CHAPTER 1 : The Renowned Princess. The sweet smell of freshly cut roses wafted through her nostrils as the princess stirred slightly on her too comfy, queen size bed. With an aggrieved groan, the Crown Royal thought of catching a teeny more snooze before the royal maids came into her chambers for the usual morning routine. But sadly enough... "Good morning, your Highness." A courteous voice she knew too well, uh not-too-pleasantly, serenaded her. It was the capable Elva Thompson, the princess's personal aide. "Elva, in the name of all things spicy which you can't live without, please just five more minutes!" Natalia drawled and lazily turned over the other side of the huge bed, cuddling more into one of her countless soft throw pillows. "I apologize, Your Highness, but there's a lot of royal duties to perform today and we're running out of time." Elva replied with the same professional voice which could fool anybody. Well, not everybody though. "No! I ache
CHAPTER 2 : Fall In Love Too. "Well...your loss." Jeffrey replied in the same tone. Everyone chuckled again and even Ricky ended up smirking. Arian simply displayed his legendary eye roll and completed the journey from the stairs to the nearest dining chair. With a curt gesture of his hands, Butler Lee signalled the standby maids and what was left of breakfast was cleared up within minutes. Nanny came over and took little Tommy upstairs while Mom Rose followed behind, fussing over ordering a new collection of children's wears again. Certainly, the old ones were as good as trashed. The rich? Jeffrey Campbell sighed. "Dude, tell me you're taking that baby out on a freakin' helluva ride!" Ricky whistled, looking thrilled the moment the young heirs were left by themselves. With the exception of the family butler, of course. A-mobiles was about to launch another brand new, model sport car and as usual, Arian's father had sent him one in advance. Sir Argen
CHAPTER 3 : Twisted Distractions... Elva Thompson, who was a fanatic of juicy gists, gasped again in astonishment as Natalia shared the conversation between her and her grandmother. They were seated on the princess's bed with the canopy away. Elva was brushing her hair, preparing her for bed. "I feel so ungrateful. How could I be so selfish to think of myself alone!" Natalia groaned again and palmed her flushed face. "Hey, it's okay. Don't beat yourself up over it. You were just being sincere to your only blood relative." Elva soothed, packing her glorious brownish blonde hair into two cute ponytails. The Princess had really long hair. Natalia took the hair brush from her and they promptly switched places. Yeah... they were that close. "I know but I could've been a little more sensitive!" "Okay, but if you don't mind....you're being a little too tough on my poor hair!" Elva painfully squealed. Natalia was unconsciously pulling her hair too hard, e
CHAPTER 4 : Meeting The Twin. ( Beverly Hills, California. ) The party was as hot as flames! The music, the drinks, the girls?? Shit! Ricky Winterfield chuckled deliriously as he drove into the familiar surrounding. The party mania got all his depression, pain and frustration away....at least temporarily. He parked his sport car randomly at the driveway and strutted his way up into the deserted mansion where he lived alone, stumbling a bit in the process. Home, Sweet Home! Ricky sighed. No business obsessed father. No fashion freak of a mother. No annoying, conventional twin sister. No one!Just he, himself and.... him? Ricky tipsily chuckled at nothing in particular, mentally prepping himself for a delicious hot dip in the jacuzzi! His quiet time. In his ecstatic state, he failed to notice the figure sitting impatiently on a couch, her legs crossed with her fingers impatiently tapping the armrest. Immediately the heir came
CHAPTER 5 : Sounds Like A Plan. Morning had long come, but Becky O'Neil laid on her simple but cozy bed, listening to the clock tick away. Aside studying or running to her part time jobs, it was something she did every morning on school breaks when she woke up. Different from those times when her thoughts were occupied on how to steal Danny Craig's attention, the sound from the clock soothed her wandering mind and helped her think a bit more clearly. Becky wasn't sure what to call it. A crush, love, fantasy, infatuation or plain stupidity! As far as she could remember, she'd always liked Danny, ever since junior high. Now they were about to enter senior year but he still hadn't even looked her way once. Since Danny was the assistant captain of the school's football team, Becky had tried everything possible to get him to notice her. Even trying out for cheerleaders practice! No one could really know how frustrating it was trying out repeatedly only to be awfully embar
CHAPTER 6 : Sad And Pained.Jeffrey's text popped up next. "Guys! Guess what luck I ran into last night??... Well, bad-good luck?" "Got mugged, stole your stuff, had to walk home naked?" THAT was Arian. "Jeez, man! Why'd you hate me so much?" From where he was taking a break at the Campbell's gym, Jeffrey twitched his lips. "Yeah. After you crashed his little party last night!" Ricky chuckled. Jeffrey suddenly felt betrayed. Arian had never thrown a party before. And as his best friend, he wasn't invited?! "What party?" He sulked, swiftly moving his fingers. Ricky was about to generously reply when someone showed up. He looked up expecting Nicky but met his mom....or rather, Mrs Winterfield, instead in her elements. She lit up when she saw him. "It's been a while, son! How long again?... Well, that's not important as long as you're back home." She gushed and walked further down the stairs with her personal maids. "Why didn't you come see me? I'ld have a
