"I haven't been completely truthful." She whispered as she sat down next to me.

    "What do you mean?" I asked, beginning to worry.

    She took my hand and looked me in the eyes. "I need you to promise me you won't be angry or panic, because that will only make my anxiety worse."

    I slowly nodded my head and she continued to speak. "My name is not 'Gracey Anne', it's Grace Lennon. I had to slightly change my name in hopes that my stepmother wouldn't find me here."

    It took me a moment to process what she was saying so I just stared at her, blankly, as she recounted her story.

    "My stepmother is a horrible, abusive person. She raised me to be a servant starting at 8 years old and left me to take care of my siblings. She's controlling, and evil, and I have a hard time believing she's even human. She would—she would beat me every time I did something wrong." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I ran away and took a job here at the palace in hopes that I could stay away from her." She took another shaky breath. "Remember the night at the coffee shop, when I saw my 'ex-boyfriend' and ran away? Yeah, that wasn't my ex-boyfriend; never even had one. It was Victoria, my stepmother."

    "Gracey!" I hesitated to say her name, not sure what to call her anymore. "Why didn't you tell me? We could've had her locked up in no time."

    "That's the problem," She started. "She's the best liar you could ever meet. No cop could ever believe my truth over her lie. Do you know how many times I've called the police on her, only to be shut down?" Tears began to well up in her eyes.

    "I have to tell my father." I jumped off of the bed but she quickly pulled me towards her.

    "I'm not finished." She said, her hands starting to shake. "I overheard the most terrible news last night." But before she could tell me, she burst into a sobbing fit.

    I held her in my arms as she struggled to speak. "Melody and Victoria are plotting to kill you, Bobby, and Kaitlyn." She barely managed to say. I felt all the color drain from my face. I knew something was off.

    "What! Why?!" I jumped, and my hands started to shake as I tried to contain my panic. I didn't want to cause Grace any more pain. "I need to find my father."

    "Wait!" She gasped. "You have to be calm about it! My life is at stake, Niall. You don't understand. I can't go back to Victoria! I can't go back!" She sobbed, her whole body shaking uncontrollably.

    "I'm going to protect you, Gracey. If it's the last thing I do, I need you safe. But to keep you safe, I need to tell someone. We can get her and Melody imprisoned, don't worry!"

    I ran through the hallways as fast as I could, running down staircase after staircase, trying to get to the King's office as fast as I could.

    Gracey's POV

    I sat there for what felt like hours, waiting for Niall to come back. It had only been 5 minutes since he left, but every minute that passed felt like 2 hours.

I couldn't shake this daunting feeling that something or someone was coming for me. I felt so anxious as if at any second some sort of tragedy would happen. I wasn't sure if it was anxiety or the weather; thunder was crashing outside and rain was pouring harder than ever.

    A crashing sound came from behind me. I whipped around to see the window shattering into hundreds of tiny pieces. I jumped from my bed and slowly backed away as I saw a figure climbing through the window.

    "You thought you could escape from me." The familiar raspy voice spoke. "You never learn, do you? I'm much smarter than you think, Grace."

    Victoria appeared in the window, rain dripping everywhere. I was frozen in fear and couldn't utter a single word.

She slowly stalked towards me, but I couldn't move a muscle. "What did Melody tell you? If you get involved, you can't stay here anymore. And I'll make sure of it."

Finally, we were face to face. She was mere inches away from me and terror filled my soul.

"Get out." These were the only words I could manage to speak.

"You think I'm going to listen to you? Do you really think you're princess enough to order me around?" She spat. "You're good for nothing in this world!"

    She took one more step forward, her hot breath fanning over my face. She grabbed my hand, her nails digging into my skin.

    "Let go of me!" I screamed. Her nails brought blood to the surface of my skin. Vic's eyes widened for fear of getting caught and took her other hand over my mouth to silence me. I struggled against her death grip as she tightened it.

    She stomped on my toes in an attempt to stop my struggling. I screamed in terror and bit her hand to keep her away from me.

    "Stay away from me! Don't take me back there! Anywhere, anywhere but there!" I screamed and screamed, hoping that in the many echoey halls, someone heard my cries.

    In a last attempt to stop my screaming, Vic threw the nearest vase over my head. The pain was agonizing; thousands of pricks were felt against my skin as I fell to the glass-covered ground.

    The world around me turned black. Victoria's cold, bony hands picked up my frail body as Niall's faint cries echoed in my ears.

    "DON'T TAKE HER FROM ME!"

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a/n

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

1. I'M SO PROUD OF GRACE FOR FINALLY TELLING NIALL ABOUT VIC

2. UHM YEAH. NVM POOR GRACE

hey i actually updated again!!! i'm in the writing groove, as i said in the last authors note, so you'll probably get another chapter soon lol

oh and btw, there will be some more mentions of abuse in further chapters (probably only in like one chapter though, i think chapter 35) so if that is something you're sensitive about, i'd be careful in the upcoming chapters involving victoria.

i love you all so much and i hope you enjoyed this chapter <3