You Belong To Me

Chapter 9 - The Truth

The unexpected turns of event's leading to the collapse of the king had the kingdom worried. In the King's false assurance that he would win the battle against Serena, he had broadcast the meeting with the Elders throughout his kingdom. However, the revelations opened at the meeting had opened the people's eyes to the true wickedness of their king. They had never liked him, and these new revelations all the more infuriated them. However the king had yet to choose a willing prince to rule and since Darien had refused, if he did not be ore his death, it would lead to civil war.

As soon as the king feel, he was taken to the healers and for over four hours no news had come out about the king's condition. After an hour and no news came, the gathered elders began to split for their own homes. The rest left were the wives of the king, Serena and her friends, the princes and the princess. They passed back and forth in the sick waiting room, nearly strangling any doctor who passed them by for information.

Finally after three hours their patience was rewarded with news that the king would be ok and just needed some rest. Finally able to breath, the all split for their own privacy. Serena and her friends returned to their individual quarters for moments of peace. As soon as she was within the confines of her room, Serena run a hot bath and shrouded herself in the warm water. The accusation laid against her by her sister had her very bones cold and not even the hot water could heal the cold touch of pain stabbing at he heart. In the tub she let her salty tears mix with the hot water as she cried her heart out.

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Darien sat alone on his window sill. He didn't know how to feel. All this time, the man he had hated and cursed and saw as some evil over lord was nothing but human. Darien had seen the display of shock pained filled disbelief that had crossed the king's face as the letter left by his late mother was being read. He didn't like it, because such emotions could be the result of only one conclusion. As much as he hated to admit it, in some ways his father was very innocent as well as a victim in all of this.

He sighed now, thinking just what the heck was in store for them.

"Sitting there sighing isn't going to do you any good. You should go see Serena; she is probably hurting right now." Lita said as she entered the room unannounced.

"Hurting? From what?" Darien asked cluelessly.

"Serena may seem strong and independent to you, but the truth is that she is very fragile. Deep inside her, she had hoped to make up with her family but look at what her own blood sister did to her. The disappointment she feels is torturing her and silently she will cry, however you can go and help her through this time and make the tears short lived." Lita said.

"Tell me the truth Lita, was there any truth in what Rei said?" he asked. Despite everything that was said, he couldn't help but ask that question.

"Don't be stupid! Are you saying that Serena is capable of drugging her father at the age of 5 just to sleep with him?! if not Serena, are you saying I am capable of the act myself? Remember that it wasn't Serena alone that was lied upon. Secondly, Serena has told everyone that the reason she was banished is because of her appearance. That was only half the reason. He mother could not stand to look at her face. Everyday she was beaten and cursed at. But like I said, something happened that night that he father should be glad she had spilled it to the Elders. Even as they hurt her, she continues to protect them." Lita said and placed the cup of water she had brought in on a table stand besides Darien and left. With a sigh, he picked up the cup and left the room for his fiancé's.

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"Who is it?" Lita asked as she heard a knock on the door.

"My name is Alana; please I need to talk to you." Lita went and opened the door. She found a young woman looking left and right as if afraid to be where she was at the moment.

"What about?"

"May I come in?"

"sure." She opened the door wider for the girl to enter. She went and sat on the bed and waited for Lita to close the door and pull up a chair.

"Ms. Lita, please I beg you don't take him away from me." she started, tears pulled at her eyes.

"Take who?" Lita asked in bewilderment. Who was this chick anyway?

"I was engaged to someone but when he found out that I could not give birth he left me for another. In my sorrow I began doing night jobs." She sighed here.

"Prostitution?" Lita asked and she nodded.

"Yes, it didn't matter anymore. What man would want a barren wife anyway? But one night as I had been working at the brothel for a long time, a man came in for a night of pleasure. But I found in that man another reason to love again and loved him greatly. He knew of my feelings and that I was barren but he didn't care. He brought me to his home and I worked for him as a servant. I did everything in my power for him, slept with him when he needed to be released; I gave him my soul, body and heart, my everything! I loved and still love him so much. He knew this and everyone's discouraged my feelings. But now with you here, he has thrown me out of his house and out of his life. Please I beg of you, give him back to me. He is all I've got, please!" Alana began crying and Lita sat in shock at all she was hearing.

"Please wait a minute. Who is this man?" she asked.

"Nephrite." She responded immediately and Lita sat frozen. Her mind went back to the past few hours ago when he had rejected her when she had asked for him to kiss him and it all made sense. She felt her heart breaking in piece but before she could allow the pain to consume her, she needed to get the gir lout of the room. She would rather die than cry about a man before a total stranger!

