by Tee, Marian
Igor’s frown eased a little. “Understood, sir.”
“That should give you and your men enough time to track her down.”
When Igor left, the prince looked at his parents.
“It’s unlike you to not help in the search,” Payton said quietly.
The prince’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “This is how I’m helping, Father. The moment they’re able to contact me—-”
If something happened to Fawn—-
“Oh, sweetheart.”
The prince broke down, and Enid’s own tears ran down her face.
Reid might be strong and powerful now, but he was and would always be her son, and it broke her heart to see him in so much pain.
“So many people have already died because of me, Mother,” the prince said dully. “If I lose her, too—-”
“You’ll get her back, sweetheart.” Tiptoeing, she kissed her son’s forehead, saying shakily, “Have faith, son. We’ll get her back.”
The prince’s eyes shuttered closed.
Have faith.
He inhaled deeply.
It was all he had left.
Faith.
When the Prince of Darkness descended from the jet with his family, he was as dark and as beautiful as everyone wanted him to be. All eyes were on him, and he played his role perfectly, charming the press, seducing the women that screamed his name because the trial had made him and his friends even more famous.
It was as if learning that they had suffered like any mortal being and yet managed to survive had turned them into gods overnight, and the prince’s bodyguards had to work doubly harder now, preventing women from literally throwing themselves at the prince.
After depositing his parents in their hotel room, the prince went straight to the party his staff had arranged ahead of time, and there the hysteria seemed even a hundred times worse. Women were actually undressing themselves in hopes of capturing his attention, and knowing that his every movement was being watched—-
The prince allowed his fingers to touch another woman’s breasts—-
His body to brush another woman’s body—-
His lips to touch another woman’s mouth—-
All the while feeling sick inside, knowing that while every fucking slut in the world was throwing herself at him, anything could be happening to Fawn—-
Anything—-
Anything—-
A girl suddenly flung herself at him, and for one moment his fingers tightened around her neck.
Temptation licked at him.
If he could fucking sell his soul to the devil now in exchange for her safety, if he fucking killed this girl in the devil’s honor—-
The prince pushed the girl away.
Have faith.
The music around him throbbed. The hours crawled past. The women moaned for him.
And the prince remained at the center of it all.
Pretensions made the world go fucking round.
His phone rang at four in the morning, and the sound made the prince accidentally snap the stem of the wine glass in his hands as he recognized the ringtone.
It was Noah.
His hand started to bleed, but he was immune to the pain.
He answered the call, saying hoarsely, “Just tell me if you got her back safe or not.”
Noah’s own voice was hoarse. “She’s safe, sir.”
He closed his eyes.
Thank You, God.
Tears fell.
“Do you want to speak to her, sir?”
“No.” He swallowed. “It’s all I needed to know.”
He ended the call.
And wept.
She was safe.
****
The prince was at the helipad by the time Fawn was flown in by the medical rescue team that he had on standby. When he saw her carried out of the chopper, he caught a glimpse of her face—-
Ah God.
Why?
She didn’t deserve this.
The prince lagged behind everyone, feeling like he was about to break any second.
Why did this have to happen to her?
Why couldn’t it be him?
Why?
As Fawn was rushed inside the emergency room, the prince heard someone scream, “Stay away from her!”
He spun just in time to see an older woman rushing towards him. He recognized her from photos, knew it was Fawn’s mother, and he stayed still, waiting for her to reach him.
She began slapping him, and he let her.
Someone pulled her back, and he saw Grant Bennett holding on to Fawn’s mother while Bennett’s parents approached him from the other side.
“We thank you for your rescue, but I hope you also understand that your presence is making Mrs. Cornwall distraught.” The senior Bennett was every inch the politician in the way he spoke, but the prince could see that the concern in the older man’s eyes was genuine enough, and it was this that made him nod.
Outside the hospital, a crowd of impatiently waiting reporters surged towards him, shouting questions that made the prince’s jaw harden.
Who’s Fawn Cornwall to you?
What role does she play in the trial?
Did Tic Tac Toe get to her?
The prince managed to make it inside his limousine before his control snapped.
Fuck them.
Fuck all of them.
They didn’t know, they didn’t fucking know the world had almost lost an angel because of him.
****
Fawn wove in and out of consciousness as she was wheeled out of the emergency room. Her vision blurred and danced, and she caught glimpses of familiar faces.
Her mother—-
Grant—-
Grant’s parents—-
And yet no matter how hard she prayed and wished, she could never quite make herself see the prince.
But surely he had to be here, right?
During the times she was conscious, she would ask whoever was with her about the prince, but no one was willing or able to give her a straight answer. The nurses would only give her uncomfortable smiles while Grant’s parents and her mother didn’t even acknowledge her questions and would change the topic all the time.
And Grant—-
He would mumble incoherently and never meet her eyes when talking to her.
On her third night in the hospital, she could no longer bear it, and when she had a moment alone with Grant, Fawn captured his hand, begging, “Is it because I look like this?”
