Feather After // Chapter 63 // Trust Issues And Disgrace

Aria's POV

I had two things in my mind, one I did not know what was going on with Zachariah and I. I didn't know why he had kissed me like that, I wanted to make things clear to him but I was too preoccupied with the whole Royal Society to even ask him about it. I know our picture would make it to the newspaper and then I wouldn't have been able to face Ignatius, what would I have even told him? That I kissed him and I didn't mean it? That I didn't even know why he kissed me? Or that I didn't kiss him back?

The second thing was about Misty, she had gone through so much and I didn't even have the slighted bit of idea. She was drugged at a frat party and then she was raped. She was stripped of her title as the member of the Royal Society only after being the youngest debutante of the Royal Society. God knows what she has been through. Being the part of Royal Society was her dream and I couldn't even imagine what she would have felt like.

When I met Misty at school, I smiled at her and she smiled back, I wanted to go and say sorry and tell her how sorry I was but I let it be, I couldn't imagine how uncomfortable it would be for her if I just went and told her that I know what happened to her.

School was very long, it was of the usual timing but it wasn't fun. All my energy was drained with Physics, Chemistry and Biology classes. I had to deal with Xavier on top of that. His jokes were killing me; they were not at all funny. He kept talking about how Selena Gomez was his wife and how she will come running back to him once she gets to know what a Macho man he was.

He kept talking about this another girl who was winking at her in class and how she had said to her friends that Xavier liked her. He even said that she was receiving the signals he had never emitted.

Well, let me tell you, Xavier and his stories about girls were never-ending, according to what he had told me and talked about, a lot of girls like Xavier. He was like a dream boy for loads of girls. As much as he liked the attention, he sometimes got fed up of it. And today was one of those days.

As Rachael and I kept rolling our eyes and he kept on going about it. When I came back home, I went straight to my mom, she was in her office and the door was closed, I knocked on the door and asked if I could come in.

She shouted a quick yes and I went inside. She was sitting on her plush couch and I cleared my throat to get attention and she looked up, "what can I do for you Aria?"

"Can Nanna and I go to the Royal Society Palace mom?" She looked at me as if I was joking or something.

"And why would you want to do so?" She raised her eyebrows at me, I guess it was hard for her to accept that I was interested in her world.

"I'll have to the part of it from Sunday so I might as well have a look at it, only if you don't mind, I'm done with homework anyway," I hope that she would say yes.

"Well if you insist then why not, take my driver with you," she said and I nodded, she had said yes and I couldn't believe it. Most of the time I had to ask Nanna because she wasn't around and let's just say Nanna is not that open with the idea of letting us go alone anywhere. As I was turning around she called me and she added, "call Zachariah if you want to."

Well, I didn't want to call Zachariah at all; after he had kissed me things would have gone awkward. "Are you done with the wedding preparations?" Her eyes searched my eyes as if she was trying to find the mischief behind it.

When she felt that I was genuinely asking her that, she smiled, "it's happening, you know how these things are, hectic," she said and touched her forehead and then continued, "but I'm sure we have enough time to make sure that everything is right."

"Well if you need any help let me know," she looked taken aback from what I said but I just shrugged it off, I called Nanna and went to the Royal Palace.

The travel to the Royal Place wasn't that easy. Nanna kept looking at me and I kept smiling at her. Fooling my mother was easy but fooling Nanna was next to impossible. She always knew what was going on, she somehow always knew what I was up to. And saying that she was always one step ahead of me; was not even exaggeration.

We stopped in front of the Royal Society Palace and I saw Nanna roll her eyes. I could feel that she didn't like this place and I couldn't find out why. She took a deep breath as if she wears trying to control herself.

We got out and Manchurian opened the door for me, he nodded at Nanna and I saw Nanna nod back, god only knows what was going on between them. But they didn't want me to see the little exchange between them because when they saw me looking at them, they pretended as if nothing has happened.

The palace was magnificent, I had been there before but it was something else today. The tall black granite marble building was shining because of the rays of the sun. It was beautiful and so very beautiful.

I put my hand over my eyes and looked up, the building was very tall, there were different towers emerging from the roof, and the center one, the largest one had a flag hoisted on top of it. There were seven other towers around it.

