How To Rewrite History

The Marin Palace had many gardens, but the centrally placed rose garden was its main attraction and an essential podium - besides the ballroom - where all official festivities were held. It wasn't only the heart of the palace and an often visited setting in the book, but it also held a special significance to each from the book. For example, Leon came here to collect his thoughts or to calm down and relax ever since he was a kid since this was his backyard. Dahlia held this place dear because this was the spot she met her beloved for the first time. And to Ellie, this place will be the place her life turned a new leaf, but this is a story for the future.

Curiosity brought me here. I wanted to see this magical stage with my own eyes.

But to my surprise, I wasn't alone. I thought the fellow would have left further, but who knew that Leon was standing in the pavilion, lost like a little kid.

"Are you crying?"

Startled by my inquiry, he nearly jumped in fright, but when he turned around, there were no tears.

"Who would cry over something like this?" He answered with a scowl.

True, he was not someone who would cry easily. Ellie was the one who would weep over the simplest things, but Leon was the prince in shining armour. He was made to wipe away tears and not to cry along. This little pressure wouldn't defeat him. I doubt that, or else Dahlia would've been able to chain him down previously.

"Why do you look at me like that?" The scorn in his eyes was directed at me. And yet I haven't done anything to him - at least for now.

"You knew already, didn't you? That's why you agreed so easily to annul the engagement. You made me look like a fool."

"That's because you were a fool, storming off like that. Her Majesty is grieving right now."

"Tsk, are you happy now, Dahlia? Did you get what you wanted?"

As he was saying this, Leon came dangerously close to me. He was a breath only away, his flaming eyes bore into mine, but to me, they seemed cold as ice. A derisive laugh escaped his lips. In his eyes, I wasn't his fiancée anymore but another golden chain around his neck - a particularly burdensome one.

He had never treated Dahlia in this way before, so cold and rejecting. If it were that girl standing here instead of me, she would have been shocked, maybe bursting into tears. And possibly that would have soothed his pain - to see her as miserable as he felt. Perhaps that's why he behaved like that just now. But who am I to grant him that privilege?

If I let the past repeat itself, this toxic relationship will unfold into execrable correlations later on.

"A birdbrain would have wanted a man who cheated!"

"Who is a cheater! I told you the moment I was clear of my feelings!" He snapped back.

"CHEATER!" I repelled "A man with a fiancée, meeting with another girl often enough to fall in love with her!" How else would you call that!

"YOU! You... clearly... that wasn't..." He wanted to jump forward and press his hand on my mouth as I started to yell, but he didn't dare to lay a hand on me. He would never get violent with a girl. Also, he couldn't find a suitable retort.

Because. I. Was. Right.

After his mental shock over my accusation, he was a lot calmer than before. Also, he must have felt bad for his eyes contained much more of his usual ethos towards Dahlia than a minute before. Guilt was a strong ally. And we were still both children, just a few words and I had the upper hand.

I kept on staring at him accusingly.

He muttered: "I wasn't cheating. It just so happened naturally. Also," he paused awkwardly to find the right words, but he was obliged to tell the truth: "Also, I never felt for you that way."

He was so absorbed in trying to explain his feelings to me that he didn't even realise how much my expression changed after he said that. Dahlias love towards him was genuinely plenty. It was so much that even now that I've occupied the girl's body, I could still feel some residue of that love and hate, which acc.u.mulated and burned her heart over time.

"We practically grew up together, and although I like you, you feel more like a friend - or a sister to me."

My eyes were slightly burning, and there was a stinging sensation in my heart, but I tried to keep it in as much as possible. The pain was bearable, not as intense as yesterday. But I wonder when this frail body will finally come to go easy on me. What should I do to take the load off it?

Despite all that she has done previously, Leon had stayed like this for a long time, because he also had felt the guilt towards her. As the one who broke the engagement and the fact that she unmistakably felt something for him that was going beyond friendship, he had closed his eyes in front of her shenanigans many many times until her atrocities went too far just to call them lousy behaviour or childish irrationality.

"It's you to blame..." It was Dahlia's fault for falling for an idiot like him and still failed to let go. But it was also his liability for keeping her hooked that this girl couldn't let go; that she went too far and lost her way.

