The Princess's Dangerous Vampire Mate-Chapter 426: Reunited- IV

She nodded at me.

She nodded— I scoffed. She was still the same as I had left her and her aversion to physical, or rather, any kind of affection still remained.

I crossed the distance in between us and through my arms around her. "Hug me back."

With a sigh, she did. Esettle wrapped her arms around and a moment later, they tightened too.

I remained in her embrace not making an attempt to move away. She was my home and with her by my side, I truly felt so.

"It’s been so long." I whispered. My voice betrayed the fact that I was on the verge of crying. "I missed you."

"So, did I." Estelle said and patted the back of my head.

She smelled right home, the place I had not been in a long while. My body relaxed, and so did my mind. Somehow, I felt myself back at the time where we were just princesses. The situation at hand made our worries seem so small in front of it.

"Pull away now." Estelle tapped my shoulder. "Move away."

"No." I struggled against her, but kept my arms around her. "A little more."

"I have an exact idea why Catherine behaves so she does. She must’ve taken this from you."

I did not care what she said. She could keep on talking, but I just wanted to hug my sister. Hugging her felt the same as hugging my mother which was something I had not received in a very long time. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Having enough of it, finally, I pulled away and Esettle took the greedy step back.

She looked at me, from top to bottom and nodded. "You look well. A little thinner than I would like," she looked at Tristan meaningfully, before looking back at me, "but you look well."

"He kept her alive." Came from a reply beside me, from the other side, and I looked to find Laura. "It seems that he kept both of your sisters alive, something you have not bothered to do."

I frowned. "What?"

"Come to me, my love." Tristan raised his hand in my direction. I walked to him, no longer hiding my feelings nor pulling away. Taking a hold of his hand, I stood beside him, but kept my attention on what Laura had said.

"Laura, what are you talking about?"

Laura smiled and lightly bowed her head out of respect. " I’m happy to see you doing well, Genevive. As for your question, I think your sister should be the one to answer you."

I turned to my sister. "What did you do?"

"Whatever was necessary. She answered, but glared into the direction of Laura. "Things that I do not expect anyone to understand."

"The lack of understanding stems from logic, your majesty. Most of the decisions taken by you were correct, but some of them cost what my queen holds dear. Tell me, are you going to tell her everything or shall I?"

Esettle remained silent and Laura took that opportunity to talk.

"Genevive," Laura addressed me, "Estelle made a few decisions that were good for her, but not good for someone else. Do you want to know why Catherine was found where she was? It was because her elder sister had sent her away from the palace without any form of protection. No one was sent with Catherine, except for her chambermaid, Lara."

I gaped at the new found information before turning to my Sister. I took a few steps forward to her, but Tristan, holding my hand, held me back. "Is that true, Estelle?"

Estelle continued to stare at Laura.

"Estelle!" I snapped. "Is that true?!"

"Yes. It is true." She removed her eyes from Laura. "What about it?"

"What about—" I scoffed in disbelief. What were the words she were using? And why?

"What do you mean ’what about it’? You sent a little girl who has never seen life outside the Palace, has been protected and sheltered for the entirety of it without any kind of safety precautions?!" I spat. "What in the world made you think that she was going to survive out there?!"

"Lara was there." Estelle. " she came from a village far from the capital. She was going to do just fine with Catherine."

"Lara," my hands went above my head, "Lara, I am sure did not live alone and was not an orphan. Even if she was orphan, she did not throw up on the street, but was in an orphanage. Apart from that, she had a family that took care of her until she came here. A bunch of people! Where were they for Catherine? You could not disguise a unit of soldiers to be with her?!"

"I need every soldier—"

"For what?!" I screamed. "What was more important than sending protection for your younger sister—"

"This Kingdom. This country was more important than my sister. I have to make sure that everything turned out well and that I had no one in my corner that they could use against me. If Catherine had been here, she could have been held hostage against me. I made sure she was protected by being far away from me. I needed every soldier on hand to prevent an uprising. You do not understand what—"

I raised my hand and silenced her. " I don’t, I truly do not understand. Because even if I wanted to make sure that everyone was safe, I would have kept them where they would be truly safe before bringing them back. I would not just toss them into the corner of the country and forget about them."

Estelle reddened. "I did not forget about my sister—"

"There was absolutely no one looking for Princess Catherine, or anyone who could vaguely match her description around the village that you had originally sent her to." Laura chimed in. "No one was looking for your sister because you were not looking for your sister."

"That is no—"

"It is true." I cut her again, making her look at me. "I know how you work, Estelle. I know that you were not looking for her."