Chapter 975: Raphael Is Too Stubborn
"You make everything better."
Even though she could hear the man properly, Rowena still couldn"t believe her own hearing.
How could she make things better? As her father said, she was a calamity. Her birth killed her mother, the love of his life, and that made him unable to love her - so, all his bad treatment of her was because of her own fault.
She also caused Julian"s death, just like she caused Leia to be beheaded by King Draco. Julian would still be alive by now if she was not so dumb as to force him to stay for that fateful banquet.
How could Raphael tell her that she made everything better? He would definitely regret it when Rowena destroyed his life, just like she did to everyone who loved and cared about her.
"You don"t believe me?" Raphael asked her gently. He was wondering why was it so hard to get through to her. It"s like she pulled up a wall around her and when he thought he had broken it down, another wall came up.
Rowena faked a smile and touched his cheek gently.
"You are very sweet." Then she looked down. "What should I do with you?"
"Take me as I am," Raphael said with a smile. "If you are unsure and don"t know what to do with me, allow me to make that decision and insert myself into your life and keep you with me forever."
He clasped his hands with hers and kissed the back of her right hand. He looked her in the eye, trying to understand what was in her mind. Humans gave G.o.ds too much credit, he thought. They were not so powerful since they couldn"t read minds.
They could do so many other things and they had immortality, however, at this moment, more than anything, Raphael wished he could read Rowena"s mind to understand her and see all the wounds in her heart that needed healing.
"Raphael..." Other women must feel lucky to receive such a love confession from a man like Raphael, but Rowena only felt wary. She was feeling more like a fraud and deceiver. Surely Raphael thought she was the perfect woman, like how her father tried to shape her. That"s why he seemed so enamored now.
However, when he finally saw the real her, he would understand that behind her beauty and her perfection, she was just a wreck and bad luck.
"Yes, Rowena?" Raphael asked her.
"I bring bad luck to the people who love me," Rowena finally confessed. After she thought about it, she decided to be honest with Raphael and let him make an informed decision. A man in love usually couldn"t think straight. She needed to make him see the reality before he really make that commitment between them binding.
She was giving him a last chance to back down.
"I know bad things happened to you and the people who are close to you," Raphael responded. "That doesn"t mean you bring bad luck."
"If it"s just once or twice, I believe you," Rowena insisted. "But it"s always the same. "My mother died because she gave birth to me. I killed her. And her death broke my father"s heart. He had to struggle to raise me with sadness and hatred consuming his heart."
"No, Rowena, you were just a baby. What did a baby know about adults" problems?" Raphael pulled Rowena to sit on a nearby bench. He placed her on his lap and
hugged her to comfort her. "It was a very unfortunate situation but it"s really not your fault. Please don"t blame yourself."
Rowena tried to be brave as she recounted everything about her that made her think she was bad luck who would just ruin Raphael"s life.
The man listened patiently and always refuted her claim as nicely as possible. "You were seven. You didn"t know that your father would do such an evil thing to Leia. If anything, it was on him, NOT you."
"Julian was an adult man who made decisions for himself. You were suggesting that both of you attended the banquet so he could at least have one good memory with his biological family because you knew he longed to have a family. You cared about him and wanted good things for him," Raphael replied to Rowena"s claim that she was responsible for Julian"s death.
He added, "The only person to blame is Julian"s stepmother for orchestrating her sister"s death and Julian"s. And you have killed Serena. You have avenged them."
Rowena bit her lip. Raphael was truly stubborn, she thought. He couldn"t see what she saw. He only saw good things about her and how she was innocent. She was not.
How could she make him see that she didn"t deserve him? She dreaded the day when his eyes were finally opened and he could see her for who she was. A broken woman who would bring bad luck into his life, just as she did to other people.
"Raphael," she finally sighed and looked at the man deeply. "If someday, I ruined your life... will you still love me? Will you still say that I am innocent? Will you still believe me despite everything?"
The man nodded without missing a beat. "Yes."
Rowena knew there was truly no help for this man in love. She realized there was no point in trying to convince him to leave her. He was just too stubborn.
"Very well."
***
Raphael stayed for a few more days and spent every waking hour with Rowena. King Draco allowed them to be together and stayed in the same bedroom. In his mind, it was his way of ensuring that Raphael wouldn"t change his mind.
"Since you have expressed your commitment to marry my daughter, I am giving you both my blessings," King Draco said at dinner when the couple excused themselves from the dining hall. He tilted his head toward the butler and the man came forward to them.
The butler bowed his head and gave his report. "I have prepared Princess Rowena"s chamber to accommodate Her Highness and her fiance."
Raphael and Rowena exchanged glances. They didn"t expect this after the anger King Draco showed them in the morning for catching them sleeping together on the same bed.
The king turned to Raphael and smirked. "I was in love once and I know what it felt like to want to spend as much time as possible with my loved one. You are allowed to spend more time with my daughter before you leave to meet your parents."
Rowena immediately understood that her father wanted her and Raphael to sleep together from now on. Her face immediately flushed red.
Gosh... her father was so cunning and calculated. She hated him so much, but at the same time, her heart fluttered at the chance of spending more time with th
e man she loved without getting scolded.
Raphael wouldn"t lie and said he was displeased with this arrangement. King Draco was right. He wanted to spend as much time as possible with Rowena before he left for Cretea.
He wanted to hug her and kiss her and...
His mind went back to last night when they had s.e.x. It was beautiful, it was the best thing he had ever had in his long life. The moment when their bodies and souls united as one was spiritual and he was mindblown by the fact that consummation with the person he loved would have such an effect.
He would love for her to experience what he had, and this time to remember it.