by Sophia Lynn
He started to speak, but she cut him off. Suddenly, she felt as if she had run ten miles with a heavy pack stuck to her back. She felt as if all of her blood had been drained out of her and replaced with water.
"Mikal, will you help me?"
"Of course. Anything."
She had expected nothing less. "Mikal, I either need you to let me go, let me out of this bargain …"
He winced, but nodded, waiting for the rest. "Or I need you to tell me that we have something here, something real."
He stared at her, and she felt a deep wave of humiliation come up as he stuttered over his words.
"Viviana, when I call you beloved, when I speak to you, when I touch you … it … those are things we haven't talked about, we were just doing them …"
Viviana nodded, tired to her bones. "Then you will release me."
It wasn't a question, but his silence answered it.
She started past him, but there was something that stopped her from leaving it there. She realized that there was a very real chance that this would be the last time she saw him, that if she ever saw his face again, it might be on a magazine. No matter how she felt, she couldn't leave it there.
She reached up, cupping her hand over the back of his neck. He watched her intently as she pulled his face down to hers. The kiss she gave him was gentle, but she put everything she had into it. She tried to tell him with that kiss how much joy he had given her, how much pleasure and how much purpose. She tried to tell him what she felt, even if he could not return it, and she tried to tell him she was sorry.
"Thank you," she whispered into his mouth, and then she walked out and closed the door behind her.
A helpful waiter had the car called for her. When he inquired as to her health, she said that she was unexpectedly stricken with a migraine and needed to go back to the palace.
When Viviana was in the plush private interior of the car with the soundproof glass between the passenger seat and the driver, she thought that she would break down in tears. She expected to simply dissolve into sobs. The sadness was certainly there. The emotions were violent, ready to tear her to bits as soon as look at her.
Somehow, she didn't.
Instead, all she felt was tired. She would be fairly pleased if this was what she felt for a good long time.
She tried to force herself to think ahead. She had to pack, but that wouldn't be too hard. She had to set up her flight. It would be far less enjoyable than flying in the royal jet, but she needed to get back to her real life.
That thought made her flinch, and she realized that it was because of its truth. Her time in Khutal playing lady of the manor was a fantasy, a pretty rainbow soap bubble blowing on the wind. She had been a fool to ever wonder if it would stay or to think even for a moment that she could keep it. She was a party girl, after all, not the wife of a prince.
Her real life was waiting for her in Paris, or Milan, or Buenos Aires, or Los Angeles.
It was time to get back to it.
CHAPTER NINE
"But I don't understand what happened," Charlotte said in bewilderment. "You two were getting along so well …"
"And now we're not," Viviana said shortly. "These things happen. Mistakes were made, things were said …"
Charlotte scowled. "Did he hurt you? What did he do?"
Viviana waved her sister's concern away, fighting through a fog of grief and sadness to do it. "Nothing, Sis, I promise. No need to get your husband to beat him up for me …"
"He would do it, too," Charlotte said ominously, but she shook her head. "Running away like this isn't good for you, sweetie."
"I'm not running away at all," Viviana snapped. "If anything, I'm waking up. Being here at the palace with you, Aladdin, Annika, and Mikal was the real dream. If anything, I was running away while I was here. My real life isn't here, Charlotte, and I need to get back to that."
"Your real life is with your family and with those you love," she said. "But you have to be the one who decides where you go."
"That's right," Viviana said, closing the last suitcase. "Look Charlotte, I'm sorry I can't stay. I know this is very sudden, but I really need to do it. I have a lot of work waiting for me."
"I know, I know," said Charlotte, throwing her arms around her sister. "Just come back soon, okay? I know that Annika will miss you so much."
"I'll definitely come back as soon as I can," Viviana lied, hugging her sister tight. If she were being totally honest with herself, she had no idea how long it might take before she could think about coming back to Khutal.
She couldn't bear to wait for anything, not to say goodbye to Aladdin, definitely not for the farewell party that her sister wanted to have. No, all she wanted was to get on with her life and put all of this far behind her. She knew that sometime in the future, she would open a magazine and find herself faced with news of Mikal's marriage, of what he had done with his life after this embarrassing chapter, but that was for the future.
For her right now, it was all she had to simply limp out of Khutal with her pride intact.
She called a cab for the airport, and this time, she had to put up with the irritation of long-distance flight and customs. Viviana almost welcomed it, even when they had to open her bags. It was another sign that she was getting back to her real life, to the way things really were.
It seemed to take forever for the plane to board, and when it did, it seemed to take another age for it to take off. She gazed out the window, looking up at the blue sky. It was endless, and soon she would be up in it, flying away …
Viviana came to herself when she realized that the people around her were murmuring with irritation and confusion. She checked her phone and realized that this was far more than a simple delay. They had idled on the runway for almost an hour.
"Are there difficulties of some sort?" she asked her seatmate, but the other woman only shrugged in confusion.
