The Letter..

Lisa

The smell of breakfast and the rays of light simmering the window forced me to open my eyes. I met Klaus standing by the side, a trolley of food by his side, and two maids that rushed to dish out the meal. I remembered falling asleep in his arms, but I never expected that I'd sleep throughout the entire day.

"It's morning already?" I questioned with a confused look, while I constantly stared around to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. Mark's words and actions had gotten to me in so many ways, losing my mind over the hurt I felt the previous day was definitely not far fetched.

"You slept throughout the day. I got worried at some point, but the doctors confirmed that you were simply exhausted." Klaus answered before pushing the cart of food towards me. "Breakfast? You must be starving."

"Yes, thank you." I replied as I took a plate of the cart. For a brief moment, I stared at Klaus, my mind running wild with thoughts and speculations. Was this still an act to make me agree to carrying his heir, or was he being genuine? At first I was convinced that it was an act, but after the events of yesterday, I was beginning to question myself, and the conclusions that I had arrived at.

"Is something the matter? Don't you like the food?" Klaus asked after he had caught me staring a little too long. Hastily, I swung my head sideways to reply before filling my mouth with the contents of my plate. I wanted to avoid having to answer any of his questions orally at all costs. Klaus had a talent for asking very personal questions, and at very sensitive times, and I wasn't about to fall for it once again.

He smiled after realizing what I had done, but his happy expression vanished the very next second. His face fell, and a gloomy aura suddenly engulfed the room.

I arched a brow at the sudden change in his mood, and this time around it was my turn to ask questions.

"Is something the matter?" I inquired with a mouthful of salad.

"It's work." He answered sharply. "I'll be leaving for work soon." The second response came with a more disappointed tone attached to it. Klaus didn't strike me as a lazy man, so I canceled off the assumption of him hating work from my mind. He clearly didn't want to leave because of some personal matters. I was curious to know what it was, but I didn't bother to ask. We weren't close enough to involve ourselves in others personal businesses. We might be married, but the two of us were yet to fully understand each other as individuals. Asking him about something personal with the excuse of being his wife would get me heartbroken, and I wasn't about to feel bad about myself two days in a row.

"Mark will be your guard once again, and here, you received a letter," Klaus informed me before handing over a sealed envelope to me.

"A letter? From who? Where?" I inquired with a confused look on my face. Klaus shrugged, the look in his eyes mirrored mine, and I could immediately tell that the answers to my questions were oblivious to him. The letter was still sealed which meant that he hadn't opened it yet.

It was odd for me to receive a letter from the outside, especially when Mark was already inside the castle. I had friends outside, but none of them had written to me before. I didn't think they cared enough to waste a second of their time constructing a letter for me.

"Thank you.." I said a bowed head, and he waved it off with a gesture.

"I'll be back before dusk, use the landline to call me if you need anything." Klaus instructed before giving me one final smile. He turned towards the exit, paused momentarily to take one final look at me, before finally exiting the room. It felt odd, but for the first time since I was brought to the castle, I genuinely wished for him to come back. Unlike before, his aura was warm and inviting. I actually wanted him around, and I couldn't explain why.

After getting over Klaus's exit, I pushed the half empty plate in front of me and focused on the letter in my hand. There was no address to indicate whom it had come from, it merely had one address on it, and it was that of the castle. Underneath the address was my name and an instruction they said it shouldn't be opened by anyone else besides me.

After reading those instructions, I became more impressed by Klaus's self control. I could imagine how tempted he must have felt to open the letter and take a peek inside, especially after reading that very specific sentence. Eagerly, I tore away at the envelope, and as I read the contents of the paper in my possession, I felt a cold chill run down my spine.

The room felt stifling, suffocating even, as I anxiously clutched the crumpled parchment in my trembling hand.

"My family? My lost brother? Could it be?" I questioned myself as I read the contents of the paper over and over again. I never really knew my grandparents, and the memory I had of my parents had become vague. They had died when I was little, and barely left me with any tangible information.

I couldn't quite remember, but I had heard my father mention an illegitimate child that he had sold for my sake. He and mother would argue constantly over the sale of the baby. Father always argued that we barely had enough to eat, and he wasn't going to feed another mouth, especially not a child that wasn't his own. While my mother would lash out at him and call him cruel for taking and selling her baby without her even meeting him properly.

After the death of my parents, I had considered searching for my lost brother, but never really made progress with it. It was difficult to look for a child you've never seen before. After a year of fruitless searching, I had forgotten about everything about family and had accepted life as it was.

"The pastures outside the castle, I'll be waiting for you there by noon." That was the last sentence of the letter, and while I struggled to believe that this was authentic, I still wanted to find out if this was true or not.

My heart raced as I considered the implications of such a mysterious missive. Was it really safe for me to leave the castle just to meet a stranger. Now that I was no longer begging for scraps on the street, there was a very high possibility that this was a random stranger trying to gain favor from me by claiming that he was related to the Alpha's wife.

I took a quick glance towards the clock on the wall. "Twenty minutes to noon." I made a mental note of the time before rushing down from my bed. I freshened up as much as I could before hastily running towards the gate.

"Let me through, I have urgent business to attend to." I said to the gatekeeper, but he merely glared at me as though I had lost my mind. Klaus had already instructed them never to let me through, and he probably thought this was all a charade, orchestrated to facilitate my escape.

"I am the queen! And I command you to open those bloody gates!" I yelled at him, rage and frustration visible in my eyes. Yet, the gatekeeper remained adamant. He didn't budge, not until Mark's figure appeared from the side.

"I'm her personal bodyguard, let her through, she's safe." Mark assured, and after giving us both a thorough eyeing, the seven foot man finally went ahead to open the gates.

"What are you doing?" I whispered to Mark as we both crossed the gates.

"Helping you escape. We're finally out of this place, now's our chance to leave.." Mark answered with a look of satisfaction and relief on his face.

"I'm not escaping." I clarified, wiping away the looks of satisfaction from his face. "I received a letter from someone claiming to be family, I just came to see if it's true." I explained as I increased my pace. Mark matched my speed, but before he could say a word in protest, we both spotted a figure standing beneath the single olive tree in the middle of the clear fields. It wasn't any family member of mine, nor was it some random stranger, it was none other than Icarus Farkas.