CHAPTER 7 : He's Just A Kid!"Elva, isn't it too classy?" Natalia asked for the one hundredth time that day."Nope! And we're getting it." Elva glowed with a huge smile and dropped the designer coat on the couch before following the store attendant to the next collection.Natalia chuckled. They were currently on a shopping spree. And yes! the girls had moved to Beverly Hills already. Their first adventure was at the city's historic museum and now they were at the biggest, top notch mall in the city!The shopping centre was super crowded and filled with happy looking people.Natalia and Elva moved from store to store buying new clothes to suit the environment. Left to her, the princess didn't need much as she'd barely worn a quarter of their previously shopped ones, but Elva was in her elements."What do you think about these boots? Fab, right??" The person in question excitedly cooed, displaying two sets of knee length boots of different colors."They're pretty. I'm sure they'll come
CHAPTER 8 : Stupid Crush!( Beverly Hills, California. )"Well, uhm...you know, jus...." The cornered princess stuttered, feeling intimidated under the little fox's innocent gaze. Suddenly, Tommy tilted his head further sideways and gasped. "Arian!" Natalia didn't have to finish her silly stutter anymore because Tommy jumped from the bench and ran into the bubbly crowd, screaming excitedly at the top of his lungs. She breathed out in relief and stood up to follow him, worried he might fall and hurt himself when Elva appeared out of the blues and pulled her into a bone crushing, relieved hug. The "strong" Elva was actually crying?? Natalia found it funny but experience taught her not to giggle. She half listened to her aggrieved rants as she turned back to look out for little Tommy... *** Arian walked around the mall, looking for his little brother. And with great effort, asked a couple of people which wasn't really helpful because the dreamy, youn
CHAPTER 185 : Final Epilogue. ( Beverly Hills, California. ) "What are you doing?!" She bulged her eyes and moved away. "What?" Arian sheepishly groaned. "Don't 'what' me! You know what I mean!" She stated, playing their usual nightly 'what' game.....which usually followed the same pattern. Arian seductively wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. "We have the rest of the night to ourselves." He deliciously bit his lips and swept down to capture hers.But Natalia stepped away. "I need to check if the twins have yanked their heads off already." She tried to escape but Arian blocked her. "You're just coming from the nursery." He sexily pouted and Natalia almost gave in. She shook her head to reject the temptation. "I think it's time for Adrian's milk." She tried again but Arian easily caught her. "Adrian's asleep and his milk isn't until midnight. So..." He kissed her and slowly
CHAPTER 184 : Epilogue (2). ( Beverly Hills, California. ) "By the way, where is Jake?" Elva curiously asked. "He had some work to do and promised to be here this evening." Naomi answered. Natalia had set up a special committee of her most trusted ministers to hold the Empire for a few days. Jake was among the members so he had a little delay. "I really admire you." Naomi continued, taking the attention away from herself. "Being an Empress, a wife, a mother, a philanthropist and also a role model, all in one package!" She dramatised. "It's no wonder you haven't changed much with three kids! On the contrary, it made you hotter. I'm just expecting my second child but I feel like a granny!" Nicky joked and fondly rubbed her huge baby bump. "No! You're not a granny. You're my mommy." Louisa raised her head and pouted.The girls giggled when Nicky blushed. "It's no wonder you don't miss Jeffrey whenever he goes away on b
CHAPTER 183 : Epilogue. ( Beverly Hills, California. ) "How was your night?" Arian kissed Natalia as Adrian rubbed baby drool all over his face. Natalia stretched lazily and closed her eyes. "Stressful." She pouted. "I know, right? This champ is quite a handful at night.'' He tickled Adrian who hung on his neck like King kong. "Da-da! Da-da!!" He squealed happily which echoed arouund the room. "As if you weren't a handful yourself." She scoffed and turned away, pulling the duvet closer around her. It made Natalia a little jealous that Adrian hadn't yet learnt to call her mama. In fact, Dada was the only word he knew! Arian noticed it and chuckled, pulling her back to face him. As usual, he was shirtless wearing only sweatpants. Some habits were just so hard to break! Not that Natalia was complaining though. It made her husband look uncontrollably sexy! Adrian grinned down at his mama in his diapers. Fa
