Kissing The Wind

“You said that Rogie and his twin brother Renald were sons of the King?” Sydnee clarified. Her eyes widened in surprise upon learning the secret of Rogie’s identity.

Selena nodded while she reached for a slice of apple. They were still inside the clinic and the nurse earlier had given them sliced apples to munch on.

“Rogie and his twin brother was born of commoner mother, a servant of the king,” Selena said while watching the funny expression of Sydnee.

“Just like Isa,” Sydnee muttered under her breathe. Seriously? How many illegitimate sons and daughters do the current king have?

Selena laughed. “Hey, don’t think too much. It was not a secret that royals do have illegitimate children but nobody would dare to openly discuss it unless they want to be beheaded.”

“Right,” Sydnee chirped, but she also asked, “But such coincidence that I knew them both. And I forgot about them too.”

Selena shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe because your mother Diana and Rogie’s biological mother were half-sisters.”

“Huh?”

“Rogie’s biological mother and your mother Diana was born of the same father. That’s why you and the twins had met each other during your childhood years. After the fire, Rogie and his twin brother were not seen in the Villa Casa. But I just knew that Rogie was saved by a good hearted man who lived next door. He tried to adopt Rogie after he buried Rogie’s twin brother, but when he took him  in the capital, a notable businessman without an heir took notice of Rogie and brought him from the kind hearted man. This notable businessman was Rogie’s current father.”

Sydnee stared at Selena. “You know all of these?”

“I told you, before I befriend someone, I would check their background as well as the people around that person. So don’t be too surprise. You can do these things too since it would be more favorable to you if the people around you are trustworthy.”

Sydnee tried to reason out with Selena’s idea, but she could not refute the girl. All she said was true so she sighed and accepted her defeat. “Alright. But do the king knows of Rogie’s identity?”

“Who knows what’s inside the king’s head?” Selena said and smiled at Sydnee. Of course, the king knew of Rogie’s identity, but because he was born out of a commoner, the king did not care about him.

But Selena was sulking when she first saw the list of names of her illegitimate half-siblings of the same father. She could not fathom why a man like the king would tangled himself with women of low class. But when she learned the dark secrets in the harem, she then understand why the king would rather sleep with a commoner than the notable daughters of his ministers.

But of course, when a child was formed in the womb of those servants, the king would drive them out of the palace and gave them enough gold to take care of the child. The intelligence had kept a list of names of the king’s illegitimate children so that when something happens to the legitimate children inside the palace, the throne could be pass on the person with the king’s bloodline even though it was a disgrace for a person with a commoner’s blood to sit on the throne.

Just like in Isa’s case. She was a princess born from a commoner, and when the palace need a princess to be send off for political marriage, the king decided to let Isa took the role because the princess who originally should take the role was committing suicide in order to stop the marriage.

In Selena’s case, she was a princess of noble blood and she knew what happen to the princesses in this kingdom. It took her a lot of courage and blood to be listed as one of the exclusive intelligence agents just to protect herself from any political marriages. Now, she knew almost all of the kingdom’s secrets and the king trusted her a lot.

“But all these years, Rogie loved to bully me. Did he also lost his memories?” Sydnee asked under her breathe.

Selena shrugged her shoulders. “You can ask him.”

Sydnee signed and munched on the sliced apple while thinking of the times that Rogie was bullying her. If they were childhood friends, why would he bully her?

“Oh right!” Sydnee suddenly snapped and turned her head to look at Selena. “You said that you did a background check on me, right?”

Selena was bewildered by the sudden change in Sydnee’s attitude but then she nodded. “I did.”

“So you know about the fraud case of my father?”

“Ah, yes.”

Sydnee’s brows met. “Did my father really stole money from his boss?” she asked.

It was not really an important thing now, but Sydnee could not guess if that case was true. She knew that this incident was the reason why her life changed for the worse.

“I just knew that this fraud case was fabricated by Jubel Montefalco, Lisa Montefalco’s father. You know Lisa, the wife of Rogie Camero, right?” Selena asked. Sydnee nodded so she continued. “Jubel Montefalco was Lady Geneva’s friend and years ago, he decided to fabricate a fraud incident and blame it to your father, Henry Lurica. He put your father in prison and nobody ever tried to stand up for your father because Jubel was an official.”

Sydnee’s brow raised but he did not say anything, so Selena continued again. “I just knew that Duke Theodore helped you and your mother Diana to settle by giving your mother enough money, but Diana bought a small nipa hut in the landfill.”

Of course, her foster mother did not want to be laugh at so she decided to live far away from her circle of well-off friends. Sydnee was contemplating again when she noticed something. She looked at Selena and asked. “Is that all the things that you’ve researched about me?” she teased to hide her nervousness.

If Selena was doing a background check on her, then she might know that her biological mother was Lady Geneva. But what she noticed in the girl’s tone, it seemed like this girl did not know all the things about her identity. She was surprised to know that the duke could hide this great secret to the extent that the mysterious force supporting Selena did not find out everything about her past.

Selena knitted her brows. “I have already told you the things about your parents. But I know something about Lady Geneva that you might be interested.”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Sydnee could feel a lump in her throat. She gulped hard and munch on her sliced apple bfore she let Selena continued.

Selena grinned from ear to ear. It seemed like Sydnee was trusting her so much. She cleared her throat. “Eighteen years ago, Lady Geneva was pregnant of the duke’s child. But it was a pity that the child was stillborn.”

“S-Stillborn?” Sydnee muttered. If she was not wrong, she was the child that Selena was talking about. She gulped hard again. “And what happened after?”

“The duke and Lady Geneva was in cold shoulder for years, specially when the Duke was not able to talk after the car accident where he was involved. Her child had died and her husband became disabled, so it was not surprising that Lady Geneva wanted to adopt a child. And that child was Catarina.” Selena stared intently at Sydnee who was gaping at her. She smirked. “Now that you know that Catarina is an adopted daughter, you don’t have to be intimidated by her. You were both adopted daughters with the same status.”

Sydnee wanted to say that she already know that Catarina was an adopted daughter, but seeing the seriousness in Selena’s eyes, she could not help but to just sigh and nod her head. “You’re right,” she said.

She secretly breathe a sigh of relief because it was now clear that Selena did not know about her true origin. It was for the best. The duke had already told her that she should not disclose her true relationship with Lady Geneva.

If everyone in the kingdom knew that she was a child of disgrace, then she could not inherit the dukedom and Catarina would snatch the inheritance away from her. Sydnee would never let that happen.