Alice snapped her head up and saw the expressionless face of the Prince. It was calm, exuding royalty and composure. His wife wore a smile, and she felt a little relieved. But this prince and her son, what a resemblance.
“Yes, my husband is right. You've done what no one else has done for us. And we are not ungrateful people who do not appreciate kindness in its tiniest bits. He didn't miss a word when he said it's time to be rewarded, "Princess Charlotte affirmed.
Now, Alice grew more worried. She felt uneasy and now, blamed herself why she didn't come along with a handkerchief. She feels sweaty all over and without being told, she knows her temple was sweaty as well.
“I…I…haven't..met you in person in my entire life until this moment. What could I have done to be rewarded by royalty…I feel there's a misunderstanding here your majesty” Alice stuttered.
“You might not have met us in person but you've always had a part of us with you Mrs Torello. A significant part of us. We won't take your time but my wife will give you a brief explanation that would make you understand everything” Prince Clifford explained.
Alice swallowed hard. Now, her heart is beating fast. A part of them. That means a part of himself and his wife, and that could only be pointing in a direction, her son, Andre Torello.
“Twenty eight years ago,when I had my baby, I was told I lost my newborn shortly after he was born. I doubted it then but the evidence was swaddled up before me .….” Charlotte began. She explained how the baby was given a befitting burial and how she hadn't stopped wishing that her son didn't die.
But weeks ago, they learnt the truth. She told her how a certain close person who lives in the palace orchestrated everything deliberately avoiding the identity of the scumbag to be the dead prince Jamal Kamal, the crown prince.
And how they started searching for him and only ended up at her doorstep. By the time she finished explaining, Alice was sobbing and Charlotte as well. The two women were sobbing and Prince Clifford sighed softly.
Women are something else.
“And that lost prince of Ashanti Kingdom is your foster son Andre Torello” Prince Clifford announced.
Alice was stiffened. She already suspected their conversation to be heading, only in Andre's direction. But announcing it so directly, sent goosebumps all over her body.
Her son Andre, how can anyone want to take her son away from her?
She went on her knees “Please look elsewhere for your son. Andre is mine. He is my son. I adopted him because I was childless. And from the moment I did, I felt the fullness and joy of being a mother.
He is my life now. I can't live without him. If he leaves me, I'll die. Please don't take my son away from me, don't cut off my life wire. He is not your son, search properly, you'll definitely find your son your Highness…”
Alice clasped her hands together. She was sobbing and begging the royal couple to find their son elsewhere. Andre is not their son. It's a mere misunderstanding and nothing else.
How can they want to take her son away from her at this age? Where does she begin from? How does she cope without him? She adopted him and has the papers to back up her parenthood.
Prince Clifford and his wife exchanged glances. Princess Charlotte cleaned her tears and was surprised that Alice said they should look elsewhere for their son. Andre is not their son, is she even serious?
Prince Clifford was going to lose his temper and order his men to throw her out but Charlotte placed her hand on his and beckoned to him to calm down.
This is going to be woman to woman. Twenty eight years was a long time enough for the mother-son relationship to be binding and not easily to be unbounded.
She stood up and went to Alice Torello where she was on the floor and raised her to stand upright. The woman's eyes were reddened and her tears wouldn't stop cascading down her cheeks.
“Please, he's all I have, your majesty…” Alice kept pleading. She cannot fight them. She can only plead with them. But how can her pleas get into their ears, how?
“You think it is easy for me to lose my son for twenty eight years? I gave birth to my baby but schemers separated me from my son. If you were in my shoes, would you let your own flesh and blood go away when you learnt the truth?
I have experienced it all: the pain of giving life to a child at birth, I went through it. The pain of losing a first and only son, I went through that too. The mental torture of seeing one's child buried, I known how that felt too.
Countless nights I sob and cry. I stayed awake imagining what my son would look like at ten , fifteen, twenty and twenty five years, I went through that. And you think I don't know how that pain felt?
I went through all that for a son that was still alive! The pain, the emotional torture and mental instability that I experienced, it's for nothing. My son is alive and calls another woman, mother!
Do I deserve to suffer so much for my own son? And you are having a great life with him? His childhood memories are with you as his mother. His teenage years, his early adulthood, it's all with you and I, his biological mother remains in tears and pain for those years?
And for him, is it fair that he should be separated from his mother, his father and his home, the royal family where he truly belongs? Is it fair to him, that a prince of the great Ashanti Kingdom should be addressed as a nobody, son of a widow and adopted from the orphanage?
It wasn't fair on him nor on me, his mother. And now, that it was time, to take his place, the real heir to the Ashanti Kingdom you want to own him,like a piece of furniture or object?
Do you love him half as much as you think you need him in your life? Shouldn't you be concerned about his upliftment and real place in life and destiny? What kind of a mother are you?
Are you this selfish? Do you care for yourself alone or do you want the best for him? Tell me Mrs Torello? You want to have my son for twenty eight years while I can't be with him?
I am his mother. He is a prince of the Ashanti Kingdom. His grandfather is waiting for him and so also his grandmother. All of us should go to hell because of you? Are you sure you can bear the aftermath of it?”