Chapter 67: Coming clean with Caro Silva!

“The council seems to be under some sort of misunderstanding that we fancy each other”, Selena began dejectedly and Caro eyed her keenly and shook his head vividly at her, not at all liking where the conversation was headed. He continued feeding the dragon right next to them, little tit bits of meats every now and then, otherwise it would snort black smoke at him.

“It is so not a misunderstanding, at least not on my end.”, he said softly while maintaining firm eye contact with her, hoping that she sees the warmth and sincerity in his eyes for her and Selena slumped her shoulders warily, pondering over how to delicately handle this situation wherein she had to draw a clear boundary between the two of them, as she now with Dominic and she was a loyal woman who had only eyes for her man, but the real problem was that she had to reject him without offending him as that would otherwise mean a loss of an ally for her personally as well as for Valyria. Hence, she had to handle it very sensitively and carefully so as to avoid risking it blow back on to her face. She didn’t want to end it tensely between the two men either as they were still family and she didn’t want to be the woman who drove them apart. She shifted her weight from one leg to another, frustrated and muddled up, unable to figure out way where she can tactically handle this very difficult matter. She cursed the council for their foolhardiness and impulsive internally and she decided that she may need to have a stern word or to with them after she fix this mess. She was still a little bit appalled by how shamelessly they had pushed forward that proposal without even talking it out with her, that shows how much respect they paid for their Empress, and she didn’t intend to let the matter drop just like that or they would repeat the same foolhardiness again and the cost may be much higher the next time which may be beyond salvation.

He read her expression intently and he said, “It was the council’s own decision, wasn’t it? You had absolutely no hand in this”
Selena nodded at him meekly and bit her under lip uncertainly, as she timidly gauged his reaction. She was worried of hurting his feelings and kept her mouth firmly shut, to ensure that she didn’t unconsciously spew out some nonsense which further provoke him or antagonize him.
To be honest, he didn’t look quite surprise or taken aback by that. It was like she had just confirmed his worst nightmare which he already saw coming from a mile away.

“You don’t look to surprised”, Selena pointed out timidly and he nodded at her and replied in a resigned tone, “Of course, I was mad with happiness when the council head approached with the proposal and I agreed right away without considering anything further as we had already been engaged once but I kind of had the feeling that you were kept in the dark and had absolutely no hand in this by his tone when he was talking to me. Turns out, my gut instinct was indeed right.”
He took several steps forward, closing the distance the two of them in a blink of an eye and after making sure as to maintain eye contact with her, he said flimsily, though his tone was full of raw anguish and desperateness, “Why are you so against this notion? Why can’t you give a second chance to me? We were happy together once, and now that the truth had come out that I really had no hand in the foul play, can’t you not forgive me and move past it. After all, it was your mother’s interference that broke apart our relationship, not my faithlessness.”

Selena let out a sigh. Caro did indeed have a point logically, after all, as Selena had spent fifty years believing, it wasn’t his fault. It was her own mother’s undue interference that drove the two of them apart but fifty years is a long time and she had already gotten over him and moved past it and clearly he had not. She felt like she owed him something and felt quite uncomfortable about it.

She eyed him warily and said softly, “Fifty years is a long time, Caro. Maybe its better to let it be water under the bridge. No point in jumping back on to that rocky boat when we could have a much more stronger and deeper friendship in place of it.”

Caro retorted back sulkily, “Is the fifty years that changed for you? You got over me that easily? But I haven’t. I still love you….and a part of me always will.”
Selena flinched at his confession and hastily stepped back and put a distance between the two of them. Seeing the guilty expression on her face, Caro narrowed his eyes at her and murmured snidely, “It isn’t the fifty years that we spent apart from each other that is bothering you, is it? You are in love with another man.”

Selena nodded at him meekly, seeing no point in hiding it from him of all vampires as he was Dominic Vanhuesan’s close family and sooner or later he would come to know about it, there was no point in delaying it anyway.
Caro sucked in a sharp breath, feeling completely rattled down to the core that the woman he loved so ardently with every fiber in his body was in love with someone else, and he had the teensiest bit of gut feeling saying that someone else was none other than his own grand nephew, which made matters much worse. He can’t even hurt his rival in love as Dominic was his family and own blood.

Desperately hoping no for an answer, he asked Selena uncertainly, “Dominic?”
A part of him was already dreading the answer but he had no other choice than to ask it as otherwise the question would be eating him up from the inside and driving him mad. It was better to get it over with in one shot.
She really didn’t have to say anything. The expression of shock on her face mirrored his own as he realized that he had indeed hit the nail right on the head. Her face went pale in horror and both her eyebrows shot up in surprise, clearly taken aback that he had guessed it so correctly.

She sucked in a sharp breath, appalled and horrified that he had figured everything out so quickly without her even having to utter a single word, she raised an eyebrow at him questioningly and asked, “How the hell did you know?”
“We had a talk between us men and the kid respected me enough to come clean about his feelings for you and had made a gentleman’s promise to not play any underhanded trick to get the lady. So, I am guessing he already won fair and square before I could even lift a finger and come up with a plan to woe you.”