"I'm sorry Alana. But there is nothing between Nephrite and I. There never was. He and I are really good friends but that's it. And our closeness comes through Prince Darien actually, so have no fear. I'm sure if you feel so insecure about your place in his heart and told him so, he would assure you of the same thing. Ok." She said and the woman nodded.

"Thank you Lita. Please forgive my rudeness."

"Not at all .i'm glad I was able to help."

"Thank you again." She left and in the silence of her room, the river bank in her eyes broke free and tears consumed her as she sobbed out her broken heart.

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She lay on the bed lifelessly. She didn't know what to do with herself; there was so much pressure in her heart that for sometime she had thought she was about to have a heart attack.

A knock came at her door.

She ignored the first few soft knocks but it increased in volume and the insistence of it was annoying her.

"Who is it?!" she snapped. She hadn't meant to but at the moment she need some quiet moments to herself.

"If I were someone else, I would have left when you didn't answer, but knowing you I knew you hadn't left the castle and just playing silent. Open the door my dear." Darien said teasingly from the other side of the door. She groaned and rolled her eyes at his cheekiness.

She went and opened the door for him to enter. The first he noticed was the darkness in her room, the blinds closed and no lamp on. He made to open the blind but she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and a shake of her head. He watched as she sat down on her bed with all the tiredness of someone that had just come out of an ordeal with everlasting scars. He went and sat by her side, looking down at her as she avoided his eyes.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked softly as he ran his fingers down her cheeks. She looked up at him, ready to say no but the softness on his face and the words of the letter left by lady Gaia flashed before her mind. She sighed and sat up straighter. It was time to come clean on some issues.

"Darien, why do you think I asked you to marry me?"

"Umm…maybe because of my good looks and charms?" he answered teasingly.

"Darien!"

"Ok ok. Well I know it's not based on total adoration and love for me. I've been aware you had ulterior motives. Care to tell me now?" She looked at him; saw the earnest curiosity that had been eating him alive. She knew her confession would either be taken in anger which might result in him forgoing the marriage or he will accept it and help her. Either way the latter choice was what she hoped for.

"Because I need to use you for a project." She said with no emotions at all. she couldn't bare to have her emotions on the table only to be rejected later.

"Use me how?" he asked, emotionless.

"I need a sum of money that only the wealthiest of wealthiest will be able to do. You are not the first I have been willing to marry in other to carry out the project. When I learned you lived with abundance of wealth, I was irrationally certain that only can help me. I mean it would be like killing two birds with one stone. You are someone I knew from my past whom I could love if I wanted to and at the same time you will be helping complete my project, it was a package deal I could not go so I came to you. it was a big gamble I was…"

"Enough! I have had enough!" Darien said as he roused to his feet, his whole body shaking with suppressed anguish and rage. "How could you Serena!? How could you of all people do this to me!?"

"Darien, listen to me!"

"No you listen! I had to sweat a river and take life and death risk in order to accumulate such wealth! Do you think on your whim I would deliver it all to you?! Fool! It will not happen! I will not give you even a penny of my wealth; in fact this whole marriage is over!"

"Darien' you don't understand!"

"Understand what!? That the girl I fell in love with and hoped so much to marry was nothing more than a gold digger!? That she would be willing to sleep with any man just for money for some stupid project?! You are nothing more than a prostitute! No wonder you tried your wicked ways with your father! Even as a child your greed for money blinded you to do such acts!" he screamed at her and she took it in silently. Truth be told she was shocked shell. Never in her wildest nightmare had she thought it possible for him to hurt her so badly with such crude comments!

Unable to say anything, she watched him leave her with not an ounce of regret. As soon as he left, tears cascaded down her face. What had she come here for? To fight for a man who thought her a prostitute?! She said she would have married anyone with wealth! She hadn't said anything about sleeping with men to harness the money she needed! It was enough; she couldn't take this pain anymore. She had made so many sacrifices in her life, but this time she could not go through with it. The damage was already done; she had no reason to be here any longer.

She got up; packed the little things she had brought with her and took out a quill and paper to leave Lita a letter. She would go back to Dialand, her home and figure something else out to help with the curing of the sick.

