The Royal Heir - The Valtoria Diaries 2

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There was no way on earth that this night could get any more fucked up than it already was.

As Drake paced around the palace kitchen, he couldn't stop thinking about his no-good aunt selling out his best friends, probably for peanuts. And he was willing to bet that his mother wouldn't have seen any of that money. But his more pressing issue right now was trying to convince Olivia not to head back into that ballroom and murder Madeleine in a horrible way.

Hana had put a pan of milk on to boil, and was collecting mugs and hot chocolate ingredients in another part of the kitchen. And yeah, maybe she was partly doing it to calm her own nerves after the Lorelei and Xinghai incident earlier. But she was just so thoughtful, so kind. He needed some of that wholesome soothing energy right now, and Olivia did too. But Olivia was going through the knife drawer, loudly complaining that cocoa wasn't going to fix this issue.

"Well, what is going to fix it, Olivia? I'd love to know." He pulled her hands out of the drawer, and slammed it closed, holding it shut while she tried to reopen it.

"Slicing one of those knives through Madeleine's throat would definitely help," she fumed.

"No, it wouldn't," Drake said. "You'd end up locked up with your crazy aunt and your ex-husband if you did that."

"Don't you dare call him that." Olivia exploded in his face. "There was no marriage! That creepy little maggot... I wish I'd seen him for who he was and stomped on him before he had the chance to..."

"Yeah, well, none of us did, but he got what he deserved, and Madeleine will get what's coming to her one day," Drake said.

"And as for His Majesty, it's about time he grew a pair and put her in her place," she continued to rant. "And he wonders why I didn't want to make an entrance with him. He's not man enough for me. I don't think he'll ever be man enough for me."

"Will anyone ever be man enough for you, Olivia?" Drake sighed. Immediately, he regretted what he'd said. Her eyes narrowed. She continued to glare at him, but with different intentions. No. He wasn't falling for this anymore.

He heard a tremendous screech from behind him, and instantly pivoted towards it. Hana's expression was every bit as furious as Olivia's had just been. She stomped one of her feet, and dropped the tray of mugs she was carrying in anger. They crashed to her feet, spilling out cocoa everywhere.

Drake stared at her in shock, unsure how to deal with this.

"Did Hana just malfunction?" Olivia said with a small smile.

"Let me handle this," Drake said, jerking away from Olivia. "You go and stage a military coup somewhere."

"Oh, don't be so preposterous, Walker..."

But he shoved her towards the kitchen door, and once she was the other side of it, he turned back to Hana. She was shaking.

"Well, Hana, I'm really hoping all that wasn't just because you caught Olivia trying and failing to flirt with me." He knelt down in front of her, and began to pick up the broken crockery and place it in a nearby dustbin.

It wasn't many seconds before he heard the first sob. He stood up in an instant, his arms tentatively moving to comfort her if that was what she wanted; it seemed it was because she was now burying her face into his chest, her whole frame vibrating with emotion.

"This is about what happened earlier with your folks, yeah?"

She moved her face away, looking at him through her tears, and nodded. "I'm sorry, Drake. There's so much going on tonight, with this and what Amalas said that it shouldn't be so important..."