Adele said that

There are chances for grammatical mistakes.....

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Ground slipped from under my feet and all my happiness and smile flew out of the window at the same instant, she uttered Ermanno’s name.

Ermanno?!

My Ermanno?

He loved her?

He wanted to marry her?

It felt like someone had punched me in my gut. I was shocked at my place, not knowing how to comprehend her words. When I was going to open my heart to him, he confessed his eternal love to Adele? Did that mean that he didn’t feel anything for me?

Then what about his care? His affectionate behavior with me? What about the emotions that I saw in his eyes? What about his trust on me when he stood up for me in front of Alessandro? Was it all fake? Did I misinterpret everything?

I looked up at her squealing form and whispered quietly, “Ermanno loves you?”

She enthusiastically replied, “I am shocked too. I have always loved him, since childhood. He was my hero. But I never knew that he loved me too. I got to know about it just now when he disclosed it to me. He told me that he was forced by Alessandro to marry you. He was doing it not to upset him as you know how much Ermanno loved him and respected him. Also, Alessandro had threatened to disown him. You know how much stubborn and manipulative he could be.”

“But since Alessandro is no more, no one is there to force him and he can do whatever he wanted to do. He said that now there is no need to hide his feelings for me. So, he confessed his love for me and proposed me for marriage. And him being the king, no one would dare to question him,” she continued.

“So you said yes?” I asked her, feeling lost.

She looked at me as if I had asked a stupid question from her and replied, “Ofcourse, I accepted his proposal. I have dreamt about it all my life. It is not that you feel anything for him. You have always loved Albert and you also wanted to be free of this betrothal. So it worked in all our favours. Now, you are free to go to your love and no one would dare to stop you. You always wanted to escape from here and now your wish is fulfilled. Now, we all can be with the love of our lives.”

My wish was fulfilled?

But I had to wish to spend all my life with Ermanno. I had wished to get married to him.

Yes, at one point of time, I wanted to escape that betrothal and wanted to cancel our marriage, but that was when I was in the illusion that I loved Albert and I didn’t knew the real Ermanno. But after spending my time with him, I got to know who he really was behind that cold exterior of his. I found out how much caring and affectionate he was underneath his ruthless facade. I got to see the true Ermanno and I had fallen in love with him; deeply and madly.

After falling for Ermanno, I had realised what love really was. I had realised that I had never loved Albert, it was just a thought.

What I felt for Ermanno had consumed my soul. It was so profound, so strong. It was never with Albert, only Ermanno was capable of making me weak on my knees, and race my heart with his single smile. His one warm look could melt me into a puddle.

And after realising all that, I had only wished for him to be my husband. I had abandoned my plan to flee and was finally happy and content with the arrangement. But I guess that I, myself had jinxed my happiness.

Why was my fate so cruel? When I wanted to be away from him, it forced me with him; and now when I was on my way to confess my feelings for him, I got to know that he didn’t care for me? He didn’t love me? Why couldn’t I get to know about the truth earlier, before I fell for him? Atleast, my heart would have been saved from breaking.

I was close to having a panic attack. But I tried not to show it to her. I excused myself from her, saying, “I need to do some urgent work. I will talk to you later.”

Without waiting for her reply, I turned on my heels and rushed back to my room. I instantly bolted the door and fell on the ground, finally letting my tears free.

I couldn’t control my emotions as heartwrenching sobs erupted from my throat. My heart was aching physically to the point where I wanted to rip it out of my chest to relieve the pain. It was getting difficult for me to breath as I hiccuped and clutched my hair from the roots.

The pain was too much for me to bear as I just wanted it to go away anyhow. I cried, I shouted, but nothing was lessening the ache I was feeling inside.

I couldn’t even hate Ermanno. To think of it, he had never said that he loved me. Infact, he hadn’t even said that he liked me. I was so stupid who misunderstood his kindness and hospitality towards me, as his feelings for me. In reality, he was forced to do all of it. And him, being a gentleman, never let me feel that I was a burden for him.

It was all my fault. I had already put him through so much trouble. I was the reason, he fought with his nonno, in his last meeting with him. If I wouldn’t have been there, there wouldn’t have been any reason of conflict between them and he didn’t had to bear the burden of guilt of hurting and disrespecting his nonno. He didn’t even get a chance to mend everything.

Taking a deep breath, I wiped my tears away and took my decision. It would be the last time he would be hurt because of me. It won’t happen ever again. I would not be the reason of his pain and hurt anymore.

Because I was going away from his life for ever!

Yes! I would go away so far that he would never get to see even my face. It was not that he was going to miss me. He had finally got Adele, the love of his life. He didn’t need me now. There was no reason for me to stay there.

I stood up from my place determined and wiped away all the remnants of tears from my face. I was going to leave that place right at that moment because I knew that if I stayed back and saw him in person, I would never be able to leave him. I would surely break down in front of him and confess my feelings for him. And that was the last thing I wanted to do.

I also won’t be able to bear him telling me to go away from his life because he loved Adele and was going to marry her. It would be too much for my poor heart.

And if in any case, he felt guilty for breaking my heart and decided to fulfill the promise, I would feel guilty all my life. I didn’t want to come in between him and Adele. My love was not requited and I knew the pain. I didn’t want him to go through the same pain of not being united to his love, of loosing his love. Heck! I didn’t want him to feel any pain at all.

So I decided leave from there right away. Atleast someone’s love story would be complete.

I directly went to the main gate. I was glad that I didn’t encounter anyone on my way, especially Ermanno, Francesca or Adele. Upon reaching there, the guards stopped me from leaving the mansion. But I couldn’t stay there.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I threatened them that I was the soon-to-be queen and I would complain to Ermanno that they were going against my orders. My lie worked as I could see the fear on their faces, clear as day. They reluctantly opened the gates for me.

However, they asked me if they should get the car ready for me to take me wherever I wanted to. But, I refused them and left the mansion for good.

After leaving the mansion, I walked aimlessly on the road. I had nothing with me; no phone, no money, nothing. I had left impulsively. I cursed myself for not even taking my phone with me. I didn’t knew what to do, or whom to ask for help.

It was a new place for me for me and I was not familiar with anything there. I hadn’t even explored the city, nor did I knew their language.

I didn’t remember where I was going until a car stopped beside me. The windows were black, avoiding me to see who was inside. I was afraid that Ermanno had got to know about me leaving the mansion and had come to take me. I didn’t want to go back there.

But when the door opened, I was shocked to see the person inside it.

“Albert?!”

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