Viviana worried at her purse strap. It would be a special kind of dark humor if she had to go back to the palace for a night because her flight was canceled. When she peeked down the aisle, she could see the captain talking to someone on the built-in phone. He looked nervous and worried, and she wondered again what was going on. If there was some kind of equipment failure, surely that meant that they would get the passengers off, wouldn't it?
She was gazing out the window, almost dozing, when she heard a commotion at the front of the plane. A man came through the boarding tunnel looking around with what looked like panic, and she felt a stab of irritation.
Had all of this waiting been for one man? Who was so important that they would stop an international flight to wait for him? Then he turned, and she knew exactly who they had waited for.
Mikal strode down the aisle towards her as the people around them burst into whispers and murmurs of recognition. She stared up at him, eyes wide, as he offered her his hand.
"Come on," he said. "I have an answer for you. I want you off this plane."
"But … my things …" she said, her mind grasping at straws.
He shook his head. "I'm having them taken off the plane. Come on. Please."
She didn't know what was happening, but she knew that she could never refuse him, not when he looked at her like that. She was aware of the subtle flash of cameras as she followed him off the plane and through the boarding tunnel. He seized her hand and refused to let go. He held on as if he had almost lost her once and didn't intend to make the same mistake again.
Once they were in the airport again, he turned to her. She realized with a start that he hadn't shaved yet that day and that his green eyes were wild. He was a man who took great care with his personal grooming, so this was almost unthinkable.
"Are you all right?" she asked without thinking.
His laugh was ugly. "I haven't eaten or slept since you left me at that damn event," he said. "All I've done is walk and think, and at the end of it, I have come out with the truth."
"The truth?" she asked cautiously. He
r heart was beating hard in her chest, but she knew better than to get her hopes up. There was just too much that could be going on, just too many things that he still might say.
"Yes. Viviana, I've been a fool. I wanted to play a game with you because I thought it was the only way that you would ever let me get close to you. I thought a game was all that we could have together."
"What?"
"Please, let me finish. I was a fool, and when I decided to play my game, I found out what an amazing, strong, and compassionate woman you are. I learned that you were far more than what I held in my mind all these years. You are a success, and you are a wonder, and I would give almost anything to go back and make things right.
“However, I can't do that. I will go to my grave regretting that I did not treat you the way that I should have treated you, but all I can do is offer to make it right. Viviana, I am a man who is willing to lay the world at your feet. I am willing to give you whatever you want as long as you will stay with me. We can stay in Khutal, or I can go with you wherever you want to do your work. My life is empty without you, and I will give you whatever I can to keep you in it."
She held her breath, unable to really understand what was going on even as he pulled a small box out of his pocket. Almost shyly, he opened it and offered it to her. She saw that it was a gorgeous sapphire ring, ringed with a dozen tiny diamonds. It was a piece of rare worth and beauty, and she knew what it would mean if she accepted it.
"Viviana, please, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
"Yes … oh, yes, yes, yes, Mikal, yes!"
With a joyous grin, he slid the ring onto her trembling finger, and then with a great laugh, he lifted her in his arms. Around them, the people of the airport burst into applause.
Viviana couldn't see anything except the man that she knew she was going to spend the rest of her life with. This was her life. This was her real life. She could spend it with the man she loved, with her family, and it would begin right this moment.
EPILOGUE
A month later, Viviana was dressed in an elegant suit and draped with a wrap that was worth at least two thousand dollars in the gold embroidery alone. She sat with Aladdin, Charlotte, and Mikal in the booth that had been set aside for their use, and together, the four of them looked down over the parliament floor. Below them, lawmakers were casting their votes, and the tension in the air was so taut that it could have been plucked like a violin string.
Charlotte held Annika tightly on her lap. As if responding to the mood of the room, Annika was silent, watching around her with those great green eyes. Turning her engagement ring around on her finger, Viviana briefly hoped that her own children would have those eyes as well.
"I can't take this," Viviana muttered. "This is terrifying."
Mikal glanced at her, covering her hand with his. "It'll be what it is," he said. "We have done everything we can, and if this does not go through, then we will simply try again."
"At this point, it is out of your hands," rumbled Aladdin, and Charlotte nodded with agreement.
"It would be amazing for Annika to be here to see history happen," she said, hugging her daughter. "If this goes through, the world that she knows will be a better one than the one she was born in to."
Viviana held Mikal's hand tightly. The votes were coming in, and the speaker was watching for the results to tabulate completely. In a matter of moments, they would find out whether all of their hard work had been for nothing.
To her surprise, Mikal turned away from the floor. She thought his eyes had never been so green.
"I am so glad that you are here with me for this," he said. "No matter what happens, this is something we will always share, now and as we travel into the future together."
"I love you," she murmured, pressing her cheek against his shoulder. "There is nowhere I would rather be than here with you."
