Forbidden

17| Touch

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

Touch

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

Chapter 17: Touch (Grace's POV)

I scoffed, looking at him in disbelief. Is he... flirting? "I get engaged in a week." 

"Two weeks," he corrected. "You'll postpone it again. I need more time to figure out what's going on with your family and the James family," he mumbled. "And anyway, what does that have anything to do with what we do? It's not like you love or even actually like Lucas. Plus, what if before your wedding, I'm able to prove that both your families are involved. Will you still... marry him?" He looked at me while poking at his food. 

"I don't know," I sighed. "If I find out that not just my family, but even his... even him... I think I'll run." "Where to?" I shrugged, "Don't know. Maybe to my Nana." 

"Nana?" 

I chuckled softly, "Grandma. To Crista." 

"Crista? Is that where your mom was from?" 

"Hmm," I nodded. "So... maybe I'd go there. At least for a while. Maybe I'd just settle there. At least for a few years." 

"And what happens after a few years?" 

"I'm not sure, but I'm hoping I could love and marry someone I actually want to." We both sat in silence for a while and I started thinking. I started soaking in my reality. My own family might be trying to kill me, and even the family I'm supposed to call my own after marrying Lucas. How could I after knowing what I know? "Ronan," I said softly. 

"Hmm?" 

I looked at him. "Do you think they'd still want me dead if I step down as princess?" 

"What?" 

"What if I step down and leave the palace? Give up all my rights and duties as the princess of Astella. Do you think they'd let me live?" 

He stared at me silently and the heat of his gaze felt too strong for me to hold it. I swallowed and blinked, looking away and at the mostly empty bowl. "I don't think you should give up your birthrights at any cost, Princess." 

"And I don't think being a princess is worth my life." 

"Do you really think you could lead a normal life?" 

"I think I need to try it to find out." 

He chuckled dryly, "You were born as a princess so you'd never have to find out." 

I turned to look at him. 

"You can't give up so quickly." 

"It's a little hard to keep trying when it feels like it's you against everybody else." 

"It's not though," he paused. "You have me." 

"Earlier today, you said even you could kill me if my parents paid you enough. Remember?" I lifted a brow. 

"And then I told you they didn't pay me enough. Remember?" he mocked. "You shouldn't give up your privileges, Princess. Unless you don't want them to begin with." 

"It's not about what I want, but... does being a princess really serve me? It's not like I'll get anything. Atlas is first to the throne, he would get everything. His children would be put before mine, his life would be put before mine, his—"