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Royalty
Standing directly in front of the six-foot-tall mirror, Royalty looked herself over. She was no blushing bride. In fact, she had to constantly remind herself not to frown. The silver crown that set atop her elegant updo was slightly crooked. Inhaling a deep breath, Royalty’s eyes lowered down the silk gown that fit against her frame perfectly.
“Are you ready, baby?” Royalty’s mother, Jennifer, asked.
Blinking slowly, Royalty nodded. “As ready as I will ever be.”
Jennifer chuckled. “You don’t sound too enthusiastic about marrying Steven. Are you getting cold feet?”
Royalty was glad her mother waited until it was just the two of them in the room before she asked that. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have in front of several people. Her parents, Jennifer and Marcus, treated her differently since the birth of her sister, Regal. The two were five years apart, and from the beginning, Royalty felt the effects of being the older sibling.
While her parents hadn’t outright forgotten about her, she was no longer their sole priority. The older Royalty got, the less her parents focused on her and gave their younger daughter their attention. As an adult, Royalty could tell herself that was the natural order of things, but the damage had already been done by that point. She rebelled heavily throughout her teenaged years to regain her parents’s attention and priority.
And it worked, but the attention and priority weren’t given in love. They yelled more than anything else. Punished her more than they rewarded her. Disapproved of her actions more than they validated. But she was the center of their eyes again, and in that moment, that was all that mattered.
By the time Royalty left for college, she’d received the nickname of Troublemaker. Her parents had all but washed their hands of her, practically forcing her to live on campus while she was in college and paying for her apartment when she graduated. Eventually, Royalty’s desire for them turned into resentment. In her mind, her parents should have known she was acting out to get their attention, but that had never been the case.
Now, as a twenty-six-year-old woman, Royalty had gotten used to the lack of her parents in her life. Regal was still living at home, in graduate school, making them proud. Her eyes rolled just at the thought. As much as Royalty wanted to open up to her mother about what she was thinking and feeling, Royalty felt it was pointless. She didn’t think Jennifer would care either way. However, Royalty couldn’t hide her physical reaction to her mother’s question.
Did she have cold feet?
At that point… they were frozen.
“I just have a few last-minute feelings I need to work through, but I’ll be fine.”
Turning Royalty toward her, Jennifer cupped her arms and looked directly into her oldest daughter’s eyes.
“If you need to talk or hold off on the wedding, now’s the time, Royalty. Is everything okay?”
Royalty scoffed, unable to hold it in as she removed her arms from her mother’s grip.
“Please, don’t act like you care. You’re glad a man is marrying me. That keeps you and Daddy from being at the top of my emergency list.”
Jennifer’s expression shifted from surprise to sadness. “How can you say that, Royalty? Your father and I love you. We will always be here for you. If you’re marrying Steven because you think otherwise…”
“How can you stand there and say you will be there for me when you kicked me out the house as soon as you possibly could? I don’t really have anyone except my friends, so if I did need to talk to someone about how I was feeling, it would be to Destiny or Simone.”
Jennifer’s mouth opened and snapped shut before she spoke. “Where is this coming from? I don’t understand why you’re speaking to me this way.”
Royalty’s head shook as she passed her mother in search of her heels. “It doesn’t matter, Ma. I’m good.”
“No, you aren’t. And obviously we aren’t either. We need to discuss this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Royalty grumbled, stepping into her shoes. “I have bigger issues to process besides you and Daddy shoving me to the side when Regal came.”
“Oh.” Jennifer chuckled. “So that’s what this is about? It’s your wedding day and you’re still allowing your jealousy of your sister to—”
“I am not jealous of her!” Royalty almost screamed, slamming her hand down on the makeup tray that was next to her and causing all the contents to topple over. “Like always, you’re completely missing the point because you’re focused on surface level things. I said you shoved me to the side. And even right now, you’re shoving my words and feelings to the side. I literally told you what the problem is, and it went completely over your head.”
There was a soft tap on the door before Destiny asked, “Are you okay, Royalty?”
“Stellar,” she replied under her breath with a shake of her head.
“They’re ready for you.”
Nodding, Royalty released a shaky breath. If she was to be honest with herself, she wasn’t really angry with her mother... Not in that moment.
As Royalty headed to the door, her mother called out to her. “I really would like for us to finish this conversation.”
Head hung and hand on the doorknob, Royalty smiled softly. “We don’t have to, Ma. In fact, I apologize. I’m irritated and I’m about to take it out on you if I don’t get out of here.”
“It’s your wedding day, baby,” Jennifer reminded softly, as if Royalty didn’t know. “This should be the happiest day of your life.”
Royalty’s eyes watered. “Yeah, it should.”
“Why is it not?”
Gritting her teeth, Royalty kept the words from coming out. If she told her mother what she knew, Jennifer would call the wedding off, and that was the last thing Royalty wanted. Licking her lips, Royalty swallowed hard and inhaled a deep breath.
“Everything will be fine, okay?” Royalty looked back at her mother. “I love you.”
“I-I love you too. But, Royalty, I really think we should talk…”
Ignoring her mother, Royalty left the room and wrapped her arm around her father’s. He placed a kiss to her temple and looked down at her with a smile.
“Are you ready, baby girl?”
Nodding, Royalty inhaled a deep breath. “Yeah. Take me to my fiancé.”