Four

Emma

As I enter the dining room, I immediately see Emery talking to his mother but within seconds, he turns to look at me before eyeing my dress and my face; causing my cheeks to slightly flush pink. Without further ado, I continue to make my way towards them and joining the small crowd. 

''I'm sorry but the king won't be joining us today,'' One of the guards say, breaking the silence. 

Emery glances at his mother for a few seconds before pointing at one of the seats near me as a gesture for me to sit down. He pulls the chair to the back, letting me sit in my own comfort and to my surprise, he leans in near my ear, ''You look stunning.'' He whispers. 

Then, he starts to make his way towards his own seat while I continue to keep my calm high instead of getting all excited over a compliment. The truth is, I feel like jumping up and down due to his compliment; I've never been complimented by a prince before and I'm sure it'll cause anyone to react in a crazy own way. 

My mother sits beside me in her dress that I've come to notice, fits her perfectly which define her natural curves. I hold onto her hand, ''You look nice, mum.'' I say with a smile and she chuckles; lightly caressing my cheek. 

The queen has finally seated down next to Emery and she turns to look at me immediately, ''Emma, you look absolutely beautiful and I'm glad that the dress fits you very well. Red is definitely your colour, dear.'' She says and I nod with a smile plastered on my face as a thank you. 

Within seconds, I start to see other people coming in. The amount of people in this dining room are around ten—I heard the queen only invited her closes friend as she does not want mum and I to feel a little bit pushed by her welcoming. Almost all of them has their eyes glued to me but I pretend not to notice because I'll end up embarrassing myself without noticing. 

I look up to see Emery focused on the food in front of him without glancing elsewhere. My mind seem to have forgotten that it's very impolite to stare as I continue to look at him and see the way he frowns just by looking at his food which makes me chuckle lightly. Honestly, he looks unknowingly adorable in his own ways. 

All of a sudden, he starts to look up at me, causing my eyes to widen immediately. Our eyes meet and they start to look deeply into one another as if we can go through each other's soul. I break the eye contact, trying to cover up the embarrassment I've earned. 

''I saw that,'' My mother says beside me in a low tone. 

''What?'' I raise an eyebrow, gazing at her. 

She raises the glass of water before taking a sip, ''The whole romantic stare, I saw it all. Don't need to be shy or hide those things away from me, it's normal for you to develop feelings—even without knowing each other yet,'' She replies. 

''That's very impossible, mum. This is the twenty-first century, there's no such things as developing feelings without knowing one another; there's also no such things as love at first sight because it does not exist. Humans are attracted to attractive people and love at first sight may only be possible if the person is undeniably beautiful.'' I state, causing her to look at me with disbelief before smiling, half-agreeing.

''Suit yourself, Emma. A mother knows best,'' She says. 

During the whole dinner, I was trying my best to not spare a single glance towards Emery because I know that we might end up in another awkward situation which I highly want to avoid. Even though I felt him looking at me for a few times but I managed to stay still and pushed away the temptation to look at him too. 

Right now, I'm just walking down the hallway as I excused myself earlier. I can't get my thoughts straight with being near all those people—they looked at me and they started to talk but I hardly pay any attention. It's probably because they know that I'll be marrying the Prince of Cambridge. 

I immediately stop my steps once I see Emery walking in a hurry towards the king's chamber. I furrow my eyebrows at the sight of him—catching a glimpse of his eyebrows frowning in worry but I stay still, taking a few steps further away, scared if I might get caught for invading someone's privacy. 

When I turn around, I see a man standing quite near me with a smile plastered on his face. My eyes widen instantly, surprised at his figure. Then, he chuckles, ''I'm sorry to scare you but you look like you're troubled.'' He says in his thick accent and I just curve up my lips in an awkward smile. 

''I'm fine,'' I reply.

After taking a closer look at him, it appears that he's around his thirties, probably yet his blue eyes are the only feature that's appealing enough to attract someone. He looks deeply into my eyes but I find it slightly uncomfortable, ''I've learned from experience that when a woman says that she's fine, she's actually not. I don't know whether I should say the same for you.'' He says. 

We both end up staring at each other but my stare is a little bit more confused. 

''I'm really fine, actually. There's nothing that is bothering me or anything and I appreciate your concern but I don't need it at the moment or any other moment, to be honest. I'm good,'' I speak, taking a few steps further away because he seems a little bit mysterious in a way that I don't prefer. 

''Alright, that's good to hear.'' He replies before smiling once more. Then, he continues to walk down the hall, leaving me here all by myself—just how I want. 

When I start to hear familiar voices, I turn towards the king's chamber, seeing Emery and the queen stepping out but what surprises me most is the look on Emery's face. It shows how he's worried and troubled which confuses me slightly. As for the queen, she starts to sigh deeply, holding onto her son's arm, ''Emery, there's no other choice. You know that too,'' She says. 

''There has got to be a choice, mother. The agreement cannot determine my life as I do have a choice to my own life and you know that better than anyone else including father. He's too caught up with the promise he made with his father years ago and I don't blame him at all but I'm not letting the agreement ruin my future,'' He replies, looking straight at his mother. 

Genevieve sighs once more, hugging onto her slim figure, ''Choices are limited for us, my son. Royalties have to sacrifice and sometimes the sacrifices me make are worth it. Trust me,'' She says, trying to persuade Emery into something but I stay still behind the wall, wanting to continue on hearing their conversation without getting caught—that can bring me into trouble. 

