Chapter 17 - A Love Like Poison

• A/n: Have you added That Royal Betrothal to your reading list yet? Please do 😊
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• Alejandro
• I set my axe up as I cut the thick tree with the last of my strength. This was no easy job. But, guess this was why my late parents sent me to learn to fight at a tender age.
• They claimed they gave me the “defender of the people”. I was to fulfil it by working as a royal guard in the castle. I had hustled and bustled to get where I was today.
• You know as a normal street boy, no penny or whatsoever. Life had never been harder since they passed away. They were robbed on a journey and killed by bandits, leaving me with my kid sister, Maya. She just a baby then. She didn’t deserve any of that, aged 2. I was 16 and had no means of livelihood. I pickpocketed to survive, coming home to take care. Told her stories, given her wise sayings, that where were didn’t mean it was our final destination.
• All had been so bad, until I saw an advertisement that read:
• “Training session for the king’s guard. Can you beat it?”.
• I approached there, meeting older men, twice my size. Immediately they saw me, they laughed. “Kid, shouldn’t you be at home sucking mama’s breast?”. This earned another laughter from the backstage men. I growled out in anger not giving up until they fixed a fight between me and one of them.
• The man was a bulky man, huge and muscular. Twice my lanky size, as he stretched and flexed his muscles to scare me off. I was not having any of it and did the same too calculating his moves. I could only use my littleness to my advantage, if I was quick.
• He had made a move towards me which I dodged and crawled under him, hitting the back of his forehead, totally knocking him out.
• The men stopped cheering, looking surprised. The trainer immediately registered me. I was asked to fill a form with my background details.
• Days passed as I kicked, punched and pummeled in the training grounds and even in bets. That was the means through which I got money for myself and Maya. I got her a nanny which took care of her.
• I fought till the last stage, whereby the best of fighters would work as a guard in the king’s palace. After so much hard work, I entered the list and was made the assistant head guard in the king’s chambers. And, two years later, I became the head guard after the former head passed away. He was poisoned but no one knew who did it.
• However, I thought life was becoming perfect for me. Maya now lived comfortably. She grew up smart and intelligent from her home school I had paid for. She had longed to go out one day and also have class mates but I insisted she be home schooled for protection.
• Until Fernanda came in. It started at the king’s banquet when she looked at me so shamelessly. Not minding anybody’s condemnation, her gaze had been so intense that I had to excuse myself. She followed me and confessed her little crush but I had rejected her politely and went to resume my duty. I thought she gave up. But she didn’t.
• Nevertheless, she chased me for two years which I refused skillfully. Then it happened, she lured me in her room one night, using my sister as a threat. She had threatened to behead her the moment I walked out of the door. I knew she was becoming insane.
• This left me no choice as I succumbed to her wishes, sleeping with her. I did her bidding, pleasing her in different ways. She was so wild in bed, making me do her filthy lustful desires. Did a part of me want this? Yes. Did I like her a bit? Yes. But that was where it ended. I never loved her.
• A hand taps on my shoulder, bringing me to reality. It was Diego, a fellow peasant worker I had explained my problem to.
• “You okay, man?”, he asked.
• “Umm. . . yeah. Just regaining some calories”. I replied.
• “Okay. You see man when you said all those shit about some woman named Fernandez all around your balls, I felt you should tell the authorities. You feel me, yes?”, he asked again. Diego was a muscular man, average in height. He worked here and bustled because of his family, having six kids to raise and nagging wife too.
• “Thanks for your advice. You see I’ve always wanted to do that but I’m not going to put my kid sister’s life on line because of her”, I lifted my axe sitting on a tree I had previously fell off.
• “So, you just gonna ignore that fucking balls addicted princess and do her bidding?”, he asked pointing and demonstrating with his fingers making me laugh a bit. He was so humorous and made a good representative of his black skin.
• “As long as it lasts”, I replied, inwardly calling myself a weakling. I was the best guard the castle provided and I was letting a princess blackmail me into sleeping with her.
• My last statement earned a silence from him. He looked down for some minutes then spoke again. “You know I admire you, man. All you do is for your family and would go extra lengths to make them comfortable”, I glanced at him making him continue.
• “All this dirty job we all do here is part of it. When I wake up in the morning, I say ‘Dear God, help me with my daily bread – Put me through my nagging wife and get me on with providing for my family”. He said desperately. I listened without interrupting as he carried on. “But trust, if this dude was in your place man, I’d curse every living thing around me”, he added.
• “You’re a living hell man for going through all that”, I say in support. He painfully laughs. “Hell? I’ve been to hell but they sent me back. Said I was too perfect”, he gave a goofy expression which earned another laughter from me. My body vibrated with a chain of rhythm as I spread it spread to my mouth and dimple. Fernanda always said they were adorable. But, when she says that, I curse the fact that I had dimples.
• “You should be a jester, you know. You make good jokes and would make good stories”, I said. “Really? At least someone thinks of me as that. My wife won’t ever see my good side. She yells at my face daily and sizes up how much of a dick I could be”
• “Then why are you still with her?”, I ask. “Man’s got kids to raise. Man has to raise them with a mother, you know”.
• “Alright still look for someone who brings out your good side then. What are you waiting for?”, I questioned. “Sluts? I do sluts every week at Casseroles. They all come and go. Are all after money”, he replied sincerely.
• “No not that man. I mean someone who understands you, who brings out your best, your worst and supports you through everything, in the right way off course”. I watched him closely. My statement made him grin widely.
• “That’s hard, dude. You see when I met Isla, I thought she was the one. But I was wrong as fuck. Even the devil was once an angel”, he mouthed out spitting a leaf he had chewed out. He swallowed some gulps of gin then I resumed. “Have you ever suggested seeing a counsellor? For you and her?”, I asked briskly. He layed a fat arm around my neck.
• “You see, my friend. Things doesn’t work that way these days. A counsellor?”, he laughed loudly and patted my back. “Isla’s gonna make more hell if I ever do that. Her kind of person is strange. Always on and on, making a mountain out of a mole”. He stomps his foot on the bare floor killing off an ant from the tree which was about to climb him.
• “I’m sorry, brother. You really knocked on hell’s door unknowingly”, I said. “Just great right?”, he said in utmost sarcasm.
• “Don’t you two have other things to do than lazing around?”. We both looked up and sighted the head peasant. Springing up, we both took our axes and resumed the felling of trees we started earlier. Watching him leave, we laughed at the way his trousers made his butt appear.
• My mind wondered to Fernanda. I knew I was clutched in her hands. As long as it lasted off course. I groaned at the thought of when she confessed her love years back. Knowing that this so-called love would be the death of me. It was against the rules, just prohibited. A palace guard and a princess had nothing in common.
• Just one year, I assured myself. Then I would see Maya again. She would be a teenager by then. I’ll have to send her birthday gift.
• And for Fernanda, I could never love her like she did to me.
• Fernanda’s love was like poison. If you could even call it that.
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