"I'm sorry, mi hermosa..." I woke up with a start as those words echoed in my head. I was heaving as if I just finished running a marathon. I swallowed hard and tried to analyze things. Looked like it was just a dream but Maximus' voice while uttering those words to me sounded so real.

In my dream, he was walking away and I was desperately trying to catch up to him while calling for his name. Then, he turned around and said those words before he continued walking away until he disappeared in the darkness.

His face looked so sad while saying that and...

I shook my head. "C'mon, Ath. That was nothing but a dream." I mumbled to myself and then tried to forget about it. I should focus on positive things. I swallowed hard and then took a dep breath, calming myself down.

Then, a contented smile appeared on my face as I remembered what happened last night between me and Maximus. We made love as if we couldn't get enough of each other; as if, it was our last time to be together, but I knew that it wasn't.

We love each other so much to be separated in whatever reason. I purred as I stretched my arms over my head before facing Maximus' side of the bed. I extended my arm, intending to embrace him but no one was there.

My forehead knitted and I automatically sat down. I looked around but it was so quiet inside the room, indicating that I was already alone. I looked at the wall clock. It was already 7:07 am.

"Maximus?" I called for him, but no one answered. I didn't know why but my heart suddenly began thumping weird. I touched my chest, that part where my heart was located. Somehow, there was a gnawing feeling inside of me that I couldn't comprehend.

What happened to my dream came back to me and the fear in my heart was beginning to rise.

I mentally shook my head. "Don't be silly, Ath! Maybe, he just went somewhere." I convinced myself and was about to get my phone from the bedside table when I noticed something.

Those negative feelings disappeared as happiness surged within me. I reached for it. A beautiful bouquet of flowers and a pink small envelop.

I smelled the flowers and they smelled so heavenly. I then opened the letter and then read it. I was right. It came from Maximus.

Happy birthday, mi hermosa. I hope that you would celebrate this day with all the happiness in the world. I'm sorry that I couldn't keep my promise to be there with you to celebrate your special day because I needed to do something very important. But rest assured that I'll be back and make it up to you no matter what happens. Always remember that I love you so much.

Your dolce metà.

The smile on my face disappeared. He left? Where? But why didn't he tell me about it last night? There were many questions in my head but I couldn't find any answers to them.

He knew that it would be my birthday today and he even promised to celebrate it with me, but now, this happened. He didn't even give me any clue where he went to and I missed him already.

"Stop being silly, Ath. I'm sure that he didn't expect this to happen too. I'm sure that he would be here if he had a choice. This is surely something very important so cheer up and wait for him to come back to you." I tried to convince myself and it somehow made me feel better.

Maximus promised me a lot of things and I knew that he would keep his word no matter what happens. I sniffed on the flowers again and it finally made me smile. I hugged it as if I was hugging Maximus before putting it back on the bedside table.

I was about to call for Sita when I heard someone knocking on my door. I took the remote control and unlocked the door.

"Come in!" I said with a loud voice and after that, someone came in.

"Tanti auguri a te. Tanti auguri a te. Tanti auguri, Athena. Tanti auguri a te!" I couldn't help but to smile upon hearing that. It was Amelia, nonna, Antonius and Aris. Amelia was holding the cake as they approached me while singing.

"Thank you. I didn't expect for you to do this." I uttered happily but my happiness wasn't complete because Aria didn't come. Not only that, I couldn't help but to remember my mother again. She loved surprising us during our birthdays and it always made us siblings smile.

"What are you talking about? Of course, we'd do this. We always do this whenever someone of us has birthday." Amelia said with a cheerful voice. I chuckled.

"Thank you for remembering my birthday." I looked at my brothers and I couldn't help but to laugh because they looked so sleepy, specially Aris.

"C'mon, passerotta. Make a wish and blow the candle." My nonna said with a smile and I did as I was told. I closed my eyes and wished everything that was in my heart before blowing the candle.

Amelia and nonna hugged me, and kissed my cheeks while Aris and Antonius kissed my forehead. I really didn't expect this but I was thankful it happened.

Thankfully, Maximus put my clothes back on before we slept last night.

"Thank you for your effort. Anyway, where is Aria?" I couldn't help but ask. The smile on their faces disappeared as they glanced at each other. Then, my nonna sighed.

"She's not home yet. She called me last night and informed me that she wouldn't come home today." I slowly nodded my head.

"Okay. I understand."

"Don't mind her, Ath. It's your day today so you should be happy and try your best to not think about any negativities." Amelia chirped with a cheerful voice.

