Sadly Engaged

~Chapter 17~

(Nathaniel's point of view)

I raised my eyebrows at her words wondering exactly how she knew the code without seeing them put it in a single time. She looked back at me with a tortured but also relieved look and I knew that I t had something to do with our little wise bird moments ago.

"He, that man, I." No matter how she tried to phrase it should couldn't get the words out, she took in a shaky breath before speaking again. "Once I was younger than you and met an extraordinary man."

She looked towards the door lost in the memories, "He was extraordinary because no matter how many walls I put up he knocked them down." I smiled at her thinking of my own relationship with her daughter, and how we had both grown by being around each other.

"He always was pursuing me, because even though in the beginning we just loved each other as friends it slowly became more." She brushed the locks of her fiery hair that hung in front of her face, twirling a single stranded nervously like a teenage girl with an endearing smile.

"Our families hated each other, so we could never be." A frown overtook the soft face she once wore turning it into something harsher.

"Our fathers made a deal regardless of their hate for each other," She paused slightly her eyes narrowing at the mention of her father, "His brother's bride couldn't give him children, he needed an heir."

"Emily's Father." I spoke knowing where this story was going, she nodded sadly a tear slipping down her cheek.

"I never loved that horrible man." She shook her head trying to get the thought out of her mind, her red waves going in all directions, "I only loved one man."

"The man that came in here, they tried to disguise him but I could recognize him anywhere. Marques, my Marq." She smiled when speaking his name and finally sat down next to me, tears flowing freely.

"I'll tell you the code and you can leave but... I'm not leaving him again." In that moment, I could see Emily looking down at me the determination resonating in her eyes into my heart. I knew if it had been Emily and I then I would never leave her either.

"Then we get both of you out." She went to rebuttal my thoughts but I quickly silenced her, "I am not going back to her only to break her heart, and I am not leaving you here."

A sob ripped from her throat as she gave me a hug muttering over and over again, "Thank you my son."

As we sat there I realized that Emily's father had been lying to her for a long time, Alana hadn't been his original match but one of necessity. She needed to know the truth one day, but first I needed to find a way out of this place with both of the love birds.

Flashback...

"So then, your parents... are they hard on you like mine?" We were sitting on the dorms roof, the place where the group had claimed and decked out with fairy lights and patio furniture. We both laid on the fuzzy red rug looking at the sky. Every so often watching a cloud pass by through the night sky.

"You could say that, my dad and I don't really talk anymore unless it's absolutely necessary. My uncle is the one who pays for my college education." I couldn't exactly tell her everything, especially not that I was the heir to my pretentious uncle's business and that my half brother taking my father's equally pretentious business.

"You don't talk to your father? Like not at all?" I shook my head slightly even though that wasn't necessarily true, we fought a lot but never just talked to each other.

"Well, even if I hate my father sometimes and his life decisions I don't think he would ever stop bugging me." I looked over towards her, she had a sad smile on her face.