Arabella's and Hardin's story continues....
After almost three years of blissful marriage, and reigning as King and Queen, our star crossed lovers can't find a single fault in their perfection of a life.
Then, it gets even better with a special deli...
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"Max, I'm so sorry." His hopeful smile faded, as did the happiness swirling in his eyes. I cringed for the expected reaction of anger and the string of curse words to follow but he did the unexpected.
Instead he hugged me. Then let out a long sigh of relief as though he had been weeks to exhale it.
Slowly, I returned the hug and met Xander's equally confused expression from across the room. "Uh Max, are you okay?"
He pulled back, hastily wiping away the tears that had fallen from his eyes, and gave me an openly glazed look of appreciation.
"I'm good. Better than good I...I'm so sorry. I should have commit my heart to you fully but the truth is that I'm in love with another. I met her just before I left for the competition and she's never left my mind." Relief. That's what I should have felt. I should have been happy and felt at ease yet, somehow I felt tricked.
"So everything you said was a lie? Falling for me, liking me, the kiss between us?"
"No, no. I did like you Arabella and we have an intense attraction. If we got married, eventually I believe I could fall in love with you but I see what you and Elliot have and nothing compares to that."
Smiling, I gave him another tight hug and watched him depart from the Palace.
"I'm so proud of you." Xander commented, wrapping an arm around my side and pulling me in close. He feathered a kiss over my temple. "He would be proud too."
I stared out at the dusky twilight sky, a ménage of purple had broke out across the sky, illuminating the incoming darkness. For a moment, I felt him. Hardin's soothing soft presence that wrapped warm around me and made me feel safe, loved, calm.
"I just hope he's happy." I murmured. Xander slowly turned us around and we walked back into the palace.
***
"You know why we're here." Huxley's grating voice echoed throughout the large open room. "The recent attack on the palace by what we believe to be the last remaining rebels ended successfully, with our Queen and the heir safe, and most of our soldiers still alive."
I shuddered at the memory of my guard dying brutally before my very eyes. Three days later, and still the lifeless vacant eyes haunted me, forever singing the image into my brain.
Standing, my hands slammed onto the table involuntarily. My instincts to take reign over the chaos that had erupted possessed me.
"Why? I want to know why they wanted to kidnap me and how they entered the palace?"
A scrawny balding man cleared his throat, and neatened his pile of messy papers in a loud unnecessary fashion. "They used a strong opium to render the guards at the front gate unconscious, then using their firearms they began to take over the palace. It was the element of surprise that managed to allow their forces to overcome ours."
