Queen Naomi Shearman was standing in front of her. Nadine did not know what stunned her even more, that the mother she ran away from found her or that she still managed to make a casual look seem so expensive. She had on a pair of flared trousers with a baggy silk top tucked into it. The delicate gold necklace resting on her neck with a small symbol of their family insignia embedded in its pendant was the only proof of who she was. All these years and she was still as beautiful as Nadine remembered, beautiful and confident. Her light brown eyes glistening with tears.

Her mother smiled sadly, tears rolling down her face as she approached Nadine who reflexively moved back but it did not deter her. She tossed her purse on the seat and rounded the table to pull Nadine into a tight, spine breaking hug, sobs bursting out of her in waves. She reached up to place one hand over Nadine's head, pulling her in deeper while muttering prayers of thanks.

"I thought it was a lie."

Her mother cried, pulling back to look her over with teary eyes and a heavily wet face. She cupped her palms over Nadine's cheeks, turning her head left and right so she could litter kisses all over her frozen expression. "Oh! I thought someone was playing a game on me but it's true. You are alive. You are alive. My baby girl."

What was she supposed to say? Nadine wondered to herself. It was not like she could go, 'hey mom, it has been a while. Would you like some coffee?'

Nadine opted to remain quiet; it was not the same as meeting her sister in the bathroom of a five-star wedding reception miles away from her home. Her mother was standing in front of her, in her office, in the town she lived with her husband. She was screwed, undeniably and unequivocally screwed. No words would suffice so Nadine decided to let her mother lead. Whatever she brought on, anger, pain, bouts of weepy words, Nadine would take it.

"Oh, you've grown so much. So beautiful."

"Oh, mom,"

She stopped mid-sentence when a mournful look replaced her mother's teary smile as she touched Nadine's face again. "Why, why did you hide from us?"

The million-dollar question, Nadine solemnly wondered. Walking her mother over to the couch so they could sit. "I honestly don't know what to stay."

Her mother had a strange expression, like anger mixed with joy and she was having a hard time deciphering which one to approach. Her mother turned away to look at the office for a moment before she spoke, "Nevaeh knew about you. She knew and you convinced her not to tell me, not to tell your father, not to tell anyone. You ran away, you got hurt as well and all of us, all of us thought you were dead. How could you do that? To us?"

Nadine shrugged, sniffing as she wiped some tears from her cheeks. "There is no explanation that I would give that would make any of it better or understandable. The truth is mom, I just wanted to be free. I just wanted to live my life, to make my mistakes and my wins by myself. I knew then that no amount of begging, no amount of talking will change your minds so I made...for the first time, a selfish decision."

"Selfish," her mother repeated. Testing the word against her tongue as if it was of foreign origins. "That's kind. And I guess fourteen, almost fifteen, years was not punishment enough for us right? Your sister met you and you obligated her to keep your lie going instead of just coming out at once."

"It was never to hurt you mom, I swear. It was never to cause you any grievances. It had just been so long and everything came as a shock to me, this is a shock to me. I just needed some time to recuperate and find my centre. I did not know how to return to a life with you and dad and everybody else, to be honest. I didn't know what to say, how I would say it or if I would mean it."

"Mean it? You don't regret leaving. Not even a bit."

Her mother sounded broken and Nadine's face contorted into a stretched grimace, "Of course I regret it. Of course, I regret it. I want to change it, change my decision, but that would mean regretting the life I have now, the life with my family with my..."

"Husband." Her mom looked at her again, her tone barely above a whisper. "You were going to say 'my husband'. Yes, I know about that too. That you are married but even with that you never came back. Wasn't that the reason you ran away in the first place? You didn't want to marry a man I chose, your father chose. So why, after finding a man you loved, did you not come back?"

Nadine scoffed, laughing bitterly as she swept her hand underneath her nose, pushing herself off the couch. She folded her arms underneath her breast, defensively turning back toward her mother. "Funny enough it was after my marriage that I became even less inclined to return home."

Her mother shot off the couch, "why? Fourteen years, you have been married for a good part of those years. You could have come back and even with all the pain we would have understood. Accepted it. Just as long as we got you back. You could have come back."

"I was afraid." She shouted before immediately apologizing for her tone before repeating in a softer voice. "I was afraid."

"Of what?"

"That you'd accept my husband."

Her mother was officially confused, pausing in her stride to raise an eyebrow in question. "Wasn't that what you wanted?"

Nadine laughed bitterly; not understanding how she ended up in this position but again, honesty was indeed the best policy. "I was afraid that if I came home with a husband you'd be upset. I had defied you, left, ran away, hurt you no doubt. I was afraid that you would forget everything just because in the end, I married a man of wealth and status. The man you always wanted me to be with. I couldn't bring myself to live with that."

"He is hardly the man I wanted for you." Her mother shot back then turned around to scream at the windows. "Nadine, I didn't come all this way to fight. I didn't come all this way to discuss the heartache or the pain that I have been in all these years. I came, to tell you that I missed you. I came to see for myself that my girl, my beautiful girl was still alive but it is becoming painfully obvious that we are ways off from peace."

"I don't want to fight either."

Her mother looked up at her, her lips puckering as she stepped up to pull Nadine into another hug. Nadine was not stiff the second time around; she dipped her head to her mother's shoulder, lifting her arms to wrap them around her.

"Can you give me a moment," her mother whispered, rubbing her palm over Nadine's back. "I have to call your father and tell him that it isn't a prank. I don't want to forget. We were all very shocked to find out that..."

The door crashed open and they all turned away to quickly dry their faces. Jackie baulked at the door. "Sorry. I wasn't aware you had company ma'am."

"It is fine." Her mother rushed for her purse. "I am stepping out to make a quick call. I would be back soon."

Which Nadine believed to be code for the conversation not being over. She nodded and watched her mother leave. Jackie remained silent as well, standing at ease until Nadine raised her brows in her direction.

"Sorry, ma'am. Mr Marseille called me to return home for your phone because you forgot it. I went back for it. You have six texts and five missed calls from an unknown number."

Her sister.

"Thanks, Jackie. Saved me the trouble." Jackie smiled then spun neatly on her heels and walked out of the room. Her fingers trembled as she dialled her sister's number.

"Nadine!" Nevaeh laughed. "Oh, I was so worried, been calling you since last night and..."

"You told mom? Nevaeh you said you wouldn't."

"Nana, what in the world are you talking about right now?"

"You told mom about me."

"Don't be ridiculous. You never told me where you lived. That is the reason why I have been calling.

Nadine, a letter came in the mail yesterday. With an official sheet detailing how you were found and the summary of your whole life these past fourteen years. The paper didn't come alone." Nadine heard the familiar sound of the garbage truck in town blaring through Nevaeh's end of the call and her eyebrows shot up. Like they had been doing the whole day but Nevaeh's next words worked them a bit higher. "The sheet of paper came with pictures of you, your husband. Your house and your life. Nadine, someone is following you, someone who not only knew you as Nadine Marseille, wife of Mayor Dominic Marseille but also as Nadine Shearman, Princess of the Armadillos Island."

Nadine stuttered, "Wait. What in the world are you trying to say?"

"That mom is not the only one here." The sound of the garbage truck came again and Nadine turned to face her window. "I am here too but only because whoever sent those pictures to mom was not family, the letter was detailed to your every movement. Nadine, we have no idea who found you or why."