Fifty-six
"Look at me, Peter Bennet!" - I make your attention turn entirely to my feature.
"Benjamin: MILA!"- he shouted hearing me through the phone.
"If you dare lay so much as a finger on Falkor, I will make you regret ever being born!"
"And if we don't comply?"
"If they don't obey, then they will burn!"
I leave the warning and go to the Xamante, mounting him.
"Piter: She's out of control, Benjamin!"
"Benjamin: What did you do,Piter, how did you manage to leave her like that?"
"Piter: I didn't do anything!"
— PITER! - I call him from above on the horse.
He looks at me and so I throw the cord at his foot, sending him to the grass.
"Tell your uncle I don't need this anymore!"
"Benjamin: No need?"-he hears. "Don't you need more than?"
I ride my horse to the Palace, leaving the boy alone.
"Pite: Damn..."- commented defeated. "She took it off. She took the fucking cord!" - he said picking it up on the grass.
"Benjamin: WHAT?"-shouted. "WHAT, WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO LET THIS HAPPEN?"
"Piter: You better come back soon, things aren't so good around here!"
"Benjamin: I still haven't resolved those issues with Hector!"
"Piter: Leave that fucking wizard there, dammit. It won't do any good to bring him here if we all end up dead. Mila needs you, I fucking need you too!"
"Benjamin: I'll try to be faster!"
"Piter: If you plan to save what little is left of the old Mila, I suggest you do a lot more than just try!"
"Do you know what the wrath of God looks like?"
"A woman's wrath!"
"I'm starving!" -I comment alone passing through the main door with my shoulders slumped and my eyes on the ground.
- Where did you go?
His voice echoes in the middle of the hall making my head lift, facing the scene of a well dressed man with a clipboard in his hand.
“How dare you disappear like that after what you've done?
"I hate being hungry. I hate fighting even more when I'm hungry!"
"Killing someone is that simple for you?"
I stand still. Still like a statue just looking at him.
- Responds! - ordered. -Is killing a person that simple for you? -repeated.
— I don't know... - I'm ironic, moving again. -You tell me!
"I didn't kill the housekeeper!"
“I know, but death is death. What I did to her and what you did to me makes no difference!
- There! - mocked leaning against the wall of the corridor to the side, revealing his presence. -That hurt!
"Nobody deserves this guy now!"
"I'm going up to my room!" - I say passing by the king.
- Wait! she asked calmly. -Please!
I face him at the top of the second step, my right hand resting on the gold banister.
"Why didn't you go back with Piter?" he asked. -He had gone after you!
— I don't know about Peter! -I lie.
- He is sure? -he gets suspicious.
"What the fuck is that question?"
"Do you think I killed him too?"
- I think! - she replied with an irritating laugh.
"Shut up, old man!" - I walk down the steps.
— Oops! -he puts himself in front of me. -You are very stressed!
We stopped too close to each other, close enough that I felt suffocated taking two steps back.
— Those three months you spent locked up obviously didn't do you any good! - she said. -I know things are different pr-
- For! - I brake it. -I don't want your pity. I don't want to hear that you "understand" me, or that you "know" how I feel.
"That anger of yours-"
- He arrives! - I interrupt him again. -I just want them to leave me alone, dammit!
"Do you intend to spend all your immortality locked in that room?"
"If that's the only way to get away from you, the answer is yes!"
"It's impossible to stay away from me, love!"
“This has to stop, Mila. I've given you enough time to deal with your grief, now you have to accept your new reality. There's no way to escape it!
"Who says I'm running away?"
"You haven't seen your people for months, you haven't attended meetings or conferences or even profitable events!"
"What an insensitive guy!"
“I'm tired of being shown off to your friends like one of those trophies you can get around. If your goal is to show my face, then I suggest you start putting pictures of me around the palace, because I'm not going to leave my warm bed to be in the presence of spoiled and disgusting rich kids!
"That's your role!" - she interfered. -It's putting on a tight dress, fixing that face and smiling for the cameras next to your husband!
"Make me then!"
"That's not what I want!" -he manifests. -I want you by my side, but I don't want it to be force!
"No brute force?"
"That's not Thomas!"
"Tell me what I can do to convince you to help me..." he asked. -Being by my side at all meetings, events and auctions too... -he details a kind of agreement with patience and honesty. -I want it to be advantageous for both of us!
"Why do you need me so much?" - I ask suspiciously. -I know that showing up together is good for your business, but the way you're treating it now... is... it's really weird!
"I don't understand either!" - she said. -Just send it and that's it. What a ridiculous fucking humiliation!
— Go f-
— Mila! - drew my attention. -Tell me what you want, dammit!
"He must be really fucked up to demean himself like that!"
- Okay! -I agree. -If you care so much that my face appears at your parties, then give me a place on your council!
- NEVER! - her smile disappears and madness takes over him. -Queens cannot participate in the royal council, what you are asking is extremely forbidden and has never occurred before in history.
"I think I touched his soft spot!"
“You know very well that the council is run by the most powerful men in the country. This is not just any group, this is the only and main corporation that controls the gold and laws of Dallnalia.
- Grandfather!
