(ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ ♥

I realized that I was in danger the moment he looked at me through the rearview mirror. He looked so different and the way he smirked at me gave me the creeps.

"What is the meaning of this, Greco?"

"Don't worry, Your Royal Highness. I won't hurt you. Just behave in there and we won't have any problem." His voice was calm but I could hint the danger in it. I couldn't believe of what was happening. Lucca suddenly came into my mind. He was so in love with Greco and he has nothing to say but good things whenever he talks about him. He even went to Nuevo Imperio for a couple of months just to look for him because he suddenly lost contact with him.

I even felt bad because deep inside, for some reason, I couldn't give them my full support the moment Lucca introduced him to me. I couldn't understand myself because even though Greco had been nice to me, there was this gnawing feeling inside of me that I couldn't comprehend. Now, I understood why.

"You're working for them." I uttered certainly and the corner of his lips twitched as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Hmmm. Not really."

"Stop the car and let me out of here." I commanded through gritted teeth. I'm fed up of all these people who want nothing but to destroy us. We didn't even do anything to them.

"I told you, Your Royal Highness. Behave." He answered calmly like a snake quietly sneaking on his prey and deliberately raised his right hand to show me the gun that he was holding. My fists tightened in anger but I tried to remain as calm as possible in order to deal with the situation accordingly.

Strangely, I didn't panic and didn't feel any fear at all. Maybe because of all the dangers that I've been through lately. I felt nothing but the urge to bring him down too just like what happened to Giuseppe and Franco.

Anger, frustration and other negative feelings were swimming within me. I was so happy earlier because finally, Maximus and I would get married. But everything was ruined by them and I would never forgive them.

"You won't get away with this." I voiced out with a straight face as I furtively pressed something on the watch that I was wearing. Thankfully, my wedding gown has lace sleeves that's why my watch wasn't that evident.

"Oh, believe me, Your Royal Highness. I will." He then laughed. I decided to just keep quiet while carefully looking outside, trying to determine where we were going. Looked like we were heading to the southern part of the city where the population was very few. Then, after about forty-five minutes, we finally stopped.

He opened the car door. "Get out." He commanded. My jaw clenched but quietly obliged, hoping against hope that help was on its way. I looked around and there was no one aside from us in front of an old house.

"Why are we here?"

"Just walk and don't try to run away because you'll be sorry. Just behave and I promise you that I will not hurt you." He cocked his gun after saying that, clearly trying to scare me. I clenched my fists and silently walked towards the door of the house.

I was about to open it when a man suddenly opened it from the inside.

"Everyone is here, boss." He informed Greco. Boss? I thought, he was just working for Giuseppe?

"Good. Tell them that the ceremony will begin shortly, Allen." He nodded his head before going on ahead. My heart beat became faster upon hearing that.

"What ceremony are you talking about?"

"Just walk. You'll see soon." Greco answered with a triumphant smirk.

Upon entering the house, I noticed that there were other men inside; around 7 of them and they all looked like goons. They were armed as well.

"What are we doing here? Why did you bring me here?" I asked again while we were walking down the hallway but Greco remained quiet.

"Answer me!" I snapped courageously, losing my patience, and he stopped walking. I thought, he was going to yell at me but he just looked at me coldly.

"You really want to know?"

"Yes! Now, answer me! How come you're one of them? Who are you really?" He laughed amusedly. He took out his phone and called someone.

"Make sure that everything is ready. We'll be there in five minutes." He then ended the call.

"I don't know what you're up to but it's best for you to let me go. It's my wedding day today and I need to be there!" I angrily said and his eyes turned into slits.

"Do you really think that I'll let you marry that b*stard?! Why do you think I applied as your PRB all this time? Clever, right? While all of you were busy thinking that you already defeated your enemies, I carefully crawled into your territory like a snake, pretending to be a quiet and nice guy. Thankfully, I was careful enough that you didn't suspected anything."

"Who are you? What do you want from me?"

He smirked. "You really don't recognize me, huh? Well, I knew I did a good job pretending all this time. All I needed to do was to practice changing my voice, the way I move and boom! I managed to deceive everyone." He laughed again as if that so funny. My eyebrows furrowed when I noticed the sudden changed in the tone of his voice.

