped as she shrugged off her raincoat and hung it in the closet to the right of the door.

"For a moment there I thought it was Kim, but then I realised that she doesn't have control over the weather anymore." Riley tried to joke, but frowned when she saw Violet wasn't laughing.

"That would have been funny if we weren't missing a sister." Violet said sadly as the duo walked deeper into the apartment towards the living room and saw their baby sister sitting on the couch looking depressed. "Hey Lilly." Violet greeted as she walked over, sat beside Lilly and gave her a hug.

"How are you?" Riley asked, her voice unusually soft as she sat on the edge of the coffee table in front of her younger sisters.

Lilly scoffed slightly and looked up at her sisters. "What do you think?" She bit back before sighing and leaning her head against Violet's shoulder, her sister's arms encircling her and giving her another hug.

Riley frowned and placed her hand on her sister's knee. "To be honest you look like shit."

Riley smiled when her response earned her the smallest of smiles from Lilly and a soft giggle from Violet. Lilly's smile left her face as quickly as it came and her sisters could do nothing but sit with Lilly and offer her what comfort they could give. Riley patted Lilly's knee before she stood up and headed towards the kitchen.

Lilly pulled away from Violet's embrace and wiped her eyes, which were overflowing with more tears.

"I hate this." Lilly whispered brokenly. "I thought that I'd be okay after losing him before, but I was so wrong."

Violet grabbed the tissue box from the coffee table and held it up for Lilly to take. "I know." She replied as Lilly took a tissue with a grateful smile. "Losing your soul mate is hard and I'd like to tell you that it gets easier with time, but to be honest, Donnie and I weren't ever broken up long enough for me to be positive about that."

Lilly nodded in understanding. "What hurts more is that we broke up after such a stupid fight!"

"It wasn't stupid." Violet replied softly, yet firmly. "You were protecting your sister. Mikey had no right to say what he said. Yes, he had a right to be angry with Kim for leaving Leo at the altar, but that problem is theirs and theirs alone. He should have kept his mouth shut and not picked a fight with you when he knew that you'd try and defend her."

"I shouldn't have blamed Leo, though." Lilly sighed, "I know it was wrong to say, I mean, I know Leo wouldn't do anything to hurt Kim. It was said in the heat of the moment. But this fight…it put things into perspective for me."

"What do you mean?" Violet asked

Lilly looked down at the wedding binder with a sad smile. "Kim and Leo broke up over this whole marriage thing. They broke up over Kim having to get married in 30 days and Leo was…forced into it. I don't want to be like them: having to sacrifice happiness for someone or being forced into marriage. Like me, they broke up over this wedding."

Lilly lifted her gaze from the binder and looked her sister in the eyes.

"I love Mikey with all of my heart and once upon a time I did want to marry him someday. But now after this whole fiasco…it just opened me up to all of these things I didn't realise before. Being a princess could mean that I'd have to marry someone, too. I might unintentionally force Mikey to marry me. And we'd fight all of the time. This was our first fight and I was quite scared of how angry he got, if I was honest. I cannot fight with him all of the time, Vi. This fight made me realise that I don't want to ever fight with him. And if I marry him we will fight about where we live, should I keep working, how will we raise our kids…" Lilly trailed off and wiped away tears that flowed down her cheeks again. "I-I don't know if I want to marry Mikey anymore. Not after this stupid fight!"

Lilly's gaze dropped back down to her lap.

"He doesn't want to be near me, not after what happened. Mikey's not comfortable around me anymore. I have to stay away from him in order to make him comfortable…and happy. I-I want to make him happy, no matter what the cost or what happens between us. And if that means that I have to give up Mikey, then I guess that that is a risk I'm willing to make." Lilly couldn't continue anymore. She broke down in a fit of tears and Violet gathered her sister into her arms and let her cry on her shoulder, not noticing the wedding binder fall to the floor, opened up to the page with the old photo of their old house.

Riley finally returned to the living room with 3 cups of tea in her hands. Lilly and Violet let go of each other and faced Riley, who offered them each a cup. Lilly wiped her tears away and took her cup graciously.

The sad yet comfortable silence was broken when Emily suddenly appeared in the middle of the room.

"Princesses!" She cried

"What is it?" Riley asked, noticing the frantic look in Emily's eyes.

"There's a revolt!"

The trio abandoned their cups and stood up in shock. "What?" They cried

Emily nodded. "Word has spread about the princess' wedding! They know she has fled and has not been seen since!"

"How the hell do they know?" Lilly cried

Emily shook her head. "I do not know, princess." She replied, "But there's talk of a revolution against Lord Drake! People are demanding Princess Kimberley step down and hand the throne over to Lord Renaldo!"

"We can't let that happen!" Violet cried

"It's already happening." Emily added, "People are swarming the castle pledging their allegiance to Lord Renaldo. The royal court is struggling against the numbers."

"What do you mean?" Violet asked

"The court are obligated to uphold their agreement with the princess. They are honour bound to give her the remaining week she has left, but the people have already decided they will not accept their queen, married or not. The court is having trouble keeping this agreement now." Emily explained, "If the princess does not arrive and thwart this take over, I worry for the future of Rayon."

The girls stood in stunned silence. Yes, they still had time, but it seemed time no longer mattered now that the people knew the truth. And they were angry. They demanded Renaldo be king. And with Renaldo leading the uprising, who knew what it could lead to.

Lilly looked up at her sisters, panic and worry in her eyes. "We…we have to find Kim. Now." She said

"How?" Riley cried, running her hands through her hair. "She's been gone a whole week! We've tried everything!"

Lilly's eyes fell to the floor in sadness. It sounded like there was no hope at all. Her eyes flickered to the binder that had been forgotten about. It was open to the last page, the old photo staring at Lilly, taunting her.

'Everything seemed right when we were there.' She thought

Suddenly she gasped and her eyes flew open.

Flashback

"…I always loved this house…I don't know why, but I always felt safe and happy in that house, like no matter what happened, everything would make sense there…"

End Flashback

"The place she always felt safe and happy." Lilly whispered to herself before a wide smile spread across her face. "That's it!" She screamed happily, a laugh escaping her lips.

"What's it?" Violet asked

"I know where Kim is!" Lilly cried, "I know where she went!"

"Where?" Riley yelled in delight.

Lilly smiled wide and held up the binder for her sisters to see and pointed at the picture of their old house. "There."

"She's at the old house?" Violet gasped, "But that place burned down years ago!"

"Exactly why Kim would never be found there." Riley said, her eyes widening in realisation. "Who wouldn't escape to an abandoned old house?"

"That you could fix up with magic?" Lilly smirked

Riley laughed, internally chiding herself at her stupidity. It was so obvious now. She looked back at Emily, her face falling serious again.

"You head back to Rayon, Emily." She ordered, suddenly acting like the princess she was. "You aid Lord Drake in compiling your own army of those still loyal to Drake and the crown. I have a feeling this will lead to something big and we need to be prepared."

Emily nodded her head determinedly before she disappeared from the room. Riley looked back to her sister's, smiling confidently to suede the worry in their eyes.

"What now?" Violet asked

Riley smirked. "Isn't it obvious?" She chuckled, "We go to England, find our old house, drag Kim's butt back here, convince her and the guys to go to Rayon and fight Renaldo, we win, she apologises to Leo and marry, thus enticing the people to put their trust in us again, and we all live happily ever after."

Lilly raised an eyebrow at her sister in disbelief. The two were silent and Riley's face slowly faded into a glare.

"I never said it was a good plan." Riley defended, crossing her arms across her chest. "But it's the only plan we have. Now let's go!"