Anything For Rachel – Episode 17

{ S•V Painter} ®

 

 

 

#EPISODE_17

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh, dear, I don’t plan to bring in new girls.” He smiled and Calvin shot his head up glaring at Marco with black eyes. “His majesty himself said he had feelings for another, and I do believe that she is still staying here, is she not?”

 

 

“She is.” Calvin spat and my stomach sank even lower than I had imagined possible. I wanted to scream, cry, and vomit all at once. What the hell have I done?

 

 

 

“Very good.” Marco smiled. “Then I will suggested the idea of a completion between Miss. Lexton and Queen Rachel for the heart of the king and the rule of the land.”

 

 

 

“You can’t do this.” Calvin said evenly. “I won’t allow it.”

 

“Then you will have to be the one to tell your people that you have decided to disband the council.” Marco said smugly, and though I am sure Calvin wants to too, I wanted to punch him right in the pinched up face. “I don’t see the big issue.” He said.

 

 

 

“You claim not to want to be with Rachel, she claims not to want to be with you anymore either…So to me, this issue is easily rectified. The people get a show, you get a bride, and Rachel gets freedom. All you have to do is pick Lexton.” He said to him then turned to face me. “And all you have to do is lose.”

 

 

 

I sat back in my chair, the eyes of everyone in the room baring into me, making me feel naked, which I am sure my emotions were. I was trying to be strong, keep it together, and make it through this meeting, but I was overwhelmed.

 

 

 

My eyes were burning, and my face was hot as I started to sniffle, trying to get an even breath. It came out sounding more like a gasp for air and I saw the way that Calvin shifted in his chair, almost like he was going to come to me before something stopped him.

 

 

 

“Don’t cry.” Octavia whispered to me gently and I turned my face to look at her. She looked me in the eye and nodded her head to me reassuringly and I tried to only focus on her so that I didn’t break down yet.

 

 

 

“Fine.” I said softly and the people in the room shuffled their feet and nodded their heads.

 

 

 

“I look forward to working with you in the future, or at least for your time here.” Marco said with an extra little cheer in his voice. Something about him made me think she took pleasure in seeing mine, and maybe even Calvin’s, unhappiness. “Of course you will be keeping your title until Miss Lexton is sworn in. You can return to your Queen’s suite on level six, and you will be free now to move about the castle and do as you please.” Marco smiled in my direction, but I didn’t bother with looking at him and giving him a chance to make me cry.

 

 

 

“If we are done here, I have places to be.” Calvin snapped and I stole a glance at him. He was still sitting on the edge of his seat, his body turned towards the door and his face ghostly pale and expressionless.

 

 

 

“Of course, you go ahead.” Marco smiled at him. Calvin was instantly out of the chair and moving quickly for the door when Marco called to him again. “But while I have you both, even though I know that neither of you want the other,” He said lowly.

 

 

 

“We will need to see the competition actually be a competition. Make it look good, don’t show your preference for which queen. At least not a first. Give the people a little time to pull for one or the other.”

 

 

 

I wanted to scream, or be sick, but I just carefully rose from my seat, Octavia following close behind and I smiled at the room. “Of course we will give them a good show.” I said lightly, then turned and walked out into the hallway.

 

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I knew Octavia and Calvin were both in the group of guards with me, but I just walked, head held high until we reached the elevators. Cromley was the only guard to join us on the elevator and I knew I could trust him.

 

 

 

I finally let out the air I had been holding in and I slumped over, the shock of everything finally hitting me. I started to lose balance as I cried out, and Octavia steadied me, holding me to her as I cried. “What have I just done?” I whimpered and she shushed me and patted me on the back.

 

 

 

“We will figure it out.” She said softly.

 

 

 

“No!” I cried. “We won’t! Don’t you see? If I stay here and I am forced to be the queen again, then what happens to Rose? We could never bring her here after everything now, the council would have me killed for hiding that information, and it would inevitably lead to the truth about my departure from here.”

 

 

 

“I know, but we-.” I shook my head again and she furrowed her perfect brows.

