Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 261: Attention Seeker?

Chapter 261: Attention Seeker?

Even though her grandmother has been dead for years, for her grandfather, she still was alive in his heart and she still is his wife.

She didn’t know she should he happy for her grandmother or sad for her. She did pick a very loyal and kind man as her husband, but was unlucky to leave him so early. He would have cherished her as long as she lived and she couldn’t spend more time with him.

Sigh!

After talking with her Grandpa for sometime, she returned to her place.

That night Arthur called as usual. They talked about each others day and without going to much details, Talia told Arthur that she received a confession.

"Why are you so polite with those pesky people?" Arthur was not impressed when she said she politely refused. "They might think they still have a chance if they pushed you."

"Come on Fred! Should I make enemies by being rude with someone confessing to me?" Talia wasn’t impressed by Arthur’s point of view.

"Just ignore them like I do! Why are you giving them a time of your day? They’d just leave after you ignore them for sometime." he wasn’t pleased by Talia’s disagreement.

"Ignore them? And what if they get angry and trap me in some odd place and try to hurt me?" Talia still didn’t forget what Asher did as it was a traumatic incident for her.

Four dogs died that day!

If Asher was that angry as she ignored him when he tried to contact her, even after she politely rejected his request for a date at first, how angry would he be if she dismissed him when he first asked her out?

" Can’t ignore them? You ignored me fine in the past!" Arthur scoffed and Talia couldn’t find any words to reply to him.

I was angry at you thinking that you abandoned me, remember Fred?

It seemed like he didn’t care what she thought and he continued, "And... Don’t you have 24/7 protection? Who’d dare to attack you? You just want to be admired, right? You feel validated knowing there are men-"

"Fred!" Talia interjected him this time. He used to tease her at times, but this time it seemed like he was very serious, accusing her of ignoring him and wanting attention from other men. "Will you mind your accusations?"

That never is the case! She never was such person who wanted admiration all the time. Most times, she gets blinded by confessions, thinking what those guys might see in her for them to confess to her. She never has high opinions about herself, especially after what happened with Cyrus.

Cyrus... His birthday is coming up in a couple of days... He’d be thirty seven, if he were alive.

But he won’t be... He will forever the twenty six year old, in everyone’s memory, since she took him from them.

"Iris..." Arthur let out a deep sigh and that snapped Talia out of her thoughts.

Arthur was in his own deliberation, wondering why he is so confrontational with her. He always tried not to get angry with her. She’s a very sensitive and delicate person, and so he always tried to be gentle with her.

But the thought of other men falling for her, made him so angry and he felt incompetent. It’s like what she says... If she had his ring on her finger, no one would dare to approach her with those thoughts. He really felt like he is an imbecile for not being able to be near her.

"I’m sorry, I was just stressed and..."

"What are you stressed about?" Talia calmed herself down.

It happens right? It happens! Sometimes people get stressed out and take it on others. Oddly, it happens to me a lot.

"... Do you mind if I made it public..? Your meeting with Edward...? " he asked.

Arthur really needed to break the engagement. Even today, Sophia contacted his office and made the woman who answered, uncomfortable, by pleading to talk to him, claiming she is his fiancee. He ignored her as usual and she gave up after a while.

But he cannot let it continue.

"I’m not sure what it would do, Fred. Maybe release the audio? He was pretty arrogant and conceited as he spoke. Using words like ’us’ referring to the nobles and ’them’ as he spoke about others... He was terrible, and the tone he used was despicable... But I said I wanted nothing with Esteria and rejected his offer to help me get back. If we release selected portions of those recording, it will come out since Edward has the same recording too. I don’t know with the current situation, as everyone is against the nobles... I heard some people tried to set fire to the Highground Buildings yesterday? It is better to stop publishing anymore of-"

" What do you mean? No one is angry at you or the Brunton family. Everyone loves you now and they will understand!" Arthur didn’t understand what she is meaning.

