Chapter 107: Painful Confession

For a moment, nobody moved or dared to break the silence. The comfortable atmosphere that had lingered over breakfast was gone, replaced by a heavy tension as every pair of eyes at the table settled on Basil. He finally lifted his head, his fingers still wrapped tightly around his fork, and met his father’s gaze with a determination that hadn’t been there moments earlier.

"I’m not marrying Sonia Ashcroft." he repeated, his voice firmer this time. "I will never marry her, Father. So please, I want you to break the betrothal. Whatever agreement was made between our families, I want it called off. I have no intention of spending the rest of my life married to someone who has made it abundantly clear that she wants nothing to do with me."

Darius’s gaze settled on Basil’s face. He hadn’t expected the conversation to take this turn, and although he understood that Basil had no desire to marry Sonia, the certainty with which he rejected the arrangement suggested there was more to the story than he had initially realized. Without drawing attention to himself, Darius reached beneath the table and placed a firm, reassuring hand on Basil’s thigh. Basil stiffened slightly at the unexpected touch before turning to look at him. Their eyes met briefly, and whatever he saw in Darius’s expression made him hesitate before looking away again. Darius didn’t say anything, but his hand remained where it was, a quiet reminder that Basil didn’t have to face the conversation alone.

The queen stared at her son, her expression shifting from surprise to confusion. "Basil, why would you say something like that? What do you mean when you say she has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with you?" She paused, searching his face for an explanation. "I thought you and Sonia were happy with the engagement. When the two of you were formally engaged at eighteen, you seemed perfectly comfortable with each other. You even spent almost all your time together, and whenever we saw you together, there was never any indication that either of you was unhappy with the arrangement. You never once complained about her, so what has changed?"

The king’s expression grew more serious as he studied Basil across the table. "Yes, what exactly do you mean by that? Is there something you’ve been keeping from us, son?" His gaze narrowed slightly, not in anger toward Basil, but with the growing suspicion that something had happened without their knowledge. "Because if there is a reason for you to reject this engagement so firmly, I expect you to explain it. We cannot understand what is happening if you refuse to tell us, nor will we end an engagement between our families without a reasonable explanation."

Basil swallowed, his fingers tightening around his fork as he struggled to find the right words. He had honestly believed that particular Chapter of his life was behind him. After everything that had happened, after discovering that he wasn’t the biological son of the king and queen and watching his entire world change overnight, the humiliation Sonia had inflicted on him had gradually faded into the background.

He had never imagined that he would have to revisit it, much less explain it to his parents over breakfast while Darius sat beside him, listening to every word. Perhaps he should have told them sooner. Perhaps he should have explained what happened the moment he returned from college that day, but the truth was that he hadn’t known how to approach the subject, and the months that followed had given him little opportunity to do so. One crisis had followed another, leaving him with barely enough time to process everything that had happened to him, let alone bring an old humiliation back into the open.

This was the first morning in what felt like forever that they had all been able to sit together without dealing with another issue, and now he found himself wishing the conversation had never taken this turn. The silence stretched as his parents waited for an answer. Basil lowered his eyes, uncertain where to begin, and Darius’s hand shifted from his thigh to his own hand beneath the table. His fingers closed around Basil’s in a gentle but deliberate hold.

When Basil glanced at him again, Darius gave him a small nod, his expression steady and encouraging. He wasn’t going to force Basil to speak, but he wanted him to understand that he could. Drawing a slow breath, Basil finally set his fork down and looked toward his parents.

"It happened a few months ago, shortly after we found out that I wasn’t your biological son," he began, his voice quieter than before. "When everything came to light about Nanny Linda switching the babies, I returned to college after spending some time at the palace. I was already struggling to deal with everything that had happened, and I wasn’t exactly in the best state of mind. I just wanted to return to my routine and pretend that, for a little while, my life could still be normal." He paused, his jaw tightening as he recalled that day. "But the moment I got there, Sonia made sure I understood exactly what she thought of me."

The queen’s brows drew together. "What did she do, Basil?"

Basil exhaled slowly, his gaze dropping to the table again. "She embarrassed me in front of the entire college. She made a point of telling everyone that I wasn’t the real prince, that I was nothing more than a fake who had been pretending to be someone I wasn’t. She mocked me for being the one who had been betrothed to her, saying that the engagement should never have been between us in the first place." His fingers curled against the tablecloth as the memory resurfaced with uncomfortable clarity. "She said she had been promised to the real crown prince, not to me, and now that the truth had come out, she didn’t see why she should be expected to marry someone who wasn’t even a member of the royal family by blood."

The queen’s expression changed, the confusion in her eyes giving way to disbelief. "She said all that to you? In front of everyone?"

Basil nodded. "And she didn’t stop there. She made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with me and that she had no intention of marrying me now that she knew I wasn’t the real prince. She treated the whole thing as though I had personally deceived her, as though I had deliberately taken someone else’s place just to secure a marriage with her." He let out a humorless breath. "She even had Nathan, Lucas, and Ethan joining in. They laughed along with her and made fun of me while the others watched. I was standing there, listening to all of them talk about me as though I were some pathetic joke, and Sonia didn’t seem to care how humiliating it was. She wanted everyone to know that she considered me beneath her."

"Those ungrateful bastards!" the queen exclaimed, her face flushing with anger as she slammed her hand against the table.