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Darien in his anger locked himself up in his room for hours until almost supper time when news came that the king requested for their presence. While he was locked in his room, he reflected on the ways he had come to be in possession of the wealth he enjoyed now. He had done some right down low jobs in his youth. Not only had he been a drug dealer and worked with the underground drug dealers, he had been a host. A male prostitute. Each money he had earned he saved and saved. In the night times he would do his hosting jobs while during the day hours he would work at restaurants, keeping up the appearance of a respected college honor student. He had worked as a kidnapper, earning so much business in the profession. However unlike his coworkers, he had covered his tracks with the most deliberate of cautions that when the business was caught under the illegal red light of the laws, all hiss workmates went to jail while he was set free. Such wealths came with dangerous risks that he had undertake. He had stored and saved all his money, used some to open a store and little by little he built up his fortune. By the time he was completely out of college, he was the youngest millionaire! How could he give it out to a woman whose greediness knew no bounds?!

With a slouch he made his way to the sick room where he found everyone with the exception of Serena and Lita waiting for him. The king stared at him for a long time before wordlessly extending his shaking had to his son whom he had abandoned for so long. This action surprised everyone and Darien stood undecided. What did the gesture mean? Is accepting it an acceptance of something else too?

"It's alright son, I just want to see you up close." The king said, his voice devoid of the power, arrogance and command it normally held. This voice, so gentle and sad was so much kinder and warmer that for a minute he forgot that this same man had been the one to destroy his childhood and was planning to take away from him his future. In that moment also, he walked forward and took his father's hand.

In silence all watched with baited breath to see what else was coming.

"I didn't know. I really didn't." the king said softly, his voice thick with sobs.

"Know what?" Darien asked, biting his lips to keep from adding King or Your Majesty.

"All the time I thought she was playing hard to get. I didn't know that I was hurting her. I…all I knew was that I loved her more than I had ever loved anything in my life. That day when I saw her in another man's arms, I went mad…I felt so wounded, so …Betrayed that nothing else could pass through my head. After she died and you were gone it sort of dawned on me. So I decided to make you king with a good wife with hope that you would forgive me for all I had done. I didn't know I was hurting you too." silent tears fell from his eyes and they all gasped. This strong, tyrannical king was crying!? What next could that day produce? Pigs flying?

Darien gritted his teethes. This was what he had suspected all along after his mother's letter was read. While to everyone the king seemed the bad guy, in actuality he was just a man in love and obsessed with a servant girl whose ghost still tormented him these days. Put it simply, the king was much a victim of his obsession as was everyone.

"Darien, do you honestly not want to become king?" he asked.

"No, I have not an ounce of desire for your throne. I am happy as I am father." He said, unconscious that he had just called him father but the king noticed it and his heart rejoiced.

"I always thought that in your heart you actually wanted it but you were just being stubborn, trying to punish me for your mother's death. And finding you a bride, well I thought being with someone of influential background would help ally you with the most powerful men of this nation. I wanted what was best for you Darien. I really did, I just didn't know that you yourself knew what was best for you."

The people who watched stared in open amazement at what was happening. The king's whose voice had always been commanding and harsh was now subdued to a low regretful drawl. Now he spoke as if he had a heart, as if finally his humanity had returned to him. No one had expected things to turn this way and none knew exactly what to do. They had all come into the war with their own plans and so fort but it seemed it was all unnecessary. Suddenly a man burst into the room carrying a paper.

"Your majesty, we have news."

"What is it Greg?" The king asked as he tried to sit up. Darien unconsciously helped him up.

"This is a letter from the Lady Serena. She states that she is withdrawing from the challenge. And as we speak she has left the UK." The minister of civil affair reported the news.

"Why!?" everyone except Darien demanded.

"There are no reasons given your majesty." Greg said. He was a young man with short brown hair and brown eyes. The king turned to Darien.

"Do you know anything about this?" he asked.

"I have canceled our wedding." Darien answered with a sigh.

"Why!?" Diamond demanded.

"What is wrong with you Darien!?" Seiya asked too. None could fathom a reason why a man would leave the girl he had been fighting for on the brink of their victory!

"Son, I know I should be happy that she has withdrawn however I am not. I saw true happiness in you whenever you were with her. Please, what reasons allowed you to do something so drastic." The king asked, even he was shock at his son's foolishness.

"Father, how can I marry someone who only wants me for my wealth?" he asked miserably.

"What do you mean by that Darien?" Jadeite asked.

"All along, all she wanted was for me to finance for a project of hers. She said herself that she would marry any man with as much wealth as me."

"And you didn't know this before?"

"No, she just told me this afternoon." The silence that followed after everyone let out a heavy sigh was short lived. Lita burst into the room like a mad woman with wide red eyes.