Grant was confused. “Is it because of what?”
Fawn smiled painfully. “You were there before my face was wrapped in bandages, Grant. You know what I’m talking about and—-” Her voice choked off, fear of the unknown clogging her throat. Looking away from Grant, she whispered, “Tell me the truth. Is it because h-he knows I look like this that he doesn’t want to come?”
Ah. Grant swallowed. “It’s n-not that.” At his words, she slowly turned to look at him, and he forced himself to meet her gaze. Her brown eyes were the only things he could see of her face. Everything else was hidden under a swath of bandages, but even so what he saw in those big brown eyes—-
In spite of how fate had tried to beat and carve it out of her—-
In spite of how the love of her life turned his back on her—-
In spite of her going through more horror than someone like her would never deserve—-
Hope still struggled to live in those eyes, enabling her to stay whole—-
And he would do everything to keep that hope alive, Grant thought feverishly.
Everything.
“It’s your mother,” he heard himself lie. “She has my parents c-convinced that Chalkias will only c-cause trouble, so she’s had him b-barred from visiting you.”
Tears of relief glistened in Fawn’s eyes, and the sight of it told him he had done the right thing.
Fawn’s hands in his moved, and this time she was the one tightly holding on to him. “H-help me, please?” The
tears fell, and the bandages below her eyes started to darken at their wetness.
It was a horrible sight, a heartbreaking sight, and it tore him apart.
Why?
Why did someone like Fawn have to suffer this much?
“I need to see him, Grant.” The wet, dark stains spread on the bandages. “Please help me.”
Grant nodded jerkily, and looking away, he mumbled. “I’ll do my best.” But it was another lie.
From the very first day, he had been trying his best to get the prince to come.
And he had failed.
Again and again.
When Fawn finally succumbed into an exhausted sleep, Grant left the hospital and went straight to the prince’s compound. The guards stationed on the parapet above nodded to him in greeting, and he managed a strained smile as he slowly backed his car to block anyone from entering through the gates.
When he stepped out of his car, he saw the speaker box mounted next to the side door light up just before a sound came out of it, a voice asking soberly, “Making an ultimatum?”
Recognizing the voice as belonging to Reid Chalkias’ security chief, Grant muttered in explanation, “I h-have no choice.”
Still inside the guardhouse, Noah frowned as he had the CCTV zoom in on Grant Bennett’s face. The man looked all too pale, and he asked sharply, “What’s happened to the signorina?” Everyone knew that Bennett had been coming every night to plead with their employer to visit Fawn, just as everyone knew that the prince had coldly turned Bennett’s request down without hesitation.
“It’s b-bad.” Grant swallowed. “She’s never cried since she was rescued, you k-know? But today, she c-cried when she a-asked me to help her see him.”
“In that case...” Noah’s face became grim. “We’ll back you up.”
“T-thank you.”
Noah’s voice became gruff. “You’re a good man, Bennett. You were an ass before, but you’re a good man now.”
“You, too, Noah. It t-took a while f-for me to see p-past the shady stuff, but you’re a good man, too.” And if Grant wasn’t feeling like Fawn’s emotional stability was hanging by a thread, he might even have managed a laugh at the very irony of it.
Noah and the other guards had all been there when he had taken a gun in his mouth like a cocksucker. And yet here he was, feeling a sense of camaraderie with them—-
Because that was what Fawn had always been good at doing.
Making people feel.
His eyes started to burn as he suddenly remembered all the times she had quietly stood by his side, never losing her temper, always with the right words to say—-
In the years that they had been together, she had always been the one to give, and he had always been the one to take.
But now—-
He remembered Fawn’s bandaged face and swallowed.
He hadn’t been able to do anything for her in the past, but this time it would be different.
He would do everything for her now.
Hours passed, and Grant found himself falling asleep in the driver’s seat until a honking horn finally woke him up. When he saw it was the prince’s limousine honking behind his car, he nearly tumbled out of the car in his haste.
Even now, fear clung to him like a shameful odor he couldn’t get rid of, one he knew that everyone would notice, but even so, the need to help Fawn drove him forward, and when he reached the limousine, he started knocking on the window behind the driver’s seat.
“Please j-just hear me out. It’s all I ask.”
“Fawn...she needs you.”
“I l-lied, I s-said her mom’s n-not letting you in—-” But then realizing that his words could be misconstrued, Grant said in a rush, “B-but you can go there a-anytime. N-no one’s g-gonna stop you.”
He didn’t stop knocking on the window as he spoke, a part of him hoping that the nonstop rapping sound just might convey his desperation. That, or annoy the hell out of Reid Chalkias until the other guy was forced to speak to him directly.
“S-she asks for you every day.”
His knuckles started to feel tender, but Grant kept knocking on the window.
“Please. She needs you.”
More minutes passed, and his knuckles were now raw, his voice hoarse. “Please. She doesn’t d-deserve to suffer more than she already has. So p-please. Come.”