I started walking towards the main hall. Only if they had used the money they had into doing something like helping the poor, it would have been much better but then no.

"I'm here for the library actually," I told the receptionist as she eyed me up to down. She sat on her high chair and I could literally feel her eyes on me while I was walking towards her.

"Well, and you'll be?" She said and folded her arms across her chest. She raised her eyebrow at me and continued, "Well let me tell you if you don't know. This is the headquarters for the Royal Society and this is not some random charity thing, I have told you this earlier also."

"Well, let me tell you something too, girl," before I knew what was happening, Nanna grabbed my hand and pulled me back, "She is Aria Rhett and her family pays your salary. So you better get going before I whoop you ass," Nanna stood in front of me. Before the receptionist could say anything Nanna continued, "you have no regard for anyone. Is this the way you talk to people around you? If you don't have any regard for yourself at least have some regards for your parents. Who would think will say good things about your family if they'll see you? Now get moving," she pointed at the other side of the hall.

Although I thought Nanna was rude, I never saw this side of Nanna. She was always polite and addressed people by saying, dear. This was the first time in ages she has said something like that. I remember once when I was in ninth grade, my old neighbor's son, who was a senior at that time, had sent me flowers with a note which said that I looked pretty.

She had gone to his house and had thrown the flowers at him saying that he was a moron. That was the last time I had seen Nanna getting angry. In our house, nobody had the guts to talk bullshit about me or anything in front of Nanna. She could tolerate anger but only if she had done anything wrong, otherwise she could whoop your ass just like she did to that girl. I hadn't noticed that the receptionist was already on move. She and Nanna had walked half of the hall and I was just standing there.

I quickly caught up with them and cleared my throat while she scrambled to get a seat for Nanna, "do you have the records of the members of the Royal Society?"

She looked up to me but this time there was only fear and no arrogance, "this way ma'am," she said while I nodded at Nanna and she took a seat.

I followed her into that the library which was the Central Seattle Library. There were people who were coming from the other door. But we were standing in front of the private section which was basically the restricted section and the public was banned from here.

"My name is Aria, don't call me ma'am," I told her and she seemed surprised with my reaction when she nodded I continued, "I'm looking for the issues of the people who were kicked out the Royal Society."

She was bent on her knees looking for the things I had asked for and then she stood up, "I can be of help to you. I have been working here for a year so I'll be honored to answer any questions for you."

"I heard that there was this mass of people who were kicked out of the Royal Society all at once; I mean I know there were more than two families. I think this was the same year Misty got pregnant and this was the same year she was the debutante of the Royal Society."

She looked at me and nodded, "well that year holds the record of most of the rules being broken and new ones being made, Misty was accused of a lot of things, people raised questions against her character and the rules of the Royal Society. The Royal Society is not heartless but at the same time, the board members don't take decisions without having a deep argument and discussions about it."

She was working for the Royal Society obviously she had to take their side, but I could feel she had information which could change the way I looked at things.

"Misty got kicked out because she was raped and drugged at a party," I told her in order to enlighten her. The Royal Society was not as clean as she thought it was.

She rolled her eyes at me and said, "So you don't know the truth? She wasn't kicked out of the Royal Society was being raped and pregnant, she was kicked out of the Royal Society because she got pregnant at fourteen and then tried to kill her child. She had the board members with her who were willing to take the expense of her child but she tried to kill her baby, and that's why she was kicked out."

I couldn't move. The whole story had so many loopholes that it was almost impossible to know who was saying the truth and who was hiding what. When she saw that I wasn't asking anything she continued, "Everything that happened to her, didn't happen at a Frat party, it actually happened at this Palace. That's why the board was willing to pay the money for the child."

"But there were other people who were also kicked out, what about them?"

She cleared her throat, "well another family was kicked out because Misty believed that their child was also involved in it. The family moved away then, three other families were kicked out later those years who were trying to defend the Hudson's."

"The Hudson's, do you mean the two women who have four children?" When she nodded I continued, "I thought they were kicked out because they were gay?"

"What no! The Royal Society would never kick someone for that reason. Never! According to Misty's statement to the police, she said very clearly that she believed that Mr. Hudson was behind the drug overdose and things that followed it," and all I felt was disgusted.

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