The Royal Contract

"No, it was not making love." She whispered to the air. 

Nick and Cassie did not know the word. They never learned to love.

It was only pure dirty sex between two despicable people like them. There was nothing lovely about what they did. Those two were evil people who only used other people for their gain. 

"Liars!" Dani uttered in total despair. She was a fool to believe both of them. Nick, her fiancé, pretended to love her. But all he ever wanted from her was the money and power he could get from her father.

Cassie, her friend. The one who was there by her side through the many events in her life. She only led her to believe that she also loved her, but she only used her because of her money and connection. Then, she stole her fiancé away from her. 

But the worse thing was learning that her father turned out to be someone as evil as them. She had adored and respected him throughout her entire life. 

She believed that he was the most magnificent man in the world. The best father a daughter would ever want. Only to find out that it was all a lie.

"Why is this happening to me? What did I do wrong?" She asked herself, but only to find that she had no one else to point a finger to at what happened to her. Just like Nick said, she had lived in her bubble, not caring about what was happening around her. 

Her life seemed so perfect that she did not bother to care what was happening around her. She was a selfish princess who only cared about her crown. 

Now, she discovered that her father, the King, was not as innocent as she thought. Her life was not as perfect as she believed. What now was to become of her life?

"I am sorry." She finally said to herself. She knew now that she only had herself to blame. She had kept her eyes blindfolded from all the things that surrounded her. The false praises that she heard from the people around her. She did not realize that nothing about all of that was true.

She did not even realize that it already started raining, and she was soaked wet. All she could think about was how foolish she was to believe that she was the luckiest person in the world.

"I am so stupid." She kept saying as she let the rain washed out her pain. But, no matter how much the cold water gushed down on her skin, she still felt numb from the anguish that Nick and Cassie had cause her.

Dani had no idea of how long she had sat on that bench. The next thing she knew, she was freezing in the cold with the wet clothes that stick on her skin and the chilled wind that blew around her.

"Please, help me." The last thing she remembered she uttered before blackness took over her body and consciousness.

All of a sudden, she woke up shaking and sweating uncontrollably. She sat at the bed panting, trying to catch her breath. The vivid memories of her dream or was it her memories, still lingered in her mind.

He quickly opened the lamp beside the bed and looked at her. He was concerned to find her in her disordered state when he felt her quickened movement beside him. 

"Dani, are you ok." He enveloped her in his embrace and ran his hands across his back as he tried to calm her down.

He wondered what she had dreamt to put her in this kind of condition. A nightmare more likely, he thought. It was usual to have those. He also had it occasionally, but he hoped that it was not something serious.

"Oh!" She finally recognized his voice and discerned she was awake. 

She had another dream, followed by another one. But what concerned her was that it was somewhat identical. Only the characters on it were different.

"Are you ok?" He repeated the question when she failed to respond on his first try to talk to her. "Dani."

"Yeah, Alex, I am. I think I just had a dream." She finally acknowledged him, seeing his worry in his expression.

But her mind was still a bit disoriented. Her past, her dream, and her present seemed to collide at the moment. She tried to shake it off, wanting to clear her mind to her current state. 

But it was taking time as Alex continued to stare at her, waiting for her to tell him what happened.

"It seemed more like a nightmare to me." He said as he ran his fingers on her forehead and felt the cold sweat on her skin. "You want to tell me about it. I'm sure talking can help."

"It's probably some dream about what we watched earlier. Or a remnant of something I encountered. But I don't think I remembered much at all." She again lied to him.

But sharing this with him seemed so inappropriate and humiliating. How could Dani tell him that her ex-fiancé found her abhorring personally and in terms of sex? 

Her inexperience in bed was laughable, and her old personality was far from appealing. It was her past that she wanted to forget. She ran away from it and never wanted to look back.

"Are you sure?" He asked, but when she nodded. He finally conceded. "If you are sure, but remember, you can always talk to me." Once again, he knew that she was still hiding something from her.

This nightmare was the second time he witnessed during their time together. He wondered if Dani had more of this kind when they were not together.

He was not sure of what it meant. But based on the way her body reacted and the way her eyes twitched when he asked her, it meant to her more than she admitted to him.

She was running from something, and he would find it out, one way or another. She could tell him, or he would have to investigate for himself. He believed that he had a keen eye for things and his detective skills were quite superb.