****
He appeared by her doorway, looking every inch the Prince of Darkness. Hand-tousled ebony black hair, eyes hidden behind dark glasses, and his lean, powerful body sheathed in a black leather jacket, white shirt, and jeans.
He started to walk towards her bed, and her heart, which was ironically the least bruised part of her body, started to squeeze until it was even more painful than the stinging wounds on her face.
The distance between them continued to shrink, and the more her heart wept.
She watched him slide into the vacant chair next to her bed with exquisite grace, watched him turn to her, his gaze still hidden behind his glasses.
He was so, so close to her now.
And yet—-
Why wouldn’t her heart stop weeping?
A full minute passed, neither of them speaking.
Finally, the prince reached for his glasses, slowly, gracefully pulling them away from his beautiful face—-
Ah.
She saw his eyes.
And knew.
Fawn quickly turned her back. “I’m tired.” Her voice was thin and pinched, like someone unable to breathe. And it was hard, oxygen unable to find a way to get past the tears.
Behind her, the prince said softly, “I warned Bennett this would happen, but he didn’t believe me.”
She didn’t speak, only squeezing her eyes shut.
You’re such an idiot, Fawn Cornwall.
“But now that I’m here – may I ask...if you’re alright?”
She raised her arm, giving him a thumbs-up in the air without turning back.
The prince chuckled.
It was a husky, sexy sound, a familiar sound, and her heart continued to weep.
Four days. It had taken him four days to visit.
You’re such an idiot, Fawn Cornwall.
This was the part where her other self would usually come to drive her crazy, playing the devil’s advocate, but this time it remained hurtfully silent, almost as if everything in her wanted Fawn to finally hear what the prince had done his best to tell her all along.
She heard the sound of his chair scraping against the floor, and her heart jumped.
No.
She heard the unmistakable sound of the prince coming to his feet—-
“You’re really going?” Her voice came out thin, low, and dull.
“Yes.”
Her heart shriveled.
You’re such an idiot, Fawn Cornwall.
She had always known he was cruel.
So why, why dear God, why did it still surprise her that he could be cruel to her?
Because she thought he loved her?
She could no longer help it, pushing herself up as she turned around to face him, asking brokenly, “Why?” Her voice shook. “Why is nothing I do not enough?”
The prince’s beautiful face remained blank.
“Just tell me—-”
The prince’s sigh cut her off. “You know why, Fawn.” His voice was viciously gentle in its politeness, someone who was being cruel to be kind. “You already know.”
Ah.
You’re such an idiot, Fawn Cornwall.
She shook her head. “I d-don’t.” She didn’t give a damn if she was being an idiot. She wanted, needed, to stay an idiot.
“You’ve been here for four days.”
And yet he hadn’t come.
She said desperately, “Grant said m-my mother banned you—-”
The prince raised a brow. “And you believe that alone could stop me from visiting?”
You already know.
She stammered, “Grant’s p-parents are
powerful—-”
The prince’s lip curled. “And I’m not?”
You already know.
And just like that, they were back to square one.
Her heart weeping—-
And the prince not giving a damn.
A crazed laugh escaped her, even as she started to cry—-
“Are you seriously doing this to me now?”
The prince’s face hardened. “There’s nothing I hate more than someone who uses tears to get her way.”
Ah.
She couldn’t stop laughing and crying. Finally, finally. She was able to make the prince show some kind of emotion, but of course it had to be disgust and irritation.
When the laughter and tears didn’t stop, the prince said, “This isn’t going anywhere.”
She watched him walk away.
She wanted to call out to him.
She wanted to tell him she loved him, she loved him so, so much, she loved him forever—-
But she just couldn’t stop laughing.
She couldn’t stop crying.
She had a feeling if she stopped——
The door closed behind the prince.
And still the laughter continued to spill, the tears continued to fall.
Grant burst back into the room, stumbling towards her.
Their eyes met—-
Grant staggered to a stop.
No.
Oh God.
NO.
But he knew no matter how hard he wished, the truth wouldn’t go away.
There was no longer any hope in her eyes.
And she was no longer whole.
“I’m sorry.”
He had failed.
“I’m s-so sorry.”
Grant fell to his knees next to her bed. “I’m s-so sorry.” He took hold of her hands, and his blood ran cold at how hard her body was shaking. “I’m sorry.”
“Oh G-Grant.” And still she laughed, still she cried. “I’m scared. I’m s-scared if I stop—-” She raised terror-crazed eyes to Grant. “I don’t t-think I know how to breathe w-without him, Grant. I r-really don’t think I can, and isn’t t-that crazy?”
More laughter.
More tears.
It was the most painful sound Grant had ever heard in his entire life—-
And so it was, too, for the prince.
Standing outside the room, the sound reached him, flayed him alive, burned him blind, and he slowly stumbled, his strength disappearing at his inability to reach out to the woman he knew he would always, always love.
