NOT WORTHY TO BE KING: FEARLESS WARRIOR

25. LOGAN IS NOT YOUR SON

The king looked at Logan, dumbfounded. He even looked at Kaden and the queen to make sure what he heard wasn't an illusion, that he really heard Logan saying that he is not his father.

"What is that supposed to mean? Do you think because you are a bastard then you can deny that I'm your father?"

Logan laughed at him.

"I am not a bastard and I will never be. I told you, you are not my father and you will never be." He stopped laughing and added. "You will never even be half the man my father was."

Logan knew that his father was a great man even though he had never met him. He knew from the little Gail told him about regarding his real mother and his real father.

He had spent years hoping that his father would accept him and now that he stood in front of him after finding out the truth, he was kind of glad that the man in question never accepted him.

"This must be a joke."

"It's not a joke. Logan is not your son." Gail said as she joined them. Logan figured that she would follow him but he didn't expect her to arrive with Malia, Clayton, Arrianna as well as Axel. He was wondering where Clayton had gone but now he realised that he had gone back to his fiancee.

"What do you mean by that? Did you lie to me so that I can father someone else's child? I never pegged you for a whore."

Logan didn't even know he had moved until he found himself in front of the king. "If you ever call my mother that ever again, don't blame me for what I will do to you. You have absolutely no right to call her names.

"You are the one who approached her and for what? So that you can get her pregnant and leave her to your wife to torture? You don't deserve her, I don't even see what she saw in you because you are disgusting."

"What the hell Logan?! That is a king you are talking to." Kaden said.

"Then he should start behaving like one. Being a king doesn't give him the effrontery to insult my mother or anyone close to me!"

The queen stepped forward, interrupting Logan's angry tirade.

"Enough, both of you," she said, her voice firm but calm. "This is not the way to solve the problem at hand. Logan, please lower your voice and let's talk about this like civilized people."

Logan turned to face the queen, his anger still simmering. "Civilised people? Tell that to your husband or your son, not me. I am trying very hard not to be uncivilised right now."

Gail sighed and went to Logan. "It's okay. I've heard these kinds of insults ever since I came to this kingdom and got pregnant. This is not new and like I said, I'm used to it."

"But you don't have to. It's not like you were alone in that relationship. He was married, hell, he is married. He shouldn't have approached you! If he was interested in you, he should've married you."

"It doesn't matter anymore." Gail smiled at Logan and he relaxed a little. Gail then turned to the king who was still in shock because of what Logan said to him and how he said it.

"You never thought there would be a day when he would go against you, did you? I think that's funny because you have always treated him like a plague all these years even after everything he has done for you and this kingdom.

"When your wife chased me out of the palace when I came to you after giving birth, you said nothing. I didn't think much about it because I was already fed up with her attitude and your attitude towards me and Logan.

"I literally told you that I didn't mind you treating me horribly, as long as my son got what he deserved but you never honoured your promise to me. You did nothing when he was bullied and when he started showing the potential of a warrior, you and your wife decided to send him to The Enclave.

"He didn't hold it against you, even when he came back. I remember that day very well. He didn't even spend five minutes with me because he wanted to show you what he had learned but you looked at him as if he was something you'd rather not have known in your life.

"He's always loved you to the point that it pissed me off but I wanted you to have a relationship with him because he wanted that relationship.

"I allowed that because I love Malia and Clayton like they are my own kids. I thought if Logan spent time with you, you will realise that he is a good person, that he is capable of anything and then you would allow him to have a relationship with his siblings.

"I was wrong and that has hurt Logan a lot. He spent years trying to build a relationship with you that wasn't supposed to be there in the first place."

"Why are you telling me all of this? Why are you putting all the blame on me? I never forced you to be in an illicit relationship with me."

"Can you even hear yourself talk?! I didn't know you were married when I first saw you! You never told me the truth until it was too late. You made me fall in love with you and now you're shifting the blame on me? You're crazy."

The queen looked at Gail with a mixture of sympathy and understanding. "I'm sorry, Gail. I had no idea about any of this. When I found out about you, I was very angry and it never occurred to me that you might have not known about me.

"I am a woman like you but when I was supposed to stand by your side, I didn't and I'm sorry."

"It's okay. And besides, it's not your fault. It's his," Gail replied, pointing at the king. "He's the one who never accepted Logan and treated him like he was nothing."

Clayton scoffed as he looked at the queen. "You didn't know? More like you didn't care."