"You know why I did this? Because I couldn't accept the fact that you've forgotten about me just like that. I tried a lot of times to come back but they never let me come close to you until I came up with this bright idea and I was right. I finally managed to get near you just to be surprised of how fast you have moved on." My lips parted in shock. I couldn't be wrong. That voice...It sounded like...

"What are you talking about? Your voice...W-Why do you suddenly sound like..."

He smirked. "Like who? You finally remembered? We were together for three months after all."

I gasped. "Y-You're really...but how?" I even stuttered as I shook my head in disbelief while looking at him from head to toe. He looked totally different. Even though I've never felt at ease around him ever since Lucca introduced him to me, I've never thought that he was him. They talked and the way he moves were different.

"Yes, Athena. It's me." He admitted and I was at a lost for words. I held onto the wall because I suddenly felt like my knees turned into jelly. I couldn't even utter a word for a couple of seconds, still in a state of shock.

"Why did you come back? What do you want from me? How come you have a different face?" I then asked after a couple of seconds with a voice just above whisper. I suddenly remembered the impostor of Maximus. They did a good job copying his face.

"Everything is possible now if you have the money. And to answer your other question; I came back to take you back and make the table turn on my advantage. You were mine from the beginning and now, I am here to take back what's mine." I shook my head again, couldn't understand what he was saying. The nerve of him. How dare he claim me as his after everything he's done to me?!

"No! I'm no longer yours, Warren! You were the one who threw away what we had so don't come back as if nothing happened and claim me as yours! Whatever we had ended the moment you accepted the money and left me!"

His eyes squinted in anger. "So, that's what they put into your head. They really planned everything. They did that in order to break us apart. I will never forgive them of stealing everything from me. Now that I finally have you, I will never let you go. One by one, I will reclaim everything that they took from us."

"What the heck are you saying? Who stole everything from you? You did everything on your own!"

"No! I did not! You know how your grandmother and your siblings never liked me for you from the beginning, right? That night when I disappeared almost three years ago, I talked to the Queen to tell her about our plan of getting married but that man came and attacked me out of nowhere.

"Because I wasn't prepared, it was so easy for him to defeat me. Fortunately, I managed to run away. I planned to come back after that but they never allowed me to get near you again. I heard that they told you that they paid me in exchange of leaving you but that wasn't what happened! Vázquez ambushed me and almost killed me in the process!" My lips parted, stunned.

"V-Vázquez?"

"Yes! The Queen instructed him to kill me after discovering about what happened between us that night." My heart pounded.

"W-What are you talking about?"

He chuckled as he raised his hand to touch my cheek. "You heard it right, Athena. I was the one whom you made love with that night that's why the Queen wanted to kill me. You know what's the meaning of that, right?

"According to the pact of Nuevo Imperio and Costavia, aside from the Royal necklaces, Costavia promised your chastity to the prince of Nuevo Imperio. Well, that pact was made in the olden days so you can't help it. Now, to make the story clear; I was the one who took your virginity so I have every right to marry you. Vázquez was nothing but a rogue prince, seeking for a crown that will never be his." I shook my head vigorously.

"No! You're lying!" I couldn't accept what he just said. Yes, I didn't see the face of the person I made love with but was it really him? I tried to forget about what happened that night because I thought, I made love with someone else, a stranger. But now, he suddenly came back and now telling me that he was the one? Just thinking that he might be the one almost made me dizzy in disgust.

Maybe, if he didn't do this, I wouldn't feel that way. But now that I knew that he was nothing but a bad guy, I felt sick knowing that he was once a part of my life.

He laughed. "You look so unhappy about it. I am telling the truth. You became mine that night and if it wasn't because of your family and that Vázquez, we would've been married by now for sure." I balled my fists tightly while trying my best to stay calm even if it was so hard for me to do so. He was spewing lies and I couldn't accept it.

"No! I don't believe you! Besides, even if you're telling the truth, you still don't have the right to be my husband because you're not a prince of Nuevo Imperio!"

"Oh, I regret to tell you that I am. Unofficially though. I am the first born of King Giuseppe of Nuevo Imperio. Before he married the Queen, I was already born. But since my mother only belongs to a lower rank royal family, he left her and chose the big fish.

