ILL-FATED JOURNEY™

Chapter 49

This was so messed up. I wanted to keep my hate, yet I wanted to love. I was so confused. My

brain, body and heart were having an all-out screaming match and it was two against one and

the one was running out of arguments. I needed time. Time to think, calm my body and

maybe...I don't know. But I knew I shouldn't stay here to do it.

I came off the bed the same time he reappeared, already halfway dressed and heading out the

door. "Vladimir?" I called but he acted as if he didn't hear me even when I knew he could. He

didn't even pause in his steps, just flung on his shirt, opened the door, and left closing it quietly

behind him.

He was hurt. But what did he expect? If he hadn't been a beast to me for over a decade, maybe I

would have been in love with him. Maybe? Oh, shut up! It's all his fault. This is on him and I 

shouldn't feel guilty for feeling this way! He deserves this! He did way worse to me. The man

raped you! A voice pointed out and I nodded in agreement. Never forget the things he did and

never forget you cannot leave him. I nodded again. I was forgetting. I picked my chin up and

went into the bathroom. Forget him!

*********************

"Arrangements have been made for our journey to the palace. Are you sure about this?"

Vlad nodded absently.

"One would think after you spent the rest of the day in...marital bliss, you'd be in a much better 

mood this morning." Charles remarked as he noted Vlad's strange silence. "Having second 

thoughts?"

"No."

"Did you get a chance to speak to her?"

"A bit." Vlad replied, evasively.

Charles sighed. "You should rethink this. The girl doesn't even love you."

"She has a right to."

"It doesn't matter what you've done. You're a bloody handsome prince and you rescued her! If 

that's not the stuff of every girl's romantic dreams I don't know what is!"

Vlad smiled at the analogy then said in all seriousness. "I wasn't exactly the prince of her 

dreams."

"Knows you that well, does she?" Charles said with a smirk.

"Yes, she does. She has seen...the side of me...that was best left unseen."