The Vindication Gents

Chapter 1.6

Kai Virtanen’s POV

I did not know what had come over me when I heard Kathleen’s explanation about her clothing of choice. I mean, I have nothing to say about it but she made it hard for me to control my anger inside me.

I just lost control of her and that was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out. I slowly opened my eyes as I knew that she might be scared and called the police to take care of me. She must be because she didn’t want to do anything with me.

I don’t give a f**k either. I might as well get out of this terrible nightmare.

“Awake already? I thought you might want to lay down even more,” Kathleen’s voice was booming in the silent room. I got up from the bed that I was lying on and I was lying, seeing she was on the chair that was situated at the end of the bed and was looking at me like a queen. The moonlight shone on her brunette hair like her twin, but I remembered that her hair was different when she was younger.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” I asked as I got up from the bed and looked at her. I looked around the room and it was not the same room that I had been to that afternoon.

“I had John move you to another room. Well, thanks to you, my room has been a total wreck,” she said as she put her arms on the armrest of the chair.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” I said as I was rubbing my neck. It was painful as the pillows were not the ones that I usually used.

“Then, if you want to get a hold of my sister, you should manage that,” she said as she got up from her seat and went to the corner of the room. My eyes followed her movement before I was looking at the board game that was set up on the table.

Chess, of course. It has to be chess.

“Do you play chess?” She asked as she stopped to look at me. I nodded. She smiled before she went to sit at the table and gestured for me to join her. I went to the table and sat opposite her as she rearranged the pieces.

“You play chess? I thought you did not. Only your sister played it as she is the world champion in this game,” I said as I was moving my pieces because I got the white pieces. Then she made her moves as Kathleen sighed. It was a few minutes before she answered my question.

“There’s a lot of things that you don’t know about me, Virtanen. For example, check,” she said as she moved her castle piece to my king piece. I didn’t see that coming from her as she leaned on the chair as I was thinking about my next move.

“Well, in the files that your father gave to me—” I said before I was cut off.

“Do not trust anything that you read, Virtanen. Don’t you ever learn from it?” Kathleen said as she moved her pieces and it was checked again.

“How come you are good at this game even after you have been spending your time in prison for so many years?” I exclaimed as I tried to get out of that situation before the chess ended.

“Yes, I might be in prison for so many years, but it has its good side. I can enhance the skills that I already have and pick up the new ones that I want to learn,” she said as she moved her pieces before she knocked out my king.

“Checkmate,” she said as she looked at me, smiling wickedly. I just scoffed at her as she was looking outside the window as it was shining in the moonlight so brightly tonight.

“I never had it easy, you know,” she started the conversation as I was starting to enjoy the silence between us.

“What is it?” I asked. I didn’t understand what she was saying. She sighed before looking at me.

“My life. I never had it easy. You might think that since I was the firstborn and all, I would have it all, but it was not always the case,” she said before I cut her off.

“Wait, you’re the firstborn? Then why does your sister get to be the Crown Princess?” I asked. I didn't understand about the monarchy and all that s**t. She sighed again.

“The accident was the moment that my twin had luck on her side. She convinced my father that I was the one responsible for the accident—”, Kathleen explained, before I cut her off again.

“That shocked the whole country,” I finished her sentence. She smiled as I knew what I had just done.

“Sorry, I did not mean to interrupt,” I said, as I was looking at my fingers.

“No, it’s fine. I know how it felt to complete someone’s sentences,” she said as she was smiling for the first time after I met her. There was a left dimple on her cheek and I thought it looked cute on her. She sighed again before looking out the window again to look at the moon.

“She managed to get my father to believe that I was the bad one that set up the whole thing and got sent to prison for 5 years. I didn’t know at the time, but now, I know that it was never my fault, to begin with,” she said as she was crossing her arms in front of her chest. I gulped as I avoided my view of her notorious stance.

“Of course, I understand that,” I suddenly said to her. She looked at me as if she was trying to comprehend it.

“What do you mean by that?” Kathleen asked me as I looked outside to see the moon that shone brightly in my eyes.

“When I was first diagnosed with this disease, my grandfather disowned me as he knew I would not be a very good soldier to keep his empire up and running. So, he gave it to my cousin, Chris. But after some time that I spent wandering around the world, learning to control it, I came out to the top of my own business and my grandfather finally took me into the family again,” I said as I turned to look at Kathleen with her black mane and maroon eyes.

Maroon, that’s the color of her eyes. How exotic.

“So, you are not the only one that had it difficult in your life,” I said as I looked deep into her maroon eyes. She smiled at me as I smiled back at her.

“I guess we’re meant to be then,” she said as she put her hands under her chin, looking at me with her wicked smile that I had come to like for some time now.

“I supposed,” I replied as I looked at her as the moonlight shone on both of our faces, filling the silence between us.

*****

After some conversation and confession that we had last night, we decided to sleep in the bedroom. Not that I didn’t want to get out of the castle and go home, but Kathleen insisted I stay over so that her parents believed that I had fallen in love with her. It was all a part of the plan that she devised for me to get her twin to fall in love with me.

“Are you sure this will work?” I asked her as we tucked into bed. She rolled her eyes at me.

“Yes, I have left a message for her to come to visit us tomorrow. And Chris will be there as well. Two can play this game. If he thinks that you are happy, then maybe he will want to know the secret. And after that, we will strike,” Kathleen said as she went to the right side of the bed. I went to the left side.

She was wearing lingerie that was quite revealing for her, but I didn’t mind, since she knew that I was not interested in her. She felt at ease. And with that, we went to sleep, and, for the first time, I felt peaceful with Kathleen by my side. I wonder what would happen if Katherine was beside me.

After some time in the middle of the night, I had to get some water as I was thirsty. I went out of the bedroom. I did it quietly. I knew that Kathleen was a light sleeper as was described in the dossier. I opened the door and closed it before I relieved the breath that I was holding in. As I went toward the stairs, I was being held against the wall by her butler, John.

“Listen, boy. I don’t know what you want with my precious mistress, but if you ever made her sad or shed tears because of you, you know what will come to you, understand?” He asked as he was pressing my neck with his arm against the wall. I nodded quickly as his grip was killing me.

“Good,” he said as he was still holding it. “John, let him go,” Kathleen’s voice was echoing against the empty hallway. We both looked at Kathleen as she was crossing her arms, standing as regally as she could before her butler was stammering to answer his mistress. Then, he released me before I dropped to the floor, coughing.

“Milady, I was just—” he said before Kathleen held her hand up.

“I know, you just worried about me,” she said as she went to my side, helping me to get back on my feet. She turned to look at her caretaker as she sighed.

“But I can take care of myself now, you know. I’m not a little kid anymore,” she said as she went to the stairs with me.

“Understood, milady,” he said before Kathleen waved her hand. I looked at John before he was glaring at me as he was reminding me of the warning.

“Ignore him. He has always been a father figure to me, since my real father has no time at all,” she said as she was guiding me to the stool in the kitchen.

“Don’t get me wrong but ow!” I said as I was holding my neck.

“Let me,” Kathleen said before she took the first aid kit and helped me to treat my neck. I bet it will be bruising later.

“I’m sorry on his behalf,” she said as she was putting ointment on the bruise that he caused. I just looked at the ground, and her chest was on the same level as my eyes. I avoided it.

“No problem,” I said as we went on in silence for the rest of the night, knowing that something had changed because of that.