(Author's Note; I have decided to skip a month, as I have no personal experience of being adopted and meeting my birth parents and I don't want to present it wrong. In this month, Celia has begun to form a relationship with Maxon and America but is yet to with Shalom and AJ, she has also begun to reconcile with the idea of being a princess. As far as the selected (which has been cut down to 33) know she is still one of them, and the country isn't yet aware of the fact that Celia is Celeste. I apologise to anyone who wanted to see this month, maybe I will write some shorts about it when I have time to do more research. I do not want to write it incorrectly and offend anyone or present it unrealistically. It is not my story to tell, as I have not experienced this. If any of you have and would like to write an insert for this section I would be more than happy to do this.)

ONE MONTH LATER

Celia
I sat in between the Princes across the desk from Maxon and America, staring down at my hands and took a deep breath, before looking up at the King and Queen.

"I'm ready," I said simply.

"Ready for what?" America asked with a frown.

"To tell people, to announce it or whatever," I shrugged.

Maxon's eyes widened, America's lips parted and in my peripheral vision, I saw the Princes exchange a look over me.

"Are you sure?" Maxon said tentatively, "As we said, you can wait as long as you want."

"But I can't really wait as long as I want, because at some point someone will figure it out," I replied, my hands were so tightly folded in my lap that my knuckles cracked, "I don't think I'll ever be ready, but I'd rather the country finds out on my terms. No one else's."

No one spoke, but I could see plans forming in Maxon's head.

"We'll announce it on this week's report, the Selected interviews will be postponed until next week," said Maxon.

"Thank you," I nodded at the two before I got up to leave the room, leaving Shalom, Aspen, America and Maxon alone.

********

"Celia are you okay?" Amelia asked as she entered my bedroom, "you haven't been in the women's room very much, I've hardly seen you since the first few days! I haven't even seen you at meals! I thought that we had to go to meals? Is something wrong?"

I sighed, realizing that I had very much neglected my new friend since everything happened.

"I'm sorry," I told her, "I've been busy."

"Too busy to be part of the selection?" she teased.

I had almost forgotten that everyone thought I was still in the running to marry one of my brothers, which was very strange for me to think about. 

I closed my bedroom door, making sure that no one was listening, as I wasn't really supposed to be telling her what I was about to, but I figured that she was going to find out on Friday anyway and I decided that I wanted to be the one to tell Amelia. We hadn't been friends for long and I had been largely absent for most of the time we had known each other, but I believed we had the potential to be much closer than we were at that moment, "I'm not part of the selection anymore."

"What? Did you get eliminated? Are you going home?"

"No, I didn't get eliminated," I assured her, "I'm not going anywhere. Technically I was never really in the running."

"You're confusing me." Amelia shook her head.

"I suppose I'll just have to be blunt then," I said, "I'm Celeste Schreave."

"What?"

"I'm Celeste Schreave," I repeated, "you remember that DNA test?" Amelia nodded, "well that's when I found out."

Amelia's mouth fell open as she stared at me.

She had grown up in the palace, known Maxon and America for her whole life. She knew the stories about their family better than I did. I was slowly coming to terms with the role that I was going to fit into, and I needed Amelia, and all of the other people at the palace, to help me whilst I worked how I was going to fill a role that had been empty for so long.

I hadn't even decided if I wanted to stay here for good yet. I wasn't even sure if I would be allowed to go back to living with my parents even if I wanted to.

Whilst my life had changed so much in the last month the Selection had continued. I realised that I had no idea how it was going for any of the remaining girls. I had hardly spoken to any of them, I hadn't even really spoken to Aspen or Shalom. 

That was a problem I was going to have to solve.