Annexation

03

Corian is fast, and I see an unknown number pop up on my phone. I excuse myself from my father's study quickly and run into an empty room, locking the door to ensure I have privacy. With a shaking finger, I accept the call.

"Hello?" I say, and curse the tremble in my voice.

"Liselle." Corian's voice is so smooth, reassured. It's also deeper than I remembered, though that might be due to the call. My knees wobble, and I lean against the wall. I haven't heard him say my name like that in years. "What is this urgent call for?"

I almost roll my eyes. As if he doesn't know why I would call him out of the blue. "You know why."

Corian chuckles. "I guess I do. How are you?"

He sounds so cavalier as if we weren't talking about important matters. And then he switches to video call because his face suddenly pops up on my screen. My breath catches when I see him because no matter how much I hate him, he is still handsome, especially with the way he looks at me.

"Oh, I'm fine, except the part where you declared war against my country," I seethe. I wasn't sure what I was trying to accomplish with this phone call, but I know him. I didn't voice my most internal thoughts to my father or Edwin, but I know he wouldn't attack my country simply for access to the East. 

No, I can tell he wants something. And now it's confirmed when I look at him.

"Ah, is that why?" I see him smiling and his eyes sharpening. Suddenly, I feel like this is exactly what he wanted, exactly how he imagined I would act, and I've just walked straight into a trap.

"What do you want?" I ask bluntly, trying not to lose my nerve. Maybe this call was a bad idea.

The phone shifts downwards and I can see his outfit. He is dressed plainly, with an ironed shirt and slacks, always put together. I wonder what he thinks of me when he looks at me, especially when I have dark circles from a poor night of sleep caused by him.

"What do I want?" He asks rhetorically. "A lot of things. But there's only one thing I want from the war."

I wait for him to elaborate, but he seems perfectly content to wait for me to reply. "Well, what do you want?"

"You."

I both cough and splutter at the same time at his short statement, leading to my stutter, "Wh-What?" The phone is slippery in my sweaty hands and I wipe them on my dress.

"You heard me." Both his eyes and voice are unreadable. "I want you, Liselle."

"What do you mean, me?" I ask nervously, tucking a loose strand of hair away behind my ear.

"I want you. I want to marry you and for you to be my queen. I want all of you." He sounds so earnest that I immediately distrust him. There is no way he would all of a sudden want me after he ditched me for another girl six years ago.

I can only laugh at the absurd notion, completely shocked. "I have a wonderful boyfriend, you know."

Corian simply tilts his head at me, his hair falling into his eyes. He brushes them off and smiles lightly, seemingly unbothered. "Well, you can dump him."

"I'm not dumping Ashton," I say angrily. We had been dating for over a year now, and I love him. He truly brings out the best parts of me and I can foresee a future for us. How dare Corian treat this entire situation like a game?

Corian's widening smile is predatory. "It's either this or war. You can choose."

"That's not fair. You know I will always choose my country," I reply quietly, all the fight leaving my body. Corian has always been stubborn, never giving up until he got what he wanted. And he's smart, he knows exactly how to trap me. He knows that I would do anything to keep my father and my country safe, I had foolishly expressed that thought to him multiple times.

"When is your lovely peace delegation arriving?" Corian suddenly asks.

I eye him warily through the phone. "Are you going to propose this to them?"

"Well, I won't be as direct as I am with you. I will be proposing an alliance through an arranged marriage."

My lips press into a flat line. Of course, he had prepared for this. Just when I found happiness again, he was going to take it away from me.

"What if I don't accept?" I challenge. My hands shake when I try to imagine how I could possibly tell Ashton. He didn't deserve to be thrown away to the side heartlessly like this. I know exactly how that feels, and I don't want to do it to him.

"Then I will have no other choice."

"We can fight," I replied crossly.

"Oh, really?" Corian raises a perfect eyebrow. "Who is 'we'?"

I pinch the bridge of my nose and count to five. "My country." 

"Do you think you would win? Would you doom all of your soldiers to what is inevitably going to happen?"

My shoulders drop. I can easily recite the number of troops we have, the supplies we have, and our military budget—I know all of these facts on the back of my hand. We both know he would win, and the end result would be the same. The only difference would be the amount of blood on my hands.

I look through the phone screen, where his eyes pierce mine. There is nothing soft, nothing boyish, nothing left of the Corian I used to call mine. It makes my stomach roil, the way he thinks he can completely own me like this and blackmail me into this.

"What do you want if you win?" I ask, even though I feel like I know the answer.

"You," Corian says simply. "I will annex your country and marry you."

That only makes me more determined to find a possible loophole or do something, anything, other than yield to him.

"Please don't do this," I plead in one last, desperate attempt.

"You know, I'm almost offended that you're trying so hard to get out of marrying me."

I purse my lips. I judge his expression but can't quite tell if he's joking or not. It makes me dejected, thinking about how our relationship has now degraded to this level. "What happened to us, Corian?" I ask sadly.

He shrugs lightly. "Doesn't matter anymore."

"You're a bastard."

Corian's lips tilt into a small smile. "I know."

"I hate you."

"You're going to have to marry me anyways." He looks at his watch and continues, "I have to go to a meeting. Try to not get yourself into more trouble, sweetheart."

"Don't call me sweet-" I reply, but the call ends.