Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 268: Ending Before Beginning

I felt a chill run down my spine and I began regretting getting on his wrong side.

“There is nothing to gain from loving someone that you can’t have. No matter how much you love him, he will never be yours,” Desmond said coldly as his eyes seemed to glaze over and become lifeless.

His words shocked me, not because I couldn’t predict the same outcome, but because it convinced me that he knew the identity of the man that I love.

How else could he say with absolute certainty that Anthony would never be mine?

I wasn’t sure if the timing was on my side or not, but the car suddenly came to a stop and that meant that we had arrived back at my house where their prince was supposed to drop me off. It felt like a short eternity had passed by, and I didn’t remember the ride from my place to the venue being that long. I turned and stared at the prince while my mind raced to find the right words to say to him in order to end our conversation. After having learned that leaving our conversation unfinished could lead to dire consequences, I was determined to close up this conversation for good. Turning the prince down could mean that this would be our last date and the last time that I would see him. I couldn’t help thinking that it was better this way for both of us.

“And so what if that’s the case? This is my problem and something that I have to deal with, it has nothing to do with you. Even if what you say is true, it still has nothing to do with you. Stop acting so selfish and like you know it all when you know absolutely nothing about me. Also, I don’t think we should ever see each other again,” I spoke as quickly as I could while still keeping my words clear.

I was scared that if I paused, I might lose whatever courage that I managed to muster. Breaking things off with the prince before all of this would lead us somewhere where we shouldn’t be felt like the safest and most conservative option.

I’m just putting out a fire before it rages out of control...

“Don’t be like that, Dahlia. I already told you that I’m sorry,” Desmond apologized.

I reached for the car door and opened it before quickly making my way out. I wished that the prince would just let me go, but his grip on my arm prevented my escape. I was glad that no one else was around to witness our heated argument.

“Let go,” I told him coldly.

“Can we talk this out? Please?” The prince suggested with a hopeful smile.

I hated myself for hesitating even if it was just for a second. The prince’s pleading tone and the look of hurt on his face tore at my heart. That was probably when I realized that I might have cared for the prince more than I would like to admit.

If only words could solve our problem, then I wouldn’t hesitate to talk things out with him.

“Don’t contact me ever again. I don’t want to see you,” I said as I pulled his hand away from my arm.

My sharp words must have shocked the prince enough because he didn’t say or do anything to stop me from leaving. To my utter relief, I managed to make it to my room without any disturbance. It was when I had taken a shower and I was alone in my room that the truth finally began to sink in. I had to admit that I didn’t think so far ahead when I suddenly broke things off with the prince, and I began to wonder if this would lead to even more trouble in the near future. I slept down on the bed and let out a long sigh while thinking that tomorrow and the future could simply wait.

...

Even though I knew that the abrupt end of my relationship with the prince wasn’t going to end on a completely silent note, I was still shocked about the commotion that followed. Not surprisingly, the photos of us kissing at the event got published by every single media channel that existed in the country and gossip spread all over the country even faster than forest fire. Despite the fact that I had ended my relations with the prince, the public now believed that we were dating. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The word ‘scandalous’ was added to everything that I did and this time it was not any different. Our relationship was dubbed as the most ‘scandalous royal affair’ and our kiss was the most ‘scandalous kiss’. The reporters probably reaped a lot of enjoyment from searching for where they could possibly insert in the word just to make everything sound more ‘scandalous’ than it really was.

I wasn’t sure if this was something that Desmond had hoped for, but that was clearly the way things played out. People’s reactions were mixed and I found it quite amusing at first to read through the various comments and articles written about us. It was frankly quite amazing how much spare time people had to pay attention to matters completely non-related to themselves.

As expected, the overall sentiment was shocking and quite negative. Although we were supposed to have just started dating and it wasn’t like we were getting married or anything like that, people couldn’t stop thinking ahead that I might actually one day sit on the throne next to the prince as the future queen. Without them having to point it out so blatantly, I knew that with my scandalous background and contentious reputation, I wasn’t what everyone hoped for in a queen. What I hadn’t quite expected was that some people would blow things out of proportion and speculate that my union with the prince could create a political power shift even more so in favor of my family.

Marrying their youngest daughter off to the Crown Prince was clearly viewed as taking a huge leap forward in terms of securing power and influence for the future of the family.

–To be continued...