Chapter 1
Flower petals flew all across the sky, and little children ran around the streets. Everyone in the Cardiaire Kingdom had a smile on their face. It wasn’t a wonder why since spring had finally made its way into the kingdom once again.
A year had passed since Harry and her mother became the newest additions to the royal family. After experiencing a year filled with changes, Harry had grown accustomed to them. She had become taller, her hair had grown longer, and she was even more elegant than before. Despite the many changes, Harry’s soft nature and cheerfulness remained the same. There was only one difference about her, and it was that she now called the king father.
Harry and the rest of the royal family made their way to a quiet and secluded area far away from the palace, a place where they could sit and enjoy a nice relaxing picnic.
Harry excitedly ran to a large tree that provided ample shade for the five of them. “Hurry! Hurry!” she called to them cheerfully. Her shiny pearl jewelry jingled as she ran. “Mother, Father, hurry!” She turned around to look at them with a cheeky grin on her face.
“We’re coming! We’re coming!” replied the king calmly. He held on tightly to his wife’s hand. He looked at her and laughed, “Perhaps, we should hurry along.”
Caroline shook her head and replied, “With Harry being like that, no one can catch up to her.”
The king laughed again. “Oh?” He glanced back at his son, who was closely following behind him, unlike his other daughter, who was straggling far behind. “Kahil, why don’t you catch up to her?”
Kahil gave a quick nod and answered, “Yes, Father.”
“Oh, and take this with you.” The king handed his son a large brown picnic basket that Caroline had been carrying with her other hand. “I’m sure the queen’s hand is tired from holding this thing.”
“Oh, Your Majesty,” she called. “That’s not true. How could I be a queen if I can’t even carry a picnic basket?” She watched him hand over the basket to Kahil and watched him dash off with it.
“I could have carried it,” she lamented.
“Oh, let me spoil my overly independent wife sometimes.”
The couple stopped to have a little romantic moment to themselves.
Meanwhile, Kahil raced towards Harry. She was standing under a large tree, gazing at it.
“Harry,” Kahil called slightly out of breath.
“Kahil,” she happily called back. “Will this spot be okay?”
“Yeah, it’ll do.”
Kahil had grown during the year too. He had grown taller and leaner. He was also becoming quite handsome. It made him popular with the noble girls, who had their fathers send him marriage proposals. Naturally, he declined them all.
He put the picnic basket down and knelt down on one knee. He pulled out a blanket from the basket and carefully placed it evenly on the ground. He then began to take out the rest of the items from the basket: the plates, the food, the silverware, and the drinks. Once he finished setting everything up, he and Harry sat down and waited for the rest of their family to catch up. They had expected their parents to arrive first, but instead, it was Kaitlyn, who trudged up towards them; she was sweat and gasping for air.
“You just had to pick a place that’s the farthest from the palace, didn’t you?” She angrily sat down beside of Kahil. “Really,” she grumbled.
Kahil picked up a drink and handed it to her. “Here,” he said. “Take this; it’s grape juice.”
She aggressively took it from him, but she didn’t drink it. She just sat staring down at it.
“It’s not poisoned, Kaitlyn,” Kahil said. His voice sounded raspy. He was a little hurt by his sister’s thoughts.
Harry tensely looked between the two of them.
“We didn’t poison it, Kaitlyn,” Kahil repeated.
Kaitlyn looked down at it again and then smelled it. “I don’t know about that,” she finally replied. “With me out of the way, you two can finally become the perfect prince and princess. I’m just a thorn in your side.”
Kahil rubbed his head and sighed aggressively. “Kaitlyn-”
“I know!” she whined. “I know you’ve chosen that girl over me!” She shot Harry a very disgusted look. “But how can she-a girl who came from nothing be better than me, or anyone else for that matter?”
Kaitlyn had also become more beautiful during the past year, but unfortunately, her personality was still the same.
“Ugh, just poison me! I don’t even care anymore! Nothing hurts more than your betrayal.”
She was furious when she had learned of Kahil’s sudden change of heart. She had screamed up a storm in his office when she learned he wouldn’t do anything to Harry anymore. She later locked herself in her room for a week.
Kahil took the drink from her and drank it. After a few seconds of drinking it and seeing that nothing had happened, he turned to her and said exaggeratedly, “See?” He then handed her another drink, which she eventually drank.
The king and queen soon arrived after she started to drink it.
“Sorry, we fell behind,” said the king.
He and Caroline both glanced over at each other timidly.
“Great, you’re both here,” said Kahil smugly.
“Now, we can finally eat!” Harry cheered.
The couple’s expression changed from surprise to happiness. “Yeah,” replied Caroline. “Let’s eat.”
They joined their children, and everyone indulged in the delicious food made and all neatly packaged by the royal chef.
“This is good,” said the king as he lifted a lemon tart.
“The blueberry tart is good, too,” Caroline replied.
“So are the raspberry-filled doughnuts,” added Kahil.
“Everything is good!” Harry exclaimed.
They spent the next hour talking and overindulging in all the sweets. They were about to pack up and leave when the king suddenly gasped, “Oh, that’s right!” He turned to his children. “I forgot to mention it, but you all should prepare to leave in the next day or two.”
Kahil and Kaitlyn quickly turned to him and began to protest.
“But Father!”
“Daddy!”
The king’s brow furrowed as he ignored them. “Your cousins’ birthdays are coming up, and your uncle decided to celebrate for a whole month.”
“A month?!” gasped Kaitlyn.
“We’ll be at uncle’s for a whole month?” asked an astonished Kahil.
The king shrugged his shoulders. “There’s nothing I can do about it. If you want to blame someone, blame your idiot uncle.”
The siblings looked like they were about to protest more, so he quickly added, “We’re going, and that’s final.”
Kahil and Kaitlyn both slumped over in defeat. It was the first time that Harry had seen the royal siblings on the same page. Because of this, she became worried about this ‘uncle’ and ‘the cousins.’ They would be the people who Harry and her family would be living with for the next month, so she didn’t know what she would do if they turned out to be bad people.
