FATE #3 *(A ROSE IN BLOOM)*

WHEN TIME STOPPED*

GENERAL POV

She held onto his arm and leaned on it as they walked. "Aren't you bothered about rumors, huh?" He inquired when she gave a gab between them, she cleared her throat heavily...

"You should have considered that yesterday too.. when gossips turn into murmur, I suffer a lot since I do hear! They make it sound like we're gonna get married!"

Lucious halted and farrowed his brow. "Should we do that? I mean since it won't be news anymore?" He laughed it off.

"Well aren't you cute... No! In as much as it'd be perfect, let's take it slowly..." She hurriedly rushed away, in hindsight he figured she liked that idea. He went after her trying to catch up and hear her vividly.

After lunch she switched to busy mode again getting the empire's paper works done, by combining her speed mode and sorcery. While in the act, she sensed a strange presence hovering around the study and exuded a sinister smirk calculating the pace at which it was comfortably drawing near and.

She swiftly motioned her hand towards the window and ward off the intruder's invisibility spell... Jemilla was lucky enough having her hood down, she evaded her attempt to reveal her face by camouflaging again out through the window and leaving the palace.

"I knew something was off  about that person, who could that be?" Pearl wandered and got back to work.

The question Lucious posed about his doubt concerning Devan's return bolted to her mind and conclusively linked them both together.

A while after work, she visited his oubliette, recalled the gab in the guards thoughts the previous day and smiled,  "Bingo!" She said and motioned close enough to him.

"Whoa, seems my step daughter can't do without me! Am I going to see your face everyday, huh? That will successfully murder me Pearl... Perhaps, on your next visit can you send Kimbling instead, I may as well die faster not seeing her face!" He retorted.

"Too bad you fooled me all too well yesterday, making me see only his footsteps, whatever it is you're secretly planning Devan, trust me I'm always a step ahead of you and will make sure you rot here till your dying day!" she firmly spoke with authority.

He chortled at her expression... "Are you living inside your head step daughter? What is throwing your security off the cliff this evening huh?..am I renting a mansion in there huh!, tell me?, how much is the rent?"

He ridiculed slowly drawing closer to the door, she began motioning away without a word until she reached the exit.

"I almost forgot... Tell her the very next time she sneaks into my space again, I'll feed her soul to the vultures, she'll definitely visit you again!" She pinched him a brief smile and walked out.

She hoped to have seen her face at least... Devan upon hearing that, thought Jemilla got her cover blown, he wandered which one amongst them was most powerful!

Lucious had sent for Thessa concerning her father, he had stayed away from the empire's matters since Agyepong died, he had a message from him for her.

Her father had a wish to have a talk with his daughter to settle their differences and come together as a family again, whiles he was communicating this to her, he noticed how quickly she wanted him to end and depart from his sight.

"Is there any problem? For a while now we seem distant, what's going on?" He inquired when she tried to hide her truth.

"huh? No..nothing actually, I believe it's due to the fact that we've both been occupied with a lot lately, don't worry I'm good and... We're good too, alright?"  She sighed, patting his shoulder twice with a fake smile.

On her way out he held onto her arm, seeing as she really appeared tired and worried about something.

"look , I may not be so gifted like Pearl to know your problem from an eye contact, but then your eyes and mannerisms are saying a lot than what you just said... Share with me what's bothering you okay! I'm going to listen and help you overcome them too trust me!"

She folded her arms and stared at him for a while. "Oh really, huh? Thanks but no thanks, I'm perfectly alright and won't need that... Excuse me!" She tried leaving and he held onto her again.

Pearl, who had camouflaged coming to see him, overhead a little portion of their conversation and eavesdropped.

Taking a moment to observe her, he released a short chuckle. "Now I'm convinced there's a problem, you're holding something against me and I can tell, Thessa! Did.. did I do anything wrong?" He queried when she took away her hand from his.

"Lucious everybody is stressed out lately, you should know better... That's just it, why will I hide anything from you if something was wrong? I'm okay and I'm sure in a couple of days I'll be perfectly alright too..." She answered and walked out.

Pearl watched her as she stood at the entrance of his study and sighed heavily banging her chest with a little tear in her eyes...

"How long can I keep holding this in? Gosh I should just isolate myself from everyone for a while..." Pearl instead walked beside her listening to her every word that fell into nothingness.
She rather sympathized with her, walking her to her horse she decided to get back to Lucious.

She entered without a knock and noticed him lost in thought, so she cleared her throat heavily interrupting his focus. "Hey, sorry if you knocked severally, my mind was quite far away! " he enunciated...

"I didn't knock, and I also didn't open the door, you seem to have a lot on your plate..." She voiced her observation.

"Yeah, and I'm sincerely sorry... To say all of these are due next week and a month away!"  They laughed it off. After which he walked out his seat and sat on the edge of the table right in front of her.

They locked eyes for a moment, Lucious picked up that moment. "You know Thessa was here and..." He began to say when she sharply cut in. "Do you feel obligated to tell me everything that happens in your life? Am I preaching anything indirectly to you that makes you wanna tell me everything huh?" She queried.

Looking closely at her, Lucious stood up, a little pissed.

"I thought that'd be better than you stealing my thoughts, Pearl, I mean I should know why you'd do that, I'll never have any wicked thoughts concerning you, it's a problem if you can't trust me without doing that, it's my privacy and it's not fun with you invading it all the time..." he vented.

"Excuse you?" She rose to her feet!