"Amelia is right, Ath. Today's your birthday so you should smile. Anyway, what do you want as a gift? Just tell me. I'll get it for you." Aris said while chuckling. I rolled my eyes. He really doesn't want buying gifts as a surprise because according to him, it's better for him to ask the person whom he's going to give the gift to so that he would know what he/she likes.

"Don't bother. I don't want anything."

"You're no fun. At least, pretend to like something so that I could give you a gift."

Antonius huffed. "You already know how Athena is. You could've just looked for something that she could possibly want."

"Well, I did, but I couldn't think of any. Besides, it's not like you have your own gift for her." Aris reasoned out which made me roll my eyes.

"That's enough you two. Just like what you said a while ago; I should be happy today so if you want me to be happy, don't argue in front of me."

"You heard your little sister. C'mon, you guys. Let's go downstairs and wait for Athena there." Nonna said which made my eyebrows crease.

"Why? What's downstairs?"

"Breakfast, what else?" Aris answered with a smirk and I rolled my eyes at him. He ruffled my hair while shaking his head before they finally went out of my room. Amelia stayed.

"I'll help you clean yourself, Ath."

"Are you sure you can do it alone? Where is Sita anyway?"

"She will be here any moment. For now, I'll assist you to the bathroom." I nodded my head and let her help me got into my wheelchair. After that, she pushed my wheelchair towards the bathroom. That's when Sita showed up.

They both helped me clean myself and after that, they got me dressed. After blow-drying my hair, Sita pushed my wheelchair out of there while Amelia was walking by my left side.

"Sita, do you know where Maximus is?" I asked while we were inside the elevator.

"I'm sorry, Your Royal Highness, but I don't. But I accidentally saw that someone picked him up outside the gate this early in the morning. He had a big duffel bag which gave me the impression that he won't return here to the palace in a while." My forehead crinkled but I didn't comment.

I wanted to call him but I decided to do it later.

"Are you okay, Ath? You seem sad." Amelia remarked with a serious face and I forced a smile.

"I'm fine." She didn't say anything more and when we reached the dining area, everyone was already there. I was actually surprised because of all the birthday decorations around. The table was full of my favorite foods too.

Then, we began eating.

Somehow, the conversation while we were eating was light which hasn't happened for a long time already. It made me feel happy inside though.

"Since you don't want big parties, I arranged an intimate birthday celebration for you tonight. I hope, it's okay for you." Nonna announced after that. I smiled.

"Of course, nonna." Looked like everyone got surprised of my answer but they didn't say anything. Well, I didn't attend the birthday party that they arranged last year because of all the things that happened. But now, everything's different. I have every reason to be happy and celebrate.

After eating, they all went out to fulfill their daily duties. Amelia would be going back to England tomorrow so she accompanied our nonna somewhere.

While I was at the garden, I tried to continue painting Maximus and I's portrait but I couldn't concentrate. I've been working on it since I came back here in the palace. I wanted everything to be perfect so I've been taking my time to perfect every detail of it.

I huffed and stopped. I decided to call Maximus to ease the worry inside of me but to my big disappointment, his number was out of coverage area. I tried for at least five times before I decided to stop.

"Where the heck are you right now, dolce metà? Why do I have this unpleasant feeling about this?" I uttered to myself and then bit my lower lip.

I felt so worried. Why did he leave without saying anything? I could tell that something was off but I didn't want to entertain it. But even though I tried to avoid the thought, it kept on repeating inside my head.

Then, my phone rang. I excitedly checked who it was, thinking that it was Maximus, but I got disappointed when I saw Amelia's.

"Yes, Amelia."

"Ath...Nonna...nonna got kidnapped!" My eyes widened. I suddenly felt like my head became bigger because of the bad news.

"What?! What happened?! How?!"

"We were on our way to the event when three cars suddenly came out of nowhere and blocked our way. The Royal guards went out to check who they were and what do they need but when the people inside the three cars went out of their vehicle, they shot the Royal guards and then forcefully opened the limousine afterwards and forcefully took nonna!" She frantically answered while crying.

I gasped against my palm as an overwhelming fear attacked my chest. My tears fell as well. I couldn't react right away and didn't know what to do. How? The Queen of Costavia is always heavily guarded by the Royal guards.

I was already panicking but I tried to gather myself up. This is not the right time for me to let my emotions rule me over.

"Did you already call for help?"

"Y-Yes. I already called the police."

"Good. Where are you right now?"

"Here in D100 freeway, before the exit 50."

"Okay. I'm coming." Before she could answer, I ended the call. I called for Sita and told her to tell my driver to get ready. She was quick to oblige. Later on, we were already inside the car going to Amelia's location.

When we got there, my other siblings were already there. Aria and Amelia were crying while Antonius and Aris were the ones who were talking with the police.