''What sacrifice do you think that'll be worth it by marrying someone I don't know? Marriage is something that everyone has a choice, royalty or not. Divorce is very out of topic for someone like us, I know that so I don't want to choose something that I might regret one day. I don't want to hurt anyone including myself,'' He mutters, quite low but from his voice, anyone can sense that he's all tensed up. 

The queen shakes her head in disagreement, ''I don't see it. I don't see anything that's wrong with Emma. She's beautiful, smart, stunning and anything that a man could ask for. What is it that you don't want to marry her? What is it that I don't see? Is she not good enough for you or is it the opposite?'' She moves around, stating. 

They both end up in silence and it bothers me somehow, am I caught for eavesdropping but seconds before I can make my way down the hall, I start to hear them talk once more and I wish I had left because for some reason, it's something that I don't want to know. 

''There's nothing wrong with Emma. She's a wonderful person and I'm very sure that she has a pure heart but it's not something that I can force upon myself. I can't love her, mother. When I look at her, I just don't see myself loving her in a way that a husband should love his wife—in fact, I don't see myself loving her in anyway possible.'' He speaks, causing me to sigh just by knowing the truth. 

''Feelings will come, my son.'' 

''Like I said, I don't want to force myself and I don't want to marry. If only there's something that I can do, if only the agreement isn't important enough and if only I can cancel the whole thing, wouldn't that be an easier option?'' He says and I immediately make my way down the hall—not wanting to continue on listening. 

My heart doesn't feel like it's hurting because Emery is right, we barely know each other and he doesn't want to force himself to love me when he feels absolutely nothing—I would do the same too. It's impossible to love someone that we don't feel any sort of connection with because feelings don't come by force. 

If I go through this marriage even with sadness and despair, I know that I'll be saying goodbye to the dearest happiness I still manage to feel now; he won't love me, that's the answer. He'll keep on pushing me away and he won't try because he doesn't want to force himself—he thinks that by marrying me, it'll ruin his life. 

For some reason, I can say the same. 

Who would want to marry a stranger? No one. I don't know what he is like and I don't know whether I'll be able to accept his flaws because we barely know one another. It goes the same for him. I don't know if he might dislike me after months of being married or even days. It can happen. 

Once I've reached my bedroom, I quickly take my suitcase before putting it onto the bed and placing my stuff inside without hesitating. I look up to see my mother entering the room with a surprised look on her face, ''What are you doing, Emma?'' She asks, continue to walk closer towards me. 

Without thinking, I keep on placing everything inside before taking a pair of skinny jeans and a loose shirt with cardigan out—wanting to change out of this dress. As I make my way towards the bathroom, I quickly change and place the dress right on the bed; not sparing a single glance. 

''Emma?'' My mother calls out but I ignore her.

''We're leaving,'' I say, swallowing the non-existent lump in my throat as I glance towards her direction and tying my hair up into a ponytail, feeling a little bit messed up if I leave my hair down. 

''Leaving? What happened? Are you alright?'' She asks but seconds before I can answer, we both turn around to see Emery standing near the door as he looks at me as he clenches his jaw. I let out a deep sigh, not really believing that he's here, did he see me walk away earlier? I thought. 

Emery takes a few steps inside, ''I'm sorry, Mrs. Parker but can I please speak with your daughter?'' He asks without breaking the eye contact with me and within seconds, my mother starts to walk out of the room, closing the door afterwards. 

I am left with Emery.

''What do you want?'' I question before crossing my arms and looking straight at him. For the first time after being here for a few hours, I finally have the courage to look straight and deeply into his eyes without fear of getting lost because I know his true feelings so it doesn't bother me anymore. 

He stops once he sees that we're close enough, ''I want to clear up any misunderstandings with you because that's definitely not what I want right now. Look, Emma, I know you heard what I said earlier with my mother and somehow, it might have caused you react this way. I'm sorry,'' He replies, his brown eyes are buried deep into mine. 

I see him clenching his jaw before sighing and I can't help but eye his every movement. We both keep quiet for a couple of minutes without realising because we're both busy staring into each other's eyes yet I come to notice and remember the words he said earlier about not seeing himself loving me—it doesn't necessarily matter because we won't be having that with our future. 

''I'm leaving because I have a choice and my choice is to not marry you. Whatever it is that you said earlier, it makes me realise something that I have probably forgotten when I came here today. You brought back reality and I should thank you. We're two different people, Emery and I don't care if you don't want to marry me because I'm saying the same to you. It doesn't bother me.'' I say, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. 

''So, I'm leaving tonight. You don't have to apologise because it's not your fault. I'm taking the quickest flight back to New York and we'll be on our own lives without looking back at what happened today, you'll forget about me and I'll forget about you. Eventually, we'll meet someone new and come to appreciate that we did not get married to each other because we both knew that it wasn't right.'' I add and from the look on his face, it shows how he's slightly confused but he understands that what I'm saying is clearly what he's thinking. 

As I turn to continue on packing, he grabs onto my wrist, making me turn back at him with my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

''Leave tomorrow. I'll book a flight for you tomorrow, that's the least I can do after causing you so much trouble coming here.'' He says, in a low tone but still loud enough for me to hear. 

Then, he starts to let go of my wrist. We both look at each other once more before he makes his way out of the bedroom—leaving me staring at the spot he stood, confirming my choice. It doesn't matter if I'll keep on thinking about this day in the future because what matters most is that I don't want to ruin someone else's life due to this.

It makes me wonder somehow, does he not feel the sparks?