After the day of the school ball, Valerie was excited to see his highness, more than usual this time.
When she entered the garden she didn't find a young prince, but a piece of parchment on the ground where the prince usually sat.
She looked around a bit, wondering if his highness had decided to play a trick on her. When she knew the prince was nowhere in sight, she picked up the parchment and it read
'Dear my princess in training, Valerie
I hate to have to tell you this through parchment, and not in person, but we can no longer meet in the secret garden. My parents have married me off to the princess of the next kingdom, and they refuse to let me meet with another woman when I'm betrothed. I will try my best to convince my parents that we are just friends, but I will not lie to you. Though we are just friends, I wished for us to be more than friends and now we have run out of time. I am sorry I waited this long to let you know.
Wish you the best
-Malphus'.
As Valerie read the letter, she felt tears bubble in her eyes. He had loved her? For how long? Why didn't he tell?
Valerie felt weak. She plunged into the ground and cried, she cried and cried until she heard her name being called by the girls of the orphanage.
The days went on differently this time, she'd go to school, come home, go to the garden and talk to it as if it was Malphus. She missed him so much and talking to the garden as if it were Malphus helped her grief over her lost love and friend.
2 years after Valerie graduated high school, she met up with an old friend. Oscar. Soon enough she fell in love with Oscar and married him. They didn't plan on having children for another 5 years, and Valerie didn't have to work, because she was now a lady of the Fin-Whip household.
She was still best friends with Dorthy, and Dorthy and Edwin were still together. Dorthy wanted them to get married, but Edwin wasn't planning to get married yet. Edwin had other plans that didn't exactly include Dorthy all that much and Valerie a little bit more.
Every now and then Valerie would catch Edwin staring at her, but she brushed it off and thought that it could just be he still wasn't used to her wearing expensive clothing.
On a cold Monday morning, Valerie had to go to a council meeting, which was one the whole kingdom went to, to discuss important matters such as the schools having enough food and the orphanage having enough room to hold all the orphans.
Valerie heard there would be an important guest at this year's meeting, so she wore her finest dress and had the maids help her put her hair in a beautiful bun.
As usual, they discussed important facts throughout the kingdom, letting every town and village have their turn.
Valerie had not yet seen anyone more important than the councilmen that was there to take complaints. 'Perhaps I'm looking too hard, they should be sure to introduce us to the important guest, may they be that important' thought Valerie to herself. She was sure she'd seen every face around at least 10 times, but that important guest had to be here somewhere.
'Wait, what am I doing? That was just a stupid rumor that came from the lying mouths of others" if Valerie wasn't in public she would have slapped herself on the forehead. 'I can't believe I wore this horribly uncomfortable dress just for a rumor! I must have been crazy to just believe that without any proof!' Valerie truly wanted to believe somewhere around was a person more important than the councilmen, but there was no way to verify that there was.
The truth was, she was looking forward to meeting this important person because though she had money through marriage, she didn't usually get to meet important people. Her husband was only a dressmaker.
Just as the meeting ended and the Fin-Whip family was about to leave, a councilman stood up and announced "And now for the crucially important guest we have here for this year's kingdom meeting, King Malphus and Queen Lilith".
"Malphus?!?!" Slipped from Valerie's mouth before she covered it to keep more words from spilling out.
Sorry, this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, I usually aim for 800 words per chapter. I just couldn't drag this chapter out any more than I already had. (Also sorry for ruining the nonexistent suspense of the last line of this chapter :p)