9
Sophia let out a sigh, she was beyond exhausted from overthinking but the most painful part of everything was that no matter how hard and long she thought about it, there was no way around this, not a single escape route for her, she was going to have to face that reality and leave here.
She has been at the old woman’s house for four whole days now and the lady has been nothing but nice to her, giving her food and making sure she was okay, but that didn’t make her feel better, she knew that the longer she stayed behind, the more trouble she gets into.
The best decision she has come up with was to try and go plead her case before the king, whatever outcome it might be, but she didn’t have the diamonds with her, if she did, she would have returned it back, and maybe she would have been able to plead her case.
“I should just leave this kingdom and go back to my country,”
She let out even though she knew that would be worse for her.
“Why are you sitting here with such a king face?”
The old lady asked as she walked into the house, Sophie stood up from where she sat.
“You can sit down, you look worried, did something happen while I was away?”
She asked and Sophie shook her head.
“Not really, I was just having a lot of thoughts,”
She said sitting back down and biting her lips, she still didn’t know anything about the woman and didn’t know how much of her thoughts she should tell her.
“I know what you are thinking about, and you can stay here as long as you want, you don’t have to rush to make a decision,”NôvelDrama.Org holds © this.
She said but Sophie couldn’t agree with her.
“I am just wondering, if I had been a citizen of this kingdom, I might have been able to get a lesser sentence or punishment,”
She said. She knew this because no matter how strict the palace rules were, the citizens were able to get away with things that she has been punished for, one time, she has been kept in a dark room for three days without food and water just because she had forgotten turn off the water supply in the palace huge kitchen, no one else has ever been punished for such a small offense but she was.
“No, my dear, Otano rules stay whether you are a foreigner or a citizen, you get served with the punishment that befits whatever your offense is, it is the king’s way of keeping the people in check, yes citizens with influence sometimes get out of trouble easily but most time, they have to pay a huge sum or risk being thrown into the dungeon or out of the kingdom,”
She explained and Sophie wondered what the old woman had done that had made them isolate her from the kingdom, she sort of figured it out herself that the woman might be someone the kingdom sent away but she couldn’t back up that claim and didn’t want to ask her either.
“What do you think my punishment will be?”
She asked the question that has been biting at the back of her mind.
“I don’t know, but I can tell you to prepare for the worse, the king is not a good person, and the people are suffering because of him, he values material things over the people and would do anything to get what he wants,”
She said and Sophie wanted to disagree with her, yes, the king wasn’t the best person on earth but a few occasions, he has been nice to her and she wanted to believe that he was strict because he had to.
“Stop deceiving yourself, if he was nice, you won’t be worried about getting punished,”
The voice in her head whispered and she realized how true it was.
“I might die right?”
She asked as fear gripped her.
“Again, I don’t know about that, but just prepare for the worst or you can leave the kingdom as I suggested before even though it might be hard to get out now because I am sure they are already looking for you,”
“I can’t leave, no matter how bad it is here, it is safer than going anywhere else.”
Sophie responded in a bitter tune, she could tell that the old woman wanted her to tell her more but Sophie couldn’t tell her anything, she was much too scared of starting, how would that old woman react if she finds out she is using a fake identity? Would she still want her to live here? The answer would be no.
“Okay, then you can stay here as much as you want,”
She said and Sophie shook her head.
“I don’t think I should stay any longer, it will only make my situation worse, I should really leave and face whatever issues that come from this, I already know there is no escape,”
She let out as tears gathered in her eyes, her case was a sorry one and there was no going around it.
“You are right, you should go, I hope the universe takes pity on you,”
The old woman said and there was a large bang on the door, Sophie looked up in shock, it all happened so fast, one moment it was just her and the old woman talking and the next moment, the house was filled with armed men who she realized were there to get her, they finally found her and she was in trouble.
“You again? I thought you finally stopped causing trouble but apparently not, anyway I will let the king handle your case,”
A huge man who seem to be the leader said to the old woman before pushing her aside, Sophie felt like hell watching the poor old woman get pushed, the leader glared at her before placing a cuff over her.
“Don’t push her like that,”
She let out before the huge scary man’s dead glares made her keep her mouth shut.
“You are under arrested.”
He said.
“No, please don’t,”
She said but he didn’t listen to her as he clipped the cuffs and started dragging her out of the house, while the others who followed him into the house made a mess of the old woman’s house.
“No, please stop, don’t do this, she hasn’t done anything wrong,”
She pleaded and the man stopped for a moment.
“You should worry about yourself and not about someone else, You stole from the kingdom, you don’t say a word or we are authorized to use force on you, let’s not go that far,”
The man said, as if he wasn’t already using force on her, Sophie turned to the old lady, she felt like hell knowing she could have left a while ago and saved her from this, all she had to do was move but she had been holding back and now she got the person who helped her in trouble, she knew she might not see the old woman again and this was her only chance to apologize for the trouble she had caused her.
“I am so sorry ma’am, I didn’t mean to pay you back by bringing problems to you,”
She pleaded, doing her best to keep the tears away but failing at it, it was just too sad of a situation.
“Don’t say sorry my dear, and don’t think about me either, I can handle myself so worry about yourself and I hope you are able to get through this, I can’t even say be safe out there but you make sure to be okay?”
The old woman said before the guards forcefully started dragging her out of the house again and towards the car packed outside the house in the open field, Sophie wondered how they didn’t hear the car coming in but sha didn’t have enough chance to dwell on that as her whole body shocked from how much the huge man was dragging her, Sophie held on to her tummy hoping that nothing would happen to her unborn child, even thinking of that was too far fetched as she didn’t even know yet if they will make it back to the palace alive.
She got shoved into the car and two guards sat on each side of her, hot tears fell from her eyes and she couldn’t even wipe them off because of the handcuffs in her hand.
“I don’t deserve this,”
She whispered knowing that from here on it is going to be a pain, maybe even worse than she has ever been through. The car was in started and zoomed off, taking her towards her ill fate…