Gail wanted to say something to Clayton but the queen beat her to it. "I know I've made mistakes. But I can make it right. Please, let's start over."

If Logan didn't know the queen very well, he might have thought she was really remorseful but he knew better and the look that Clayton sent his way told Logan that his younger brother thought the same too.

The king sighed and went to Logan. "I know I never treated you like a son but you don't have to wish that I really am not your father. You are an asset to this kingdom and one that I have always overlooked.

"We can build that relationship that you've always wanted. Let me be your father." Logan almost laughed at that.

"You've always treated me like a second-class citizen my whole life. You sent me away to The Enclave and then never bothered to see me again and I know you didn't send me back because you needed something from me. You needed me to protect this precious kingdom of yours, but guess what? I no longer care about any of that!

"You want to be my father?" Logan laughed and shook his head. "It's too late for that. I have a father. His name was Gerald, and he was a better man than you could ever hope to be."

The room fell silent as everyone looked at Logan, the king shocked by his words. The king looked hurt and angry, while Gail looked proud of her son.

Logan turned to leave but stopped at the door. "I hope you can live with the fact that you lost your chance to have a son like me, a son who would have done anything for you. But you threw that away, and now you have to live with the consequences."

With that, Logan walked out of the room, leaving the king and his family behind. When the king saw that Clayton was leaving with Logan, he called him.

"Don't tell me you're leaving with him. You are my son."

"In case I didn't make it clear," Logan said as he came back inside. "I am not your son and that means that Clayton is not your son either."

"What are you talking about?"

"Ask your wife," Clayton said as he pointed to his supposed mother. Logan had to admire his little brother's courage. "Ask her who gave me to her and what happened to your daughter."

The queen looked like she needed the earth to swallow her whole when the king looked at her. He didn't say anything to her but his eyes were telling her to explain.

"Mother?" Kaden asked her when she didn't say anything. "Tell us that what Clayton is insinuating is not true."

When she said nothing, Gail spoke. "Since she is not willing to fill you in, I'll do the honors." She said as she took a seat. "Just like Logan isn't your son, Clayton is not your son either.

"When I arrived here, I was Logan's mother's maid but she never treated me like one because we were almost the same age and she was a very nice person.

"She was pregnant with Logan and the pregnancy was still new so not a lot of people knew about it. I met you, fell in love and got pregnant and you know the rest.

"Logan's mother was willing to do everything for me and I was grateful. Due to the stress that I was having, I went into labour before the due time and unfortunately, Logan's mother went into labour around that time.

"We were two ladies who didn't know people around the village and no one was willing to help because I was labelled a w***e who broke the marriage of their queen and their king.

"When I gave birth, my boy died in my arms and I was devastated. I didn't have time to grieve nor time to inform you about it because the queen soon gave birth to Logan.

"She couldn't handle it so she died and tasked me with taking care of her only son. That's how I became Logan's mother."

"And you never bothered to tell me all of this? Why?"

"Would you have cared if I did? You've literally spent 26 years proving me right! You don't know how glad I am I never told you about it."

"How does Clayton come into this then?"

"It is not clear to you that he is a spitting image of Logan?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So? Are you slow or what? That's because they are siblings! Logan's father took another wife when the queen died and she got pregnant with Clayton. I don't know how your wife got him but somehow she did."

The queen interrupted her mid-sentence as if she was about to say something she shouldn't have. She quickly composed herself and spoke before Gail could continue, "That's a conversation for another day. Right now, we need to focus on finding a way to resolve this."

They all looked at her. She continued, "I think we can all agree that what happened in the past cannot be changed. But we can change how we move forward. Logan is not the king's biological son, but he has been raised as such. He has been trained to be a warrior and has proven his loyalty to the kingdom time and time again. He deserves to have a place in the royal family, even if it's not as the heir."

"You are delusional," Logan said to her. "I had been raised as what? Surely you don't mean what you just said. I have never been acknowledged as the son of the king, as you put it, not even once.

"Even the guards that work here had the nerve to say whatever they wanted to say to me because everyone knows that I am not a prince. I am just the king's mistake.

"And now you have the nerve to say I have been raised as the king's son? Something must definitely be wrong with your head."

He stood in front of her as he said the next line. "I'm the heir to the Eclipse Kingdom, not Mercy."

He then went to Kaden and said, "I am giving you only four hours to bring back my wife or you won't like what I'll do to you."

When Kaden made no sign of moving, he added. "I don't see you moving, and you're running out of time. I will be waiting for you here."