Forcibly married to the person whom rejected me

XXXVIII

Gwendolyn.

It was hers before mine.

"It was a gift passed on of everlasting feelings of love". Edward's words came back as words of warning, words of pain. I hold it as he moves to stand next to me, admiring the view in front of him. Little did he knew, that the only view my eyes melted within was this sterling silver. An elegant representation of a timeless bond of their love, elegant and classy, they both were.

But who am I?

"It's beautiful" I whisper tenderly, hoping he won't answer back, hoping I'm not the only one living this nightmare. "Hmm" he hums and I look up at him. I look at how peaceful he looked; eyes closed gently, lips free from tension, face ever so calm, heart ever so quite.

He's changing, I can't break that.

'Go along the highway' my mind guided me once again when all my organs failed me. 'But I need to know, is he willingly hurting me?' I ask my mind and the factory inside, switched their sign to "closed". Unintentionally I see my fingers trace the engraving on the necklace. "nothing haunts us like the things we don't say". Engraved so precisely, along the edge,  on this mangled, flat circle metal. "What's wrong?" He says moving his posture slightly to face me. I fake my smile brightly, "it's nothing. I'm just admiring the engraving".

"nothing haunts us like the things we don't say" he says it aloud and I've suddenly felt like those were meant for me. The cold and hot war inside of my body, left me with those tingling sensations I tend to call 'falling in love, hurts'. An everlasting war of his coldness and my warmth. "And did princess Caroline choose it?" I ask. He leans forward and stabilizes himself with his elbow, exerting force on the top rail slightly, "if you mean the necklace, she did".  "And the words.." I got interrupted by him, "I did". It was fast and cold, like how ice cubes get crushed in a blender in an instance.

His heart was the ice cube. Her love was the blender.

I was broken. Not from the gift only, but for his heart. I've never seen Oliver open up to anyone, and if him, opening up hurts me a little, it's worth it. Isn't it?

...........................................

I wake up to no cold breeze of wind, or the smell of beautiful sunflowers. I wake up to no trace of Oliver next to me. I shrug those tiring thoughts and go to get a warm shower in the bathroom. "Look at the bright side. It's a new day Elizabeth." I encourage myself as I look at myself in the mirror. I look at myself and yet I don't know who am I. I look and I search, search for something, something that might be nostalgic to me. "You're a mystery..a beautiful puzzle" my mind spoke aloud and I smile slightly to myself. "A puzzle I can't solve myself" I whisper back. I stand back up straight and fix my clothes.

"Elizabeth?" I hear a call out the door. "Yes!" I eagerly reply, swinging the door open. I meet those ocean eyes and I feel like I'm swimming in an endless paradise. "Oliver.." I whisper gently. He smiles softly and moves closer. He holds me closer from my waist and leans in to kiss. Soft and sweet as ever. We both pull away slowly and my heart keeps wondering, lost, confused, happy and yet pained. It needed a guidance, and I wasn't one.

"Come on. We have guests over" he speaks warmly into my ears. "I thought King Henry wasn't a guest?" I say confused, since King Henry was always known to be around for breakfast only. He chuckles and runs his finger silently on my cheeks, "first of all, I'm the king now and second, that's exactly why I mentioned 'guests'". I fake my madness and then we both just giggle. "I'll be right there" I say and he nods and leaves. And as I got ready for our guests, I held the necklace he gave me yesterday and planned to hide it in my side bed box. It's best for me.

"Ahh, there is our queen" His highness Henry spoke loudly, grabbing the attention of the rest of the guests at our table. "I'm sorry for the delay" I say as I go and sit opposite of Oliver, in the center. It's been like that ever since we ruled Asbury, the village with everlasting power.

The village that's my home.

The maids come in and serve us with our cutleries and plates, I see and observe as each and every one of them as they take care of one of the guests. I look at Adeline as she places the fork and knife on the table for one of our guests and I smile cheekily to her when our eyes meet. Her warming smile always returned back to me and I always found it comforting, knowing that she is here despite what prince Quill has done to her. She shared the strong will that went back to princess Caroline, that held my hand under the table and comforted me whenever I looked nervous.

"And to what pleasure do we get to meet you today?" Oliver clears his throat slightly. I look over and smile at Edward, who was sitting a bit far from me. He smiles slightly but I could sense something was wrong. Like something is going to happen.

"We came to discuss an important matter your majesty" a familiar face spoke and I look over to Oliver, catching his eyes in my trap for a few seconds. "And what could that be Colonel?" Oliver says, eyes cold as before, voice stable and unshaken from the words. "Your majesty-" he was about to speak before his highness Henry stopped him and tossed the tissue he just used to clean his mouth next to his plate. "Son. A war is coming". .