"I wanted to but the Diamond Prince was tailing you around …" He narrated, a little glad that Xhemin was now talking to him "… and when I almost got the chance the chance the accident happened and the rest was history"

"But it would have made me feel better if you showed up after the accident … " Xhemin said in the most lonely voice Darryl had ever heard.

​​

"… But you didn't. And hearing the fact that you knew about my accident but didn't show up to check on me … hurts more" She confessed. There's no more point in hiding what she felt, her tears had already blew up her façade.

"I know and I'm sorry" He blew out a sigh of great remorse "Back at your party, I had ran after the culprit and when I went to see you at the hospital I thought it would be better if to be off without me"

"You saw the culprit?" Darryl's words came with so much surprise on Xhemin's face. Suddenly she forgot about her tears and her head was flooded with some serious questions that Darryl needed to answer. "So it wasn't an accident after all… But how come you didn't inform the police about it. Why did you have to keep it a secret at all?"

"Xhem you don't understand. I didn't capture the culprit… I mean I saw him… ran after him… but failed to catch him… so I have no evidence to tell the police and when I found out who sent him I…" Darryl paused as if hesitating to say the things that he feared the most. "I already knew what he wanted…"

Xhemin a little impatient with Darryl's "What? What does the culprit want with me? With my family"

"He need nothing from you. Your accident was a warning… a warning for me"

Xhemin baffled about everything that Darryl had said, was left without words. She wanted to clear Darryl's words, but she was too confused and perplexed that she couldn't construct the right words to say.

"It was a warning for me not to cross the line. That man who hurt you and the Montarini heir came from my family. I'm not certain who among my kin sent him but I'm very certain that it is because of me… because of what we have …" Darryl cleared out and added "… They meant us to stop whatever is between us …"

Xhemin didn't know what to say.

" ... my father had already warned me before but I was so selfish to let you go back then. But when the incident happened I thought perhaps it would be best to give my up my feelings for you. I can't let you get hurt. I cannot let—"

"But you could have at least tell me!" Xhemin cut everything Darryl had to say in rage. She totally pissed off about everything that Darryl had said. So everything that she and Huzey went through was a work of some selfish crazy rich assholes? Was cutting someone's life that easy for the ruthless L Empire?

Also, whatever reason's Darryl have, she still resent him for making her blind about everything that he knew. How could he hide all these things from her! God! Good thing the Huzey was okay now, if not, she's will forever blame herself because of that accident.

Mad as she already was, Xhemin's voice was already loud when she added "You could have at least made me understand. You could have at told me right straight to my face!"

"Tell you what? Tell you to forget me? Tell you that we had to stop?" Darryl responded unconsciously heightening his voice like Xhemin did. She understood Xhemin's rage, but could she at least see why he had to do it?

"Do you know how hard that was?" He asked of her in a voice with gnawing distress and a sense of guilt and self-reproach "I can't do it … How could I ask you to stop when I can't even dare myself to? And I'm sorry I didn't do it. I'm sorry I had to choose to be coward and just walk away ... For that I am terribly sorry … but I can't just ask you to forget me" Darryl admitted terribly.

For once, Darryl's shoulders became heavy and soo was his heart. He didn't choose to be the Lagdameo's heir, so was the fact that he didn't chose to fall deeply for her.

"So what do you want me to do?" Xhemin pleaded " Tell me…"

Just like how Darryl was feeling, Xhemin was also confused as to what she had to do to. Her feeling for him was something she can't anymore ignore but the risk that goes along with those feelings was too much for her to barter.

If it was really the L Empire behind her and Huzey's accident, being with Darryl was a dangerous thing to do, not only for her but also for her family.

"Tell me... tell me what do I have to do?" Xhemin asked Darryl again. She was too confused and probably too inexperience to handle the matter with her own. Only then that she appreciated the fact that Darryl choose to spare her from the agony of knowing the truth, because the truth was too hard for her to bear.

Can she give her heart up for the sake for her family?

Or was she willing to risk it all?

Xhemin and Darryl's conversation came in to intense that they didn't notice they were already approaching the east camp in loud exchanges.

"Newbie is that you?" Someone called from a distance and only then did Xhemin realize they reached the east camp already. Some of the girls gathered around the campfire looking worried about the fact that Xhemin wasn't back yet. When Darryl's silhouette carrying Xhemin on his back appeared, they flashed a stupefied faces before the incoming couple.

"Hey what happened to you?" They all asked when they noticed that the girl was hurt. However their eyes also took notice that a handsome fella did carry Xhemin on his back and brought her back to the east camp safe.

"Young master Darryl is that you?" One of them asked.