- Giselle -It was a done deal, I knew it already. Everyone knew, because after the meeting, they all gathered around me and Father and were congratulating us.I excused myself from the crowd and stood a few paces away from them with a glass of wine in my hand.Thank goodness I was able to pull through this. At some point, I was scared it might not work because of the emotional riot I had at home before coming to the meeting.I had stood in front of the mirror after dressing for a long time, a worried look on my face. Franklin walked towards me and held me gently."Take a deep breath," he said slowly, and I did. "You'll do just fine."I closed my eyes to the warmth of his body against mine and nodded to his reassurance."Thank you so much, Frank," I smiled. It was not because I thought I was not good enough. It was because of the tension between Kira, me and my father. It could affect me, but thankfully, I handled it well."Cheers to big things," someone said, interrupting my train of
- Giselle -He finally stopped laughing, trying to catch his breath."How's your sister?" He asked out of nowhere."What?""Your sister, Kira," he repeated. "How's she? Or you don't want to talk about her? You know, it's easy for you to say how some people don't have a high sense of reasoning, fascinating also that they are royalty, and it makes no exception to them. It made me remember your sister."And that was when I realized what he was trying to say."Don't drag my sister into this," I warned, not wanting to be involved in that kind of conversation."Or what?" He smirked. "You don't want us to talk about her and what a total disgrace she is? But you just pointed it out now. That being a royalty does not guarantee you to be sharp, and I did not argue with you. Yet when I point out the same applies to your sister, you cannot take it.""You and Kira are two different people, and it is pathetic that you try to compare yourself with her," I said. "Kira only became a part of the royal
- Kira -I sat in front of my mirror after taking a bath and applied my lotion. I put it gently on my skin and rubbed it, catching a smile on my face.My thoughts? It was all about Jason. Nothing going on actually but just the way he looks, his subtle movements and his smiles.Now I was sad he did not ask about me when he came around the other day or could it be that he asked but Giselle did not bother to tell me?Why should I care that he asked for me anyway? My subconsciousness asked. Well, because we are at a level of relationship where he could ask, I told myself. Even if there was no encounter to have made us talk much, he could still ask just to check up on me.I sighed deeply. How did I find myself thinking so much about a total stranger? But Dad had said he was not just any man. He is a good man. The kind that every woman wants in her life. He looks like the kind of man who will cherish, love, respect and protect his woman with those strong arms.Oh...Someone cleared their th
- Giselle -"Bitch!" One of them swore at me then turned to the other. "She's got some powers.""Not holding back," the other replied. "She doesn't know how to control it."Not yet, you idiot, I muttered to myself. I tried again for the powers but nothing came. The men kept getting closer. Why does this shit happen to me all the time? I mean, what is the use of having powers when I cannot make use of it? But I kept trying."Who are you and what do you want?" I resolved to talk to the attackers in a bit to distract them and delay the attack."Who we are is not so important to you is it?" They said. "After all you are a princess. You must see yourself as more important. However, we are here to put a brake for you."Talking did no job of distracting them. They were on me already and pinned me to the ground."We don't want to hurt you unless you give us a reason to. We just want to give you something to work on. When the contract comes to you, don't sign it."It took me a few seconds to r
- Morgan -I yawned tiredly for the umpteenth time, not because I was tired or hungry, but because I wanted the people around me to notice I was not interested in what they were saying. But it seemed the more I acted, the more they ignored me, so I had to speak out when they were already rounding up."I don't know why you always choose to ignore the counsel I give," I stated, and they looked at me with indifference."That's because you never give any good ones," Father said."How are you going to know if they are good when you don't even care to put them into action? I tell you, we have a better perspective with the other men than with that princess. Why would you rather have a business with a woman? Men are the better players in this game, and you know this.""You want us to give our contracts to rogues?" Father said unsmiling. "If you had mentioned a more responsible individual, that would have been better. But no, you chose to associate with people who have no sense of dignity and
- Giselle -"Oh my goodness! Oh dear, Oh dear, what happened to father?"I was momentarily distracted when Kira began to lament immediately she got to the door where the doctor was checking on Father.She rushed to the bed and held him."What's happened to him?" She cried, throwing accusing glances at me."We were attacked," I had to reply to her."By whom? Where? How? Why?" She further asked. I sighed, not knowing what to tell her."Kira as you can see, Giselle has also sustained some injuries as well. You shouldn't bombard her with all these questions. Besides, there is no way she has answers to those. She definitely does not know why they were attacked unless she was the one that planned it."Franklin had answered her calmly, and her dramatic cries had reduced."Oh Father," she sniffed. "What did they do to you?"Then she turned to the doctor."Is he going to survive?"Before the doctor could answer, Franklin offered one."He will, but first you have to keep calm. As you can see, t
