Chapter 11
**A manipulative cowardice**
‘He finally agreed!!'. Queen Evalene barged into her husband's study, startling her husband which made some of his important documents trample to the ground, one of the bodyguards crouched low and started to pick the scattered papers up.
He frowned deeply, ‘Who agreed to—'
‘The prince, our son', she muttered excitedly as she pulled him out of his chair, ‘Adonis has finally agreed to marrying Liliana. He told me how much of a darling she was and he would marry her'.
Gerard was taken aback by his wife's sudden news, his son wasn't one to change his mind easily so he was doubtful for a moment—how in the world was Liliana able to charm him into acceptance of their arranged marriage? the last time he checked they wanted to rip each other's head out.
‘Are you sure Evalene? Did Adonis really agree to marrying Liliana?'. He asked again.
‘Yes I did', Prince Adonis responded as he walked into the study, ‘I have come to a decision that it is time I settle down and perform my duties as a royal of this great nation. I will marry Liliana under the condition that we both don't have to live in the palace or the country'.
It was a good deal, a great deal even in the king's eyes, he didn't care as long as his son was wedded and he gets a grandchild out of it, ‘It's a deal'.
*******
Liliana scoffed loudly as the words blurted right out of her mother's mouth, it was certainly a joke Adonis was playing, a dirty joke she didn't appreciate. So she slammed her hands on the dining table and stormed up the stairs even as her mother called her to sit right back, the door slammed hard behind and plopped down on the edge of the bed.
It was another plan yet failed again, the plan was to act irrational and make her meeting with Adonis a nightmare, now it has only fallen flat on her face as he took the next step in wanting to marry her—Damn him, she thought to herself, damn his handsome arrogant self who was clearly on the run for the win in the dirty game they were playing.
She nipped on her bottom lip for a moment, pondering over on what to do and then it dawned on her that she had an assistant who did everything for her, she stretched her arm and grabbed her phone to call Mario. The personal assistant was in bed with his lover when a call from his dreaded boss came in, he surreptitiously rolled his eyes as he grabbed his phone and picked her call.
‘It's so good to hear from you ma—'
‘I need you to find Prince Adonis's personal phone number', she cut him off.
He sighed deeply, praying to the gods to keep his sanity intact, ‘I can't find his number if I don't know who he is. We haven't spoken in a week ma'am and I really want to know.....what the hell happened to you?'.
A week was gone and she didn't even notice, ‘Well I am being forced a marry a man I loathe and barely know, he's a prince actually and he's the same man who threw me out of the restaurant for calling him out on being a massive prick', she breathed heavily as it felt good to rant to someone finally, ’Now he's agreed to marrying me and I need to talk to him on the phone....can you please find me the number of Prince Adonis of Wales!'.
It was all too much to take in for Mario as he sat upright, ‘I....I really can't find you the number boss I'm sorry. I really wish I can—'
‘I don't care how you do it, book a flight tomorrow. I want you knocking in front of my door the first thing tomorrow morning or else you're losing your job...got that?'.
‘Yes ma'am'. He sighed deeply.
She hung up immediately and groaned trying to come up with a solution to contact the prince. Megan walked in shortly with a cup of coffee and a smile on her face as she placed it by her daughter's nightstand, ‘I know how much you love your coffee when you're mad'.
’I want to speak to him'.
‘Who?'.
‘The prince', she said, ‘I want to speak to the prince'.
Megan sighed deeply as she stroked Liliana's hair gently, trying to placate her mood which was obviously working as Liliana's rapid breathing started to slow down. In a minute she was calm and heaved a deep sigh, years into adulthood and her mother still knew the trick of stopping her from imploding.
‘He likes you Lili'.
‘No he doesn't'.
’Yes he does', Megan cupped her chin with both hands, ‘I will talk to the queen and ask for the prince's phone number, promise me you won't ruin the relationship your father and I are trying so hard to build'.
‘I promise'. Liliana lied through her teeth but she didn't care, all she wanted was to call Adonis and give him a piece of her mind—one that would make him retract on his decision to make her his wife.
********
The phone blared into ringing, Adonis groaned loudly as he cursed under his breath, stretching his hand with his eyes closed as he tried to grab his phone from the nightstand, it was an unknown number. For a moment he contemplated on picking or letting it go to voicemail, he was a royal after all and it could be an attempt on his life, or maybe it was a call from deranged Brenda who wouldn't let him be.
‘Who is this and what do you want?'. His voice was harsh and his brows arched as he heard a scoff...a very familiar one at that, ‘Liliana Brynn??'.
‘I think you should see a doctor your highness', her voice was calm with a heavy hint of contempt embedded in it, ‘You must be suffering from the case of ‘I am an idiot' syndrome if you think I am going to fall into the obvious trap you're setting', she paused for a while and took a deep breath, ‘I will never marry you Adonis'.
He smiled mischievously, ‘I want to marry you Liliana and there's nothing you can do about it. You're a woman with a loud mouth and an impeccable taste for making my ears bleed....I would love the pleasure of taking up the task in taming you to become a woman of my taste'.
‘You.......', she almost screamed but remembered again, he was playing a game, ‘What is your taste your highness? red lipstick with a side of bimboesque??'.
He smiled again, she was starting to get triggered from the subtle shaking in her voice just like he wanted her to be, ‘I like my women brave. Not a manipulative cowardice like you Liliana'.
‘I am not a coward!!'. She yelled as she rose to her feet, he was getting on her nerves so bad that she wanted to smash his head against the wall.
‘You're a cowardice', he frowned deeply as he also was starting to get irritated by her conversation, ‘You can spit in my drink, throw spiteful words against me but you can't marry me—You are a coward Liliana and there's no backing down on that'.
He hung up on her, he hung up on her! Liliana grabbed a hold of her favorite glass figurine and almost hurled it against the wall, then she remembered how important it was to her and placed it right back. She wasn't a coward and she wasn't backing down, if marrying Adonis was going to prove to him that she wasn't a coward then she would gladly do so.....she was going to make his life a living hell.