Confrontations
Lilith’s POV;
When Maya came back, I noted how sincere she looked and spoke around me and wondered if everything was a lie or how much of it was true. I didn’t say anything, though. I just couldn’t.
If she wanted to be Queen, then she was free to do so. I didn’t have the heart to feel anything for anyone.
Surprisingly, during dinner, Maya didn’t join us, instead, a maid came to inform us that she was down with Flu.
“I’m sorry,” Adams suddenly blurted out during the meal, and I glanced up at him without a word.
“I didn’t know how to face you after what happened,” he said, and I nodded, realizing that he was talking about the night he had yelled at me.
“Is that why you’ve been refusing to come to the room?” He said with a raised brow and I glanced at him, keeping my expression neutral.
“What do you mean?”
“I got your message from one of the maids that you wanted to sleep in your room from now on.”
I had never sent such a message and I wondered if Julia had done that. I thought about talking to her about it but decided against it. What good would that do?
“I’m sorry for yelling at you, but please come to the room tonight.” “Please,” he added, almost immediately, and I inhaled slowly and nodded.
It was then that I suddenly remembered the device Ben had given me and what he had told me. I didn’t know how he was going to react if I asked him that, but it really wasn’t any of my business. It was better I forgot about what he had said.
“I have to go to the college now with Ronan, but I’ll see you later. Okay?” He said, and I nodded as I stood up from the chair and walked to my room.
“Your Highness, how did your meal go?” Julia questioned from behind me, but I kept quiet.
She was saying something else, but I wasn’t listening as my eyes caught sight of a figure hurriedly walking out through the back door. It was unmistakably the same long dark wavy hair I was familiar with. Maya crane.
I wondered where she was hurrying to and through the back door when she was supposed to be down with Flu. I had a bad feeling about it and I immediately turned to Julia.
“Go get me an Apple tart.”
“Annalise! Please go get an…”
She was still talking when I interrupted her.
“You should get it yourself.”
“Your Highness?” Her brows were raised, but she was smart enough to avert her gaze. It was probably the longest gear wire I had spoken to her at once.
“If I wanted an apple Tart from Annalise or whoever, I would ask them to get it. I want you to get it for me and I want you to be there when it’s baked. You know how I like it,” I said, and she nodded slowly as she still stood there.
I was getting impatient. I wanted to leave quickly. I was curious to see what had made her run out in a hurry and, knowing Julia, she was either going to go with me or persuade me to go or even offer to go by herself to see what was so interesting. I couldn’t ignore my gut feeling as I felt that this was something I couldn’t miss.
“Run along now, Julia,” I said, and she snapped out of her daze and walked quickly towards the kitchen.
I took that opportunity to walk towards the back door which, by the way, I never thought was ever used for anything. Surprisingly, it led to the garden and I walked slowly around to not give myself away. Unfortunately, there was no one around and just as I was going to leave, a voice stopped me.
“Lilith?”
I spun around to meet Adam’s gaze. His brows knitted in confusion as he glanced around, and I wondered why he was there when he had told me that he was going to the College with Ronan.
“I thought I had seen something,” I said as he glanced at me as if he was waiting for some sort of explanation.
But it was he who was supposed to offer me an explanation as everything was suddenly beginning to dawn on me now.
I think he had come here to see Maya. This must be their rendezvous. It made sense that way. He must not want me to know about their affairs, and they had agreed to keep seeing each other in the garden.
“I’m the only one here,” he said, glancing around again, and I noted how his eyes were searching, he must be trying to make sure that she had already left, or she was well hidden.
“Come, let’s go in,” he placed his hand on my shoulder and led me to the house through the back door.
“How is this door even open,” he muttered.
“I saw someone come out of here.”
He didn’t say anything and I resisted the urge to ask him what he was doing there when he told me that he was going to college.
“Your Highness! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Where did you go!” Julia yelled as soon as we got to my room and I wondered how she was back so soon.
“For someone that’s always by her side, I’m disappointed,” he said, and then pressed a kiss on my forehead before leaving.
“See you later.”
So that was it. He was the one who had told her to keep an eye on me.
Now, it was all making sense and I felt like a fool for thinking that he was a good man.
“Your Apple tart, your highness. It’s going to get cold,” Julia said, breaking my chain of thoughts, and I shook my head, my expression still neutral.
He might’ve made her stay by my side so that she could give him information about me. Too bad, she was never going to get anything to say to him.
“I’m not hungry anymore. You can have it,” I said as my mind went to the device Ben had given me. There was no need to think about it anymore, I was going to do as he had said.
Later that evening, I glanced around the room to see that Julia wasn’t there, and I stood up, believing that this was my chance. I held the device tightly under my dress and walked to our shared room.
After placing the device under the table, where it wouldn’t be easily noticed, I glanced around the room, my eyes falling on the discarded suit on the armchair.
I picked it up and lifted it to my nose, greedily inhaling the familiar scent of him and I smiled sadly. Even if I wanted to have him, I couldn’t.
“It’s going to be fine, Lilith,” I mumbled to myself as I pressed the jacket tightly against my body.
My brows knitted in confusion as I felt a sharp poke against my midsection.
I held up the jacket and felt it with one hand, finding the stiff shape of a greeting card.
I glanced at the door, swallowing hard as I slipped it out of the inner pocket and draped the jacket on my arm as I read the handwritten address for the Mansion on the light pink envelope.
I turned to the back of the envelope and frowned, as there was no sender’s address or information whatsoever on it at all. But the pretty cursive on the body was feminine, and I didn’t need to be told that this was sent by a woman, perhaps, Maya.
I knew it couldn’t be a correspondence from work, and it was personal, and I debated on whether to open it or to just keep it back. But I needed to know if he really was with Maya.NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.
If it was a work correspondence, he wouldn’t be carrying it in his inner pocket. I sighed, knowing that I might probably regret what I was just about to do, but opened the envelope regardless.
I furrowed my brows as I saw the caricature of a house and a moving truck on the front of the card. “We finally moved” was written in a comical font, right on top of the illustration.
For some reason, my hands began to tremble as I peeled my eyes away from the comic and read the note.
I didn’t care about what I was going to see, all I knew was that I was going to be fine. I didn’t have any feelings for him and I just wanted to satisfy my curiosity.
A small photograph dropped from the envelope and I bent to pick it up, a gasp escaping from my lips as I did so.
I never thought anything could hurt me again, not after what happened to my parents, but this, felt like a knife was wedged deep inside me, making a home for itself in my heart.