Crowns of Heritage

Chapter 24- Eighteen (2)

(SAGE P.O.V)

My mouth dropped, I stood there standing in disbelief. Every second felt like a dream, and I really wanted someone to pinch me.

Nashi raised his head, and stuck out his right arm.

“Now, come your mother is waiting”, he said.

I placed my arm in-between his arm and Nashi escorted me down the stairs. We walked side by side until we reached a large brown door. There were two butlers standing on easch side of the door, the bowed their head and one of them pulled the door open. Nashi escorted me into a dining room, the table was filled with all different kinds of food and desserts. Nashi walked me over to my seat. My mother was sitting next to me with tears in her eyes. Sylvester and Asiana was sitting on the opposite side of my mother and I.

“You look beautiful”, she said, kissing me on the forehead.

I started to get a little emotional but held in my tears.

“I'm happy to be able to spend your 18th birthday with you”, she said, wiping the tears off her face.

After our little emotional scene, we started to eat dinner, and enjoyed some of the desserts.

I noticed Nashi, Sylvester and Asiana staring in our direction.

“What's all the staring for?”, I asked, feeling a little shy.

Nashi and Sylvester cleared their throats after being caught staring, and Asiana started to snicker.

“We're just amazed at how much you look like your father.”, Nashi said.

“I've been hearing that alot”, I said, “Even though I've never seen his face, I'm very interested in knowing just how much we look alike.”, I said.

“We have a portrait of the royal family in our portrait room.”, Sylvester said, “Do you want to check it out after dinner?”, he asked.

“Yes, I want to see!”, I said, a little excited.

I looked at my mother and she smiled a little but I saw a bit of sadness on her smile.

“What's wrong mother?”, I asked

“It's been a long time since I've seen a portrait of your father”, she said.

After we finished dinner, Sylvester and Nashi led us upstairs to the second floor. We stood in front of a white door. Nashi placed his hand on the door, pushing it back. As the door opened, the room was covered in different portraits.

“Follow me”, Sylvester said.

We followed behind him, to the right side of the room.

“This is the portrait of the royal family.”, he said pointing up towards a large portrait that sat in the middle of the wall..

I stepped forward and looked up at the portrait. There was a total of six people, one was older man with grayish hair and deep red eyes with a dark skin tone one. There was a woman with long blonde hair fair skinned with light blue eyes. Another woman with long brownish hair and gray eyes, with light caramel skin tone. Standing behind them was three young men.

Mother stepped forward and pointed to one of the men. He had long brownish hair, with gray eyes, and caramel skin tone dressed in a garment covered in jewels.

“This is your father,Prince Moises Vanuatu," mother said, pointing at him.

I stepped forward and gently touched the portrait. “Wow I really do look exactly like him”, I said in awe.

Mother pointed at one of the women in the portrait as well. She pointed at the woman with the long brownish hair.

“This is your grandmother, Queen Malaysia Vanuatu ”, she said, and proceeded to point towards the other woman, with blonde hair, “This is Queen Lily Vanuatu, the one your father was accused of murdering, She's Prince Marshall's mother.

I started to understand the whole situation, but I still had a lot of questions.

“Do you think Prince Marshall was the one who framed dad?”, I asked, curiously.

I looked around and everyone nodded their heads at the same time.

“Yes, that's the first thing he mentioned when he kept me prisoner in the dungeon.”, mother said.

I looked at her and wondered to myself. What did she go through after being locked up for years. I walked up to her and placed my head on her shoulder.

“Whose the other man?”I asked, looking up at the portrait once again.

“This is Prince Morgan”, Nashi said, stepping up and pointing at the man standing on the right side of my father. He looked exactly like my father just with short hair. “He's also Queen Malaysia's son, him and your father were very close. He still grieves for him until this day.”, Nashi stated.

I stared at the portrait a little longer, until mother pulled me away.

“Let's get some rest”, she said.

I nodded my head and we all exited out of the room. Nashi and Sylvester escorted us back to the room we were staying in. After mother and I entered the room, Nashi ordered a maid to bring us some refreshments, and to get our baths ready.

While settling in the room, I saw my mother looking at the clock that sat on the nightstand on the left side of the bed.

“Mother, are you okay?”, I asked.

She looked at me with a sad expression.

“It's almost your sister's birthday”, she said.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was 11:30pm

“Oh shit”, I thought to myself, I totally forgot.

(ROSEMARY P.O.V)

After father and Peyton left the room, I ended dozing off for a couple of hours. When I woke up, I looked at the time and saw that it was 11:30pm. I instantly got depressed realizing I slept half way through Sage's birthday and now it's almost over. While drowning in my sorrow, I heard the sound of the door opening.

Suddenly, Peyton and grandfather walked into the room. They saw me hanging my head upside down off the bed, and Peyton started to get upset.

“What are you doing?”, Peyton asked, holding her right hand on her hip.

“Seeing life upside.”, I said.

I could tell Peyton was a little annoyed at me by the way she folded her arms and sighed.

“Your going to be 18 in a couple minutes ”, grandfather said.

“Yeah”, I said uninterested.

He walked up and placed his hand on my head.

“I have a present for you.”, he said.

I lift my head still uninterested.

