Chapter 4

Emily’s POV

“A WIFE?” Gen shouted loudly when I told her how the dinner went. She had come over to my hotel room again and was drilling me for every detail.

“Yes, a wife,” I confirmed.

“Em, if you’re to marry him, that means you’ll become a queen. It would be a dream come true for you. You always wanted to be a queen. Remember when we were kids and we would play dolls? Instead of being a mermaid, you’d always choose to be a queen.”

I smiled warmly at her. Gen had always had my back, was very supportive, and called me out whenever I was wrong about something or did something that didn’t fit my character. She was a real friend.

“I highly doubt he’d even consider having me at his side, Gen. He’s not the same guy I left in high school. He’s different. He has transformed.”

I got off the bed and closed the windows. The rain had been pouring down, and it was beginning to get extremely cold.

I cuddled up in bed with Gen next to me.

_________ 

The following evening, I started packing my stuff up. Gen was bummed out that we were leaving, but it made no sense to stay here. After all, I couldn’t construct the hotel I had planned out.

“I can’t believe we’re leaving already. We should have taken this chance to explore this beautiful country.”

“Focus, Gen! This isn’t an episode of Dora The Explorer. We must be moving on.” I stuffed my necklaces into the suitcase side pocket.

“What about Sebastian?”

I paused at the mention of his name.

“What about him?” I asked.

“You haven’t given it any thought as to whether you should stay here so you two can rekindle your thing? Or have you already decided you don’t want to see him again?”

I heaved a long sigh and put my loose hair into a ponytail. I thought about her question, then I shook it out of my head.

I gave him my number last evening, and he hadn’t called or texted me. I held my suitcase and dragged it to the door. Gen did the same with hers. It was quite funny how she didn’t pack in her own room but would leave mine, go to hers, and come back to mine with her belongings in her hands before shoving them into her suitcase.

“Ready?” I asked her as I opened the door.

“No,” she answered like a child who didn’t want to get out of the sandbox.

“The car is here,” I responded without paying any attention to her sulking.

Gen and I walked out of the door, and I closed it after me. The bellboys took our suitcases to the car outside as we said our farewells to the hotel employees.

____________

As the car pulled onto the tarmac, and as my private jet came into sight, my heart became heavy. I thought that, out of the blue, out of somewhere, he would show up and ask me to stay a bit longer. I was wrong, and it hurt deeply.

I took a deep breath, got out of the car, and walked quickly to the jet.

“Em, why are you moving so quickly?” Gen asked as she jogged to catch up.

“I just wanna get out of here. I miss home. I miss mom and dad, and Evan and EJ, and everyone else.”

Once we had settled in the seats of the jet, I tried to conceal my emotions.

′Good evening, Miss. Hollen and company, please prepare for takeoff in one minute.′

“I can’t wait,” I said.

Meeting Sebastian was a mistake, agreeing to go to dinner with him was a mistake, and catching feeling for him again was a mistake too. He was the same old coward I remembered him to be. He would rather leave than fix something.

While I cussed out Sebastian in my head, I was unaware of the situation happening outside of the plane.

“What’s wrong, what’s going on?” Gen asked one of the air hostesses.

“Why aren’t we moving? It’s been more than ten minutes already,” I stated.

“Our apologies, Miss. Hollen, but we can’t take off.”

“And why’s that? What’s wrong with my jet?” I quickly unfastened my seat belt and made a beeline for the cockpit.

The door slide opened when I banged on it. I walked into the cockpit.

“Hexx, what’s the holdup?”

“Sorry, Miss H, but there’s a vehicle blocking the strip.”

I peered through the windshield and saw a black van there with its emergency lights flashing.

It was times like these that I wished I had an army. My father had always told me to exercise safety, but I walked around like any common person would.

What if that van is full of killers and they’ve come to make sure I don’t ever walk again?

___________

Sebastian’s POV

I wanted to see Emily again so much that I cut the meeting short and raced to the hotel where she was staying, but when I arrived, I was told she had already left. I remembered her saying that she would be leaving the next evening, but I had hoped to catch her in time.

I raced to the airstrip, the closest one. I was ninety-five percent sure that that was the airstrip she’d use to her departure.

*

I caught the jet and drove in front of it, blocking it from the runway. My hand hit the emergency light, and I trembled in fear.

What if she rejects me?

What if she doesn’t feel the same way after all these years?

Questions swarm through my mind like wildfire. I couldn’t think of anything to say to her now that I was actually about to see her.

I opened the car door and got out, and my eyes fell on her instantly. She was walking towards my car with an object in hand but quickly put it into her purse when she saw it was me.

“Sebastian, what are you doing here?” She asked with her eyes glimmering.

“Isn’t it obvious, I’m here to stop you from leaving.”

“Why?”

“I can’t let you slip away so soon, Emily. It’s been too long.”

Her scared expression formed into a beaming smile. She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly.

After she pulled away, my phone buzzed in my pants pocket. There were ten missed calls and a text message from my father. I read the message, and my heart sank:

Sebastian, where did you run off to? 

Princess Naomi arrived, and she has accepted your proposal.