Adler | The Monarch & The Heirs BOOK 2.

Ambivalent | A THIRTY THREE

A/N: Dedicated to naileakawalii
and Popcorn_Makhanya

•••

It was 2AM in the morning.

Cassandra usually had to wrestle herself just to get out of bed before eight, yet here she lay in her sheets, wide awake.

Going to school had only let her avoid the problem in the physical. She couldn't outrun it mentally and yes, she was completely aware she agreed to let her cousin drop her off at the academy yesterday just to get away from Mark. The same Mark she'd desperately been yearning for everyday.

Funny how one word could drastically change that.

Engaged.

Cassandra had thought that was a word she wouldn't hear until much, much later in her life. Not that she was unfamiliar of how those things went in her former social circle. There'd been a time when she was fourteen and her father's old wealthy business partner that migrated to Asia, came by for a visit. With his son of the same age.

The boy was far too sure of himself because he was already flying across the globe in fine pressed suits, sealing his name on contracts for investors eager to join hands with the software he coded.

Cassandra's father would've made millions to his company in wedding her off to the IT git. All Cassandra knew back then was that more money was always good so she refrained from speaking up. But her mother could see her discomfort and when that woman put her foot down, that was final.

"Marriage doesn't answer to politics and connections, Cassandra." Her mother had told her. "You'll only be playing a fool if you sell yourself short of true happiness. You’re the one who knows what makes you happy— not money."

Cassandra had found her mother to be a person with resolute conviction. No situation could change it. Then again, she never thought a day would come where her own father trampled on her mother's heart and abandoned his daughter without a second thought.

Principles could be changed.

Cassandra had returned home to see Mark and her mother with uncle Jason gathered around the living room. Uncle Jason's hands on her mother's shoulders, Mark had on a serious look and somehow, Cassandra automatically knew they were talking about her.

Uncle Jason wasn't anywhere as good as an actor as his ex-sister-in-law. He made a show of awkwardly shooting up when seeing Cassandra. Nervous chuckles and fidgety fingers before excusing himself to 'take care of some things'.

Cassandra couldn't look Mark in the eye any longer than two seconds before averting them, face burning. Then she made the lamest excuse of needing to do homework and dashed up to her bedroom.

She did not like these new reactions she was having towards her best friend.

Cassandra's mother came into her room an hour later and was smiling. It wasn't the gentle, enchanting ones like before. It was somehow intimidating.

Cassandra then noticed the tray of creamy and chocolaty biscuits. Her mother never let her eat treats before dinner. The bizarreness continued as her mother hovered in her room, tidying it up with no complaints and every few minutes, would bring up a story that involved Mark being there.
Cassandra didn't respond past low murmurs and curt head nods. She honestly didn't know what to say.

Seeing she could have her former life restored, her mother's conditions had of course, crossed Cassandra's mind too.

The Kingstons descended from their great grandfather inventing the King fountain pen which was endorsed across dozens of office cubicles and used by chief executives to prime ministers. Marrying into the lineage, not only would they be welcomed back to the elite circle, they would be even more better off than they were before.