STANDING THE GROUND

"But babe?" Damian starts. "You have seen how these people act towards you. You are in danger."


I know, but what is the worst they can do? I will kick them out of here before they can do anything. I cannot let them win. "I will be fine, Damian. I can handle them, and I can handle myself!"

"You don't know what they are up to, Ellie! It could be dangerous." He pleads.

"The more reason I should stay put to know what they are plotting! I am not moving an inch from my home, Damian! I doubt it is even what my parents would expect of me."


"Your parents would want you safe at whatever cost, Ellie. That I know, and I know you know it too, so well. And this place is not safe for you," he pleads again.

And so leaving all this castle to these witches would make my parents happy? What kind of daughter will I even be to do that? "And I will be, because I am not going to let these skeptical pesky witches win."


"You are so stubborn," he fumes.

Why? He is angry now because I won't accept what he wants.

"Besty, please? Listen to Damian," Grace says.

Ooh, wow! She has fallen under his charming spell, huh? He manages to get everyone on his side with a snap of a finger. What kind of charm does he possess?

"I understand all your concerns, and I am grateful for that, but my decision is final," I say to them.

"Okay. You stay, but I am getting bodyguards for you. They are going to stay guard at your door and accompany you wherever you go," Damian ascertains.

Guards? What now? We go back to the life that suffocated me until I create my own space from here. Walking around with a battalion of bodyguards? The hell! Freaking what? I can't go back to that prison kind of life! I can't be walking around with a battalion of guards everywhere I go, damn it!

"No. I can't..."

"That's not up for discussion." Damian cuts me off. 'Ellie! I am getting you bodyguards, and that is final." Damian commands, and everything falls quiet in his autonomous, autocratic tone.

I guess there is no room for objections, then! Gosh! That life hell sucks!

"I will leave you girls alone so you can talk." The girls nod their heads, and then he turns to me, kissing my forehead. "I will go check on things, but I am just a call away whenever you need me or anything. Don't hesitate to call me, okay?" He worryingly pleads.

Sigh! "Sure." That is all I can afford for a response. He is being too affectionate and commanding.

‘Well, he always was. That was why you fell head over heels for him, right? And it's not like he has committed an inexpiable crime, and he has conceded to his mistakes and apologized, right?'

I shake my head to my innocent brain's scolding.

"See you."

After saying goodbye to these cheap friends of mine who look like they are all lusted by him, he strides out, and I have to battle the pain of watching him leave. Just how much did this guy get into me?

"Ghosh! Those deep pink lips and the droolsome abs!" That must be Rose, and I turn around to them as Sherry continues the flirtations.

"Hell! Did you catch a glimpse of those dark orbs? They are as deep as the sea itself. Anyone would want to get trapped in them forever!"

Huh! See these... No wonder Grace is looking at them in confusion.

"Girls? He is taken, remember? He is Ellie's boyfriend! I told you, didn't I?" Grace decides to spank some sense into these two horny bitche's dumb heads.

They snap out of their fantasies. What were they thinking? That they have a shot with him? Well, they better forget it and not even make me sense that, because I will forget that we are friends.

"And ostensibly ironical," I add, catching their full attention as I continue, "my betrothed fiance, whom I ran away from."

"What?" The three voices echo together in bewilderment, their jaws dropping to the floor.

"Unbelievably, yes! I crashed into him on the day I ran away. We became beautiful strangers. Soon enough, we couldn't refrain from falling in love. We became a couple—the happiest of all couples in the world, I would say. And four days ago, at a dinner with my betrothed's family, Damian Almenda, my fiance from Mombasa, strode in, and he was introduced as my betrothed. He is the only child of Riccaforte, the man I loathed the most all my life. The same man I ran away from. The same one I am madly in love with." I finished my sermon.

I sigh at this sweet yet fucking tangle!

"Is this a joke, Ellie? These things do occur only in fairy tales." Sherry explains.

"Or in soap operas! This is incredibly sweet! Your love story should probably make it to the headlines of TV stations and magazines. It's unbelievable that you two fell in love without knowing that you were fated." Rose can't control the thrill of all this.

"That's it!" We all snap at Grace as she chirps. "It is fate! That's why, no matter what you two do or where you go, you still find yourself crashing into each other over and over again. You two are destined!"

Fate, huh? Then it should have told us the day that we met! Crap!

"Fate or not fate, guys, I don't need this right now. Can I get a group hug?" I ask as I sit on my queen-size bed.

"Oh, we are sorry, Ellie. Just that, your story is sweeter than even that of Romeo and Juliet. Come here!" Grace says, and they all gather around me and encompass me in a bear hug.

I missed them with their crazy, wild thoughts. I missed them all.

"We are truly sorry for your loss, bestie," Rose says this as we pull away from the hug.