Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 159: Total Trust (2)

Chapter 159: Total Trust (2)

Talia closed her eyes as that warm kiss landed on her forehead. She was really touched by Arthur’s honest words.

He is willing to give up everything for me! Even his family name!

Arthur was thinking otherwise. She doesn’t know what his plans are and she doesn’t even know her grandfather is keeping a larger portion of the share for her. But just because he said so, she is believing his words that he will not destroy her grandfather’s company? Is she the same one who just weeks back accused him for wishing to take over her grandfather’s company? And now seemingly he did just what she accused him of, but she opts to trust him now? He even has a frigging fiancee now!

"Iris, why are you trusting me this much?" he asked holding her chin gently.

"Why not?" she asked as her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She thought he might not be serious but his sharp eyes said otherwise.

"I might steal everything from your grandfather, obilerate Northern Star to nothingness, marry that woman and even keep you out of Esteria for life. What will you do then?" he asked.

His Iris is never stupid and she is vengeful. He expected that she’d say she’d destroy him in that case.

Talia looked at Arthur. His green eyes were looking at her for answers. She realised she had accused him of trying to win the family feud for the sake of his family before. She did believe that to be the case. But that was before she knew all the facts right?

"I don’t believe you’d ever do that," Talia said holding his hand. "There is no other reason you did everything you did, and everything you are doing now, other than your deep love for me. So why would you hurt me now?" she asked back.

Didn’t he make that clear?

He was touched by her answer and he hugged her close, his eyes teared up.

When he left her without a word, when he announced his engagement without giving her a heads up, when he took over Northern Star, he worried that he needs to explain and beg her to take him back. But why did she make everything so simple?

He really couldn’t believe that he could repeat his life in the past ten years without her once again. He needed her to love him. He needed that assurance that she will not leave him one day like she left that day. He really can’t accept that. He literally will die if she leaves him again.

"I do love you so much Iris," he said, his voice trembled as he couldn’t control his emotion.

"I know. I love you too," she said and leaning on his chest, she could hear his quickened heartbeat. "If you ever break my trust, you know what I’ll do? I gave you a taste before, right? I might have misunderstood before but in the future, if I realise you’ve broken my trust, I’ll definitely leave you and will not let you see my face ever," she said.

Arthur didn’t say anything but Talia could feel his grip tightening on her. He seemed to be in distress and scared. She really didn’t know he’s scared of her leaving that much.

As she was leaning on his chest rising and falling with each of his breath, she suddenly remembered something and unbuttoned his shirt.

"Are you thirsty? You want me?" Arthur was a bit surprised by this provocative initiation by Talia.

"I’m checking if you lied," she said curling her lips and opened his shirt. That purple ink he had on his chest had gone away completely and there was his usual curly chest hair in that area.

Talia was pleased seeing that.

"You didn’t lie..." she smiled and he smiled back.

"I didn’t."

How silly is she?

"Come on, let’s go," she stood up. "Louis will be here tomorrow and I’lleave with him to Rosandale. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do there," she sighed.

"What’s there to worry about? You’re the fourth in line to the throne and no one will bother to-"

"Not fourth, third actually," Talia corrected him, "Next to Louis’ boys and before Lambert."

"Isn’t Lambert Louis’ blood brother? How come you pass on him in the line of succession?" Arthur wanted to know.

Isn’t she just their second cousin?

"Because I’m older than Lambert by months?" Talia shrugged. Seeing Arthur intrigued she continued, "Actually my grandmother that is my father’s mother was Princess Lillian of Rosandale, right? She was the firstborn and she was the heir to the throne. That’s cool right? In Rosandale the firstborn is the heir to the throne regarding their gender. But my grandmother, fell in love with a commoner and so she was exiled and she lost her claim to the throne. It was a long time ago and rules were strictly followed and so my grandmother had to be exiled. It was also rumoured that the Dowager Queen was the one who pushed for the exile of her own daughter

Maybe because she regretted it... " Talia leaned closer to Arthur and whispered. What she says now will be considered treason if this was some centuries back. But she wanted to tell Arthur about it.

