Chapter Thirty

Chad's car drove into the Castle's front yard and Amelia marvelled at the five hundred-year-old massive building that was in front of them. This was the first time she was coming this close to the castle, she never imagined that it would be this big and beautiful.

The car stopped and Amelia checked the time on her phone, it took them exactly thirty minutes to reach here just as Chad had commanded.

"We have arrived at the royal Castle, your highness," the car said and Chad scoffed.

"In thirty minutes? I expected you to do it in twenty or fifteen minutes." Chad complained.

"I'm sorry, your..."

"Just shut up, AI," Chad said and the car stopped talking. "What a pain." He pinched his nose and stared at Amelia who was looking out of the window, she felt that if she looked at him, she would feel the urge to punch him.

Maids and guards surrounded the car waiting for Prince Chad to step out of his car.

"Amelia," Prince Chad called her softly and tried to touch her, but she slapped his hand away, she was furious with him, she could not even bear to look at him, she did not know why his words hurt her so much.

'I don't care for you.' His words kept on replaying in her head which made her angrier.

Prince Chad sighed and opened the car door, the servants and guards gathered around him, welcoming him.

"Welcome back, your highness."  They greeted while bowing down.

"Please, don't bow," Chad said pinching his nose. "We are not in the 19th century."

"Okay, your highness."

"What can we get for you, your highness?" A maid asked.

"The library shelves are well dusted, the books arranged and..."

"Not today, I'm not going to the library today." Chad told them, for he was known for spending half of his day in the royal library reading books.

"Your Highness, are you prepared for the ball tonight?" Another servant asked him "Should we help you to prepare for the ball?"

"Well, I got that covered." Chad answered them.

"Your Highness, shall we escort you to your room?" The guards asked him but he nodded no.

They were all surprised when Chad went to the other side of the car and opened the door, the windows of the car were tinted black so they could not see who was inside the car.

'Did he bring anyone with him to the castle?' They began whispering.

'I wonder who it is.'

'Could it be his brother, prince Calvin? Or someone else?'

'No, I don't think so, it might be a lady.'

'A lady? Prince Chad doesn't seem to be interested in women.'

'Speaking of which, I heard that he has an eye on a girl.'

'I wonder who that girl is, she is so fortunate.'

'I wish I was her, do you know what it means for Prince Chad to have his eyes on you?'

'It means everything.'

Chad stood by the door waiting for Amelia to come out but she did not. He chuckled, he knew that she was still very angry at him. He stretched out his hand towards her and she looked away.

"Amelia, please come out, don't keep me waiting," Chad pleaded, with his hand stretching towards her but she did not move a muscle. "Please, Amelia, come out, do you know what it means for me to open the car door for you and beg you to take my hands...I am being more than a gentleman."

Amelia became angrier, he was so arrogant and full of himself and that was why she would not agree to come with him.

Chad saw that no matter what he said or did he would not be able to convince her to come out. "You left me no choice Amelia."

He came closer to her, and there was this wide grin on his face.

"What are you trying to do?" Amelia questioned him but he kept coming closer to her, "Don't you dare touch me!" She threatened but her threats fell on deaf ears, he used his hands to wrap her legs and he forcefully carried her.

Amelia tried to resist him, but he was too strong for her, she had never seen such type of strength before. While struggling she hit her forehead on the car.

"Ouch," she cried out in pain.

"If you should have agreed to come out then all these shouldn't have been happening," he chuckled, "but anyway..." He kissed her on the forehead. "I think this will do." She blushed but then she frowned when she remembered that she was supposed to be angry with him, not blush like an idiot. She did not want to stare at him, and she did not want to do what her mind was urging her to do--TO MURDER HIM-- but she was not ready to face a death sentence.

The maids and bodyguards watched the drama that was happening in front of them, they had never seen prince Chad this happy and playful before.

'Who is this girl?' They all thought.

What was more surprising to them was that Amelia was mixed, her caramel colour and curly hair made it obvious that she was black or mixed, and she wasn't behaving like she was of nobility--she was a commoner, they knew that it was extremely rare for top royals like Chad to get this close to this type of person.

"Let go of me," Amelia whispered, quite embarrassed and Chad slowly put her to the ground. "Why did you do that?"