 

 

 

I leaned away from her and took a step back as the elevator pinged behind me. Calvin was standing in the corner, his eyes away from me. I looked to him, but he didn’t look back. “Our only options now are

 

 

either me being queen, and never having my child back, which I cannot live with, or Calvin has to marry Lexton.”

 

 

 

He turned his eyes to me quickly, the intensity behind them making me want to shrink back but I held my ground. His face was pained and I couldn’t stand it, I stepped forward, starting to reach out my hand but he turned his face away from me slowly, shrinking into the corner.

 

 

 

“Calvin.” Octavia chided him.

 

 

 

I shook my head at her. “It’s ok.” I told her. “I understand him being mad at me.”

 

 

 

“Mad at you?” He snapped, unleashing the full power of his wild gaze on me.

 

 

 

I gasped slightly, but then the doors slid open and he walked out in a quick stride, stopping in front of our door.

 

 

 

Cromley walked out and posted himself outside of the King’s suite door and Octavia waited by the elevator as I walked over to join Calvin.

 

 

 

He looked down into my eyes. “Rachel, I…” He was at a loss for words, and I didn’t blame him. He shook his head and put his hand on the doorknob, blinking slowly as he sighed. I noticed the way his fingers were shaking slightly, and I reached over and placed my hand over the top of his on the door. He sighed deeper as I touched him and he tilted his head back slightly, then he flipped his hand over so that our hands were palm to palm and he pulled my hand away from the door, lifting it up to kiss it once slowly.

 

 

 

The feel of his cold skin was indescribable in the way it made me feel. Just touching him, so lightly confirmed the fear I had. I was definitely still in love with him. He was still mine.

 

 

 

“Calvin, I’m so sorry.” I whispered softly. “I didn’t mean to…”

 

He held my hand up and placed it on the side of his smooth face, leaning into it and closing his eyes. “Please, Rachel.” He whispered. “Don’t apologize to me.” He said through a shaky breath. He kept his eyes squeezed shut as he slid my hand down his jaw and then brought it out in front of him, kissing the tips of each of my fingers individually before finally opening his perfect smoky blue eyes and gazing down to me with his hypnotic stare.

 

 

 

“Breathe.” He muttered so softly I hardly understood until I realized I hadn’t been breathing. I took a jerky breath and he smiled so carefully if you weren’t paying attention, you would’ve missed it, but I always pay close attention to him. “I know that you have no control over your…” He let the sentence drop, and he let go of my hand to reach his hand up to my face, brushing his fingers down my lips softly, causing them to part and a small sound escaping me.

 

 

 

I didn’t think I was breathing again, but I didn’t care. Who needs oxygen when you have Calvin touching you?

 

 

 

“That has definitely not changed over time.” I whispered.

 

 

 

He drew his brows together as he dropped his hands to his sides. “What?” He asked.

 

 

 

“My lack of control over my mouth.” I clarified. “I never learned.”

 

 

 

“Ah, of course you haven’t.” He smiled down at me. “I wouldn’t want you any other way.” Something about the way he said he wanted me made a chill run through me and I am sure he noticed it. He dropped his eyes, looking down to the ground before they bounced back up to me. “You do know that I’m not angry with you?” He asked. I nodded my head and he bit his bottom lip. “I promise you, I will figure a way out of this, ok?”

 

 

 

“Ok.”

 

 

 

“You trust me?” He asked carefully.

 

 

 

“Yes.” I replied without even thinking for a heartbeat’s time.

 

 

 

He looked troubled again, but I didn’t know what to say to him anymore. The hallway suddenly felt very crowded with me, Calvin, Octavia, and Cromley, so I reached out for the door. “Do you want to…I don’t know, talk?” I asked and he shot his eyes over to my hand on the doorknob, a strange mix of pain and anxiety crossing his face.

 

 

“No.” He said evenly, then he took a breath and looked me in the eyes. “I can’t go back in there.” He whispered. “Especially not with you.” He added. “I can never go back in that room unless you are…”

 

 

 

I furrowed my brows in confusion. “Unless I’m what?” I asked.

 

“Mine.” He replied looking at my hand. “Not unless you were

 

mine.”

 

 

 

I wanted to scream to him that I am his and that I never stopped being his, but I couldn’t make such a confession right now. “Oh.” I said stupidly instead.