On the floor below them, the speaker shouted for attention. It seemed to take the room a small eternity to settle. Viviana clung to Mikal's hand, every nerve in her body tense.
The speaker opened with a brief outline of the things that were being voted upon to the press, and then he cleared his throat.
"On the matter of Legislative Bill 8320, regarding the reform of women's rights both in the home and in the workplace, the two hundred and twenty-third session of Khutal's parliament has moved to pass it on a vote of one hundred and eighty-nine to fifty-one."
The cheers began almost as soon as he had finished the sentence. Mikal leaped from his seat, tugging Viviana into his arms for a passionate kiss. When they broke free of each other, Aladdin and Charlotte were grinning at them proudly.
"Your public awaits, little Brother," said Aladdin. "You need to go down and make a statement."
"Sounds good. Come on, Viviana."
Viviana was a little startled to be brought down with Mikal, as he was the one who had actually written out most of the legislation, but she followed, her hand held tightly in his.
The mob of photographers in the lobby were unruly, but they fell silent when Mikal started answering their questions.
She felt her heart swell with pride as she saw how passionate he was, how much he truly wanted a change for his country. She thought of Annika, and how it truly would be a better world that she grew up in, thanks to her uncle, and perhaps, in small part, to her aunt as well.
She glanced up as Mikal paused.
"What comes next for me? Well, that's a pretty big question. There's still much to be done, and simply because legislation has gone through doesn't mean the battle is won. I owe it to the people of Khutal and to the children that are born today and every day after to keep fighting for a better world for us all. However, perhaps before that fight starts … I can steal a moment of happiness for myself. Viviana, will you come up here?"
Startled, she took his hand, stepping forward to stand beside him.
"This is the woman who has led the last charge for my work, and she is the one I want leading every charge to come. She is Viviana Johns, but in five months time, she will be Viviana ben-Arie, and I know that her name will go down in Khutal history as one of its great activists and advocates."
He turned to her, and though the kiss he gave her was chaste, she could feel the passion in him, and she knew it would warm her for the rest of her days.
As the reporters broke into rapturous applause, she knew that she had found her real life, she had found her love, and she had found her home.
THE END
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All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2015-2016 Sophia Lynn
CHAPTER ONE
"You're a miracle worker, Charlotte Johns! You're my perfect golden girl!"
Mikaela van Horne draped her elegant arm around Charlotte's neck, hugging her close in a display that was shockingly genuine. Just six months before, the starlet had been floundering in the obscurity of the New York theater scene. A few promising roles hadn't lived up to the promise, and Mikaela was looking at a return to a dull office job if things didn't pick up.
That was where Charlotte had come in. Just as Mikaela was a rising star on Broadway, Charlotte was a rising star at Brooks Publicity. She had taken on the young Mikaela when no one else would, and now Mikaela was off to her first red-carpet event.
Charlotte laughed, hugging the starlet hard. She had been impressed by how much she genuinely liked the younger girl. She remembered being twenty and thinking that the world rose and fell with a single invitation. Now, five years later, she knew that that wasn't true. It was far better to be behind the scenes and pulling the strings.
"You did most of the hard work," Charlotte said. "I
just pointed the way and made sure that you got to the right people. Now, remember what we talked about?"
Mikaela nodded dutifully.
"Stay on my feet, smile a lot, don't commit to anything, and take no crap."
"That's my girl. Remember, if you have any problems at all, give me a call. I'm always available, and I am on your side."
As she waved the young starlet into her limo, Charlotte turned toward her own night with a grin.
She was a small woman with brassy blond hair that most assumed she got out of a bottle. She was a little curvier than fashion dictated, but she dressed well for it, choosing dark colors and bright accessories that made her vivid blue eyes seem to glow.
The flowing black cardigan that she wore was professional. When she took it off, she revealed a low-cut, figure-hugging blue dress that definitely was not. She had sent Mikaela off to have her fun, and now, after a campaign that seemed to drag on forever and a day, she could have hers.
She stopped to check her reflection in a nearby shop window. It was after dark on a spring night in Manhattan, and Charlotte wanted to look her best. A few men passing by whistled at her, and she ignored them with the cavalier indifference that an entire lifetime in the city granted her.
She checked her texts, figured out where she was going next, and dialed up her sister as she walked.
"Viviana, come out to see me. I miss you so much!" she said without a greeting.
Her younger sister laughed a little. They could have passed for twins if they kept their mouths shut, but Viviana was always the gentler sister, the sweeter one.
"And whose fault is that? You're the one who had to work around the clock for the past two months."
"It's my fault, all my fault," Charlotte said mournfully. "If you're willing to come out and have a drink, maybe I could make it up to you. Me and some of the girls are meeting up at Delmarr tonight, and I know that I'm not the only one who would love to see you. Come out, and I'll buy you your favorite drink."
