Loyalty

Silence met her so she glanced up into surprised dark irises shrouded in utter confusion. A look of denial crossed his features.

"No," he whispered.

"No?" Prisana's heart ached as she questioned his words.

"You can't love me."

"Miss," one of the yacht crew members blocked her from entering. "I'm afraid we've reached full capacity. Please step back from the yellow line."

Prisana refused to take a step back. She stayed rooted on the spot.

"Why?"

For the love of god, why? Prisana loved this husband that thought himself to be a beast. He was the most valiant knight and gentleman she has ever been granted to meet in this lifetime.

Her dearest husband climbed down the steps. His large arm whisked her into a tight embrace. A sigh escaped her because his warm loving arms encased her from all worries. She returned his eerie gaze, pondering for questions she knew may return unanswered.

And then, he did the unexpected even though she was used to it. A kiss. He leaned forward to kiss her. It was not the kind of showy kiss meant for the media or filled with desperation like he needed it. Instead, it was a simple kind of kiss where he slowly savored her lips, her mouth, and tantalizingly stroked her with tender passion.

Dane was telling her to wait patiently. She wouldn't, of course. When her arms draped around his shoulders, he chose that moment to pull away from their sweet escape among turmoil.

"I'm cursed."

Cursed? That silly notion of his again?

Before she could ask him how he was cursed, Dane tipped her back by putting a finger to her chest. This prompted to make her step back and become alone and broken from his nonsense. The yacht went on and closed its doors despite her feeble protests. His silhouette faded away from view.

Fine!

If the beast was trying to take matters into his own hands then the lynx wouldn't hesitate to take matters into her own hands as well. The lynx would not simply stand around and do nothing. Prisana immediately turned to the one yacht that she never imagined ever stepping foot inside of ever again.

However, she paused in her steps before walking up the stairs to the yacht. The senator and Giovanni were immersed in a discussion with one another off to the side of the yacht. She lightly tiptoed off to the side trying not to get caught like a child.

Giovanni smiled, "...I'm a heartbroken man senator. Your daughter has betrayed me in the worst way possible. Ha! With this, I'm afraid it won't save even your reputation and may even cause some loss of fame. The headlines will read 'senator's daughter has an affair and elopes with another man'."

"What about the deal we made between your father's stocks?"

"Everything associated with you could burn down and crash to ashes for all I care."

"Gio! You're willing to lose everything all because my daughter made a silly mistake? We both know you're better than that."

"It runs deeper than that and we both know why. Oh, did I forget to mention that one of your most prized shareholders have decided to join hands with me?"

The relationship between the senator and Giovanni was always been believed to be on good terms. Now, Prisana wasn't so sure of that as the look on Giovanni's face resembled the worst kind of malice. Malice that even chilled her to the bones because it was not a look she was used to when she has known this man her whole entire life.

The senator's face even grew twisted to turmoil. Turmoil that was never granted even to Prisana's unfortunate situation. Care drifted among his features, which sent an uncomfortable gut feeling pass through her.

"Does this have to do with that wench? You'll forsake everything for her?" came her father's startling accusation.

"...It seems like your daughter has been eavesdropping," Giovanni pointed out as he looked to her and she suppressed a startled gasp. "Quite another terrible hobby to add to her list of growing crimes."

"Murder might be next on the list!" she boldly retorted, then coughed under breath.

Prisana hurried past the two men she despised most in the world and toward his yacht that would be going against her own husband. To defeat the enemy, one must side with the enemy first from the inside.

"Where do you think you're going?" the senator questioned. "You're to stay until I personally deal with you."

"What else does it look like this impudent daughter is going to do? I'm trying to sabotage this yacht from winning."

"What can a weak daughter of mine do?"

"Your greatest mistake will be to underestimate this weak daughter of yours. If you're afraid of me then I can remain but like you said , I pose no threat so it shouldn't be a problem that I attend my dear father's own yacht race."

Prisana continued walking again but his voice called out to her, in the most cooing 'father' sound that kept stirring up unwanted emotions from surfacing.

"Prisana. Hear me out."

Her heart beat so rapidly that it hurt. She paused.

"Senator. What do you want?" she asked coldly.

"Where does your loyalty lie?"

"Ha!" she mocked as she turned around. "Are you seriously asking me about loyalty?"

"I'm your father. Your loyalty should be with me."

Loyalty. That question stunned her beyond belief. That word shouldn't even be spoken out from that mouth of his. She clenched her fists from balling it into him.

"You talk of loyalty yet I abandoned mines the moment you sold me off to a man that has loved other women. The moment you fed me ugly truths thinking that I would be blind forever rendered this loyalty invalid and I buried it away with the word 'father'."

The senator knew what he was doing and Prisana saw it coming. She didn't evade it. He raised his arm and slapped her across the face, hard. It took her a few moments to register what had happened. But it began to slowly register when the pain stung and throbbed at her cheek so that her hand lifted to cover the bruise. A slight trail of blood trailed down to her fingertips.

Prisana blinked a few times, realizing at last that it was true because her vision was impaired by an angry yet sad tear trailing down to her lightly blood streaked chin. Her 'father' was domineering and calculating but never once had he hit her.

"What the hell?" uttered Giovanni, seemingly frustrated for her sake, for no good reason at all.

"She deserved it," he said to Giovanni, turning to Prisana. "From now on, we are no longer father and daughter but merely strangers. Do what you want but if he loses then you both divorce to save my reputation and just as well, you can disappear from my sight forever."

She clenched her cheek and her teeth together to harden her voice even further, "That suits us. And fear not, my dearest husband will win and when he wins, grovel yourself before him. I want your full humiliation for hurting him."

"Deal. You're playing a losing game. I never lose."

"That's because you've never angered a lynx."

"You've changed," he uttered, shaking his head with a disproving sigh.

Prisana looked to the eyes of Giovanni as he walked over to reach out to her cheek, "Does it hurt?"

She slapped his hand away in complete disdain, "Don't touch me."

"You can slap me all you want but it won't bring back the girl you both once knew. You spoke of loyalty. Mine has been won over by a so called beast who tore apart his pride and worth," and before she left them standing at a stunned trail at her wake, she also flashed them a confident grin.

"I'll see to it that you lose, senator."