" But Fred, the people are always saturated with news about me. With a lot of good publicity about me now, if we try to stuff some more news about me, this time blaming the Prince, and making me seem like I chose Rosandale when my grandpa was sick, it will backfire. And it goes against the narrative we spin till now. Be patient. Edward is not that smart and he won’t be hard to handle in the future." Talia said rubbing her forehead.

Arthur is smart... Too smart. But even he cannot control the masses as he wishes he could. As someone who worked in PR, she knew everything has a saturation point. The more you hear about someone, the more you’d start to hate them even if you love them.

She can release that recording, only when someone asks her about it. And she felt like such chance will present itself.

"You are saying it won’t work out?" Arthur asked and Talia could feel the frustration in his voice.

"Mm.. Yes, for now. So... What’s for dinner tonight?" Talia decided to move away from the topic that brings misunderstandings between them. Although her worded it as if he was asking her opinion, Talia felt like he was being sarcastic.

The other end was silent for a while and Talia could hear his breathing at the other end. She couldn’t get what he was thinking.

"What if I show that footage to the King?" Arthur still believed that the King won’t like his heir to seem apathetic to the people and cutting deals with Talia for getting Northern Star.

"Ah, Fred... I talked to my grandpa about influencing King Titus today. Even he is sure that the King will do anything in his power to not dissolve the council. Why don’t you let it go?"

"I’m talking about making Esteria safe for our kids, Iris... For everyone’s safety, the Council shouldn’t be allowed to exist anymore. How hard is it for you to understand?" Although Arthur had hesitations in abolishing the Council all together after listening to his brother, he still wasn’t willing to back off. Everything he started till now, has succeeded and this one; he didn’t want to give up halfway.

" I don’t know Fred. I’m dumb. Do what you want." Talia didn’t like the tone he talked and unconsciously ended up talking in the same tone.

"You’re not dumb! You’ve just used to the luxury, living in a Palace with staff looking out for you and aristocratic men standing in queue and confessing. And for you, I look like a buffoon and a dimwit now! A dimwit who have to watch his woman getting confessed by other stupid men! " Arthur raised his voice once more. He really couldn’t get over her getting confessions when he couldn’t be near her.

Talia was enraged. She was hurt by his words the first time he insinuated she is enjoying attention and let it go. She tried to steer the conversation and yet he still isn’t letting go and saying the same thing over and over again.

He is not saying this out of anger! He is meaning it!

" You are a f*cking dimwit, Fred! And it is not for the reason you think! " Talia ended the call using her power button and threw the phone on the bed and plopped on the pillow on her.

She rolled on her belly and looked at her phone lying upside down at the edge of the bed. She couldn’t control her tears and ended up sobbing silently so not to alert her staff.

She looked at her phone, hoping there would be a call from Arthur or at least a message. But her blurry vision couldn’t see any blinking lights fro her phone or any notification sounds.

In the end, after staring at her phone, barely hanging at the end of the bed and crying for almost an hour.

She didn’t know when she slept, but when she woke up the sky was already bright and the first thing she did was check her phone.

And her phone was.... Turned off.

Thinking that her phone needs to be charged, Talia connected the charger and turned on her phone to find that her phone did have enough charge.

Whoa! How did it turned off then?

Her phone blew up with hundreds of notifications, most of them were texts and calls from Arthur.

Uh, sh*t!

Talia realised she might have accidentally turned off the phone when she ended the call and she cried in vain after that. If only she picked her phone and checked for notifications, or if she tried to call him, she need not have cried an entire night.

Talia after this, felt more stupid about her behaviour and she didn’t know where her anger towards Arthur went.

Poor guy tried to call her till 2 a.m.

She immediately called him back. But his phone was switched off now.

What could have happened?

Talia tried to call him a couple more times and in the end, decided to wait in case he forget to charge his phone.

As she checked her phone, she realised she had some mails from Arthur and she read the top in the list, which was the last email he sent.

The subject was <Idiot Iris>

Idiot Iris! Why didn’t you answer me? I broke my phone!

Talia couldn’t help but smile seeing his email.

Who’s the idiot who broke his phone out of anger?