Arranged Alliance

Blood

Nicholas Bretons

"D-did I hurt your hand?" she said, looking at my hand. It was just a little red. I was staring at her and she was in my hand.

"No, it's all right." I said to her, grasping her hand, her eyes met mine. "We have to get going, for breakfast." she nodded at me. I nodded and we both went into the dining room. She and her family were sitting at a table. There were two chairs for us. I took out the chair for her, she looked at me, I gestured towards the seat where she sat, I also took my seat. I gave her a plate and started to serve her. Sana looked at me, I gave her a smile and she smiled back. I gave her an omlette and some beacons and poured her orange juice. Then serve myself.

"So how was your first night kids?" dad asked us, looking at Nora. I answered instead of her.

"Alright, Nora said she slept well." I lied but she didn't protest. She's already shaking.

"Really Nora, you don't look really well, " Lucy said. I narrowed my eyes at her concerned face, " Did you have nightmares?" Nora snapped her eyes towards her, eyes wide. She shook her head towards her. She has Nightmares?

"No" I snapped at her. I look for some distraction.

"Dad, what about the Gabreal meeting Gabral? Is Nico going to handle it?" Seth said, winking at me secretly. I gave him a relieved look; Seth is a life saver. I looked at Nora. She just shook her head at me. I gave her a smile, looking down at the smile on her lips.

"No, Nico is not going to do any business work, he is on vacation." Dad said in a calm tone, eating his omelette.

"What? Why dad?" I was shocked, why did he say something like that? I have so many things to do. I also have a new project.

"Actually Nicholas, I have an answer to this question." I turned to Nora's dad, David. I gave him the same confused expression which I gave to my dad. He put his hand in his under-coat pocket to take out an envelope. "Actually, this is a gift for my daughter's wedding. You are both going on honeymoon for a week, that's why we are here." He handed me the envelope. I took it. I looked towards Nora; she was also staring at the envelope rather than at me. Seeing my questionable look, she shrugged and carried on with her breakfast.

"Where?" I asked, giving an envelope to Nora under the table.

"Well, that's a surprise."

______________________________________________________________

"Dad, don't start now, again" I said to dad, rolling my eyes at him. Nora's parents made breakfast and went home an hour and a half ago, and here I am arguing with dad. Well, I don't have anything else to do right now.

"Nicholas, you have to spend some time with your wife, you know that your mother and I were gon-"

"Yeah, yeah I know you both have gone on a half-world tour and blah blah blah." He glared at me, I ignored him.. "But dad tried to understand me too, I still don't know who killed my moth-"

"Nicholas, I have enough of your childishness. When the police said that it was an accident, then why did you come up with this and remind me of that day?" My dad's annoyed voice made me roll my eyes.

"Dad, it's not my children, I want to find that kil-"

"Nicholas," he snapped. I jerked, "this talk is enough, your mother is gone by accident. We are not going to talk about this. Not this time nor in the future. And listen to my words carefully. Don't talk about this to Nora or her family. You had better understand that?"

He said, earning a nod from me. I was speechless.

"And what about this?" I asked, gesturing to the envelope Mr. Duke gives me. Dad looked at me with his glasses on his nose. He was reading some old-fashioned book.

"What about this? Are you going? They give this to you with so much love and it's only a week." He said it was not a big deal.

I sighed, he's not going to listen to me, "Then I'll go." Before he could say something, I went out of the room and went to the backyard where Nora was. I entered the yard and she was inspecting a flower, a white flower that had blood stains,

Wait a second. Blood stains.

"Damn Nora, what did you do?" I yelled. She flinched, I went near her, put her hand in mine, and checked the wound. Thorns were stuck on the side of her hand. I touched her arm, then looked up at her. She didn't have any kind of painful expression. What kind of girl is she? I thought.

"Where did you get it from?" I asked, pulling out the thorn. Her hand was full of blood. I looked at her for an answer. She pointed at the flower which was lying on the ground. A jasmine flower. The flower also has blood drops on it. I stared at it, there were no jasmine in our yard. "Where did you get this flower?" I asked her, grasping the flower in my hand.

"Your mother gave it me, but I didn't know there were thorns on it." Her voice was small but stable, I glanced at the flower then back at her. My mother. I shook my head, my eyes went to her hand, I cursed and grabbed her hand, putting a flower in my pocket. I pressed her hand with mine.

"Let's treat it?" I said and led her to the room. I grabbed her, injured her and dragged her with me. "You are such a trouble maker," I said, and earned a glare from her. She tried to pull her hand away but my grip tightened on her hand. We arrived at our room and were interrupted by a voice.

"Oh my god, what happened, Nora dear? Are you alright?" Elizabeth said, worrying and inspecting Nora's wound. I closed my eyes and took a long deep breath. I couldn't say anything to her in front of Nora. I turned around and gave her my best smile.

"Nothing happened and yes she is alright." I said sweetly, opening the door. I pulled her in and locked the door. My grip was tightened on something, I looked down and saw Nora's hand. I had left her hand, blood was also on my hand now. I glanced at her and she was gawking at me. What is the problem with me?

"You have blood in your hand." she said, now staring at my bloodied hand. I ran a hand through my hair and then looked at her. She was really stupid. I ignored her and went to take the aid box. I got it from the first drawer of the study table. I pulled her to the sofa in front of our bed. I sat on the sofa and she was beside me. I grabbed her hand gently though her hand was bloody, so I cleaned it first. Gently, I pulled the remaining thorn out and treated the wounds. Put a bandage on it.

"You have to pack the bags." I said to her while bandaging them.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

I looked up at her. I shrugged "I don't know, where you want to go?" I was packing the aid box.

"I don't know, I- I actually never went anywhere." I stopped what I was doing and stared at her face. She didn't go anywhere. I narrowed my eyes to her. "Don't look at me like that?" She said, looking away.

"Like what?" I asked, frowning.

"Nothing." She closed the topic. I stared at her face again, then shrugging, I put the aid box on the bed.

"Well, I only went on a business tour, so, I also don't know". I took her hand and examined the bandage. She looked at me and I glanced at her. My heart fluttered.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I threw her own question at her, tilting my head. She broke her stare.

"Thank you" she said, ignoring my question and looking away. Her side face is more beautiful. I sighed, I was acting like a teenager lovesick. "Where are we going then?" She asked me to look at her.

"I don't know, we will ask Seth about it, my brother. He is good at these kinds of things, or we can ask my friend." She nodded her head at this, suddenly I got an idea, "Why don't you ask one of your friends?" She chuckled at my question, "What happened? Why do you laugh?"

"I actually don't have any friends?" I was actually surprised by this answer.

"Why?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. She gave me a smile and shrugged. I was curious 'why she didn't have a friend' but a knock on the door shattered my curiosity and this beautiful moment. Her hand was still in my hand. But another knock came harshly.

"COMING", I said, irritated. Nora gave me a smile. A smile that took my heart. For a moment I didn't want to open the door, but still I got up and opened the door. Helding my heart to quit fluttering. And when I opened the door, it stopped fluttering. She doesn't have any friends and I have a lot. And at this moment my thought was, "why is he still in my life?" But the answer can never be found. I sighed.