"It is headed only by the King and his four leaders!"
"Four?"
"And even if Thomas gave you a seat on the council, you'd still be breaking the law!"
- Grandfather!
The King tries to speak, but his grandfather's anger does not let him speak. The old man only increases his speech by raising the volume of his voice and the desperate way in which he expresses himself on the subject.
- You are a woman! He pointed his finger at me. -Those men would never accept you!
— Grandma -
- Stay quiet! - he scolded. -You will never have a seat on the council, Mila Clifford -
— LUCIANO! - he called making our bodies jump out of place.
"What's your problem, kid?" - she faced him. -That woman should be punished!
- What?
"Now I'm a bitch!"
“Punished? -debated. -But she only made one request, a simple request!
- SIMPLE? she screamed. -You are kidding with me?
The veins on his arm were swollen, highlighting the redness his wrinkled skin took on in anger.
"QUEENS DON'T FUCKIN' INFLUENCE THE LAWS!" -splatters of your saliva fly in your grandson's face when he faces you head on. -IT'S THE LAW, THE LAW, THE LAW!
"I AM THE FUCKING LAW!"
He yells back leaving me speechless. His grandfather even widens his eyes, losing his lines. Little by little I notice that the old man's body is withering, losing its pose.
I expected anything but that.
“Understand once and for all that I am the King. I. NOT THE LORD! - he declared with a shout. -And if Mila wants a place in the corporation, I'll give her the fucking place.
— You already gave her the power to rule at your side becoming the richest woman in the world, now you tell me you want to include her on the council too? she complained. -Wasn't it enough to name her Queen?
- No!
"Are you aware of the danger?" she questioned with a cold air. -If you add your title of Queen to the position of fifth leader, she will not be different from you. She will have the same voice power. THE POWER OF THE KING! -he highlights his last sentence with another shout. -AND NEVER HAS A WOMAN BEEN EQUAL OR SUPERIOR TO A KING!
“I don't understand why you're so worried. From the beginning his plans were to use her as a weapon.
- ON OUR SIDE! - he said out of control. -I WANTED HER ON OUR SIDE, NOT AS AN ENEMY WHO HAS THE SAME POWER AS US!
- Lie! - she reproached. -Regardless of the side she is on, being on ours, or Benjamin's, you know that nothing and no one could defeat him. You never wanted it as a weapon, you always wanted it as a "guarantee" of survival. He knows that threatening to take her life would make Benjamin give in to his whims. In the end she is a common vampire like us.
"That's not true. I do have something that can kill Benjamin!"
— SHE IS THE KEY!
- Exactly. The key to keep Benjamin in the palm of his hand. Not the key to kill him!
"If I'd known I'd have this much free information, I would have made these two fight long before!"
— The little I studied about Benjamin's reputation in these last three months was enough for me to understand that he would never have given up Mila, just because you threatened to denounce his betrayal to the other three wives.
He's too strong to run off like that.
— You are desperate, because to this day you cannot understand how he accepted our agreement so easily. It's burning with worry inside, afraid of what he might be up to behind our backs!
— And you say that like that, calm as if nothing was going to happen?
— I'm not calm, in fact I'm worried. But that won't make me take irresponsible actions and make things worse!
“Okay, boy! -He shakes his head negatively moving away from his grandson. -Call the council and appoint her a leader. But later, later, don't say I didn't warn you.
"Business got ugly here!"
“I'll stick with my plans and you won't change them. After all I am one of the leaders and I have my voice!
He leaves for his room, showing one of the four cards that were face down on the table. My goal now was to get into the corporation and find out who the other three powerful leaders were to get them on my side.
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The next day.
- What there was? - she asked sitting on my bed.
I spent all night getting ready for today's meeting, there were countless calculations and several speeches I made to my pillow while using it to practice. Now, at that moment after having devised the best treaty for my country, I was barely able to win the battle I was facing with my closet.
“It's all wrong, Greta! - I mutter in the middle of a pile of clothes. -I feel awful! I say covering my face with my hands.
“Oh stop it, my dear! -she runs to comfort me. -Everyone you've worn so far has been great, I don't understand why you can't choose one. You've always been carefree with formalities and yet you've always managed to leave everyone speechless. -she said petting me.
— It's not the clothes... -I assume laying my head on his shoulder. -It's my body, I'm feeling immense!
- What? She pulls me away, holding my arms. - Where did you get that? -she questioned analyzing my physique.
— Look at my belly, Greta, my arms, my legs... - I point, going to the mirror.
- You can not see? - I lift my shirt to the curve under my breasts showing my abdomen to her. -It's my fault, you even warned!
— I don't see anything different, Mila!
“It's the blood, I know. I'm very greedy!
“I agree on that. We've talked several times about your food!
- What I'll do?
She looks at the bed with a broken heart and fumbles with her clothes looking for the one she liked the most. You can see how seriously she was taking this, how she had absorbed my upset, trying to make me better and more motivated.
— I loved that one! -she pulls on a dark red dress two fingers below the knee, glued to the body, made with a warm cloth and long sleeves. -Don't forget the jacket over your shoulders and your stiletto heels.
♡♡♡♡
