Page 25 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown

My mother calls it her being busy with important things, but I don’t feel the same way about it. There have been several other people who have gotten jobs at the palace, and they visit their families way more often.

“Yes, she is. She told me in a letter last week that she was going to come today since she had some time off,” she explains.

“Or because she needs something and it’s not really time off,” I point out.

My mother glares at me. “Do not talk about your sister like that. She is doing good work in the palace and has been really busy.”

“Mother’s right, Adeline,” my sister sneers my name.

I turn around to see my sister behind me. I sigh and give her a forced smile. “Hello, Avira. To what do we owe the pleasure? How’s the king treating you?”

Sometimes, I wonder if she’s sleeping with the king. She is beautiful, even I will admit that, but her personality lacks a lot. Avira takes a step toward me, and I have to will my body not to move. Any time she gets close to me, I get an uneasy feeling in my stomach, and I can never place what it is. She’s never hurt me, but I’ve always felt like I’ve had to be wary around her. One wrong move and she could kill me.

But she’s my sister, and this has to be just a normal sibling rivalry going on.

“Good, like always.” My sister walks past me and hugs our mother. “How are things with you?”

“The same. Helping Mom prepare for the baby to come into this world. Prepping things for the market. Hopefully we’ll sell out this year to have more money for over the winter when the baby arrives.” I continue to talk, knowing she doesn’t care.

“A simple good would have been fine.” She stands to the side as mother and I start to clean the rest of the clothes.

Just as I predicted, and yet I can’t help but smile. I love annoying her.

“Hopefully, we’ll earn enough. While we have some money spared for emergencies, we’ll have a newborn in a couple of months and will need all the money we can get,” I point out, not looking at my mother.

“Oh, hush, Adeline,” she scolds me. “We are doing just fine.”

“Don’t lie to her, Mother.” I pin a look at her. “You know as well as I do that we’ll need every cent we can get.”

Avira narrows her eyes on me before looking at mother. “I can spare some money, but the king doesn’t like me to give away a lot, even if it’s to my family.”

That is her excuse every single time, but I think she wants all the money to herself so she can buy whatever she wants. She knows we are desperate for money, but she doesn’t care.

“It’s okay, Avira. We don’t need it. We’ll make do with what we have,” my mother gently pacifies her.

I want to tell my mom that it isn’t okay. My sister is living in the palace with everything she could ever need, her clothes and how filled out she is speaking for it, and here we are suffering. Suffering is a strong word, but compared to her, we are. We have what we need, but there are things we forgo because the money is needed elsewhere.

“I’m sure you could talk to the king and tell him the reasoning. He has to understand.” I scoff, fully annoyed at my sister. “He has a family of his own. Though he hasn’t ever had to live like us, so he may not understand.”

“Adeline,” my mother scolds me. “Apologize.”

Yeah, that’s not going to happen, and Avira knows it.

Maybe I should ask the prince about it to see whether she’s telling the truth or not, but at the same time, I don’t want to talk to him and encourage anything between us. As much as I want to ask him about his father and employees sending money to family, I don’t want him anywhere near me if he remembers what he asked me to do.

“It’s okay, Mother,” Avira calmly says. “Adeline can have opinions of her own, but they should be kept to herself. You don’t know who’s listening and who will tell a guard or even the king what you’ve said.”

Normally, I’m good about keeping them to myself, but when it comes to my sister, it’s so much harder. I just want to yell at her and tell her how selfish she is for not thinking about us.

“It’s not okay.” My mother starts hanging up wet clothes. “Adeline knows better. We have this conversation every single time you visit.”

“And we’ll continue to have it,” I mutter under my breath.

Silence fills the space as I rinse the clothes and my mother hangs them up. Avira doesn’t even offer to help us. Typical. I know she’s my sister and I should love her, but she makes it so difficult.

“Has anything interesting happened since the last time I visited?” Avira asks, looking between me and my mom.

I shake my head. “No,” I lie.