Rogue and Riveting

Chapter 16 Return and Regret

She terribly missed her father. 

Adelia could not even hold it longer than she had expected she could. As soon she saw her father throw his arms around her when they met again, she began to cry. The father and daughter have reunited again, and there was a loud round of applause and 'awws' around them as cameras flashed and their security guards began blocking people from trying to take a good shot of them. Some even wanted to touch Adelia (probably from too much excitement that their princess has come back to their country) that they almost caused Adelia and her father to tumble down from the sheer force of the people wanting to greet them. Adelia even thought that she might actually hit the ground from the force, but she didn't.

And she immediately saw why. Enoch suddenly began talking to the people around them (who were a large crowd that even the King didn't expect to come. Sure, the people knew that Adelia was going to arrive together with her husband, but he underestimated the people's love for his daughter. She was the only heir to the throne, after all. Everyone's attention was on her. That's why her wedding was such a big event for the country. And of course, everyone knew why she agreed to get married in the first place. Everyone knew that it was for the sake of Sanjolia. So the King just scratched his head because he knew that he should have realized it sooner.

It was not only him that missed his daughter.

And Adelia could feel it too, that's why she couldn't stop her tears from falling even when her father kept on telling her that everything was going to be alright. Maybe he thought that she was panicking from the festive and rather wild presence of the people, but the truth was Adelia just had a huge wave of emotions right inside of her as she saw and heard how the people cheered for her. It was like she had been overwhelmed by their warm welcome. 

"Are you alright?" her father asked her as soon as they got inside the palace. Enoch was left behind though, but Adelia was not worried because her husband seemed to have charmed the crowd again and that they were listening to his every word. 

'Yeah. I was just... I could not believe what I was seeing..." Adelia confessed. "It was m-magical."

Her father nodded at her with a smile. "Everyone missed you. Of course, they would welcome you back like that."

There was a slump on her throat when she heard that, so all Adelia could do was nod and wipe her tears. And since she could not produce coherent words right now due to her overwhelming emotions, all Adelia was able to do was look around the familiar palace. It was still the same place where she used to live, although she could clearly tell that right now it's overly cleaned and decorated because she was coming back. Her father was like that all the time. He would become a control freak every time an important person was about to visit their palace. Adelia couldn't even go to the Sky Gardens while the chambermaids were cleaning because she might bring dirt to the palace from there. It was her least favorite event back then.

But now, Adelia could see the effort in the shining marble floor, the glistening chandeliers, and the over-the-top decoration that she knew her father oversaw. Only her father could have thought that she would love a whole Dellinger Lily plant inside the palace because she used to lay on the grass beside those flowering plants in the Sky Garden. 

"Let's chat first while your husband is busy entertaining the press outside. He's quite charming, so let us use the time he gave us to talk as father and daughter." Her father was joking, Adelia knew, but it still made her cry harder. She just missed her father so much that even his jokes become sad. "Now, now, you have become a crybaby, 'no? What has happened to my sweet yet tough daughter?"

"I'm still me, father..." said Adelia in between hiccups and tears. "I just missed you so much, father," she added and they hugged again. This time, her father also looked emotional and even heaved a sigh of relief. "You know how much we talked about my marriage back then and how you said that I will probably be crying as soon as I step into Romeodel? And I was like, I am too old to be homesick and I'm not the soft and emotional kind of girl, but father, I did cry when I got there. No, I wasn't even out of the limousine yet when I started crying. It just felt different."

"Of course, it will be different. I was also worried about you, Adelia. There was no day that I pestered your husband about what's going on there, especially when rumors about you started spreading on the Internet---"

Adelia had to interrupt her father. "Wait... You're talking with my husband?"

Her father looked like he was enjoying the shock on her face. "Yes, I did. As current Kings, we needed to have a communication link anyway."

"But you never talked to me?" Adelia asked her father incredulously. "You had your way to talk to me but you never did?"

"I'm sorry, Adelia, but I asked your husband to not tell you about me. I wanted you to settle in first with your husband. Talking to me would only shift your focus to me instead of your husband."

Her father had a point, but she could still not believe that all along there was a way to talk to her father and she never knew about that. But it makes sense. As both Kings of the two countries, it only makes sense that the two of them have ways to reach the other.

They're practically allies now, and Adelia didn't even think of that possibility. 

"Let's just talk about your life there, now that you are here. I want to hear from you," said her father eagerly and that made her feel so happy and lighthearted. Just the fact that her father wanted to know what it felt like for Adelia to live as a wife of the young King of a once-closed country. And so she did. 

They talked happily about her life there in Romeodel, although of course, she couldn't tell her some of the things that happened as she promised Enoch that she will not tell anyone about the bad incident that had happened. And he didn't even need to warn or tell her about that because Adelia did not want her father to worry about her safety too. She wasn't going to tell her father that her husband's sister is some kind of villainess towards her and that Enoch suddenly disappeared when they were on their honeymoon on a private island, nor that some crazy man who looked like her husband snuck into their bedroom and scared the wits out of her. She was not that stupid to make her father regret agreeing to the marriage.

"I'm so glad that you are fine, Adelia," her father finally said after their retelling of each other's lives while they were separated from the other. "But I know that you prefer to live here, and you have missed Sanjolia." He then looked around as if to make sure that no one else could hear what he was about to say next. "King Enoch had told me that he already solved the mystery behind those killings that humiliated and crippled our economy, and after he tells me what or who are the suspects, I will make my move about your untimely marriage."

"Huh? What do you mean, father?" Adelia asked with her eyebrows meeting in the middle. "What move are you talking about?"

Her father now was dead serious. "Adelia, have you already forgotten?" 

"What did I forget?"

"Remember what I told you before we agreed to your marriage? We said that we only will honor the marriage until the killings are solved. And after those get solved, then I will make sure that you'll be able to come back here and that your marriage with King Enoch will be void."

Adelia let out a gasping noise as loud as a garden duck's because she had almost forgotten about this conversation that her father is mentioning to her. Yes, she could now remember it quite well. Back then when she was still clueless and unsure of who and what would her husband look like, Adelia and her father had made an agreement that her marriage would not last longer than the existence of the mysterious killings. 

And now that the killings had been solved, at least according to Enoch, Adelia was sure that her father will do everything in his power to make her come back here to Sanjolia for good. How would he do it? Adelia doesn't know exactly. But all she knows is that when her father says something like that, he will surely keep his word about it. 

"There you are! I had been halted by your lovely people outside," said Enoch who just appeared in front of Adelia, which made her almost jump in surprise. He seemed very pleased with something, which only made him cuter and hotter. 

And that was the problem. Because as Enoch stood in front of her... all smiles and his forehead sweating but he checked her first if she was now alright after crying like a baby outside, Adelia came to a realization that she made a terrible mistake. Well, maybe not that terrible since she did not know him in the beginning, but she would be dumb if she would still want to divorce her husband now that she knows how loving and dependable he is. Adelia no longer wants to be apart from Enoch.