Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 104: You Are The Reason

Chapter 104: You Are The Reason

Talia sat comfortably in the couch, covering her legs with the throw blanket. Fixing her earphones, she turned to her side to see Rebecca cooking humming a country tune. She seemed to be in good spirits after the shopping. Talia then looked down at her phone and pressed play.

It was a video, shaky for the first few seconds. The bright place where the sun rays seeped through the linen curtains was the turret of her bedroom, the place where Arthur has set the piano for her.

Through the high definition earpiece she was wearing, Talia could hear the giggles of Ms.Grey, her nanny. She stayed there till now. The innocent laughter of that old lady, mocking herself for her inability to hold the device was like the sound of chirping sparrows welcoming the morning.

"You’re doing fine, Ms. Grey. Now remember my future depends on you!" Arthur smiled looking behind the camera like a pure little boy.

"Help me impress my wife. Hearing this, your stubborn Lady must gallop to me with her arms wide open."

The deep baritone voice of Fred, sitting at the piano, looking dapper in a black tuxedo followed making Talia’s heart clench. All his words when heard the first time, Talia dismissed them as over exaggerated.

But now... She could hear the sincerity in them.

As the blanket warmed her up, Talia closed her eyes as that deep voice, drummed her ears.

There was silence for a second and soon it was overwhelmed by the soothing sound of chords as the long boney fingers, danced on the keyboard of the grand piano.

Talia felt like she was led to a magical forest with little birds chirping and varies flying.

And it was followed by something more amazing... The voice of Arthur...And it was him who appeared in front of her in the apparel of a Prince in that magical forest.

In her mind, he looked disheveled like he had undergone an arduous journey just to meet her. Just to get her - The Princess stuck in the tower of darkness.

***This song is titled "You are the reason" by Callum Scott. The details about the song are in the Author’s note ***

[There goes my heart beating

’Cause you are the reason

I’m losing my sleep

Please come back now]

Talia looked at Arthur with his piercing green eyes looking straight at her in her phone screen and she could see his pleading eyes.

’I want to come back,Fred. Take me. ’

[There goes my mind racing

And you are the reason

That I’m still breathing

I’m hopeless now]

Talia could hear Arthur’s voice break a bit as he sang the last line...

I’m Hopeless - ’I can see that, Fred’ Talia smiled wryly, ’I feel the same way too - hopelessly in love!’

[I’d climb every mountain

And swim every ocean

Just to be with you

And fix what I’ve broken

Oh, ’cause I need you to see

That you are the reason]

Talia chuckled slightly. That day when they stayed on the bed a whole morning, forgetting to even eat breakfast, Fred showed her this video. And that day, she mocked him.

"You climbed no mountains and swam no ocean for me! You took a private jet, you liar!"

"I made this video for you though," he looked at her with puppy eyes, "I learnt the piano for you... That counts, right? Right, Iris?" he wrapped his arms around her and pecked her on her lips making her go all mushy.

"Accept my efforts..." he said biting her lips,hokding back his urge to go further with her.

She pushed him away, "You already play violin! Learning Piano is a piece of cake for you!" she tried to frown but couldn’t as he started tickling her with his fingers.

She was misunderstanding him then and yet he tried hard to make her laugh.

That guy!

Talia chuckled slightly leaning on the couch and placed her hand on her lips reminiscing his warmth on her lips as the rest of the song continued.

When she closed her eyes, she was in that magical forest and when she opened them, the sincere face of Arthur reflected in her blue eyes.

[There goes my hands shaking

And you are the reason

My heart keeps bleeding

I need you now, oh

If I could turn back the clock

I’d make sure the light defeated the dark

I’d spend every hour, of every day oh

Keeping you safe]

"It’s amazing someone wrote this song, just for me to sing to you, Iris... So perfectly written... I mean every word in this song. I really do!"

That day when he said it, she took it casually. Like he was just embellishing his words to make her emotional to make her return.

But today she could understand. Those words in the song as he sang... He really meant it. She really was in a dark place that day partly because of the drugs injected to her by Ray. He must have felt guilty all the time till now.

He must have blamed himself for not protecting when she was in his house; in his room.

’Oh I know you tried to protect me now, my love.’

[... A little closer now, just a little closer now

Come a little closer, I need you to hold me tonight...]

The song continued and Talia felt a wave of emotions along with the emotions Arthur expressed in this song. Emotions that made her feel like she was walking holding his hands.

She wanted it to become reality.

"Iris, Come home with me..."

His magnetic voice through the earpiece made her open her eyes and she saw Arthur extending his hand towards her with a single red rose.

As she was about to touch the screen she could see Fred getting flustered.

"Cut it, Ms. Grey..." he said and there was a slight annoyance in his face.

"But how?" Ms. Grey was more apologetic as Talia could infer from her voice. She must have thought she was ruining his efforts by not ending the video properly.

"The square. The red square inside the circle... Press it... No, no... Wait... Let me... Ah,well...It’s -"

The video ended and Talia placed the phone on her lap and rubbed her face. She didn’t know how there were tears in her eyes, but the corners of her eyes were wet.

’This guy! He said he tried so hard and yer he didn’t even have the time to edit the video and cut only the song part?’

Talia thought to herself and laughed. Then she chided herself for always finding fault with him. At least he tried to do something for her and put in all the efforts. What has she ever done for him?

Talia sighed.

Eh! He’s the man! Let him!

Talia then decided it was the duty of a man to woo a woman to alleviate her guilt. She played the song a couple more tunes and each time she heard it, she felt more understanding of the emotions of Arthur.

---

In Esteria,

Arthur dressed himself to the nines since that was a black tie event and also he knew he’ll be announced as the President of Northern Star Enterprises as Jerome Brunton passes his duties to him.

He took a look at his left hand. He had removed the wedding band he wore everyday for ten years and there was a marking left. Unknowingly a sigh left his mouth.

Iris... Forgive me...

When he saw the recordings of her talk with Prince Edward, first he felt ashamed of himself. She was already got hurt by the way that hypocritical bastard manhandled her. And as if that is not enough, he had misunderstood her and hurt her. He felt guilty, so guilty he wanted to just disappear from her sight.

How many times his incompetence has led to her suffering? One too many.

When he saw the red markings on her shoulder as Prince Edward took his hands away from her shoulder, he wanted to strangle that beast. He had to control himself. He did that to her too in his anger that night.

And not to mention, he almost r*aped her.

And as he listened to Edward’s words, he could understand Prince Edward was making her misunderstand that the entire council was against her.

But that really is not the case.

There were some who are against Brunton family and some are loyal. Some are scared by her connections with the Rosandale Royal family and some hate her for it.

But the council will never decide against Iris. Those people watched her grow. It would be like them hurting their own children and no one in that council is that heartless.

But the heirs to those nobles.... They are another story. Most of them hate her. If they take their father’s position, they’d definitely decide against her. And they are the ones giving Prince Edward that blind faith to oppose Brunton family.

But how many sons have changed the hearts of their fathers? How many are blinded by the power and wealth of the Brunton family?

No one knows for sure.

He didn’t know if he could entirely trust the Lockhart family either.

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