Chapter 974: You Make Everything Better

Rowena finally confronted her father when she got the chance to meet him privately. The king was sitting in his study, watching her being restless and frustrated without a single care. He was this close to getting what he wanted, he didn't care about the rest. That was all that mattered to him.

"Why did you do it, father?" Rowena bent down and grabbed the edge of her father's desk. "You cornered him to marry me. How could you do that to him?"

King Draco didn't even look up from his documents. He replied casually like her concern didn't matter. "I was just pushing the right buttons. You heard the man. He loves you and wants to marry you. I just helped him make that decision faster."

Rowena couldn't believe her father would resort to such a thing. She wondered if getting someone like Raphael was his goal from the beginning.

She remembered her harsh upbringing to make her the perfect woman.  King Draco told her when she was younger that by the time she turned 18, he would hold a tournament to choose a good husband for her.

Yet, after she turned eighteen, he didn't make any efforts to do that. He actually forced the first man who came to see Rowena to propose.

"Why did you set up Raphael?" Rowena glared at her father and asked him with a voice filled with hatred. "What do you want from him?"

King Draco looked up to see Rowena. He looked offended at her accusations. "What do I want from him? Would you believe me if I told you I want him for you, so you can be happy? Do you not want to marry him? If there is anyone who could make all your dreams come true, it would be him."

"You don't care about me," Rowena blurted. "Don't lie and tell me you did it for me."

"I don't care if you don't believe me. I am not surprised, though. You have been ungrateful since the first time you came into my life," King Draco scoffed. "You give me nothing but trouble, yet I still raised you properly and look out for you."

"No, you don't," Rowena clenched her fists to the sides. "You don't look out for me..."

"Do you deny that I raised you well? I may be harsh to you but I did it out of love. If I didn't care about you I would have let you die with your mother. I wouldn't bother getting you nannies to educate you, I wouldn't bother sending all those letters to every corner of the world to find you when you left..." King Draco said.

He got up from his chair and approached Rowena with narrowed eyes. "I even brought your thief friend here so you could see him. I helped you get the most powerful man you could ever

dream of marrying, and you could even bring back your friend to life if you played your cards right. And THIS is how you repay my kindness??"

Rowena subconsciously stepped back when her father stepped forward to approach her. She couldn't deny all his words.

Even though she knew he was selfish and conniving, Draco Roseland was so good with words that she couldn't talk back to him and refute his claim. She was not Julian. Julian would easily talk back to Draco.

King Draco didn't stop there. He smiled mockingly and said, "If you dare tell him the truth and embarrass me, I will make sure he would think that you are in on it. Understand?"

Rowena was silent. Draco Roseland tugged her chin to look at him and he spoke with an intimidating voice. "Don't you dare embarrass me, Rowena."

Rowena wanted to look away but her father's grip on her chin was too strong, it hurt.

"Let me go..." she muttered.

"Promise me that you will not embarrass me," King Draco growled, "I need your word."

Rowena pursed her lips. When her father's grip on her chin became more painful, she relented. "I promise."

Finally, King Draco let go of her.

"Good girl," he praised her. "Now, go to him and make sure he keeps his promise to take us both to Cretea."

Rowena turned around and walked toward the door to leave her father's study. However, before she opened the door, she turned back and looked at King Draco intently.

"Why do you want to go to Cretea so much?" Rowena asked her father out of nowhere. 

King Draco was surprised by her sudden question. He looked at her blankly for a few seconds before he waved his hand to dismiss her. "Go."

Rowena looked at him for a while, trying to read him. Something in her heart told her that her father's end game had always been Cretea. That's why he was so supportive of her relationship with Raphael, and when he thought Rowena would lose the opportunity to be with that man, King Draco took matters into his own hands.

Now, she wondered what was so good about Cretea. Since her father didn't want to say anything, Rowena decided to find out for herself.

***

The next couple of days that passed in Ashland were filled with mixed feelings for Rowena. On the one hand, she was happy to be with Raphael and spend time with him, but the weight of what happened was a burden on her shoulders.

"You are daydreaming again

," Raphael commented, moving Rowena from her reverie. They were sitting together on her porch, talking about trivial things and suddenly Raphael lost her.

"Huh?" Rowena batted her eyes and looked at Raphael. "Pardon?"

"I know that I will be gone for a month in order to prepare for your arrival in Cretea, but you already look gloomy," Raphael pointed out with a worried look. "Are you thinking of my departure?"

Rowena shook her head.  "I'm just a bit exhausted. Sorry for dampening the mood–"

"It's fine." Raphael rubbed her arm and said, "You are never dampening the mood. It's actually the opposite. You make everything better."