Crowned by Fate (Crowned 2)

He slides a mug over the counter toward me and I blow on the hot liquid until the condensation dissolves on the tip of my nose. “Yes. But I can only speak to you here. Anything else that happens outside of this cabin, cannot be talked about. Do you understand?”

I take a sip of the tea, sighing once the hot contents slip down my throat. “I understand.” I don’t, but I got the gist of it.

Don’t talk outside this cabin.

His arms fold in front of his chest, pushing his muscles up higher as they fight against his tight V-neck. “Your wedding day—”

I wince.

“Sorry,” he apologizes before softening his tone. “Are you ready to talk about it?”

I think over his words. He said it has been six months since that day. Though I don’t know when I will ever be ready to talk about it, I am aware that I need to.

“I am.” I straighten my shoulders, hoping that it gives me some sort of strength, or at least creates the illusion of strength.

He nods. “Your fateful wedding day set off a chain reaction of events. Do you remember much of what happened after you fainted?”

I shake my head. “No. I actually only just remembered that part now. Usually, I only get to—”

“I take thee, Bryant,” Max whispers.

“Yes. How’d you know?”

Max takes a mouthful of his tea before bringing his eyes back to mine. “Because the drugs that your father has been trialing, work that way.” He places his mug down. “Isa, you have been living the same events over and over again for the past six months.”

The words float between us, but I can’t seem to grasp onto them and let them sink in. “What?”

“You’ve lived yours and Bryant’s love story over and over again for one year. From the very first page. It all starts with ‘Isa, pick your chin up and smile. I taught you better than that.’ And then… ‘I’m twenty years old, Lydia, not fifteen. I know what I’m doing.’

I’m frozen to the spot. My heart turning to ice.

He leans forward, his fingers grabbing onto my chin to bring my eyes back to meet his. “You have lived through that entire ordeal, tormenting yourself, for one whole year. Right up until you see Bryant and Harper in the institute, when you’re Brooke.”

I stand from my chair, my feet moving back and forth. I begin pacing, frustration cutting me through the core. “So I didn’t really see Harper and Bryant?”

Max’s eyes turn somber. He shakes his head. “No. I’m sorry. Some parts you created, they weren’t real. You would live through the same events, but there were very few times that some events were tweaked. Only slightly.”

“So what was real?” I stop, pinning him with my stare. Confusion doesn’t even cover how I’m feeling.

“All of the major events were real, except for the part where you thought Brooke was inside your head. She wasn’t. She was very real. But after the incident at your wedding, and mixed with the drugs you were being fed, it’s as though you turned Brooke into the villain in your head. You separated yourself and put all of your bad tendencies into Brooke and the good with Isa.”

I still didn’t understand. I was being filled to the brink with information.

I drop back onto the stool, massaging my temples.

“So I’m not crazy, in short, my daughter is—” I swallow past my swollen throat. “Brooke was real, my best friend did rape me, and my father has been feeding me drugs? Why?” I knew my father was capable of extreme things. He always put his presidency first before his own family—I knew that—but it still didn’t make sense to me.

“Well,” Max begins. “Devon didn’t rape you. During that scene, it was just you and Brooke. If you think back over time, you will find where your mind was slipping in and out of reality. You’ll eventually be able to recognize what part was real and what wasn’t. After Bryant killed Brooke on your wedding day, your father needed a way to suppress what was happening, but when you came out of your daze and picked up the gun that Brooke used and emptied a whole clip into the head of her already deceased body, he could see you weren’t going to hold it together. He was worried about what you might make him look like. When you were in the institution, before you would come to as Brooke or Isa, one of the other had to kill each other in your head. If Brooke killed you with the machete, then Brooke would come back. If you killed Brooke with the gun, you would come back.”

I grind my teeth. “Not surprised about my father. So he had me locked up.”

Max remains silent.

“And Bryant?” I ask, bringing my eyes to him. “Where the fuck is my so-called husband?”