Lucky Charm (Reverse Fairytales Book 2)(61)
“Look, the guy is married. He’s made the pair of us look fools. I think it’s time we sent him home.”
“We can’t send him home. Not yet. I’m supposed to pick someone next month.”
“So? You picked early last year. Just do the same again. Tomorrow when they do the interview about our date, you can tell them then. I doubt anyone would blame you after all the lies.”
“We don’t know for sure he’s married. He says he isn’t.”
“All evidence to the contrary!” replied Luca.
I sighed. The newspapers had been full of the story for the past week, and it was showing no sign of going away. And yet, I wanted to believe Cynder. After all, why would he keep lying about it?
The song came to a close. As we ended the dance, Luca fell to the floor.
“Are you alright?” I asked in alarm. Out of his pocket, he pulled a small box. When he opened it, a huge diamond ring sparkled back at me.
“Charmaine, I know we are already engaged, but I never had the chance to propose properly. Now, here I am on bended knee in the presence of all these people, with the world watching. I love you. Will you marry me?”
A proposal and a loss
A roar went up among the people. I looked up to find the people had gathered around in a huge circle and dotted around the circle, were photographers. These weren’t ordinary photographers, these were the media. I recognized some of them. Marybelle, stood out, microphone in hand pointing right at us.
Luca had set this all up. The room became deathly silent as the seconds ticked by. I could feel my cheeks coloring and my heart pounding as I realized there was no way out of this situation.
To say no now would be a disaster. Goodness only knew how many people were watching this live in their houses. I gazed around at the people again, frantic to find a way out, but apart from the television cameras all pointing at me, I could only see Jenny, waving at me with a huge grin on her face.
I looked back at Luca. I was already engaged to him. How hard would it be to say yes? And yet the word stuck in my throat. The competition between him and Cynder would be over for good.
Luca raised his eyebrows, waiting for my answer. I was out of time.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
A huge cheer went up, and Luca hugged me, twirling me around. As he slipped the heavy ring onto my finger, I caught a glimpse of Cynder leaving the marquee.
“I need the bathroom,” I said quickly. Luca let me go, and I ran outside for some fresh air. I saw Cynder walking towards his guest house, so I picked up my dress and followed him.
“I didn’t know he was going to do that,” I said, as we both reached the house at the same time. “We can still salvage this. We can still hold the meeting. This doesn’t have to change anything.”
“This changes everything!” shouted Cynder, opening his door. Without invitation, I followed him through.
“You already knew I was engaged to him. I’ve never lied to you.”
“And I’ve never lied to you, but you don’t believe me, do you? You still think that Dru is my wife. What do I have to do to prove to you that she isn’t?”
“I do believe you,” I replied.
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” he said, pulling his bag out and throwing clothes into it. “The public will see the proposal and the competition will be done. I’ll be out of your hair as soon as I’ve packed.”
“You can’t go. We need you for the meeting!” I said, clutching at straws. I couldn’t bear to part with him on such bad terms.
“The meeting was never going to happen.”
“What do you mean? Of course, it was. Let’s go back and bring them all into the palace now.”
“I tried to tell you earlier. Those people in there. I don’t know who they are, but they aren’t Magi, and they definitely aren’t members of The Freedom of Magic.” He zipped up his bag and darted past me angrily. The last I saw of him was him storming down the palace driveway. At the end, the guards opened the gates, and then he was gone.
“Are you ok?” asked Luca a little later. He’d found me on the opposite side of the house, sitting alone on a garden bench.
“Why did you do it?” I asked. “We were supposed to be meeting with the Freedom of Magic. Today was about coming up with a plan to fight the MDS.”
“I’m sorry. I told you a little white lie, but you said last week that I should plan something spectacular for our date. It got me thinking. When I told Jenny my idea, she loved it. I couldn’t tell Cynder of course, so I told him you didn’t want him to help. To be honest, I didn’t think you would want him to help after all the lies he told you. I thought you’d love it.”
“It was beautiful,” I replied, trying not to hurt his feelings. “But I felt blindsided. If only you’d told me what you were planning to do. I could have organized the meeting for another day.”
“What man tells the girl he’s going to propose to that he’s going to propose to her in advance? It kinda spoils the surprise don’t you think? If you are worried about the Freedom of Magic people, I’ll ask Cynder to rearrange it.”
“You can’t. He’s already left.”
Luca was silent for a moment.