 

 

 

He smiled shyly, like he hadn’t meant to tell me the truth. “I have some things to tend to anyway.” He said. “I have a lot to think about now.” He said with a little more weight to his words, like it was going to not be pleasant. “Please try not to worry.” He whispered and I nodded, biting my lip hard.

 

 

 

“Ok.” I said breathily and he dropped his eyes to my mouth for a second longer before he backed away from me, crossing the hall to the King’s suite, which I guess is his suite now. He glanced over at Octavia once, then back to me before he finally excused himself into the room.

 

 

 

I stood stupidly in the hallway for a second, my stomach fluttering with butterflies like a school girl.

 

 

 

“You going in?” Octavia asked from closer behind me, making me jump a little, and snap out of my daze.

 

 

 

“Oh, yeah.” I said shaking my head and turning the knob. I had been in such a hurry to get out of the hall and have a moment to think, that I hadn’t even been able to think of what walking into this room was going to do to me. “Oh my god.” I whispered as I looked around.

 

 

 

As much as things around here have changed, this one room hasn’t been touched a bit by time. The steel grey silk hung down over most of the walls except the ones that boasted the beautiful garden paintings from his mother’s room that I had brought here. I walked in in a daze of nostalgia looking over to the bed, the book I had been reading before the alarms began to sound on my last night was still laying open on my side of the bed, and my towel from my hair was still laying in the bathroom floor beside the shower.

 

“Yeah, nobody is allowed in here.” Octavia said from the doorway.

 

 

 

“Nothing has been touched.” I muttered and she nodded.

 

 

 

“That’s why he couldn’t come in here.” She said. “I always figured it was just too painful for him to face the room the two of you shared”

 

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I took a raspy breath and held my hand to my chest. “I can…I can see why.” I mumbled. All over the room I could see us. We were laughing in the bed, the sheets pulled around our naked bodies. We were sitting together at the table, our feet constantly touching as we ate our breakfast. We were backed against that wall, my wedding dress sliding down my body before he picked me up to carry me over to the bed.

 

Everywhere.

 

 

 

The memories were everywhere.

 

 

 

I closed my eyes, trying to get a grip on reality, and thinking of my little Rose always did that for me.

 

 

 

This is what is so bad about Calvin and I. The world could literally be falling to pieces around us, and I wouldn’t be thinking about any of it. When he is close, his eyes on me, his hand in mine, I can do anything and nothing scares me. It should, though. The meeting came crashing back into my head.

 

Lexton.

 

 

 

I should have always known that she was still here. I had expected as much, but never wanted to truly believe it could be true. My only hope out of here is for him to be with her. I don’t want him to be with her. I want him to be with me. Just thinking it to myself even brings a flood of other issues. Big ones. Like how I can’t possibly be with him, not now. If I am forced to stay, I’d have him, but I’d lose Rose. Or if I give in and let Lexton take over, then Lexton gets to have what is mine. Then an even bigger problem.

 

Logan.

 

 

 

I dropped my face into my hands and cried, Octavia rushing to my side and begging to know what was wrong. “Logan.” I whispered. “I can’t…I don’t know…I…He should know the truth.”

 

“The truth?” Octavia asked, her eyes worried.

 

 

 

“That I am still in love with Calvin.”

 

 

 

Despite what I had just said out loud, and the tears pouring down my face, she smiled. “I’m sorry.” She recovered quickly. “I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult this is for you, Rachel.” She said softly. “I know I probably came off like I really didn’t like him, but he has been staying by me, and I’ve seen the way he looks at you, and the way he talks to Rose. He’s even been nice to me after how rude I was to him. I believe that he is a good guy, and god, I’ll admit, I’m a little jealous that you found two great loves that would both do anything for you while I’ll probably be single for literally ever, but I think you’re right.” She took a breath. “I think we both know which of those great loves is the great love, and which one already has your heart. Logan does deserve to know the truth.”

 

 

 

“Even if the truth is that I love Calvin even though I know I can never be with him?” I asked.

 

 

 

 

 

Story_Continues

 

 

 

 

 

ANYTHING FOR RACHEL