Chapter 86: Eighty-six

Hope

I was in a very good mood today. I woke up early feeling refreshed. Maybe it was because there was no longer a creature inside my stomach draining my energy.

I freshened up and sent a maid to tell Darius to meet me for breakfast at the dining table. By the time I reached the dining table myself, I was surprised to see that Darius was already there.

And an even more surprising thing to me was that I saw the head of the dining table now had two throne-like chairs placed side-by-side to each other.

Darius was standing behind the chairs with a stroke of uneasiness on his expression. I walked over to him and said, "Good morning."

"Good morning, Hope." Darius said back to me, then his eyes bounced and landed on Kyle who was close behind me.

I could sense the hostility in Darius' gaze as he looked at Kyle. It made me want to frown. Was this foolish husband of mine jealous of the same bodyguard that he had hired to protect me?

I almost facepalmed myself at the thought. But since I was in a very good mood, I decided to not let such a thing bother me.

"Let's eat together here. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

My words brought Darius' eyes back to me and the onyx color shone brightly.

"It has. Have a seat." Darius gestured to one of the head chairs.

I looked at him with a raised brow. I wondered when he had ordered for this second chair to be done. I was always having food sent to my chambers or eating along the training grounds or in Darius' office.

If he had made changes to the dining table since, why had he never invited me to eat with him all this while?

I chose to stop thinking about such things and settled on the chair that he drew out for me. Darius settled down next to me, then snapped his fingers, inviting workers to serve our food.

They did that quickly. I began to eat and instead of Darius to do the same, he watched me as I ate.

"What is it?" I asked him, my time was not laced with venom or annoyance.

"Um... You're being weird today." Darius said.

I suddenly remembered that the last time we had a proper conversation was when he found out that I was pregnant and I had told him that I didn't want the pregnancy.

Shit. I forgot that we were supposed to be on bad terms.

I couldn't be on bad terms with him for the plan I had to execute. I was going to fake the death of my already dead child today. And to that, I had to pretend that I was now okay with the child, so that the sudden 'death' of it and my pretending to be sad about it would be more believable.

"How weird?" I asked Darius, there was a teasing edge to my tone.

Darius looked at me. If I didn't know better, I would think that he was blushing, judging by the look of embarrassment on his face.

"It's nothing. Just eat. How are you feeling today?" Darius decided to change the subject.

"Better." I responded, then said, "Why did you tell everyone about my pregnancy? Don't you worry about things?"

There was a slight frown on his face as Darius spoke. "Worry about what? Your safety or the child's safety? Do you think announcing his existence would put him at risk?"

I made an expression on my face that spelt, 'Obviously.'

A genuine hurt look made its way to Darius' features. "Best believe that I will protect you and the child. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have made such a big fuss about his existence. Do not worry, I am here."

Hearing Darius say those words made me truly not worry. But it was weird how the child was already gone. What was there to protect?

I suddenly felt a pang of guilt in my heart but I chose to ignore it as I had already made my decision and carried it out.

"Sure. I trust you'll keep me safe." I said, hoping my words didn't sound sarcastic to Darius.

If they did, he must not have noticed as a wide smile set on his lips.

Darius and I had breakfast peacefully, and I made sure to get him aware of the fact that I was over not wanting the child anymore. This was what even made Darius more enthusiastic and happy to go along with whatever I wanted him to.

So when I asked him if he could take me out of the castle, he agreed easily.

He thought that it would be my first day out of the castle and into the real kingdom of Moratia. If only he knew that I had scouted a large area of the kingdom at night with Kyle by my side.

But I let Darius believe that I was oblivious to the world outside the castle.

Darius and I prepared to go out. I changed into proper royal wear and coated the formal dress with an even formal long coat. As for Darius, he was dressed in an outstanding version of the army's uniform. It looked so good on him that it began making me realize more and more that Darius was truly a handsome man.

We were settled inside the royal carriage and I had instructed Kyle to keep close to us. His presence was needed for my plan.

"Are you excited?" Darius asked me, his own excitement seemed too much for someone who had been out of the castle countless times and was only accompanying me on my 'first' time.

"I am. Don't I look excited?" I perfected a bright smile on my face.

"That's good. I will take you to a very nice site where you can really admire the true beauty of the Moratian Kingdom." Darius said with hand illustrations.

I smiled at his foolishness. This was only going to be the calm before the storm.