The wedding day arrived.
A day that should have been the happiest of my life, but in my heart there was only a dark, empty pit.
I stood at the altar, my face covered by a ceremonial veil, as was tradition in royal weddings to maintain the mystery until the last moment. In front of me, my future wife waited, also covered. I could only see her silhouette, her white dress, her trembling hands.
The officiant spoke the required words. We exchanged vows I didn't feel. We signed documents I didn't read.
And then, the ceremony ended.
Honeymoon. The nightmare continued.
I was in the nuptial chamber, a glass of wine in my hand, staring at the door without really seeing it. I heard her footsteps approaching. Slow. Paused. Ten seconds before she opened the door.
Those were ten seconds that felt like centuries.
The door opened.
And the glass slipped from my hand.
It fell to the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces, the wine spilling like blood on the tiles.
But I didn't care.
I didn't care because she, my wife, the woman I had been married to, the princess of another kingdom...
Was Cecilia.
Cecilia Valdris.
"Y-you... you!" I couldn't form the words, my tongue tied, my mind blank. "You're the princess of another kingdom!"
But something didn't fit. She was from this kingdom, not another. What was happening?
"No," I murmured, shaking my head, trying to process the impossible. "She's from this kingdom, not another... and then... what's going on?"
"Ma... Mark," she murmured, her voice barely a trembling whisper. Her green eyes, those eyes I had missed so much, looked at me with a mixture of disbelief and hope. "Are you... are you my arranged marriage? Wait..." She brought her hands to her mouth, understanding. "That means you were a prince!"
Her expression changed. The hope clouded over, replaced by something darker.
"You... you lied to me," she said, and tears began to stream down her face like overflowing rivers. "All this time... you lied to me."
And I... I was crying too. Tears fell down my cheeks uncontrollably, mixing with disbelief, joy, pain, all together in an impossible cocktail to process.
"No... no, I... I," I tried to speak, to explain, to justify myself, but the words wouldn't come. My throat was closed, paralyzed by emotion.
We stood there, crying in silence, separated by a few meters that seemed like an abyss.
A minute passed. Maybe two. Maybe an eternity.
Finally, I managed to control myself enough to speak. And I explained everything. From the beginning. My spoiled childhood, the family tradition, my hatred for my parents, my time at the academy, my hunger, my loneliness. And how she had been the only light in so much darkness.
I explained that my sufferings had been real. She knew that better than anyone, because she had seen me arrive at the academy in worn-out clothes, because she had seen me go days without eating, because she had witnessed my fall from the privileged position of a prince to the miserable existence of a commoner.
"I was fulfilling my duty," I said at the end, my voice broken. "As heir to the throne. I had to do it. But I never wanted to lie to you, Cecilia. Never. Every moment with you was real. Every smile, every conversation, every time you brought me food and I pretended I didn't care when I really wanted to cry with gratitude... it was all real."
She listened to me in silence, without looking away.
When I finished, there was another long silence.
And then, I understood something I hadn't considered before.
My parents... they knew. They had planned it all.
While I suffered at the academy, they kept me watched with secret guards. Men and women who went unnoticed, who observed from the shadows, who reported my every move to my parents.
And they saw how a young noblewoman, not a commoner, but Cecilia Valdris, approached me. Talked to me. Took care of me. Gave me food. Bought me clothes, not luxurious, but better than what I had. Gave me books. Smiled at me.
They saw what I couldn't see at that moment: that she loved me.
And my parents, in their wisdom, decided that if any woman deserved to be happy with me, it was Cecilia. They arranged everything with the Valdris family. Only her parents knew the truth. Cecilia was kept in the dark, just like me, so that the discovery would be... this. This moment. This chaos of emotions.
"Your parents..." Cecilia whispered, understanding. "Your parents knew. All along."
"Yes," I replied. "They knew."
She was silent for a moment. Then, slowly, she crossed the distance that separated us. She stopped in front of me, so close I could feel her warmth, her scent, her presence.
"I hate you," she said, but her eyes said something else. "I hate you for lying to me. For not telling me the truth."
"I know," I whispered. "I'm sorry."
"But..." she continued, and a small, trembling smile appeared on her lips. "But I also love you. I love you so much it hurts."
And then, we embraced.
We cried together, embraced in the middle of the room, while the candles flickered and the moon watched us from the window. We cried for the lost time, for the unnecessary pain, for the happiness that awaited us.
And that night, amidst tears and laughter, amidst confessions and promises, we began our life together.
---
Many years have passed since then.
My parents are no longer here. They left this world shortly after our wedding, leaving me the throne and the kingdom. I hated them for so long... but now, standing before their graves, I only feel gratitude.
"Thank you," I whisper, as the wind moves the flowers I have left on their tombstones. "Thank you for making Cecilia my wife."
Because without them, without their initial cruelty, without their secret surveillance, without their final intervention... I would never have found the love of my life. I would never have learned what truly matters. I would never have had Eliel, Calithia, Aito.
I would never have been the man I am today.
"Talking to your parents?" Cecilia's voice comes from behind, soft as always.
I turn and see her approaching, beautiful as the first day, with her chestnut hair dancing in the wind and her green eyes shining with that light that only I know.
"Yes," I reply, smiling. "Thanking them."
She comes to my side and intertwines her hand with mine. Together, we look at my parents' graves in silence.
"I thank them too," she says after a while. "For you. For our children. For this life."
I hug her, and she leans against my chest.
"The children are asking for you," she murmurs. "Aito wants to know if you've made a decision about his journey."
I sigh. Aito. That boy with golden eyes who came into our lives like a gift from destiny. My son. Our son.
"Not yet," I reply. "But I think I already know what my answer will be."
Cecilia looks up at me.
"What?"
"That yes. That when he's ready, he can go. But not alone. Someone should accompany him."
"Who?"
I smile.
"We'll decide that later. For now, I just want to enjoy my family. You. Them."
She smiles too, and her smile illuminates my world as it has since that first day in the academy library.
We stand there, embraced before my parents' graves, while the wind whispers among the flowers and the sun slowly sets on the horizon.
And in my heart, there is only one word:
Thank you.