Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 267: Can’t Let You Go

I can’t let him find out about this. I wasn’t sure how well the prince knew Anthony personally, but they definitely knew each other.

“Don’t put words in my mouth. There’s no one that I like,” I stubbornly denied.

The prince stared at me in silence for a few seconds before he smiled and then shook his head slowly from side to side.

“Did someone ever tell you that you’re not a very good liar?” He asked, although it wasn’t truly the question.

At that moment, I was absolutely certain that he could see through me and my lies, and I wondered how much he truly knew.

“Are you going to continue to deny it?” The prince asked.

“I’m just telling you the truth,” I replied softly without backing down.

“Well then, if there’s no one that you like, I guess that works in my favor. Let’s go on more dates until you start falling for me,” the prince suggested as if that was the best solution.

“I don’t want to do this,” I said firmly as I decided to take a stand.

Instead of getting angry at me, the prince nodded his head a couple of times as if he was absorbing the true meaning of my words and accepting it. I felt a glimpse of hope that perhaps he would have mercy on me and he would let me go. I couldn’t imagine the prince driving me to do something against my will. After all, he had not forced me to do anything that I truly didn’t want to.

“I think I actually understand you pretty well,” the prince said softly as he brought his hand towards my face.

I watched slowly as his beautiful fingers approached my face before I felt their warmth grazing my cheek. My breath caught in my throat as I wonder what he meant when he said that he understood me pretty well. No matter how I looked at it, his situation was very different from mine.

“I don’t understand...” I whispered as our eyes locked. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“It’s hard to give up, isn’t it? When you like someone so much, I guess it’s hard for you to give them up,” he said as he began stroking the side of my face gently.

For a moment, I truly felt scared of the prince. It wasn’t because I thought that he would harm me, but I was scared that he would find out the truth. Although Desmond spoke like he knew what I was hiding, I desperately told myself that he couldn’t possibly know anything. Silence was supposed to be golden, and I decided to maintain my silence.

“I didn’t quite understand or believe that at first until I met you. I think I’m truly interested in you, and that I really like you, Dahlia. Just like you find it hard to give up on him, I find it desperately hard to give up on you,” he said before he brought his face closer to mine.

I had no idea up until that point just how strongly the prince felt about me, although I doubt it that his feelings were as strong as the ones that I harbored for Anthony. In a way, it felt like he was right that he understood me, and at the same time, it felt like I understood the prince.

Unrequited love was indeed a painful thing, and I could speak of that from experience; however, it was so difficult to let go and give up. I realized that if I had a problem giving up on Anthony, then it was possible that the prince would find it difficult to give up on me.

“I don’t know if you will ever end up falling for me, and perhaps I don’t really care,” the prince said with a wistful look on his face and I wondered what he was imagining.

“What do you mean?” I asked in a small voice as curiosity crept up in my mind.

“I’m happy just being with you and I want to make you happier than you are now, Dahlia,” the prince said before smiling at me.

It seemed that he wasn’t willing to give up no matter what the case, and I found that extremely ironic. His situation seemed to mirror mine, except for the fact that I could never bring myself to confess my feelings to Anthony. His situation wasn’t as hopeless as mine, because at least I wasn’t getting engaged to someone else.

“I’m sorry, but I really can’t do this,” I apologize wholeheartedly.

If only we could bend our emotions and change our hearts into what we wanted, then perhaps we wouldn’t have to suffer the way that we did. It would be all too convenient for me to fall in love with the prince; however, it just felt so impossible and useless to force.

“Do you still have hope that the guy you like will return your feelings?” The prince asked with merciless straightforwardness.

Even if he would never like me back, I still couldn’t stop loving him. Of course, I couldn’t tell the prince that so all I could do was answer him silently in my mind.

“Never mind about me, what about you? Are you fine with me never liking you back?” I asked before I could stop myself.

I told myself that I wasn’t to blame because the prince was the one who started it and he was the one who provoked me.

“I’m fine with it. It’s not ideal, but I’m fine with it. We don’t know the future, so that means that you might end up falling for me one day,” the prince replied with a grin.

How I wish things would work out so easily...

“I don’t think that will happen,” I replied without any self-doubt.

“Then, let me tell you what I know for certain will happen,” the prince said as he removed his hand from my face.

It felt like the air around him suddenly shifted, and the peaceful calm that surrounded him suddenly turned ice cold. It seemed I had forgotten that despite how kind and casual he acted around me, Desmond was still the only prince of this Kingdom.

–To be continued...