Chad cleared his throat and before he could say anything the maids were already surrounding Amelia,  welcoming her.

"Welcome Miss?"

"Amelia."

"Your hair is beautiful," a maid complimented her long ebony curly hair which was packed into a perfect bun.

"Thank you."

"Do you need anything?"

"No I don't..."

"Anything you need we will give..."

"Amelia and I are together, anything she needs I will provide it for her." Chad interrupted them and they bowed. Amelia rolled her eyes at him, she rather stay with the female servants than him.

"We are sorry, your highness." They apologized and Amelia wondered why they did.

"Let's go." He said and walked away, and Amelia had no choice but to follow him.

He stopped walking and turned back. "I don't want to hear it from any of you that I returned with a girl to this castle, what you have seen now should be within yourselves and should not escalate more than this level, I do not want anyone else apart from all of you to know that Amelia is in this castle. Am I understood?"

"Yes, your highness." They replied in unison.

"Thank you, you are all dismissed." He gestured his hand in the air and they bowed before leaving.

He turned to Amelia who was looking around, and he saw that she was in awe at how big and magnificent the castle was.

"It's nice right?" He asked her with a smirk and she nodded. "Oh, you haven't seen anything, come let me show you everything." He stopped walking. "Oh, shit I can't."

"Why is that?"

"I don't want anyone to know that you are here." Chad sounded like he was protecting her from something. 

"Okay..." Amelia muttered and Chad turned to her.

"Don't get it the bad way, I just want to surprise everyone." He placed his hands on her shoulders and she removed them. He chuckled. "For now let me take you to your room."

"My room? I am leaving very soon, I am not staying here." She shut her eyes.

"You are not going anywhere, Amelia."

"What..."

"Your house is two hours' drive from here and the damn party is tonight and now is almost four o'clock, how are you going to make it, Amelia, tell me?"

"Ehmm." She chewed her cheeks.  "But what will I wear? I didn't bring any extra clothes."

"Don't worry about that, we are going to make what we will wear."

"We?" Amelia asked surprised and Chad grinned.

"Yes, we, I don't have anything to wear either, so why don't we make what we are going to wear aren't you a fashion designer?"

"Yes I am, but the time is too..."

"Anything is possible, you just have to put all your effort into it and it will work." He placed his hands on her shoulder and she removed them again. She turned around and folded her arms across her chest.

"I don't know why I am still talking with you." She scoffed and he chuckled. He knew what she wanted and he was going to make her long for it...but no this time.

"Is it about what I said?"

"I don't know." She pretended as if it wasn't about what he said earlier but it was all about it.

"If I don't care about you, I should have opened the damn car door and kicked you out, and watched you die and while you die, I would laugh like a damn psycho but I didn't do all of this because I..." He paused and took in a deep breath. Amelia longed for him to say it, it was just three words but she just wanted to hear him say it.

"I care about you, Amelia."

"That won't work on me, you plainly said you hardly tell lies." She was happy that he finally said it, but she was not going to be too soft on him.

"I was just messing with you," he came to her and hugged her from behind. She froze. He slowly wrapped his hands around her waist. "I'm sorry for all that I said and did, please forgive me."

Amelia laughed wickedly and acted as if she did not feel anything when he touched her, "Really, Chad? You think all this will work on me?" Her heart was screaming with joy, but her facial expression was otherwise.

She got out of his grip and rolled her eyes at him, "all your flattering words don't affect me."

"I am not flattering you I am simply telling you the truth, Amelia." She looked at him and he looked sincere she could not detect whether he was lying, there was not a stupid grin on his face like usual.

What was he up to?

"I have known you for months..."

"You do not know me, Amelia, you do not know anything," he sighed and straightened himself. "We are wasting time here let's go."

He started walking, and Amelia followed him, the hallway was very long, and it had beautiful golden chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, and portraits of past Kings and Queens of the kingdom were hung on the wall, this was the first time she was entering a castle and she never imagined that it would be this beautiful.

"Okay, we are here." Chad stopped in front of a very large door. "This is where you're going to stay for the main time."  Chad opened the door and Amelia's mouth dropped to the floor, she could swear that this room was bigger than her apartment.

She walked slowly into the room, not believing that she was going to stay there for some hours--she was not sure how long she was going to stay there. Everything she needed was in this room; a king-size bed, pedicures and manicures, an eighty-two inch 8K television, a snacks section in the room? Every single thing she could think of was here.

