30 Days As A Substitute Prince

Chapter 15

A soft knock on his door pulled Chad from his jumbled thoughts. He rose his head from his hands, which have been there since Joshua left, and  his eyes landed on Princess Aria. 

She looked worried. In fact, she grew concerned the minute Joshua approached her at the breakfast table and told her that the prince was unwell and needed her company. 

However, he didn’t look so sick, after all. He only looked tired. 

“What is the matter, Prince Zadkiel?” Aria asked in a small voice as she slowly sat beside him. 

Chad shook his head. “I am fine, Aria. Joshua should’ve never sent you here.” 

“But I wish to help,” she insisted after seeing that something was definitely bothering him. She didn’t like it. 

“No, you cannot. You must stay away from me and my issues.” His voice was harsh and his words cut right through her, but she wasn’t giving up this easily. Aria was a great listener and mediator when it came to her sisters and their issues. 

With the prince, she was sure she could help him, but she refused to let him suffer alone. Whatever he was going through, she wanted to help. 

Aria rested her hand on his knee, and he reluctantly looked up to meet her eyes. 

“Please, talk to me. I am to be your wife, Zadkiel. Why do you keep pushing me away?” 

Chad hated the way her voice broke, but at first it was because of the big secret he’s keeping from her and the hopes to preserve her heart. But now, it wasn’t just that, but the fact that he was losing his mind. 

“I do not wish to speak. I want to be left alone. I will be down for breakfast soon.” 

Aria blinked once, stunned with her own annoyance growing. 

“So we’re back to this game? You are back to being cruel and heartless towards me? When I have been nothing but nice to you. It is like you do not want this marriage to work. I didn’t choose our lives either, I was promised to you before I even knew what the word means, so the least we can do is make the most of it. We work so well together and that is a miracle considering we’ve only known each other in such a little time. Why must you treat me like this?” 

His eyes closed on instinct as he heard the hurt in her voice. A blurry image of Heather and Zadkiel surfaced behind his eyes, and he went against every instinct in his body and did the one thing he didn’t want to do. 

“Will you just let me be, Aria? I do not know what Joshua told you, but I didn’t request your company.” 

Aria couldn’t believe her ears, and after all this time since he has been mean to her, this was the first time her eyes stung with fresh tears. 

“I simply cannot believe that you are being so cruel to me,” she said with her voice breaking as she rose to her feet. Chad’s eyes followed her movements in a silent plea to stay, but his words said otherwise. “Where was the Zadkiel I knew?” 

“You never knew Zadkiel, Aria,” Chad whispered almost inaudibly, hanging his head again. “You never knew Zadkiel.” 

She didn’t even know the truth behind his words, but the tears in her eyes were evident. 

She spun on her heels with a simple nod and made her way to the door with her heart shattering in a million pieces. 

This had been the man she was falling in love with. A man who was as moody as an ass. She refused to believe that all they shared was a lie. The intensity in his eyes at times when he thought she wasn’t looking couldn’t have been fake.