"But I didn't care about all that because I knew that one day, I would be his successor. Now, since he's already a widower and currently the king of Nuevo Imperio, the law states that even a Royal b*stard like me could be a successor to the throne.

"Yes, everyone discovered about what my father did in the past but they're still in the process of dethroning him. It will be a long process especially that his political associates are doing everything they could to cover up everything so that the issue would go away just like a smoke.

"It means, if I marry you now, I still have every right for the throne. I could use the opportunity to validate my position before they could even do anything to remove him from power." I just remained there, staring at him in disbelief because I got overwhelmed of what was I hearing.

I was beyond shock. He was right. It would take a couple of weeks or even months to finalize the dethroning of Giuseppe because they would have to finish the investigation and formalize his dethronement. I couldn't believe that Warren was actually Franco's brother and Giuseppe's son. But how come? When we met, he was just an ordinary man.

He didn't even have that much knowledge about Royalty. My head suddenly ached as I tried to process everything.

"How come you're his son too? I thought you were just an ordinary man just like you told me before? If marrying me was your target from the beginning, why didn't you just tell me the truth about you? Why did you have to lie?" I bombarded him with questions. An unknown emotion passed through his eyes as he flexed his jaw.

"Because he never accepted me as his son. For him, I was nothing but a failure. He took Franco and left me like nothing but a trash because according to him, he's the rightful heir to the throne even though, he's younger than me. Because of that, I promised myself that I would prove him wrong by getting you for myself.

"If I could get you to marry me, I was sure that he would finally see my worth too and acknowledge me but looked like your family saw right through me and got Vázquez to get rid of me. I don't know how the Queen managed to see right through my plan but I changed now. I patiently made sure to plan everything carefully before coming back here and look at the result. I am almost there." I shook my head as an overwhelming anger rose within me. He just used me from the beginning.

"Even if you were the man who took my virginity that night, I don't care. You're nothing but an ambitious b*stard and I will never marry you. The only man I love is Maximus Zorion Santana Vázquez and he's the only man I want to marry. Not you!" I spat at him as I raised my chin defiantly. His eyes squinted in so much anger. I thought, he was going to hit me or something but smirked dangerously.

"Do you think, you have a choice? Come here!" He grabbed me by the wrist and started dragging me somewhere.

"Let go of me, you jerk!" I yelled furiously while trying to pull back my hand from his grip but he didn't listen.

"Stop struggling and walk or else—"

"—Or else, what? Are you going to kill me?! Go ahead, kill me now and kiss your dream of succeeding your father away! Without me, you will never get what you want! You're nothing but a leech!" To my surprise, he laughed.

"You're wrong, my dearest Athena. Have you forgotten that I still have your sisters as a second choice? The pact says 'a princess of Costavia' so it's not necessarily you. Yes, you don't care if I kill you here right now but what about your sisters? Is it okay for you if I would marry one of them?

"And I regret to mention that my men are at the wedding venue right now. Just one call and they would do something that you wouldn't surely like. Not just to your sister but to your whole family and that b*stard Vázquez." Cold shiver ran down my spine upon hearing that.

Just imagining that Emilia or Aria would marry someone like him was enough for me to stop struggling and get scared. Not just that, even my whole family including Maximus was in grave danger. I would never let him touch my loved ones especially my sisters. If the only way for them to be safe was for me to suffer, then so be it.

"Don't you dare touch them." My voice was slightly shaking.

"Then, you know what to do so that I wouldn't touch them. Come on, let's get going. Everyone is waiting for us." He held out his hand for me while giving me a warning gaze. I looked at it, feeling so hopeless. I felt like I was dying inside. The handsome face of Maximus appeared on my mind. Dolce metà...

If I had a choice, I would never ever marry someone like him. But I couldn't just shrug off the fact that he would surely do everything to get one of my sisters as my substitute.

I slowly gave him my hand and a triumphant smile appeared on his face.

"Good girl." When we entered inside that room, I felt like crying upon seeing all the wedding decorations and people inside. I felt like my legs were about to give out on me.

"Let's begin the ceremony, pastor." I heard Warren say and the older man nodded his head.