"Tell me they're lying."
No one answered. The king kept staring at the table, unable to meet her gaze while Crane stood frozen, his usual confident expression gone.
This painful silence was the only answer Audrey needed. This was real. And everything she had believed about herself from the day she was born was a lie.
She looked at the king again, the man she had called Father her entire life.
"How long? How long have you known the truth?" she asked.
"Since the moment your mother became pregnant with you," he replied.
Audrey felt the ground disappear under her feet.
"Since the mother was pregnant?" she whispered.
The king nodded. She gasped softly as her one hand flew to her chest.
"All this time? Every birthday, every lesson, every time you called me your daughter… everything was a lie?"
Anger began to simmer inside her as she walked towards him.
