Perhaps, You Forgot
I was once your queen.
In the little kingdom we built from simple things.
Attention.
Time.
Embraces.
Good food.
And a love I once believed would be enough to make you stay.
I know what it felt like to be the one you loved most. Perhaps that is why it hurts so much to see you happy now in a kingdom I once thought was mine.
You did not destroy that kingdom alone. You simply stopped protecting it when someone came knocking at the door.
And then, you let me go.
What feels strangest is seeing how easily you have learned to be good to the woman who came after me.
As though you have forgotten that I was once your queen. As though that kingdom never carried my name.
She knows nothing about me.
She does not know that before her, there was another woman who once sat in the very same place.
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She does not know that someone before her once received the love she now receives.
She does not know that before her kingdom rose, there was another kingdom you left in ruins.
And sometimes, I want to tell her.
I could knock on her door.
I could tell her that I was once your queen.
But I do not.
Because I do not want to tear down her kingdom simply so you will remember that I once wore the crown.
So I choose silence.
I let the two of you be happy with the life you may have been searching for all along.
Even so, sometimes, when I see you from afar, my heart still whispers.
So, you forgot I was your queen.
Or perhaps you did not forget.
Perhaps you simply found, at last, a kingdom where you no longer had to choose between love and your own throne.
