Obsessed to Hate Him-Chapter 55: Aching

LIAM

"Don’t say a word." I crip as I go through the mountain of paperwork piled up for me to look into while I was gone.

"Come on, Your Highness," Kelly whines despite my earlier warning.

I sigh. Who was I even kidding? Kelly will do whatever she wishes no matter what I tell her to do. I sigh and rub the bridge of my nose, resigned.

"You took in a familiar without even telling me!" She looks thoroughly disappointed and hurt.

"Kelly, I do not think I am required to ask for your allowance to do anything." I don’t look up at her, "Crystal, can you give me a hand with this?"

Kelly is terrible with paperwork with a capital T. If I tell her to do something, she gets it done—of course—but with a thousand mistakes for me to go through again. So, it is more time-saving for me to look into it myself than tell her to do it.

"Certainly, master," Crystal answers swiftly as she steps forward from the dark to give me a hand.

Crystal has been a commander herself, so she is good with these works. I should just hire her instead of my good-for-nothing assistant. I am just spending my money for naught.

Kelly’s nostrils flare, "Why would you help His Highness? I am his assistant, I will be the one helping him."

And here we go. Bicker Chapter 1000.

I am just this close to losing my shits and snap at her. But I can’t do it either. She will start to weep and whine if I do. I have already had the part of weeping done in the last three weeks.

Veronica starts to weep every time she sees me. Angelina—the third princess, my older sister—starts to weep when she sees me. Kelly bawled her eyes out when she found out I had taken in a familiar.

I think they are participating in some kind of weeping competition and they are making me an excuse to help them get better at it. But I feel terrible for my mother.

She had collapsed from shock when I gave them my report on Oliver. She loves all of her children a lot. Vivana remained quiet the whole time and so did Roy. I sometimes forget that they are, too, human because of this kind of behavior.

Vivana and Oliver had a civil relationship. They might be siblings, but they were more like friendly acquaintances. So Vivana wasn’t too shocked and recovered quickly. And if Roy was shocked, he didn’t show it.

Vivana fusses more about me actually. How I look devastated and worn. How I should take better care of myself. She comes to my office twice to nag me about this. She says, I no longer have the ’me’ spark in my eyes since I came back three weeks ago. Which I don’t deny.

Vivana is right. I am devastated. My bruises are fading but they are still there. And what is more deadlier than them is my heart. The wound on it is so prominent and aching that it is hard for even me to ignore.

It’s almost like I lost a part of my soul there. In that cold fortress of Oblivarae with the cold-hearted man with blue eyes. And my heart is still burning for it.

Every time I look at myself in the mirror, at the ugly bruises smearing my skin in hideous strokes, my heart stirs and I can’t help but think about the man who left all these marks on my body. I have never had bruises these prominent before. It is almost like...he has marked me.

The overwhelming urge to push a dagger through my chest washes over me as I grimace, highly displeased at my own thoughts.

What the fuck is wrong with me? Why am I thinking about the man who was just a millisecond away from killing me? And what is more unbearable and makes my heart ache, is the look in his eyes when he grabbed my throat.

He hates me. I have long known that Kian Eryx will hate me when he will know who I am. But now that he actually hates me, I somehow can’t bear it. It strings more than any knife. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

It is not like I have stopped hating him or I ever will. I so dearly want to gouge his eyes out and cut his throat open for the bruises he has left on me. But still, a small, just a small part of me doesn’t want him to hate me. I know this is stupid. But this is the truth.

I finally manage to shove my inner turmoil aside and focus on the present just to have the ache in the side of my temple intensify. Kelly is still bickering with Crystal relentlessly, who is going through a heap of leather scrolls with keen attention. She isn’t even bothering to look at Kelly who is literally at her boiling point.

I heave a sigh for the countless times for the day at the scene playing out before me.

There are two firm knocks on the door, followed by a "Liam."

"Since when did you start to ask for my permission to come in?" I pretend to focus on the papers before me, I am doing everything but that.

Vivana pokes her head inside the room with a wide grin, before moving her whole body inside. Kelly falls silent instantly, her back rigid as she notices Vivana. Kelly admires her very much and always wants Vivana to think the best of her. Meanwhile, Crystal doesn’t bat her eye as Vivana crosses the large room and takes a seat before me, across the table.

My room is wide and richly lightened with sunlight. Large bookshelves are obscuring the walls and a mountain of papers pilled up on my desk at the end of the room.

"I came here to remind you of something." She smiles as she asses me.

I look at her out of the corner of my eyes, not lifting my head, "You just need excuses to come here."

"Not really." She grins, amused at my slightly irritated demeanor.

"It’s the King’s birthday in a month." She drops the bomb after a brief pause.

Ah, yes. The royal birthday...