CHAPTER 182 : The Seal Of Their Love. ( Astheria, Australia. ) Still sitting on the floor, Naomi slowly arranged her things inside a cardboard box. She shivered a bit because she was still wearing her clothes. But Naomi didn't care. There was more important things to be done than caring if she had gotten a cold by wearing her wet clothes for so long that it'd dried still on her. A knock sounded on the door. "Please go away. I'm a little busy." Her hoarse voice sounded. Naomi knew the visitor wasn't on an official business. If the Empress or the royal assistant needed her, they'ld have easily sent an email. And so far, they hadn't. Naomi couldn't blame them though. She felt embarrassed and hated her family's history. And after everything they had done to the Santianas, she couldn't bare to look at anyone anymore. After a while, the knock sounded again and this time, the person walked in without consent. Naomi didn't bother to l
CHAPTER 181 : Where's Naomi? ( Astheria, Somewhere in continent Australia. ) ( Hours Later. ) "She's not in danger but I still recommend a lot of rest. You can see her. Just make it as quick as possible." The aged doctor whispered and walked away. Elva Thompson and Jake Buniz nodded before walking into the Royal study. They found Natalia leaning on her desk, gently running her fingers over her grandmother's diary. Louis had kept it safe like he'd promised. "You should be resting. Doctor's orders." Elva let out a small frown in displeasure. "I'm fine." Natalia curtly said and stood up. The thick sweats she was wearing matched with her pale skin. She returned the diary to one of the drawers and faced them back. "Tell me. The casualty report?" She ordered. "We lost a good number of our men while the rest are being taken care of." Jake reported. "And Max?" Jake lowered his cold eyes in hes
CHAPTER 180 : The Battleground (3). ( In The Carribean Ocean.) The Mob boss snickered which sounded like something made in hell and back hugged Natalia, erotically pulling her closer. Arian fought the impulse to take a step and lunge at him! He was purposely riling him up to draw him into the sensors! "Tsk! Don't make her feel bad!" He clicked his tongue. "You were smart, my love. But sentimentality was all I needed to sneak into your lives.... And you gave it to me." He nuzzled her hair and possessively trailed kisses down her neck. Arian's insides cringed feeling his control slowly snap while Natalia's self hate increased each passing second. "Let her go!" Arian snarled, running out of patience and clenched his fists. "And you expect me to ask 'Or what?'." Leonardo cocked a cocky brow. "Look around you, fool! We ain't in some shitty movie. This is my turf! I run this freaking game!" He viciously barked. "What do you want?" A
CHAPTER 179 : The Battleground (2). ( In The Carribean Ocean.) Meanwhile, the automatic doors trapping Arian De' Argent in the hallway reopened after the lights had suddenly turned off and returned after five seconds. Arian turned to continue the search for his love but stopped when Naomi froze....and then fainted. He hastily caught her before she could crash land. "Hey, hey!" He called seeing her drowsy eyes. "What..." The French heir froze on his interrogation when he saw four darts pierced into her pretty brochette and a fifth one stuck on the skin of her neck. Naomi had thrown herself in front of Arian when she noticed the danger he was in without thinking. Arian pulled them out and tapped her lightly. "Hey, stay with me, okay?" The timid spy tried to nod but the snake venom was working tremendously fast, already at the second stage of the symptoms which was total paralysis. "Hey!" Arian yelled. "What?!" Max yelle
CHAPTER 178 : The battleground (1). ( In The Carribean Ocean.) "Who do you want to go first?" He casually, but deviously asked. The gunshots continued more fiercely and through the cameras, Natalia and the few in the room could see the gory battle going on. As observers seeing the whole battle ground, anyone could bet that Astheria had an upper hand! "The only game we'll be playing is the one you'll be losing." She seethed in confidence. Leonardo coldly smirked which gave her goosebumps for some reason before placing his hand on a screen which scanned his fingerprints. "Good evening, Master. How may I be of service?" The voice of an artificial intelligence echoed from thin air. "Ava, place the fortress on lockdown." He ordered. "As you wish, Master." A moment later, metal doors sprung up trapped everyone in. Those who were fighting outside couldn't get in and those who were in couldn't get out. Natalia's heart skipped a be
CHAPTER 177 : Let's Play A Game, Shall We?... ( In The Carribean.) "Something is wrong." Jake Buniz stated, pacing restlessly around the communication tent. The geniuses among the little battle squad was in the same tent, doing what they did best with the gadgets and devices in there. They were all dressed the same with silent and serious features. "She should've made contact by now." The Captain of the army continued. "Let's think more positively. It could be that Naomi hasn't yet located the Empress.... Even though it's not really a positive thought. However, you above everyone else knows how shady these Kelions are. There's still a few hours till midnight. We should give her a little more time." Max offered, more relaxed than his superior as as he typed away on a computer. "I trust my instincts. And right now, something doesn't feel right." Jake stopped behind him and leaned over with a hand on his chair and the other on the table.