Mrs. Preston watched Nathan's figure disappear at the door before taking back her gaze to look at Selena who sat beside her.
Initially, she had wanted to make Selena see Nathan off but observing the awkward atmosphere surrounding them and together with the fact that the two weren't really that familiar with each other as they should be meeting for the first time today, she had decided against it.
Yes, she had noticed since she came in that the two were acting wrong around each other, especially her daughter who obviously couldn't wait to be as far as possible from Nathan.
This particular wrong feeling, she observed, hadn't originated from ambiguity but rather from the fact that Selena was trying to distance herself away from him.
All this together had made her arrive at a conclusion as to why her daughter was acting this way, however, this only made her feel an oncoming headache.
She had always thought that even if Nathan had been quite impulsive and impatient as a teenager, he would have smoothed it out as he grew older, but from what she could now see, she was apparently wrong!
Heaving a helpless sigh, she exchanged a look with her taciturn husband who also sat right next to her and instantly felt her headache intensify.
Knowing she couldn't rely on this husband of hers to do the talking, she knew she had to do it herself. So, Mrs. Preston shifted her body sideways so she could face Selena directly before speaking.
"You have nothing to ask from us?", She questioned gently as she stroked her daughter's silky smooth hair.
Selena stiffened slightly upon hearing her question, not knowing what to say in reply to her mother's question.
Yes.
She did have have questions to ask that needed urgent answers but.. she couldn't help but develop a turtle mentality, hoping that if she didn't ask, she would be able to pretend that the matter didn't exist and it would pass that way.
Yet, she also understood that it wasn't something she could just avoid or run from, and knew she had to face it squarely in the end.
Thinking of this, her thoughts became clearer and she took a deep breath and bowed her head, somewhat scared to see her parents' reaction before speaking,
"..about the marriage alliance... Prince Nathan told me about it..", She stopped after saying this because she knew very well that her parents will understand what she wanted to ask.
In fact, she had wanted to ask them directly if it was really true and if the only reason why they acknowledged her was so she could fulfill the business marriage.
However, in the end, she didn't dare to voice out this tricky question mainly because she was really afraid that the answer would turn out to be exactly what she was afraid of...
She had barely had time to enjoy this familial warmth and was fearful of losing it.
Mrs. Preston had a look of her daughter who was currently acting like an ostrich and could make an educated guess of what she was thinking.
Still, this only made her even more sad and she couldn't help ask in a low tone.
"What exactly do you think of us? Do we seem like the kind of parents who would sacrifice their children's happiness for familial interests?"
Selena's head snapped up on hearing her mother's subdued tone that was thick with sadness and also tinged with hint of helplessness. She then snuck a look at her father and when she saw his frowning deeply, she felt her heart sink.
In the short time she had spent with this family, she had come to understand that her father was a very taciturn person and would barely change his face no matter what happens, so seeing him now frowning ddeeply spoke volumes.
Feeling panicked for some reason, Selena hurriedly grabbed her mother's arms and tried to explain herself but her mother only waved her hand to stop her from saying anything in explanation, making her heart sink even deeper.
She could only blame herself for having doubts towards why they treated her so well. Just like she had told Nina before, she really felt that this family treated her too well, to the point that it made her feel unreal..
So, she couldn't help but think that they treated her this well was because she had some value to them, after all, wasn't it like that in most of those wealthy and noble families?
But looking at her parent's reaction, maybe she was really wrong..
"The Royale's and our family have been good friends for generations", Selena regained her senses on hearing her mother's soft voice and listened carefully to her explaining the cause and effect of the whole marriage business.
"In particular, your father and Nathan's who is now deceased grew up together and were close friends, therefore, it was only natural that their wives, Nathan's mom and I became best friends..", She paused for a second here before continuing.
"So when she and I happened to get pregnant at the same time, we had jokingly decided that if we should give birth to a boy and a girl, the two children would be betrothed to each other. However, in the end, she gave birth to Nathan and I gave birth to your brothers, making that agreement invalid."
'In spite of that, your aunt Celia, which is Nathan's mom was still unwilling to give up. This made it so that when I got pregnant with you and she found out you were a girl, she suggested we get you engaged to Nathan after you grew older."
"To be honest, I wasn't really in favor of that idea, after all, Nathan was the same age as your brothers, about ten years older than you. But in the end, I ended up agreeing with her because for one, she was really stubborn about it, insisting she wanted you as her daughter-in-law.."
"Even now, I still find it quite funny since you were still just a fetus back then", Mrs. Preston laughed with a hint of nostalgia in her tone at this point, looking amused.
However, moments later, her face turned serious again as she continued speaking, "But that was only one of the reason I agreed, the real reason was because she had stated that if the two of your grew up and discovered you have no feelings for each other, the betrothal would be rendered void. Yet, in the end...", Tears swimmed her eyes as she whispered her last sentence.
Yes, in the end, they all knew what happened.
She got kidnapped and never got to grow up with them..