Chapter 19

Quinlan

I didn't move from the sitting room despite my mom's continuous insistence that I get some rest. She had visited to go through a few things before the ceremony, but ended up staying late at night to keep me company. The ceremony was the last thing on my mind, though, because instead Ronika occupied it. Nana had promised to pick her up from the convention centre and bring her home, but it was almost midnight, and they weren't anywhere to be seen.

"You have to be up early, son; surely you need to go to sleep now." For the umpteenth time, my mother spoke across the living room.

"I already told you, mom, I am not sleepy." I resisted the urge to growl at her because, man and beast, she was beginning to get on my nerves.

"It's because of that servant girl, isn't it?" she asked, getting up from the couch she was sitting on.

"Not again," I sighed, tapping my fingers against the back of my other hand.

"Why don't you choose her?" I blinked once, then rapidly, as I looked at my mom's ser