Chapter 70: Estefan

ESTEFAN'S POV

After Rhea had successfully locked herself in the bathroom, I had to threaten to stop editing her book for her to come out. She found her act embarrassing but I found it cute.

I had to admit that he took all the willpower in me for me to leave her on the bed and walked out. The way she moaned out my name ignited something in me and I knew if I didn't stop that moment I wouldn't be able to control myself anymore.

Rhea was still behaving awkwardly around me when she came out but with time, she got over it and returned to her usual annoying self.

The following morning, Rhea and I sat on the couch as she began to fill in the form for the writing contest on her laptop. Our bags were standing at the entrance of the suite because our plane departs for Spain in two hours which was enough time for Rhea to enter her book for the contest. I made sure I finished the editing before the day break because I knew I would be occupied once we returned to Spain.

Rhea finished filling out the form but she stopped when she was about to click on Submit.

Raising my eyebrow at her actions, I asked, "Why did you stop?"

"I'm scared." She turned to me with fear deep in her eyes. "What if I don't win?"

"Rhea, you need to start having confidence in yourself."

"I know." She sighed before she picked up the laptop and pushed it into my hands. "Why don't you click the Submit button for me? Maybe your lucky charm would work for me."

"Lucky charm?" My eyebrows furrow in confusion. "What makes you think I'm lucky?"

"Well, not everybody is fortunate to be married to an amazing girl like me, so you are lucky to have me as your wife." She grinned.

I couldn't believe I was preaching to her about self-confidence when she already put herself in such high esteem. But to be honest, I was lucky to be with her. Like Leah once said, she is a ball of sunshine and her light brightened up my life which was full of darkness and hatred planted by a certain somebody seven years ago.

Without making any comments, I took the laptop and submitted the book for her before we checked out of the hotel suite and leave for the airport.

Throughout the plane ride, my eyes didn't leave Rhea's bandage head and I still got furious anytime I thought about Leah hurting her. I didn't know how my parents were going to react when they see it and find out that it was Leah's doing.

I couldn't say about the Queen but my dad would be furious and demand that Leah received punishment according to the Law for hurting a member of the Royal family. What annoyed me the most was that I would have to convince him not to take any action even if it was the last thing I wanted to do, but I had to do it because of Rhea.

The plane landed after two hours and a white Mercedes-Benz drove us to the palace. Stepping through the main door, we met everyone waiting for us in the room. Queen Carina stood up and walked closer to us with a big smile on her face which instantly dropped when she noticed the white bandage around Rhea's head.

"What happened? Why is your head bandage?" She moved closer to her and inspected her injury.

Rhea glanced at me before turning to my mom. "I accidentally bumped my head on a wall, it's nothing serious."

I shook my head at her stupid attempt of covering up for her sister. If she was going to lie, she should at least come up with a believable one.

"There's no way a bump on the wall will give you an injury like that," Esteban said as everyone else stood up and took their position behind Queen Carina. "I feel like there's something you are not telling us." He looked back and forth between Rhea and me with a suspicious look in his eyes.

"Estefan, what happened?" My dad asked.

"Her sister did that to her," I confessed, resulting in a glare from her.

"How could your sister hurt like this?" Queen Carina gasped as she gently touched the bandage around her head.

"It was a mistake, she didn't mean to hurt me," Rhea added.

"Yeah, right." I scoffed as I walked away from them, going toward the elevator.

As I stepped into the lift, I saw Dad approaching me, so I held the door for him to get in.

"What exactly happened?" He asked with a stoic expression on his face.

"I wasn't present when it happened because I dropped her off at her parent's house before going to Empire. By the time I got back, she was already like that and her dad said Leah threw a mug on her head when they were talking in her room," I explained.

"That girl is going too far with her jealousy. We better put her in check before she becomes a threat to Rhea." He sighed. "Besides, hurting a member of a Royal Family is a capital offence, she needs to be brought here and punished according to the Law."

"Punishing Leah would cause a wedge between us and the Knight which we can't afford at this point and besides, we can't punish her if Rhea keeps defending that it was a mistake."

"Do you believe it was a mistake?" He raised his eyebrows at me.

"Of course not. I want Leah punished as much as you do, but Rhea doesn't want that because she feels like her sister is already getting enough punishment for her recent actions."

"So you are just going to let her go after hurting Rhea like that?"

"Trust me, I don't want to. But if I punish her against Rhea's will, she might get mad at me, and the last thing I want right now is to be at the receiving end of her anger again." The elevator stopped at the fourth floor and I stepped out, leaving my dad inside.

"Carina was right, you're changing a lot." He smiled.

"What do you mean?" I gave him a confused look.

He stopped the elevator door that was about to close. "Since you arrived in the palace, you never cared if you hurt anyone's feelings by your words or actions because of the deep hatred in you. But now, you are trying not to hurt Rhea's feelings or get on her bad side, that's a sign that you love and care about her." The elevator door began to close. "I'm glad I made you get married to her," was the last thing he said before the door shut in his face.

Care? Yes, I cared about Rhea. Love? That was far from it. I didn't think I could bring myself to love anyone after that tragic event seven years. Besides, there was no point in falling in love with her when we would be going our separate ways soon. I didn't want to end up making the same mistake that almost took everything away from me.