- Giselle -The pain in my belly intensified, snatching me out of my thoughts and I doubled over. I struggled to get to the room and rested my hand on the table.For a moment, the pain stopped and the next thing that came to my mind what was Kira said. Why'd this thought returned to me again?Am I wondering for whatever reason if what she said might be true? But that can't be and I know that for sure.What I needed answers to, however, was the question she asked about him being there. How'd he know?I have no way of knowing that unless I ask him of course and I worry what it would sound like when I do.When I began to feel the pain again, I walked to the bathroom to take out my clothes. Firstly, I need to have a hot bath.That was when I saw it, the blood trickling down from my insides. I choked on my breath. It can't be what I think it is, is it?I remembered when one of those men gave me a heavy kick in my stomach. It might have...no. No, please no.Sweat broke on my forehead and I
- Giselle -I was sitting with Father in his room with Kira and the atmosphere felt weird. I don't know how long this is going to take but it's going to be a long ride trying to get along."I'm glad you are feeling better now," I decided to speak, not allowing her presence to affect me where I needed to relate with Dad."I was so worried father," she jumped in, giving me a side eye before doing that and somehow, I just knew what she was driving at. "I already began to feel something was wrong when you did not come on time but I did not want to jump to conclusions. Strange how Franklin knew right? I mean, he must have been bothered about the timing as well but how'd he know where you guys were?"She made it seem like a harmless question but I did not want Father to give it a thought."This is not the first time Franklin has come to our rescue," I quickly put in, with a forced smile on my face. "You've forgotten for a moment there that we have a connection. It is what's always drawn him
- Jason -It took me a few seconds after I returned to my room, to notice someone was there. I turned around with a displeased frown on my face."What are you doing here, Morgan?" I asked him."It's Prince Morgan but yeah, I think I can let that slide since it's you and also seeing that you'd always stress me with having to correct you all the time," he said with a grimace."What are you doing in my room?" I sighed."I'm here to talk," he replied with a shrug. "Can't I talk to you?""What are we talking about and why in my room? Official meetings are not held in the bedroom.""That's it," he snapped his fingers. "Because this is not an official business.""I cannot tell when we began to have an unofficial relationship," I stated and he laughed."Maybe if you were paying attention more, you'd remember that I did mention it.""I don't want to be acquainted with you, Morgan," I said to his face. "I am fine the way we are.""Come on Jason, don't make this hard," he said, relaxing his back
- Cleopatra -I eyed the greedy man and scoffed."What do you mean by this is not enough? Do you want four generations' wealth before you're okay?" I scowled at him."My lady, you know what it caused us to be able to cover up for you. And I have other people to settle and keep their mouths shut. You will have to remit more."I sighed tiredly."Okay fine. I am going to give you some more but that will be it. You must not complain nor ask me for anything after that. And you must not try to contact me because we can never be seen together. Do you understand?""Clearly," he replied."Good."I was able to handle him without anyone finding out about it, and I hoped it remained that way. Anna has promised to keep her mouth shut and only say what was agreed on if Giselle finds her, but I couldn't trust her.How could I hold her to her words? I looked into her eyes and saw the fear. Such a person can be easily l
- Giselle -I was very eager for the reports, but I was disappointed."There were no prints," the experts told me. "The old lady poisoned herself to death.""You're trying to tell me she took her own life?" I asked for clarity even though I heard them. I felt like asking them why, but knew they wouldn't have an answer to that.The midwife was well, according to the reports given to me hours before I went to see her, and then she poisoned herself?This doesn't make any sense to me."There has to be a reason why this happened," I said thoughtfully as I paced around the room. "Why did she take her life? What made her do it?"I lifted my head, and Franklin was barely paying any attention to me."What do you think about this?" I asked, and he looked at me."I don't know," he said with a shrug."You don't think she'd take her life for no reason, right? What must have made her do it? Did someone threa
- Giselle -"What?" I asked, my eyes following the direction of his hand. There was something at the edge of the bed, and I walked towards it.An old woman, obviously the midwife, was lying dead on the ground in the corner."Oh gracious heavens," I muttered, placing a hand on my chest. One of the guards moved close and picked up a bottle lying beside her."Looks like a poison," he said, lifting the bottle to his face and observing it. She had foam all over her mouth, and her body looked fresh like she could have died just a few minutes before we arrived.How did we not even notice all this while? And I looked all over the room. There were no signs of death anywhere.Gosh, I was this close to getting her, I lamented."Looks like murder," Another commented, what was going through my mind."What do we do now?" They asked me after moments of staring at the cold body beneath.