" She wanted me to take the throne when the previous King passed away. She said it was my birthright and I have more claim to the throne than Louis and also the previous King, since my grandmother was supposed to be the monarch after my great grandfather and not Louis’ grandfather," she took a step back.

" I refused obviously and she was not impressed. Even I was surprised when Louis announced my line of succession, putting me ahead of Lambert, after he became King. I bet it was to honour the Dowager Queen’s wishes.... "Talia went on.

Arthur was stunned hearing all that. Of course they would have tried to keep this all a secret to not cause chaos in the nation. But, isn’t this a good reason she might have enemies?

The Palace is a place filled with vultures and vipers. It could be anyone who want to benefit from her absence or anyone who wants to protect their interest in the Palace who may find Talia’s arrival a hurdle.

King Louis and Prince Lambert both seem to protect Talia. But do they really want her protected?

Is Rosandale safe for Iris now?

Arthur then shook his head. For him, it seemed more like they wanted to keep her safe with them, especially that Old lady. As long as that old lady is alive, no one will hurt Iris. That Old Lady still runs the Palace.

Talia returned to the table first and she was surprised the desert only arriving then. Thankfully neither Jordan or Vivian asked about her absence. As she was halfway through her dessert, Arthur joined and apologised that he had to attend a call from his family.

He then showed Talia the pictures he took of his niece and nephew and Talia was too excited seeing those two. Especially their interactions were so cute.

More than anything Talia was happy that Arthur is getting close to his family, especially his brother. He is a good guy. And Arthur need not lose his family to be with her. She would never want that for him. She wanted him to be happy with her, not stressed wondering what might trigger her displeasure.

After finishing lunch, Vivian asked Arthur to take a pictures of them together. Arthur was not pleased that Jordan get to be in the frame but he could not.

But as he thought, he understood why Vivian insisted on it. The picture frame had two bouquets of roses one yellow and one red. This would definitely cause a stir. People will suspect the red roses. Of course no brother will give his sister red roses and so people will speculate if Jordan and Talia has anything.

But then later the truth will be revealed that the lunch companions weren’t three but four and the fourth person was Arthur.

And that will make them speculate who gave the red roses. This will be good.

Arthur has already made plans. He is going to make people believe that he was not happy with the engagement since it was arranged and so he was pursuing Talia at the same time.

It’s all a good plan.

Talia was being bashed in the Internet now for being a heartless snob and ruining the life of a model by breaking her ankle for no reason. An innocent model lost her future just because she wanted a picture from the Prodigal Princess. Olivia posted a comment showing her sympathy for her close friend who needlessly suffered too.

Vivian smiled seeing the original post with more than a million views. She then posted in her account the picture of them three first with the caption ’Lunch with my cute brother and new friend’. She also wrote some other details about their meeting and how fun it was.

In the next post she posted the video with a comment. ’Oh my! We encountered Natasha earlier and didn’t know our little interaction blew up! For those who are bashing our #princessofhearts without knowing the truth, please decide after watching this video. Or maybe I am wrong about #PrincessTalia. Maybe she is #TelekineticPrincess!!! Oh my!!! I had lunch with a real life #superhero!’

Vivian had more followers than Natasha and the moment she posted the video, it blew up the Internet. People saw the video which clearly showed how Talia didn’t even touch Natasha and it was her and his gang who first sought trouble with Talia and the tide changed entirely.

People started using terrible words towards Natasha and Olivia’s post started receiving negative comments and in the end she deleted the comment. But screen shots of her comment was taken and even Olivia was not left alone as people went for blood.

#Telekineticprincess trended allover the world and people started questioning the legitimacy of the videos. Both videos were real and unaltered, but the angle and depth of the video changed the perspective drastically. Most people believe videos blindly. But can they believe all videos?

Vivian gave a tight hug to Talia making even Arthur jealous and thanked her profusely for the lace. Talia too couldn’t help but grin seeing Vivian’s happy face.

Talia knew it is time to say goodbye to Arthur and looked at him. She really wanted to bring him to her room, but she cannot and she felt very disappointed.