Arranged Love

Meetings and Mysteries

Mika's POV

Right now we are in the home office having a meeting with the Blood Royals via video call since we need to make a plan after the death of Gideon. Addi is here as well but sitting in a chair with headphones watching her tablet.

"What is the best strategy to go through with this...it's not safe to vacate the house at the moment since the incident but we must get stuff done." Bose says.

"For now kids you guys can just stay home for this week and make sure that no one comes in and no one leaves out." Mother says.

"But Atticus has school, we may have events, we have the training, and we must prepare for the wedding." I say.

"We can have everything remotely and for events, we will say that one of you is sick and is taking care of the other." Celia states.

"Remotely?" I question.

"It means we could do training and wedding preparation virtually." Bose answers.

"Even Atticus' school?"

"I will talk with the school today and set up Atticus with a week's worth of virtual school for emergency reasons." Celia says.

"If I may put my two cents into it your Majesties, they only have 2 weeks till the wedding and I don't think one of our weeks being virtual would have as much of an effect especially if they are also taking care of the kids, prepping the wedding, and helping Atticus with the schoolwork." Phoenix says.

"She's right." I say.

Our mother's faces sit in a perplexing manner...unsure of how to fix this. That's when I could see the lightbulb go off on Bose's head.

"What if we push the wedding back?"

"What?" I say.

"If we push the wedding back it gives us additional time to train, more time to butter the media up with our relationship, more time to accumulate info on Dirty Diamonds, take more of them down, and doing this would throw them off our tracks since they won't know when the wedding is until the week of."

We sit in silence taking in what Bose had said and honestly it was pure genius.

"That's a perfect idea." I say.

Bose smiles at my complimentary actions.

"Yes it is, we will worry about changing all that but you two worry about finding more research, training, and keeping those young ones safe." Mother says.

"And remember that when Atticus comes home the guards will be barricading all entrances and exits for the entire week so you should be completely safe." Celia says.

"Got it." I say.

"Anything else we must discuss before we go?" Celia asks.

"Nope." Bose says.

"Well, we will discuss specifics on how long the pushback will be and how things will work later tonight, farewell kids." Mother says.

"Farewell Your Majesties!" Phoenix exclaimed.

"Later Moms, Later Phoenix!" I say.

Bose hangs up the phone while setting it on the desk.

"I'm happy we got that all settled." Bose states.

"I know...It just sucks that lives have to be taken at all." I moped.

Bose walks behind me wrapping his arms around my waist and placing his head in the crook of my neck while swaying us from side to side.

"Sadly...that's our reality now." Bose says.

I hum replying to his statement about our bleak new life while just swaying with him in silence as that was our recent way to seek peace.

Bose's POV

10 minutes later...

After taking a moment to reflect on the gritty life we live in we decided to go to the backyard to give Addi some fresh air. That's the only place we can go this week that is outside so we won't take it for granted. I walk up to Addi and take her headphones off.

"Addi let's take a break from your tablet and go outside to play." I say.

"Ok!" Addi exclaims.

The toddler places her tablet down and Mika grabs her hand guiding her to go get her a light jacket then to the backyard with me following close behind. We make it to the closeted backyard and Addi runs to the slide dragging Mika with her while I sit on the sidelines.

"Bose come play!" Addi exclaims.

"Yea come play!" Mika joins.

"I would love to but I'm way too tall to fit in the playground haha." I say.

"He is a giant." Addi says.

"I know haha." Mika jokes.

That was when I could see the young girl had an idea.

"Monster Bose capture Princess Mika!" Addi says.

"Are you going to protect me Addi?" Mika asks.

"No, she is."

What? No one is out here but Mika, Addi, and Myself. We look over at where she was pointing and we came to see...no one.

"Sweetheart...there is no one there." Mika says.

The young girl's face stirs in bewilderment.

"Yes, there was." Addi says.

I look over again yet the area was still as empty as before...not a soul in sight. But that's when I realized that Addi used past tense the second time...is turned to was.

"What did she look like Addi?" I ask.

"The morning food lady!"

That is what she calls Cindy since she always makes breakfast.

"Cindy? Why would she be outside with us?" Mika asks.

"She had a camera." Addi includes.

Now I'm doubtful...first Cindy standing in the doorway and now a camera?

"You sure kid?" I ask.

Addi nods her head with nothing but confidence.

"Let's go talk to her and maybe she can clear this up." I say.

I pick Addi up as Mika gets up from the slide. We head inside heading directly to the kitchen where Cindy usually is. We walk up to the kitchen catching sight of Cindy on her phone not noticing our arrival.

"Hey, Cindy."

The woman jumps at my voice and quickly turns her phone off.

"Hello, Sir Bose, Madame Mika, and Miss Addi...if I may ask what you are doing here since you just had breakfast."

I glance at Mika who's looking right back at me with the same expression of skepticism since Cindy is behaving rather frazzled, unlike her usual calm demeanor.

"Cindy, Addi said she saw you." Mika says.

"Really? I've been here this whole time." Cindy says.

Now, this is confusing me even more...something isn't adding up.

"Maybe Addi was lying?" Cindy questions.

Addi crosses her arms while pouting.

"I'm not lying!" Addi said ticked off.

"Well someone is lying." I say.

"Sir trust me kids say the craziest things...she probably saw her fictitious friend outside and thought it was me." Cindy says.

Maybe she's right. I mean Addi is merely three years old and her imagination might have made her see things. But then I think of what Cindy said again and...we never said where we were. How did she comprehend that we were outside?