Chapter 23-Revelations

Baby's POV

If ever there was an instance of a pregnant pause, this was it! I believe we were all holding our breaths, wondering how the Emperor was going to respond.

"Your Majesty" the words came from the woman sitting next to the Emperor. She said something else, but this time in such a low voice, that I could only tell that she spoke, but not what she whispered to the Emperor.

As soon as she finished speaking I could tell that the Emperor had turned his eyes to me; I could feel his piercing gaze as if he could see right through me. Not a comfortable feeling at all!

Another minute passed by when I heard a man near the Emperor yell loudly that everyone was dismissed except for my family. We would "be held for further discussion" as the man put it. That didn't sound terribly pleasant to me, but I hoped it sounded worse than it was.

I heard the sound of many footsteps making their way to the doorway behind us, and then the reverberating sound of that same large door closing. I jerked back suddenly at the sudden feeling of someone grabbing me. I had retracted my aura after my dad had repressed it and since we were in trouble for some reason, I didn't want to make it worse; no matter how badly I wanted to know exactly what was going on around me.

"It's ok Baby Girl. It's daddy" my dad said before grabbing me and swinging me up into his arms. My little arms struggled to hang on tightly around his neck as he walked with me out of that large room and into a much smaller room attached on the side.

Being curious I couldn't help but to spread out my aura once again to see what was going on and this time my dad didn't stop me, so I thought it was okay now. My mom was curtsying low to the woman who had been sitting next to the emperor.

"Thank you Empress Constance" my mom said as she curtsied. The Empress immediately approached my mom and helped her stand back up and led her over to a couch to sit.

"Gemma, you look awful! Besides what's this empress business. You know as long as we are in private that it is simply Connie." The Empress then turned to the Emperor. "Dear husband, why are you keeping this poor family in suspense? If you tease too much, they will think you aren't thrilled to have one of your best friends back" Empress Constance chided the emperor.

I didn't hear the Emperor respond verbally, but I could imagine that it was probably with a nonverbal 'whatever'.

"In all seriousness, though, Gemma, how are you?" The Empress asked after she turned back to look at my mom.

"I've been better" my mom told her hesitantly.

"That's one of the reasons we wanted to have a private conversation. Your cousin's niece whom we took along with us as a lady in waiting for Gemma poisoned her. And not just once. We have looked into the matter and we believe that she is the direct cause of 2 miscarriages, our youngest daughter's blindness at birth and later her inability to speak, and finally Gemma's most recent poisoning that almost killed her".

My dad's revelations were very eye opening to me to say the least. I realized in that minute that my family had not neglected me on purpose; that they had their own trials that they were going through and the thought of my mom almost dying of poison brought me to tears. Even more so, my family actually did know about my blindness and muteness. I hadn't been forgotten!

I could barely hear the Empress' gasp of horror over the Emperor's loud exclamatory shout. Clearly they were both horrified at what their kinsman did to their friend's family.

"I think I need to sit down" the emperor stated, before moving to a chair that sat behind a large desk. "Where is she?"

Everyone in the room knew to whom he was referring to.

"We tied her up and brought her back for you to judge as you see fit. The fact that she is your family, though distant, is the only reason she's still alive. She is not welcome anywhere near my family ever again."

"I'll handle it in such a way as to satisfy you and your family."

"You said that your youngest is blind and mute?" Empress Connie asked.

"Yes. She was born blind, but only...lost her voice about a year ago. The aura she emits seems to help her see the world around her and we have grown so accustomed to it that we forgot to warn her not to do so while in the Emperor's court. We sincerely apologize for our oversight" my mom said to the empress so gracefully.

"So how does she communicate then?"

"At first Jasper took it upon himself to teach her words and she was getting pretty good at communicating verbally, but when that was taken away, she's been quite isolated. It's only been in the last few days that she seems to have devised a way for her to talk to us; through movements of her hands and fingers. Jasper and Adrian have been picking it up and this has really given us hope that we will continue to improve communication between us all and not wait until she's five or six years old."

I listened as the two ladies conversed back and forth. Their calm and gentle droning chatter made me drowsy, so I made my way to a small cushioned chair shoved in a corner that I had discovered when we first arrived, and fell fast asleep.