"You are beautiful my lady." Niffty the seamstess remarked to Charlie. "Probably the most beautiful princess there ever was."

Charlie smiled kindly at her.

"Thank you."

"Do you like your gown? I do hope that I made it just as you had wanted."

"The gown is perfect. I love it. Thank you for making it."

"You're welcome but if you are pleased with it, why do you appear so sad?" Niffty then pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, using it to lightly wipe the tear stains on Charlie's cheeks. "I'm not a smart woman but I know the difference between tears of joy and tears of sorrow."

Charlie had not noticed that she had even been crying until that moment.

"Now, now, you can tell me." Niffty said. "I'm a good listener and an even better secret keeper."

Of course Charlie didn't tell Niffty everything. She didn't tell her what happened to her after sunset, but she did confess that her heart yearned for another man.

"Frankly I'm not surprised." Niffty said. "I highly doubt that someone like Vox would be any woman's ideal husband. Unchivalrous brute, he has no idea how to treat a lady. Why he even insults my work. Hmmph! Well I'd like to see him try to make a dress."

Charlie would have giggled at the comment if she didn't feel so sad.

"I tried to tell the one I love how I felt but he...He was so cold to me and...He hurt me so much and I was so angry that I..." She gasped when it finally occurred to her that in her pain, she had made another mistake. "I took my anger out on a good friend. I said unforgivable things to her...Oh how could I? I'm so ashamed. She had been nothing but good to me and I hurt her for no reason."

"There, there, my lady." Niffty comforted. "I'm sure she knows you didn't mean it. We all say things we don't mean when we're hurting. I'm sure if you find her and apologize she'll forgive you. As for your sweetheart, well...I'm not sure how to handle that. Men are stubborn and they find it hard to share feelings."

"I just...I just don't know what to do anymore." Charlie said. "I feel like I'm caught in a tidal wave and being pulled out to sea."

"The sea leads to many places, my lady. Perhaps you'll wash ashore to somewhere better." She gently grasped the princess's hand, despite the fact that such a bold move would be conisdered disrespectful. "That's why stories like yours are still told. To remind us that even in our saddest times, happiness can still be found."

The seamstress's kind words brought a soft smile to Charlie's face.

Knock-knock!

"Who is it?" Niffty called.

"I have a wedding guest here who wishes to speak with the bride alone." The servant on the other side answered.

"But the ceremony will begin soon." Niffty replied.

"It's family."

"Family?" Charlie thought confused. "But my parents are gone. I don't have any family left."

Yet her curiosity was peeked. She allowed the guest to enter and Nifffty left her alone with him. She did not recognize the man who stood before her, but he seemed to recognize her. Or rather recognize her resemblance to someone he knew. His body was trembling and he looked almost afraid to speak.

"Charlotte?" He dared to hope. "Princess Charlotte of the Ninth Kingdom?"

"Yes." She confirmed. "Do I know you sir?"

"No. We've never met. But I so wish we had."

A smile rose to his face and he fought back the tears swelling in his eyes.

"Everyone in the kingdom told me that you mostly took after your father but...But I can see so much of your mother in you. You're almost identical to how she looked on her wedding day."

She looked at him confused.

"Who are you?"

"Of course." He sniffed and chuckled. "A man of my title should know better than to get all emotional like this, at least not without introductions first. I am King Gabriel of the Ninth Kingdom. I'm your mother's younger brother."

That's when Charlie noticed the family resemblance. Same blond hair, tall stature, and lavender eyes. He was almost a male copy of her mother.

"I...I assumed you didn't know about me." She said.

"I didn't find out about you until recently. Lilith kept a diary. I never read it out of respect for her but when I recieved an invitation to your wedding, when I learned that there was a Princess Charlotte of the Ninth Kingdom, I knew I just had to do a little snooping."

"Mom said that you and her were close."

"We were more than close. She pratically raised me. Before I met my wife and had my children, she was the only person who ever really cared about me. When she died I...A part of me died with her. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye."

"Neither did I."

"I know. I know all that you have suffered through and I am so sorry that it wasn't until now that I learned about you. I give you my word that if I had only known about you earlier, I would have brought you home."

"Really?" She sniffed. "If you read Mom's diary then you probably know that I'm...That I'm not normal."

"Yes. I know everything, and to tell you the truth it doesn't matter to me."

She looked at him surprised.

"It doesn't?"

"No. None of that matters to me and none of it ever mattered to your mother either. From what I read in the diary, she loved you with all her heart. She loved you so much, that sending you away killed her."

"But I thought she died of an illness."

"No, she died of a broken heart." He tried so hard not to cry. "One of the last things she wrote was that she wanted so badly to hold you in her arms one last time and tell you how much she loved you."

Charlie's tears returned as she thought of her poor mother lying in bed, dying and wanting to see her child one final time before going.

"Charlotte I just want you to know that from now on, you can come to me for anything you need. I'll always be there for you. Really I will."

"And my marriage to Lord Vox?"

"Whatever makes you happy, I support."

Unable to contain himself any further, he embraced his niece. She returned the gesture of affection.

"I'll be in the court house or whatever that thing is, watching the whole thing."

"Thank you, Uncle Gabriel."

"Oh! I almost forgot. I also came to give you this. It's from your father."

He handed Charlie the envelope with her name written on the front. She quickly pulled out the letter inside and proceeded to read it.

My Dearest Charlotte,

If you're reading this then that means you've at long last escaped the tower and the madness of my guilty conscience has finally pushed me over the edge. Oh Charlotte, words cannot describe the remorse and guilt I feel for everything I put you and your mother through.

I was wrong to send you away and to pretend that you didn't exist. I was wrong to make you feel like you were an undesirable. But most of all, I was wrong to raise you under the belief that no one would ever truly accept you. The real you.

I was so desperate to be a real human being. To be the man your mother deserved, to be better than what I was before, that I failed to see that true love isn't so superficial. I was afraid that if the kingdom knew what I was, they would turn on me, and your mother would have discared us both out of shame. I just didn't want to disgrace her.

But when she died over losing you, I realized that I had destroyed the very happiness I had desperately fought to keep. She loved me despite what I was and she loved you depsite what you were. And I loved you as well. I was never ashamed of you, the only person I was ever truly ashamed of was myself.

I can never bring myself to face you again my daughter. I don't think I can ever bring myself to face life again. A man like myself doesn't deserve to live after what I've done. But I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you. There never was. I was the problem, not you. If I could have just one wish, it would be to turn back the clock sixteen years, so I could be a better husband and a better father.

I love you Charlotte. I always have, and I'm proud of you no matter what.

Love your father,

King Lucifer.

Charlie pressed the letter to her heart as her mind tried to comprehend the knowledge which she had just learned. After so many years, she now knew that her father was wrong about everything he taught her to believe. So what was she to do now? What did it all mean? And why did she have to learn this now