"Oh, this is not all, there is more." Chad said smiling. He opened a door which led to another room, "this is the gaming room, it has all the games you can think of, both digital games--it even has a lawn tennis court in it."

He opened another door, "This is the relaxation room, it has all types of jazz music you can think of it even has jazz music from the 70s and 80s and it has other great relaxation music. And there is a jacuzzi and a swimming pool right there." He said pointing at them, Chad already knew that Amelia had a thing for Jazz music right from the time he met her.

Amelia had never seen such a room like this, a room had rooms in it, it was so gorgeous, the tall purple velvet curtains, the large chandelier hanging at the centre of the ceiling--this place was just something else, a different world was how she placed it.

"Oh my gosh, I have never seen anything like this before, are all the rooms in the castle like this?"

"Nope," he sighed, "not even my room is as good as this one."

"How?" Amelia expected Chad's room to be bigger than this since he was the heir to the throne.

"Well, this is one of the best rooms in the castle, this room is specially made for exceptional guests."

"Isn't it just barely an hour that I will be staying here? And I am not even..." He placed his finger against her lips.

"Shhh. Who said you're leaving today? You wouldn't even want to leave when you stay here," He came closer to her, his head only inches away from hers and he whispered. "You are my special guest."

.....

"I made a mistake." Jack said and walked away. Tiana shut her locker and leaned on it. Her heart started pounding, and her breathing became heavy.

"What have I done?" She said to herself after realising how harsh and foolish she was towards Jack.

She picked up her phone and dialled Chad's number, he usually made her feel better at times like this, she longed to hear his voice, she wanted to hear him say everything was alright and she was going to feel better and forget about all of this. His was not picking up his calls and she cursed under her breath.

Rita came and she nearly laughed her insides out when she saw Tiana leaning on her locker helplessly.

"What's funny?" Tiana narrowed her eyes and Rita giggled.

"I'm so sorry, but you look like a guinea pig that is about to be used in a lab experiment--a cute guinea pig to be precise." She added giggling.

"Now is not the time for jokes, Rita." Tiana rolled her eyes and Rita suppressed her laughter.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Rita cleared her throat. "I just saw Jack leaving..."

"Yeah, I know." Tiana frowned and crossed her arms across her chest.

"What happened?" Rita acted surprised even though she knew exactly what happened.

"I said a lot of rude things to him," Tiana started crying, "I think he is never going to talk to me again"

"Relax, Tiana, that's not true, even though he doesn't talk to you again, always remember that you have Chad, me, and the rest of us...you did the right thing, Tiana." Rita wiped Tina's tears with her hands. "Someone's pain can be another person's blessing."

"Are...you...sure?" Tiana asked in between sobs. "And what do you mean by that?"

"Yes, I am, I would never lie to you." Rita sighed. "You will find out soon and stop acting like a grown baby. Let's start going." Rita slapped Tiana's shoulders playfully.

"Okay." Tiana sniffed and used her hands to wipe her tears, she did not know what she could do without Rita, she was one of the friends she did not want to lose.

But was she really a friend?

Jack was sad and angry at the same time, he was pissed with himself, and whatever feelings he had for Tiana had vanished into thin air. He felt so bitter when she mocked him for being an orphan, he knew what he went through when he lost his parents, it was not easy for him, he was just a teenager. The death of his parents left a big hole in him, he needed someone to be by his side, he needed someone to talk to, he needed someone to fill in that hole and he felt so stupid for thinking that Tiana was the person.

He folded his fists, it hurt him so much, no doubt he liked her very much, he usually enjoyed the time they spent together, her smiles, her laughter but now...

"F*ck." He cursed under his breath and used his hands to rake his hair. He was sitting alone in the chemistry lab, and he had to withhold himself so that he would not smash anything out of anger.

The lab door opened and a girl walked inside, with an evil smirk on her face, she catwalked to him in style and Jack looked at her but could not recognize her.

She stopped right in front of him, he knew that he knew her from somewhere and he had seen her before but he could not recall where and when.

"I'm Rita, nice meeting you Jack." Rita smiled twirling strands of her hair in her finger and Jack immediately recognized her as one of Tiana's friends.