“Is it my sister?”, I asked, getting more depressed.

Grandfather smirked.

“Close enough, follow us”, he said and started walking out the room.

Peyton reached her hand out and helped me off the bed, and she leaned down and placed my shoes on my feet.

“Do you know what kind of present it is?”I asked Peyton.

She averted her eyes and didn't answer. She got behind me and started pushing me towards the door. She pushed me all the way into the hallway and gestured for me to go down the stairs.

I got annoyed but decided to walk down them after seeing Peyton glare at me. While walking down the stairs I saw grandfather and some guards that came with my father.

“What's going on?”, I asked.

Grandfather moved out of the way and behind him was my father. He smiled and started to take steps without one of the guards holding onto him.

“Whoa dad, you're walking on your own now.”, I said, as he got closer to me.

Once he made it to where I was standing, he held his arms out and I immediately hugged him, and he kissed me on the forehead.

“Happy 18th birthday Rosemary”, he said and pulled something out of his pocket.

He started unfolding it and it looked like a small photo. He raised it up for me to see, it was a baby picture of Sage and I. After seeing the photo, I started crying like a baby.

“Now now, time for the real present.”, grandfather said, while interrupting my sad moment.

“This wasn't the present?”, I asked, totally confused.

“Just one of them”, he said, and gestured for me to follow him.

I noticed Father, Peyton and the guards didn't move, and I started to get nervous. Grandfather walked towards the back door that led to the garden. I followed him until we reached a medium size building that was covered in concrete.

“What the…”, I said looking at the building.

Grandfather opened the door and gestured for me to go in. After walking inside thr building. The inside looked like a storage room until I saw stairs going down into the floor. Grandfather walked towards the stairs and started walking down them. I followed behind him, and saw Yeshiva , Jemas and a couple of older men I remember seeing at the clan meeting. Yeshiva nodded to my grandfather and the other men bowed their heads.

"Chief", they all said as they bowed their heads.

“Rosemary, are you ready for your present”, he said and pointed at one of the doors.

Grandfather opened the door, and gestured for me to walk in. I hesitated for a minute until Yeshiva touched my back.

“Go”, he said.

I walked forward and entered the room. I saw Brian hanging by his arms from the ceiling. Grandfather and Yeshiva walked in after me.

“Now shall we begin the interrogation.”, grandfather said.

Grandfather handed me a knife and walked over and placed his hand onto a little switch. When he pressed it, Brian's body started to lower down, until he was looking at me face to face.

He looked directly in my eyes and spat into my face. Before I could react, Yeshiva kicked Brian's body hard making him swing side to side.

“MMMM” Brian started to groaned as he slowly stop swinging

“Where's my sister?!”I asked, shouting in his face.

He ignored me, and grandfather came over and kicked him the other way. For a moment, Yeshiva and grandfather started kicking his Brian's body back and forth. They were enjoying it as Brian's started groaning more.

Once his body came to a complete stop again. I walked up to Brian and placed the knife to his neck.

“Where's my sister?”, I asked again

“Long gone you stupid little bitch”, he said.

“You son of…”, grandfather started to speak but I held my hand up.

“He's my present”, I said.

I stabbed Brian into his shoulders causing him to scream out.

“Where's my sister?”, I shouted again.

“We sent her to the kingdom”, he said while panting.

“You what?!” grandfather shouted and grabbed Brian by his neck raising his body up.

“You son of bitch”, he said in a very pissed off tone.

Brian's started gasping for air and grandfather kept squeezing his neck. After a few seconds he let go causing Brian to gasp for air.

Brian started to laugh while coughing up blood.

“Don't worry, she's in the same dungeon your mother is in”, he said, while smirking.

“My mother?”, I asked, while I was in appalled.

“You knew where my daughter was this whole time, and helped me search for her”, grandfather said, in the calmest tone I've ever heard.

I looked at grandfather and then looked at Brian.

Grandfather was fuming, and I felt my blood starting to boil from the rage I was feeling.

I raised my hand getting ready to stab Brian again.

“Bang bang”

Suddenly we heard two shots, and dropped down to the floor. I looked up and saw that Brian was shot in the head and chest.

Grandfather and Yeshiva slowly got up and I started to get off the floor as well.

When I got up, I looked in the direction everyone was looking, and saw my father standing there holding a gun.

“Dad”, I said looking at him.

Father walked forward into the room and stood over Brian's body.

“Dad, why did you..” I was asking but was interrupted when he put his hand up.

“When your mother was pregnant, she told me she ran into someone she knew. She immediately wanted to move from the house I had bought for her since she didn't want to give birth in the palace”, he said, and looked at grandfather.

“My brother told me before getting me exiled that a mercenary named Brian came to visit him, now I'm sure he's the reason my brother found out Natalie was pregnant.”, he said.

Father walked over Brian's body and stood in front of grandfather.

“Now that I'm starting to regain my strength”, he said and turned to look directly at me.

“Let's go get your mother and sister.”, he said, and grit his teeth. He turned around and looked directly at grandfather.

“I'm ready to start training again”, Father said, standing face to face with grandfather.

Grandfather smirked and said, "I told you, I'll turn you back into the warrior you used to be."