- Kira -"Well?" Mother asked as soon as I got into the room. "Have you been able to find out something?""Nothing yet," I told her with a sigh. "And there are no signs to show me exactly what is happening.""I am sure that lady is up to something," Mother said thoughtfully with a finger on her lip. "I can tell it. She came to me and asked some questions, and that's typical of someone who wants to go looking for answers."I turned to look at her properly with some suspicion."You are not sure what she is up to? I think you should know since she discussed something with you. You think it's related to that," I pointed out."She said she just wanted to know a few things about her mother and asked me because I was Meredith's maid. At a point, I thought she was just asking because she wanted to know what her mother was like, but now I think something else is triggering her.""So? Is that something that should worry you? Do yo
- Kira -I pushed his hands slowly off my body."There is no man but you, Xavier," I said quietly. "And yes, maybe I have a couple of male admirers, and I look at a few men, you've been the only one in my heart and the man I want to spend my life with. If only you had made moves to make me yours legally, maybe we wouldn't be here. Maybe I wouldn't even be looking at another man and admire him because I already have you.""Kira," he called softly, calming down. "Gosh, how can I be so insensitive? I'm so sorry, honey. I'm so sorry. I did not mean to make you feel this way.""Xavier, I have been asking you what you intend in this relationship. I have been the only one pushing, and it's not fair that you make me go through this, then think I am seeing someone.""You are right," he said. "I shouldn't have said that. I was just overwhelmed because you didn't sound trusting anymore, and most women sound like this when they have a man loving them somewhere, so I was worried. Look, I love you
- Cleopatra -"What do you mean?" Anna looked at me questioningly."You know me well, my dear. I always keep to my word unless it's almost a matter of life and death, and in this case it is," I said, and she leaned back on the chair, her eyes not leaving mine."If that's the case, I don't think I have so much to worry about. I'm already on the end road of life.""This doesn't concern you alone," I said with a frown, slightly annoyed with what she just said. "I am involved in this too, and if you're too excited for the journey of the afterlife, then I am not, and this is not the way I want to go.""Too bad for you then, and why are you telling me? What can I do for you?" She threw at me, and I took a deep breath, holding in my anger."If it had nothing to do with you, I wouldn't be here," I said. "Now, will you shut your mouth for a moment so I can speak? You don't even know what I am here for.""It's almost not hard to tell, but anyway, you can go ahead.""After all these years, Frank
- Giselle -I knew I had to find that midwife. Something tells me she will have the key information I am looking for about Odessa's death.I wouldn't have gone on with any investigations but for the persistent and disturbing dreams I kept having.I told Franklin so when he wondered what I was trying to find."I feel there's something significant that did happen at her death," I told him. "I can feel it, and I see it in my dreams too. Just, I just don't see clearly to determine what that is. But if I can know where to find that midwife, she might just have the answer to everything.""I don't know where you can find her," Franklin said with a frown. "But I'm going to get you someone who might know where she is.""Oh, honey," I placed a hand on him. "I will appreciate that."While I was busy trying to get some work done on that, Kira seemed to be hanging around me to see what I was up to. She was everywhere I went, and at some point, I had to confront her when I came across her on the ba
- Cleopatra -I kept the slight surprise I felt when Giselle walked into my room. She asked if she could sit, and I pointed to a chair wordlessly while I wondered what she wanted.She sat on the chair and looked me straight in the face with no readable expression at the moment."What do you want?" I wasted no further time in asking."I just want to have a word with you about something, probably not so serious," she said. "I have some questions I want to find out about someone, and you are in the best position to know."I couldn't tell if she intentionally went quiet to get me curious or not, but whatever reason she did that for, got me asking."Who?""Odessa," she called the name as if she was expecting some reaction from me. I did my very best to look casual and normal about it, but deep within me, I was already panicking. What does she want to know about Odessa all of a sudden? And from me, too?"What do you want to know?" I had to ask."A few things that might be leading up to her