“Did you have fun, sir?” Butler asked as the King and Queen stepped into the residence. “It was fine.”
“That’s all you have to say Anthony? It was fine… Some of our closest friends and family came from near and far to celebrate our anniversary and that’s all you have to say?”
“Helena, really? My close friends were not there. Were they even invited? But somehow your childhood fried and his wife were in attendance. You and I both know that that event was just a show. It was acting.” Anthony said as he sat down in an arm chair.
“What about last night, was last night just acting too?”
“I’m going to go turn down the beds…” said Butler quietly as he exited the foyer. It was nights like these he was grateful that King Anthony insisted on keeping limited staff in the residence, much to the chagrin of his Queen, Helena.
“You were ovulating, and I’m always down for a decent fuck.”
“Fuck you Anthony! Is this a joke to you, are we a joke?”
“Does it look like I’m laughing?” Anthony sighed. “You are the one choosing to stay, Helena.”
Helena sat down in the vacant chair. “I’m staying to protect your image.”
“Funny, you’re not staying because you love me, but to ‘protect my image”. Is that really it, or are you staying because you like being queen. Or maybe it’s because your daddy really wants you to have another baby so he can be grandfather to the heir again.”
“You do not have to bring my father into this!”
“Why not, I’m surprised he wasn’t here tonight. He’s been in our marriage from the beginning hasn’t he? I was just too stupid to realize it until…”
“Don’t even say it. I swear to the Watcher above Anthony.”
“You swear what Helena. Did your father even love our son?! Two days after he died he was asking us about trying again. And you said nothing. You did fucking nothing.”
“I was grieving! You didn’t have to punch him in the face and have him escorted out of the residence!”
“Yeah, well I was grieving too.”
Helena stood and began to walk off before exiting the room, she stopped to stare at a picture from early in their marriage. “How the hell did we end up like this?”
“Maybe we were always like this. We were just too blind to see it.”
“I’m going to head out to Newcrest for a few weeks. My dad is having surgery, and Candice will be giving birth soon. I want to be there and help out with the kids.”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine here.”
“You’re going to stay here instead of the pier?”
“I don’t know, Helena. I haven’t thought about it.”
“You should stay at the Pier, you can be closer to the people. And maybe attend a service in Old Towne.”
“I don’t need you putting a schedule together for me. Go pack and have fun with your family. Tell the kids I said hello.”
“Right.” Helena disappeared through the door.
Anthony studied the same photo Helena had been staring at before she left the foyer. He had been so in love with her back then. He thought nothing could break them. But the death of a child changes everything. It makes everything clear. One thing he was sure of was that Helena’s father, Samuel Moore, was a manipulative power-hungry man. Only the Watcher knows what that man still had in store for him.