"What do you mean you don't want to marry him? He's a Prince, the Crown Prince!"

"If I marry him, I'll be forced to be the Crown Princess and later the Queen. I don't want to be a Queen!"

"Who doesn't want to be Queen?!"

"ME!"

A blond man with sharp blue eyes rubbed his temple, "Camilla I worked hard to get this engagement between our families…"

"Yeah, between families. You never once asked me! If you'd asked before going to all this trouble, you wouldn't have to turn around and cancel now!"

"I'm not calling it off!"

"I won't marry him!"

"You WILL marry him!"

"Oh yeah? MAKE ME!"

"If I have to lock you in your room until you're old enough to marry, I'll do it."

A blond girl of about 10 years old, with tightly curled hair and sharp blue eyes, just like the man, stood there red faced and furious. She took several deep breaths before calming down.

"Daddy… you��ve always given me what I wanted in the past. You said you'd give me the world because you love me. Why is it in this one thing you didn't even ask what I wanted?"

"I thought you'd be happy."

She shook her head slowly, her eyes fierce, "You didn't think about me at all, did you?"

There was silence between the two, finally the man couldn't take it anymore.

"Fine! I didn't think about you being happy! I was thinking about what's good for the entire family!" He gave her an equally fierce glare. "And how is that wrong? What's good for the family is good for you too!"

Camilla gave an angry laugh, "Oh, is it? When I become Queen, you'll have to obey me, not the other way around! You think I'll have forgotten you forced me into it? You think I'll let things be easy for you?"

"Cammy, how could you say that to your father!"

She sneered, "Are you sure you're my father? Because right now you're not acting like one."

That was too much for him and he straight away slapped her on the face.

"Girl, I've given you everything you wanted. You said it yourself. After raising you this well, making you everything BUT a princess, and now even given you that, you've got the gall to threaten me?! You ungrateful—"

"I DIDN'T CHOOSE TO BE YOUR DAUGHTER!" She screamed, holding her aching face, eyes watering. "I didn't choose to be in this family. Could I have turned down any of the things you gave me? Could I? No! I had to accept everything! If I never had a choice to begin with, why should I be grateful? A forced gift is no gift, it's a burden!"

He stood there speechless for a moment.

"You… you never said you didn't want what I gave you!"

She rolled her eyes, "How often did you ever listen to me? Even if I tried to turn it down, you insisted you were doing it because you love me. If I turned it down, it was the same thing as turning away your love." She laughed bitterly, "But it turns out it was never done out of love. It was so I'd owe you later."

A stab of guilt pierced the man's heart, but he shook it off.

Calming himself down, he said stiffly, "Whatever you say, it won't change the fact your engagement is set. If I dared to try and break it now, you think the King would let me off? Ah right, you don't care about me, let me rephrase… You think he'll let you off?"

She grimaced. It was true the current king was a bit of a tyrant. He was only flexible in very specific areas, otherwise it was his way or the highway. His son, who he had high expectations for, was not an area he was flexible on.

"Fine." She finally agreed, her heart hollow as she stared at him. "But since you treated me like a tool and not a daughter, I will treat you like a master and not a father."

"What? What does that mean?"

She straightened herself and curtsied, pulling her dress out to the side at a perfect angle.

"May I be dismissed now, Duke Florentine?"

His heart trembled slightly at her coldness but then he thought: She was just angry right now and throwing a tantrum. One she settled down, she'd forget all this nonsense of him being a master not a father.

With that rationalization to sooth his heart, he found himself inexplicably tired.

"Fine, fine. Go do whatever." He frowned, adding, "You'll be traveling to the capital to meet the Crown Prince tomorrow, keep that in mind."

She bobbed her head, "Thank you, your grace."

He watched her leave, his heart feeling a little stuffy. But he thought again how it was just a tantrum and regained his mental equilibrium.

Years later he would look back on this time and feel like a fool.