Broken Kingdom (Royal Hearts Academy #4)(6)

She cups my face in her hands. “Don’t listen to her. You’re beautiful.”

“I don’t feel beautiful.”

A wrinkle forms between her brows. “I already told you. What you’re going through won’t last forever. I went through an awkward phase too. But then—”

“But then you turned out beautiful and everyone loved you and you became a famous actress.” Annoyed, I look down at the carpet. “What if that doesn’t happen to me? What if I’m ugly forever and—”

“Baby girl, you aren’t ugly. Julianna is just a little bit—” she catches herself before she finishes that sentence. “Unfortunately, there are tons of Juliannas in the world. But the best way to deal with someone like that is to show her it doesn’t bother you.”

My eyes prickle with tears. The girl is ruining my life. “I’ve already tried, Mom.”

Tried and failed.

And every day that passes, it’s getting harder and harder to pretend it doesn’t hurt.

Visibly frustrated, she rubs her temples. “Okay, fine. You want to know a secret?”

I give her a nod. I’ll take any advice she’s willing to give me.

“Julianna won’t stop picking on you because she’s a bully who likes to pick on those she perceives as weak.”

Ouch. “I’m not weak. How do I get her to stop?”

Sighing, she closes her eyes. “I’m officially getting the worst mother of the year award for this.”

“Come on, Mom,” I press. “Tell me.”

Another long sigh. “If you want to make a bully back down you have to beat them at their own game. If she makes fun of you, then you make fun of her right back and expose her insecurities in front of everyone.”

“How?”

“Everyone has insecurities, baby girl. Study someone long enough and you’ll figure out what theirs are.”

I think about this for a moment and realize there may be something to this after all. “She likes it when everyone tells her how pretty she is and how good she is at ballet…even though she’s not.” Pursing my lips, I cross my arms. “I’m a way better dancer than she is.”

I might not be in ballet, but I have more rhythm in my pinky finger than Juliana has in her entire body.

Grabbing the comb off the nightstand, she motions for me to sit in front of her so she can brush my hair. “Then I guess we’ll have to sign you up for ballet classes, buy you the cutest costumes, and make that brat eat her words.”

Hope surges through my chest. “Really?”

She parts my hair in three sections and proceeds to French braid it. “I can sign you up for classes while you’re at school tomorrow and we can go shopping for shoes and leotards this Saturday.”

“You promise?” I ask skeptically as I pass her the hair tie from around my wrist.

Sometimes she said she would do things but didn’t end up following through because of her sickness.

However, she never broke a promise.

They were too valuable to her.

She kisses my cheek. “I promise.”

I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face if I tried. “You’re the best mom ever.”

She secures the hair tie at the end of my braid. “Only because you’re the best daughter ever.”

A frown mars her pretty face when she checks her phone.

“Still waiting for Dad to call?”

That sadness is back again. “Yeah.”

“You really miss him, huh?”

My parents had a love story that could rival a fairytale.

Mom was working as a famous Bollywood actress in India when my dad went there on a business trip with his father.

They were sitting in a restaurant one night when he happened to look up at the table across from him.

It was love at first sight…for the both of them.

A few days later Mom dumped her long-term boyfriend, got engaged to my dad, and left behind her career to move to America and marry him.

Unfortunately, the abrupt marriage created some tension between her and her family.

She hasn’t seen them since the wedding, and for some reason my father forbids us to visit them.

Her frown deepens. “Promise me you’ll never fall in love.”

My parents have their issues and sometimes my mom says things that don’t make any sense to me. Things like—men were toxic, and you needed to destroy them before they destroyed you—but deep down I know she loves my father.

However, her new thing is making me promise never to fall in love.

“Why?”

Usually, I reassured her and vowed to do whatever she wanted, but I’m starting to grow curious.

Every fairytale made it seem like love was the best feeling in the world. I don’t get why my mom doesn’t want me to experience it.

Drawing her knees to her chest, she whispers, “I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did.”

“What mistake—” My stomach knots as it occurs to me. “Am I a mistake? Are Jace, Cole, and Liam—”

“No,” she quickly assures me. “You and your brothers are the best things that ever happened to me.”

That’s comforting…sort of. “Then why is falling in love so bad?”