Eighteen

Caralyn looks around Riccardo’s home office.

 It is more extravagant than the one he stayed in at the palace. There is one thing that catches her attention, though. His one-sided shelf, which is supposed to hold books or other items visibly, is currently facing the wall.

That piques her curiosity.

There is enough space between the wall and the cupboard for just a person to slide through. She has never seen a shelf in a private study facing the wall.

“Mr George.”

His voice brings her out of her thoughts, and she faces him once again. He has his phone to his ear now, and she just watches him as he discusses her admission process with the man on the other side of the phone.

Seeing him speaking on the phone makes her realize he can hold a conversation and speak for a long time with another person. That is, if he wants to. Watching him speak that many words in her presence is unusual for her.

One of his eyebrows raises. “Her name?” He looks at her. “What’s your name?”

Caralyn’s lips parted in disbelief, and the question affects her more than it should have. She just can’t believe he does not know her name.

 

‘You don’t know the name of the woman you slept with? The woman who carried your baby for a few months? The woman who’s been staying in your fortress for more than two weeks?’ She is tempted to answer him that way, but she knows she might be punished for speaking so outrageously to the Supreme Ultima.

She is in his domain after all, not the palace grounds. Which means she needs to be very careful.

“Caralyn Brooks,” she replies.

Riccardo repeats the words into the phone. He speaks with the other person for about a minute more before he disconnects the call. Then, he continues his work, and Caralyn’s eyes dance all over his face, waiting for words from him.

Riccardo looks up a few seconds later. “Why are you still here?”

She gives him an upset glare in response to the question. “I was awaiting information about the school.”

“Are you…” Riccardo’s head moves forward a bit, and his eyes narrow. “… glaring at me?”

Caralyn immediately eases her gaze the best she can. “I wouldn’t dare, My Lord.”

Riccardo relaxes back in his seat. “There is nothing for you to do; everything will be handled. All you have to do is resume next week, and the school will take care of everything for you,” he tells her.

Caralyn isn’t as satisfied as she should be.

The things that concern her, she likes doing them herself. She does not exactly like taking shortcuts.

When King Brooks was alive, she had little to no authority, but being given the freedom to handle her education herself without her father’s interference made her feel as if she still had some control over her own life.

So, Riccardo arranging everything for her does not exactly please her.

She stands up to leave.

“I appreciate the effort, My Lord. Though I would have preferred handling the process myself,” she says with noticeable dissatisfaction before she can hold back her tongue.

Riccardo’s eyes are on her once again.

She bows, turns around, and leaves. He watches till she shuts the door after her.

‘Non sembrava un apprezzamento,’ he thinks to himself as he tilts his head from side to side, cracking the bones in his neck.

 

{Non sembrava un apprezzamento - That didn’t sound like an appreciation}

*

Caralyn slowly walked through the fog-covered forest, no destination in mind. The only thing she can register is the rage, and it burns when there’s nothing or no one to be on the receiving side of her fury.

She continues to walk until she hears a voice, a very sweet, elegant, and cheerful voice. She follows the voice, the fog doing nothing to help with navigation.

Soon enough, her eyes catch the figure of a lady standing near a red car.

She is talking on her phone, and she sounds happy. Very happy, too happy, and that only fuels the rage inside Caralyn.

“Well, I am waiting here with your birthday gift. Don’t keep me waiting,” the lady says into the phone with a small giggle before she disconnects the call.

Her right hand goes into her pocket, and she brings out a pregnancy test stick, a wide smile on her face. That smile irritates Caralyn the more, and she charges towards the woman with the knife in her hand, letting out a loud yell.

But the lady dodges the slash, moving swiftly to the side and getting into a defensive stance.

“A kid?” the lady spoke, her eyebrows furrowing.

Caralyn charged at the lady again, but she kept evading Caralyn’s strikes while refraining from attacking her. The lady ducks another strike as Caralyn’s knife met the side of the car.

Now, the lady knows that the girl in front of her definitely isn’t joking around.

“Who are you?” the lady asks, looking at her with curiosity and cautiousness.

With another loud yell, Caralyn charges, but the lady intercepts her attack, skillfully grabbing Caralyn’s hand that held the knife as she slams her against the side of the car.

Caralyn releases a grunt of pain.

That is when the lady’s phone rings and she looks to the side where it lies on the floor. That distracts her, and before she can focus back on Caralyn, she feels a sharp object plunge into her heart.

The woman let out an elongated gasp, her body weakening, until her hold on Caralyn eases and she falls onto the ground. Caralyn watches with satisfaction as the light leaves the woman’s eyes.

Her eyes drift to the pregnancy test stick, and she becomes infuriated again.

She yells into the thick forest. Her heart starts beating faster, as if it’s going to explode.

“Your Highness!” someone screamed.

She turns slowly to look back.

“Your Highness,” she hears again as her whole body shakes involuntarily.

Her eyes fly open, and she wakes up with a gasp.

Caralyn jerks awake. Alessio is still shaking her aggressively to wake her up. He removes his hands from her the moment her eyes open.

Caralyn looks around the room. There is another figure in the room. A female servant standing by the wall, her gaze down.

She slowly sat up.

“You were screaming, I guess you were having a nightmare,” Alessio said with a little bow.

She shakes her head in affirmation, still too shaken up to speak. She checks the time, it’s thirteen minutes past two in the morning.  Guilt immediately envelopes her, knowing she must have awakened the whole house.

“You should go back to sleep. Your first day of school is today,” he reminds her.

“Yes. Thank you,” Caralyn says with a small grateful smile.

He gives her a nod and turns, leaving the room with the servant.

Caralyn sighs, her mind going back to the nightmare she just had. She tries to interpret it, and a question arises in her mind.

Has she become so resentful about losing her child that she now becomes jealous and furious about another woman having a baby?

*

“Alessio.” Alessio heard Riccardo’s voice from inside the room as he was about to walk past his door.

Riccardo hadn’t shouted; he had asked the question in a low voice. Any other person wouldn’t have heard, but when it comes to Enzo and Alessio, it is an easy ability.

Alessio moved closer to the door. “Yes, My Lord.”

“Another nightmare?” Riccardo asks.

“Yes,” Alessio replied.

Alessio had expected Riccardo to say: Good, it will make her stronger; since he had said that before. 

But Riccardo said something else. “It’s becoming recurrent.”

It was subtle, but Alessio could detect the slight worry in Riccardo’s voice.

“I was having the same thought,” Alessio said.

Riccardo only hums; no other word was spoken. His silence indicates that he was done with the conversation.

Alessio proceeds to his own room, a question on his mind: how does the Supreme Ultima know that he was the one walking down the hallway?