Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 63: Truths

Chapter 63: Truths

In fact she even poked fun at him for not earning anything other than his birthright. Also she praised Rosandale Royals for still ruling the Kingdom while his grandfather gave up ruling the kingdom.

This arrogant trash!

"Alright, let’s stop fooling around, Talia. Let me tell you why I wanted to meet you. The Council is willing to let you back in Esteria forgiving everything and let you take your role as the successor of the Dukedom of Oakley "

"Let me back?"

Talia pulled off her smile raising her eyebrows looking at Prince Edward who seemed to say it out of the goodness of his heart.

’I don’t remember being driven off! I thought I left out of my own will!’

She lost the little appetite she had. But she knew it would be rude to end the dinner halfway.

"May I ask what are the prerequisites for my said ’return’ with the Council’s approval? " she showed herself to be interested to get an idea what their intentions might be.

" You are one of ours Talia. Our people really miss you and will welcome you with open arms if you come back. And the Council is always looking out for our welfare..." he paused to read Talia’s expression and seeing her still looking intrigued, he continued,

"Renounce your title and role as the Royal Princess of Rosandale and promise to avoid contact with the Rosandale Royal family. I know that won’t be hard for you since you only know them for a short time. And you haven’t taken the role of the Royal Princess entirely," he paused.

" What more? " she asked fisting her hands under the table while showing no expression on her face.

True, she has no great emotional bond with the Rosandale Royal family and she has never accepted the duties of the Royal Princess. She only has the title.

But when she was standing by the creek, helpless and clueless as to where or how she should go and continue living that day she was supposed to be wed to Ray, it was them who rescued her and brought her back to their country breaking all kinds of national and international laws and protected her for an year. She didn’t even bring her passport with her and they brought her out of Esteria somehow. They were the ones who helped her get admission in the best university in this country. They offered to pay her tuition, but she refused them and got a scholarship and still they protected her.

That old lady Queen Dowager might look crude and stoic like someone with no heart but she knew she loved her so much.

Should she denounce them? They are the ones who never hurt her and gave their all to protect her.

Just like her grandpa, they are her family too. They are her family from her father’s side. She cannot give them up!

But she decided to get the whole idea and so she asked what else the Council wants from her.

" Your grandfather thinks he’d be allowed to give the company to Arthur Boswell. But he cannot. We lost what’s ours to them for a long time. This will lead to us losing everything eventually. Talia, you understand all these right? We are supposed to be the rulers and they should be serving us. Do you see how the tables are turning on us?

You might not have known these since you are not paying attention, Talia. Arthur has already replaced most of us in the company with them. They are taking over and soon they will become our Lords. They will revolt against us and we won’t even get our grants from the treasury even if we beg. They’ve already reduced our grants substantially. And when they get the upper hand, do you think they will spare anything for us?

You may think that they’d be grateful to your grandfather who has... "

" Is that so...?" Talia looked at Prince Edward, wide- eyed as if she was a small child slowly getting to know about the big scary world outside.

She grew up a noble too and she can act as good as any of them.

But below the table she was fisting her hands hard, the napkin became crumpled.

She very well understood what the ’Us’ and ’Them’ meant. She didn’t know if she should be slapping him for his ignorance or just kill him for his bigotry and chauvinism.

And another thing is that he is mentioning is ’the company’. It is not ’the company’, it is ’her grandfather’s company’. Why is he phrasing it like Northern Star is owned by all the nobles? Some of them are shareholders, yes. But it is her grandfather’s company,he built and still own.

When there was a great war decades back, there was a great depression and Northern Star was just a construction equipments manufacturing company back then and it faced great losses and none of the nobles lent a helping hand even though they were fairly coping up.

Her grandfather singlehandedly stood as a pillar and saved the company from collapse and seeing his determination many common folks stood by his side and slowly the company is made to the conglomerate it is now.

Her grandfather even sold the shares to some of those nobles later since they were in verge of bankruptcy to help them since his company was doing well.

And the grants... Their duchy stopped receiving grants from the taxpayers funds ever since her grandfather became the Duke. All the expenditures including their security, her grandfather pays them all himself from his own pockets.

Her grandfather and Cyrus had told all the tales to her when she was young and she still remembered them.

’These ungrateful bastards! Now they want Northern Star for themselves?’

She could guess what their intentions are. They only knew her as the polite little child who smiles and nods. No one knew how smart she is since Cyrus was with her always and he did most of the talking.

"Cyrus - her knight and strength!"

Those men used to laugh at her.

They weren’t complimenting weren’t they? And... If so, do they have a hand in Cyrus’... ’

Talia felt her stomach churning and she wanted to retch thinking of everything.

She took a gulp and deep breaths to compose herself. All these plots that might be around her made her want to run away. She wished Fred was near her.

Seeing her looking a bit confused, Prince Edward felt relieved. Cyrus was like a wall around her protecting her. With him gone, she’d be just a vulnerable little girl who can be easily manipulated.

Everyone knows how much she got broken after she herself killed Cyrus.

Look at her now, she bought everything I said.

"But Arthur is my husband and it is his right to get my grandfather’s company. How can we stop him?" she spoke as a naive woman.

"There is a way, annul your marriage. He cannot get a single cent of your money then. The Council can help you. They already regret their decision of forcing the marriage between Raymond Sinclair and you. Too bad you ended up with Arthur and you even had to run away and... I know you don’t like the marriage either... "he paused as the waiter served the third course.

’The council set the marriage?’

Talia felt her head spinning by learning that fact.

Why?

’Was it because they knew who Ray was and thought my grandfather will not allow myself to get bullied and the feud will continue... Too bad they guessed wrong! My grandpa sold me out!’

Talia didn’t even want to pretend to eat anymore and set her cutleries on her plate and placed the napkin to her left.

"You’re full already? You haven’t even touched the... ," Prince Edward almost stood up from his seat.

’Give him an Oscar already’ Talia rolled her eyes mentally.

"Yeah, I’m full," Talia said hiding her expression.

"Come on! How small is your stomach? Surely you’d have space for dessert at least... The lavender hot chocolate cake in this restaurant is top notch. I specially ordered it for you," his blue eyes looked restless as if he’d missed something making Talia cringe a bit.

" Sorry, but I’m allergic to chocolate, " she lied with a straight face.

I won’t even eat the chocolate you bought!

Seeing her sullen expression, he felt a bit bad too.

"Talia, do you love him?" he asked and Talia looked back at him and didn’t answer.

He took her silence as ’Yes’. He knew how close she was with him back in high school and from what everyone knows, it is tough to forget one’s high school sweetheart.

And surely she didn’t hold back from defending him some time before.

What did he do to make her fall for him in this few days?

"He will take everything from you, Talia... If you are not prudent... Return to Esteria and claim what’s yours," he held out his hand and tried to hold her hand.

Talia leaned casually back on the chair avoiding his hands and crossed her leg.

"Leave me aside, Edward. Let’s talk about you. You, a Prince have no need to come talk to me yourself like a measly messenger. If I am being bold, I’d say you have some ulterior motives meeting me in person," she smiled with her usual politeness.

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