"Ath! What are we going to do now? They took nonna!" Amelia sobbed as she hugged me. My throat ached because of trying my best not to burst into tears.

I hugged her and then stroked her back. "Don't worry, Amelia. They will surely bring nonna back to us." I tried to console her. Aria was just silently crying while looking at us.

I held out my free hand for her, coaxing her to come closer to us. I thought, she would walk away again but to my surprise, she sat before me and cried against my chest. I hugged them both while hoping against hope that our grandmother was alright.

After about an hour, we finally received a report from the Police and informed us that they already pinpointed the exact location of the kidnapper's car. Antonius and Aris decided to go but not before they told us to go home for now.

We couldn't do anything but to follow. We waited for I didn't know how long at the palace before Antonius finally called.

"We're here at the hospital. Thankfully, someone saved nonna that's why the police managed to get her. The kidnappers were already dead when we arrived there. No one knows what happened but I'm thankful that someone saved her. The police are already doing their investigation to know what really happened and who those kidnappers were including who saved nonna." I sighed in relief.

We were praying so hard that nothing bad would happen to our nonna. She's the only one we have. We already lost our mother and we didn't know where our father was until now. Thankfully, God heard our prayers and granted our wish.

After talking to my brother, I ended the call and told Aria and Amelia the good news. Just like me, they finally felt relieved but when we went to the hospital, all the happiness within us died down when we saw the state of our grandma.

According to the doctor, she suffered a heart attack due to what happened to her, but thankfully, it wasn't that serious. I didn't even remember that it was my birthday today because of all the things that had happened. We had to cancel the party too.

After staying for a couple of hours, we had to leave because the visiting hours was already finished. There were a lot of police and Royal guards scattered inside and outside the hospital to protect our nonna.

But when we thought that we could finally rest for the day, another disaster happened that night. We were at the living room, talking about what happened when we heard a loud explosion coming from the left wing of the palace followed by the loud screaming coming from the people.

"Oh, god! What's happening?" I asked while looking at my siblings with wide eyes. Antonius and Aris automatically protected us three with their bodies. Thankfully, not one of us got hurt because the explosion was a little far from our location.

"You need to stay here. We'll check what happened." Antonius said before he left together with Aris.

"Oh, my god! What's happening? Could this day be any worst?" Aria said in panic. Amelia was just clinging onto me, scared, and I hugged her to comfort her.

I didn't know how long we waited there until Aris came back with bad news.

"Many of the palace's employees got injured. Looks like this is a terrorist attack. Thankfully, we didn't go to our respective rooms yet because looked like we were their main target." He informed us and I couldn't help but to feel bad for the injured people and anger towards those bad people who did this to them.

"Ath, we already know who was the one responsible of the explosion." My forehead crinkled. He looked so serious while looking at me.

"W-What do you mean? Who?"

"Let's go to the control room. I need you to see something." I didn't know why but my heart suddenly thumped faster than normal. I slowly nodded my head. I felt like there was something big that was about to explode in my face.

Aris was the one who pushed my wheelchair and when we got there, we saw Antonius, talking to the two guys there. When they saw us, they went quiet and bowed their heads towards us. Then, Antonius gave them a meaningful look as if giving them a go signal.

"What's happening, Antonius?"

"I can't believe this. Watch it for yourselves." One of the guys played the video. Even though I was confused of what was happening, I kept quiet and watched the video.

It was a video of a man sneaking inside the palace. He was wearing black pants, long-sleeved shirt and a bull cap. The way he moved told me that this guy was unfamiliar to me.

"Who is he?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Just continue watching, Ath. You'll see."

Then, the man on the video stopped, looked at the CCTV camera and smirked as if he really intended to show his face to everyone who was watching. That was when my heart throbbed. I gasped loudly as my eyes widened in shock upon seeing his face.

How come it was him? I was sure that I didn't know that person but now...how?!

I shook my head, unable to accept what I was seeing. "N-No...No...This is not true..."

"It's true, Ath. We have a very solid evidence against him. The video cameras caught everything that he did inside the palace today and he was the one who planted the bomb." It was Antonius. I could see the rage in his eyes and it was giving me chills.

I kept on shaking my head as my tears fell. My heart was aching so bad, couldn't accept that Maximus could do such thing. How could my dolce metà do this awful thing knowing that many people would get hurt? Did he really intend to kill us all? Why?

"We also have a strong feeling that he's got something to do with the ones who kidnapped the Queen, Your Royal Highness." One of the guys who works at the control room informed me and I felt like my heart and head were about to explode, couldn't take all that possibility.

Why, Maximus? Why?

There were many questions that were circulating inside my head but I couldn't find answer to any of them. All I knew was the pain in my heart was too much for me to handle.