Chapter 18 - Doomed

Anton stood straight in front of the door holding a piece of paper and a ripped envelope.

"Your Highness, we got another letter from the main Palace," he said as he opened the door. With his eyes on the floor, he couldn't see me standing behind the shelves of books. "It is a dire situation, Your Highness," he still didn't notice me.

"Come in," the Prince ordered. Anton immediately walked in closing the doors behind him.

The atmosphere between the two of them was awkward. I knew they may have gotten into a fight last night and I had already expected this but I didn't wish to be standing in between.

"Celeste," chills ran across the back of my body when he suddenly called me by the name no other people calls me. "Grab a book and go straight to your back, there is a terrace in there. Anton and I have something to talk about," he sounded immediately different from how he sounded moments ago.

It must be because the news involves the main palace.

I immediately grabbed the closest book and left the two of them with Anton being startled of my presence inside the study room. Like what he said, I went straight to the other side of the room and he was right about having a door towards a terrace.

I opened the door that must have been used only a few times in its lifetime and stepped into the tiled floors of another terrace garden. The only seat other than the Prince's seat on his study table can be found on the terrace. Great.

I sat on the comfortable seat with the temptation to look back to have an idea of what the letter was about. But I immediately stopped myself.

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After Alliyah went out to the terrace, a terribly awkward silence filled every corner of the room as Anton stood in front of the Prince holding the letter his father had sent to his palace just today.

The both of them still haven't talked about what happened the other night. The argument went deeper than both of them thought that it caused a bit of an awkward atmosphere between them.

But a letter from the palace meant a whole disaster for all of them. Even though they are still not prepared to come see each other, it is one of their jobs to protect their peace in this Palace.

"This is bad, Your Highness." was the first words that came out of Anton's mouth the moment they were left together.

"Say it," he demanded as he try to keep himself as calm as possible. He still hasn't gotten off his emotions upon the news of his brother's nearing coronation. He doesn't have any idea how bad this will be and how he was going to react to it.

"The King wishes to come to the wedding," Anton finally spills.

Silence crept into the room once more as the Prince tried to process and think about what he just heard.

"We are doomed, your Highness."

The Prince couldn't help but rub the bridge of his nose. "I know,"

"I do not know what was the reason behind this sudden interest to come to your wedding, or the sudden interest meddling with the life that you've made where presence is completely unnecessary,"

"He might have doubted in the first meeting that he wanted to make sure it was going to be real," he thought. Anton also accepted his point.

"What do we do now? He has already met the Lady,"

"What do you mean, Anton?"

"Your Highness," he said as if he was trying to snap something out of him. "Now, you must marry the lady for real,"

"I made this plan because I didn't want to get married, Anton."

"But you failed and now you got no other choice," Anton told him frankly.

Prince Kairus refused to look at him as the heat started to enter his head.

"It is too late to find another Lady for the job, your Highness. We don't have much time,"

"I said I do not want to get married, Anton!" he insisted. He looked at the old man dead in the eyes but Anton just looked at him without a hint of emotion. He has seen an angrier look than this before.

"But your Highness, what do we do?"

"There can be other ways, let me think--"

"Your Highness! The King is right, it is now time for you to get married,"

"So now you wish to be on the side of my father?" his gaze turned even angrier.

"No, I have always been on your side, Your Highness." Anton backed down, "But you are getting older, you need--"

"I do not need anyone, Anton." he started to massage his head and refused to look at Anton as he calmed himself down to get a proper conversation. No matter what happens, he doesn't want the Lady sitting calmly on the terrace to get caught up in his emotions again.

"Then what do we do about this?"

The Prince took Anton's silence as a chance to think calmly.

He cannot dodge him, he must show him a real wedding.

Or should he give an excuse for him to not be able to be invited?

It is written in the book that the King must be present at his children's weddings. He thought the King was busy enough to not give any attention to the book but he was wrong.

Now he insists on coming.

Now that his plan didn't work, he remembered he didn't have any backup plan.

His brain refuses to give him anything.

No matter how he thinks about it, it will always end up bringing the King into a wedding. And at a wedding, he will always have to have a bride and be married.

A fake marriage is too risky to be made in front of his vicious father. One wrong move and they are going to be sent back to the main palace as a punishment.

He has gone to the part of his life where he doesn't want to trust his own plans anymore.

It took him quite a time to only end up uttering a silent curse.

"Your Highness, there is no other way,"

"No!" but he still refuses to give up. "I'll find a way to deal with this, give me more time."

"Your Highness," Anton wanted to speak but he stopped himself. "Alright, I shall remind you that we do have not much time on our hands, the last time we met the King, we told him we had already been preparing,"

The Prince didn't answer upon realizing the time was also not going his way.

"But my best suggestion is to ask the Lady to marry you, your highness,"

"Are you trying to make a joke in front of me, Anton?" the Prince asked sarcastically.

"Your Highness, it is the only way--"

"I am not going to get married to anyone!" his restraint snapped as he uttered the words and got up from his seat, "Get out,"

Anton immediately scurried out of the Prince's study leaving him standing at his desk as he spread and pushed his hands on the table trying to think what he was going to do.

He couldn't afford to marry someone nor could he ask someone to marry him.

His gaze went to the woman sitting on the terrace with her back to him. Her posture shows that she is reading.

Is marrying her the only way?

His mind immediately went to scan the possibilities that may happen if they get married. But he couldn't come up with any clue what would happen.

But for sure he is going to put a big pressure on his shoulder if he is going to choose to marry her. Marrying a royalty would make you a royalty yourself. But a delicate woman like her will likely lose herself when she learns about his twisted family.

A thought came to mind. Maybe finding another lady who is strong and capable enough to carry the weight of the royal family on her shoulders will solve his problem if he is going to lose everything including his choices.

He may be able to accept the fact that he will be married, but he couldn't bring himself to include the girl in the burden marriage with him would give her.

They still haven't gotten any news about her these past few days. And they weren't even planning to. They wanted to make it seem like a private wedding. But they failed. A wedding with the presence of the king will never lose the town's hawk eyes.

She'll be the talk of the town once they find out she got married to him. It's either people who think she was up for the money or has she lost her mind.

Either way, he'll still have to bring an innocent person into his twisted life. It doesn't matter if it's Celeste or not, someone will still have to live up to being his bride. And he just has to choose who.

But his gut tells him not to let go of the lady just yet.

He then found himself opening the door to the terrace. The Lady immediately looked back at him after noticing his presence on the terrace.

Her hair was being blown by the wind and her eyes were as dark as ever. She has always been beautiful in his eyes. But the bright sunlight letting him see every detail on her face made her seem a lot more beautiful. Pale skin, a good pair of lips--- he stopped as soon as he noticed he was not supposed to look at her like that.

He knew Anton's idea was not the only solution they could come up with.

But a part of him tells him he must know if he'd be able to make it work.

"Move in the palace tomorrow,"