"I know, I apologise. The longest time I believed that the respect and friendship I felt towards you was more than I could feel for anyone else. Before I met Ellie, I was content with us getting married. I thought your love would be enough for the two of us, that as long as you love me, I will come to love you back one day. But then,"

"Stop! I don't want to hear that."

Who could endure listening to the one you love talking about someone else? And instead of just giving her the boot, he was still trying to act like that towards her, making it harder to let go by providing false hope to a person who was drowning. If he stayed cruel towards her, then maybe her love wouldn't have distorted into something unsightly. I need to put a stop to this. I need to put an end to this.

"Just tell me the truth, Leon, in one sentence, what makes her different from me? What does this girl, that even her parents didn't want her, have that I can't give you?"

Instantly angered at my malicious words, Leon inhaled sharply, but I tried to hit his rock bottom so he would show me his real face instead of letting me down slowly and giving Dahlia the feeling that she still had a chance. She must hear with her own ears and from his mouth that there was no hope for her. She must let go before it was too late.

"You, who have everything, shouldn't talk about Ellie like that." his voice was full of suppressed anger.

"So you think that because I have everything and she has nothing, you can easily cast me aside and I would be just fine? Do you think she needs your protection? Do you think, you're some prince on a white horse who comes to rescue the disdained maiden and make her princess overnight?" There were a ton of 'Ellies' out there, but only one 'Dahlia'. Was he even aware of that? Was he getting bored with Dahlia because she wasn't a challenge to him?

Dahlia, until her last day, never understood why she lost so utterly against that girl, who literally had nothing but pure luck, whereas herself, a true princess in the eyes of the people, with incomparable looks, richness and power that was almost equal to the Royal Family, could never stand up against a girl who emerged out of the mud.

"No. That's not it."

Leon was also irritated. He might have never thought about that before, why he could love Ellie so dearly but not Dahlia, whom he should have loved. He stood still and thought about it carefully. I stand there, too, and watched him silently with cold eyes.

"It's because"

He finally cleared up his thoughts after thinking about it seriously.

"when I am with her, I feel like we are destined to be together."

Heh, so it's just that. I wanted to laugh, but facing Leon's seriousness, I didn't felt like it anymore. In the end, this was all that mattered. Dahlia never had a chance. In this world, she wasn't even eligible to be the rival girl, because from beginning to end, Leon only had eyes for Ellie. They were meant to be together. I can't complain since this is how I made them. Those two were just children of fate whom I created thoughtlessly.

"I see."

"You're not laughing?"

"It is kind of amusing."

He seemed somewhat stupefied. I think he was expecting me to ridicule him. Talking about feelings and believing in something like fate wasn't what a Royal should do. Although the majority of Florencia is religious, and the nobles confessed to faith, the reach of the church is not far, and all decrees stand to reason and seldom belief.

I knew that he tried his best to explain, so I will be able to understand why we were not meant to be. It was not easy for him - I could tell from the rims of his ears turning red. As a prince and future king, one does not show feelings that often, much less bear open their heart. From the moment he was able to understand words, he was told not to make decisions based on his feelings. But now he was about to change the Royal Court based on love. The thing least expected of him.

If Dahlia and Leon had a similar conversation back then, would things still end up as they did?

Too bad that love was blind and incorrigible.

It took me only two steps to reach him and put my hand on that cautious face of his.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I've truly been in love with you?"

He looked at me with bewildered eyes.

I added on unobstructed:

"That I would have done everything for you? Give up everything to receive that love of yours?"

Please believe me when I say that - because Dahlia loved you with every fibre of her heart. We owe her this. So she can sleep in peace.

"I do." Instead of shunning me, he overlapped my hand with his' and placed a fleeting kiss on my palm. "Thank you... and sorry."

I wondered how I looked through his eyes because that moment he looked so handsome, I was even afraid of burning my hand where his lips touched. Though his coming of age ceremony has yet to come, his natural charm was already off the charts. His m.a.t.u.r.e self would gather a lot of female fans. Ellie would have a hard time.

I decided that I can't let him off that easily after all.

"You better not regret this." I teased.

"How come you're so different now." He said frankly.

"Because girls are only nice to the ones they like."

Strange, after our talk, I think I liked him now more than before.