A.N. This is the beginning of the end I'm afraid. Only 2 chapters left (this one included) and I'll finish this story. I hope you have enjoyed it and I thank all of you for reading it.
Cersei let the young prison guard to lead her in the empty visiting room.
'She'll be here soon.' he ensured her.
Cersei didn't bother to answer, or even look at him. She walked over to the barred windows and opened them.
'Four years and I never heard you say thank you once.' the guard shook his head disapprovingly.
'Thank you for what? I'm your President and you turned against me, all of you.' Cersei hissed between her teeth. 'I hope you got what you wanted with the Targaryen brat. Thanks to her, there is more of us in here than out there.'
'The paranoid bitch is locking everyone up without the smallest reason.'
Cersei recognized her sixteen-year-old daughter's voice who casually walked into the room.
'Leave us.' Myrcella ordered the guard who nodded, then took his position outside the door.
Myrcella looked at her mother who was stubbornly staring out the window, refusing to face her. 'Are you gonna talk to me?'
'It depends.' Cersei finally turned to her daughter. 'Is there anything worth talking about?'
Myrcella's lips curved into a small smile. 'I talked to Jon Snow. He is…'
'The leader of the rebellion. I know who he is.' Cersei interrupted her impatiently.
'I have had a meeting with him this morning.' Myrcella took a pause to see her mother's reaction to the news.
'And? What did he have to say?' Cersei asked with little interest in her voice.
'He will get you out of here if you agree to speak in support of him at the next protest.'
'He wants me to back his claim to the presidency?' Cersei gave her daughter a suspicious look. 'And you agreed?'
'Yes, I did, Mom.' Myrcella snapped at her. 'It took me a lot of work to get you this deal. You can take it or leave it, but you won't get any better than that.'
'Never!' Cersei screamed. 'I am the President of this country!'
'Fine, then! I'm sure it's much better to rot in here until you die.' her daughter yelled back with tears in her eyes.
'Like I have a choice.' Cersei scoffed. 'How can you believe a word Jon Snow says? The minute I give him my support, he throws me back in jail or worse…'
Myrcella gave her a sad look. 'I hate to see you giving up. It's so not like you.' she angrily wiped away her tears.
Cersei couldn't bear to see the disappointment in her daughter's eyes. It reminded her of the day she lost everything she held dear.
'Mom?' Cersei heard a faint voice from behind.
Hallucinations were the last thing she had wished for as she knew the voice could only be in her head, but she couldn't help herself and turned around. Myrcella was still wearing her nightgown, her cheeks were pale and her hair disheveled, but she was awake. She was alive.
'Mom?' she asked again, more pressing this time. 'What's going on? Are we under a siege?'
'Don't worry about it, sweetheart.' Cersei said when she had finally recovered from the shock. She stepped closer to her daughter and put her arms around her gently as possible, afraid it might hurt her. 'I will call your doctor.'
Myrcella escaped her embrace and took a step back. 'I don't need a doctor. I'm fine. How long have I been sleeping?'
'Too long…' Cersei sighed, still unable to process the scene in front of her. 'Come with me.'
She showed her daughter into a room and slowly started to empty a closet full of elegantly wrapped boxes, shiny bags and racks of clothes.
'What are these?' Myrcella asked in surprise.
'Christmas presents, birthday presents… all the things I couldn't give you while you were in a coma.'
'That's a lot of gifts.' Myrcella remarked softly as she looked around the room full of expensive unnecessities. 'What is this?'
Her mother took a glance at the gorgeous white dress she was holding up and cleared her throat. 'I bought it for you for your sister's christening.'
Myrcella's eyes widened in excitement. 'Right, you are… you were pregnant. I remember now. Where is she?'
'I let Jaime take her away. It was safer that way.' Cersei explained, already afraid of the next question.
'And Tommen? Did he leave with them too?'
Myrcella's question was hanging in the air before Cersei took the courage to answer it. She stepped to the clothes rack and ran her fingers over a black lace dress. 'No. He left on his own.'
It was unnecessary to say more. They exchanged a sad look and remained silent for a while. Finally, Myrcella broke the silence. 'What now?''
Cersei, however, didn't have time to answer. Her own bodyguards were the ones who betrayed her first. They broke in, escorted her out of the Red House and gave her to the authorities.
'I have a surprise for you. I really hope she will change your mind about Snow's offer.' Myrcella's voice dragged Cersei out of her thoughts.
'Who?' she asked indifferently.
Myrcella knocked on the door and the guard came back with a little girl in his arms.
'Jaymee!' Cersei gasped as soon as she saw her daughter. 'She got so big. Does she…?'
'She knows who you are.' Myrcella guessed her thought. 'I didn't let them make her forget you.'
She took her sister from the guard and walked her to their mother. Cersei knelt before the little girl and took her tiny hands in hers.
'Mommy' the little girl mumbled uncertainly and Cersei caught Myrcella's satisfied glance as she nodded to her sister. Clearly, they rehearsed it before, but their mother didn't mind it.
'If you really want this deal with Jon Snow…' Cersei looked up to her older daughter, while not letting go of the other. '…then I'm going to take it for your sake. But…'
'But what?' Myrcella couldn't wait to hear the end.
'But we will do it my way. I will tell whatever bullshit lies Snow wants me to tell, but we have to leave right after that.' her mother replied in a firm voice.
'Leave where?' the smile suddenéy disappeared from Myrcella's face.
'The Iron Islands for starters. There's no extradition and I have a friend there.' Cersei explained casually.
Myrcella narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she began to realize that her mother too had an escape plan all along. 'What kind of friend?'
'A kind that will get us a new identity.' was all Cersei was willing to share with her daughter, then continued. 'First, you need to get my money from the bank or wherever Jaime and his whore of wife keep my inheritance…'
The thought of Jaime having a wife made her want to throw up, but she didn't want Myrcella to see any of it. She turned back to her little girl instead and started fiddling with her blond locks. 'Then you'll go to Tyrion and borrow the jet from him.'
Her daughter thought she was joking. 'Uncle Tyrion?' she cried out in shock. 'He was the one who betrayed you. He is the reason you are in jail right now.'
Cersei let out a soft chuckle. 'Maybe so. But you know what they say. A Lannister always pays his debts. And trust me, my little brother owes me more than you could imagine.' Seeing the confusion in Myrcella's eyes, she added. 'Besides, there is no one in this damn country who would be happier if I left. Now, go and get yourself and your sister ready. We don't know how much time we have left.'