"What the hell is your problem Darien!? How could you do this to Serena?!" she demanded, her eyes flashing. She had gone to Darien's room for some comfort only toi find a folded letter on Serena's bed addressed to her telling her that the wedding was called of and that she was returning to where she had been for the past years.

"Lita calm down. Obviously Serena only wanted Darien for his money." Diamond said.

"Well of course she needed money!"

"You speak as if you had known all along." The king accused.

"I had."

"And you didn't say anything to me!? What kind of friend are you!?"

"I am the kind of friend who allows you to experience something in other for you to reap the full benefit of it. Now shut up and listen to me! The project Serena speaks so fondly of is the curing of the sick. The small town of Dialand has been hit with some disease that only foreign doctors can cure! She needs the money to bring doctors to the town to heal the people. They are all poor people gathered there; none have the money for it. The disease has spread like wild fire and only a few have yet to be bed ridden with that sickness. She decided then that she would sacrifice herself to marry any wealthy man willing to finance the medical care but all the men she had visited before with such conditions rejected it! That is why with you she didn't tell you straight from the beginning! But you cannot accuse her of not loving you. She does love you, had since you were kids. You had been on her mind all the time, meeting you again was a dream come true! But no, you just had to be a fool and throw her away just because she needs money to save lives! All you men are the same! All you know is to stick your dicks into people but when trouble comes you try to run away from it!" Lita ranted, tears calling down her face.

"Calm down Lita." Nephrite said worriedly.

"Shut the hell up." She didn't snap, but the calm deliberate way she had said it hurt more than if she had snapped at him. Darien who had now just realized the fool of his quick actions sat motionless as he absorbed in all that Lita had said. He knew that town Lita spoke of and often sent money to the town every month. He had been told of the disease several months back and he had made to do something about it but some financial problem that came his way made him forget about the troubles of the town. Now not only was his negligence going to cause the lost of many lives but he had lost the one person whom perhaps had loved him truly.

"I was such a fool!" he said. As soon as h said this, Lita walked out of the room. Nephrite quickly followed her.

"Lita?" he called her name when they were out of hearing range. Lita continued to walk on as if she had not heard him. he sped up and matched her pace with his own long strides.

"Lita, please talk to me." he begged but still she said nothing. Frustration set in and he too ka hold of her shoulders and spun her around. The next thing he knew was a flat palm leaving his cheeks with a sting. Both hand rose to his cheeks as he stared at the fuming girl in front of her.

"Do you think that I am Alana? That I will let you screw me and throw me away like all the other whores you sleep with?! Don't joke. I don't ever want to see your disgusting face ever again in my life!" She screamed at him as stray tears slid down her face. She couldn't help it. The betrayal felt so raw, so painful! She had cushioned herself with warm thoughts of him, only to find out that they were all delusional. She walked away from him and he watched her disappear from his view as his eyes filled with tears which silently left tracks down his cheeks.

God, what have I done!?

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Serena did not return to Dialand as she had planned. Using the spare of keys Darien had forged for her, she returned to Darien's house and packed all her things. Then went to the bank and extracted all the money put in there for her by Darien with a promise to pay back once the sick people were cure and she could work. However she did not left one hundred dollars in the bank as to not draft it all or over draft. With the money she withdrew from the bank, she went in search of a particular retired surgeon that was well known as having magical hands. He had never lost a patient in surgery!

Haven found him at his retired estate; she explained to him her circumstance and the nature of the disease. They called it the black worm. When a person was afflicted with it, his or her stomach becomes big at the lower ribs as if pregnant. However why they called it the black worm was because it was noticed that black worms exuded out of the noses of those afflicted with the disease. After explaining all of this to the retired Doctor, she also explained that she had little budget to sufficiently fund an expedition of surgeons to the remote town of Dialand but she would pay no matter how long it took. At the moment, the need for doctors was of the out most urgency!

Excited about this new sickness unheard of, the old man agreed to go to the town with several students of his and that matters in regard to the money would be discussed later. However she had to fund for their airline fees. She agreed on the condition but went in search of a friend of the family that had adopted her and rented his private jet. All this were done in two days as was the urgency of the situation and on the evening of the second day, the doctors took off (with all needed materials, including books on illness in relation to the black worm) for the town with Serena left behind. she need more money for all the medical things that would be need, so she began selling the clothes she had and the trinkets until all she had left were no more than ten clothes and two shoes. She began looking for a job, went through every nursing home until one particular nursing home accepted her on spot because of her circumstance. With an hourly payment of 20 dollars, Serena began working right away. Her first paycheck would be in two weeks, in that time, she would have enough money to send another sets of doctors to help those who had already left.

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