Loved By The Twin Princes

the motive behind the outing

/Kiara’s POV/

I pass the cab driver the address to my house immediately I crossed the bridge of escaping my bestie, then after that, I look around for the meter that I was going to use in determining my transport fare, which I saw resting on the cab's hood, so I pay my fare and relax in the taxi.

“I really can't allow anything to trouble my peace of mind right now, so as for my problem I will sort it out later"I decide as I plug in my earpiece to listen to music, just for the sole purpose of passing the time, but my moms call interrupts me.

"Are you still at work?" she asks impatiently.

"No Mom, I am inside the car, so in the next fifteen minutes, I should be home" I inform her after doing a rough estimate of how far away I am from the house.

"Fifteen minutes is a lot” she complains.

“you know what?”

“Just tell your cab driver to drive you down to the Asian world,” she instructs

"By Asian world, you mean the Chinese restaurant?” I clarify.

“Exactly” she answers.

“But...I already told the cab driver that my destination is Park Estate" I protest.

"Then tell him that your plans have changed and you will pay him extra for the inconvenience," she tells me at the other end of the phone.

"I will?” I ask her surprised, because she knows how I am with my money, I don't spend anyhow.

"Just pay the extra fee then I will give it back to you once you get here," my mom says, and refrain from telling her what I want to tell her to do so that we don't end up arguing.

"Don't worry ma'am, I will take you to your new destination,” the taxi driver speaks up and I guess he saw my nervous countenance through the rearview mirror because it just felt somehow for me to announce my change of destination to the taxi driver halfway into the trip.

“the Asian world right?" he asks politely.

"Yes sir,” I answer him.

“I am sorry about the route change," I apologize.

"Never mind, that's the way we parents are," he answers waving it.

"Thanks "I smile shyly.

We continue our journey without further discussion and I plug in one ear of my earpiece to continue listening to my music, leaving the other ear dangling just in case the driver wants to speak to me.

After a while, we arrive at the Asian World and I scan around for my parent's car, then my eyes land on a black Toyota Camry parked in the Asian World's parking lot, so I go closer to the car to double-check If it is ours.

I check the car for Griffin corporations car sticker, the construction company where my stepfather works, and For my step-sister, Scarlet's teddy bear.

I lean on the car frame to browse through my call history so that I can get through to my mom.

"Ouch," I yelled in pain as I feel scarlet pinching me.

I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I didn't realize when Scarlet rolled down the glass.

"Is that any way to greet your elder sister?” I scold Scarlet as soon as I opened the door of the car.

"She was just joking with you, so there is no need to get angry over something so trivial," my mom caution as they all stepped down from the car that is tinted to the teeth, and Scarlet starts sticking out her tongue at me in a mocking way.

"There we go again” I roll my eyes because nobody seems to share the same idea with me concerning the fact that behind this little four-year-old doe eyes lies a devil in disguise.

she disrespects me a lot but I can't do anything about it because she is a cute little girl and I shouldn't s***k her because she is just a child.

"There is no way I will allow anything to ruin my appetite this night and that includes this little devil,” I decide to continue on the path of peace, calming my rising anger because this is the first time I will be eating out with my family in an expensive restaurant like this so I will rather enjoy every single bit of it.

"Let's all go inside," my stepfather urges and we all comply.

"Wow," I gap as we enter the restaurant.

my stepfather moves to one of the groups of tables partitioned to give diners a kind of privacy and a sense of their own space and we all follow his lead to our table that happens to be a table for four.

After we all settle into our space, my mom passes the menu to my stepfather for him to place the order which I think is quite logical since he is the one doing all the spending tonight.

My stepfather places the order and we all wait patiently for our food while I use that opportunity to treat my eyes to a feast with the aesthetically pleasing surrounding that is particularly attractive to look at.

The space interior architecture of this Chinese restaurant is no simple feature at all, from the defining restaurant furniture to the cool brown color palette and lighting plan that creates a cozy environment for their customer's satisfaction.

After a while, a waitress returns with an array of mouth-watering dishes in a trolley and lays it carefully on the table.

The lighting of the restaurant is focused on the plate to showcase the food with soft low-level lighting for the diners to bask in and I find that as a wonderful feature of the restaurant.

There are lots of Chinese cuisines on the table, and at this point, I think I am starting to get scared because my stepfather is being overly generous with his money this night.

I must confess that the attention Asians pay to the aesthetic appearance of their food, with the use of diversified colors is irresistible and my taste buds can't wait to savor every single one of these dishes.

I taste a little bit of the Hot and sour soup, which I heard that its a soup that contains ingredients to make it both spicy and sour but it has this really pleasant savory taste.

I start filling my plate with delicious food savoring every single bit of the dish.

“Check this out,” my stepfather says as he passes a flyer to me, halfway into dinner so I briefly glance at the flyer before setting it aside to concentrate on my food.

As if passing me the flyer was not enough, he passes l me a file, and I have this 'what am I supposed to do with this look on my face as I scan the file, till my eyes capture my name, Kiara Anderson, contestant 12 staring at me in bold letters.

I quickly adjust my crystal cat eyeglasses frame to be double sure that my eye defect of being short-sighted is not the one playing tricks on me and making me see things, before quickly returning to the heading of the file to check what this is all about because I don't remember registering for anything.

My eyes almost pop out of their socket as the heading of the file PRINCESS SELECTION stared back at me in bold letters

"What!” I exclaim in shock.

“who went ahead to register me for this?” I ask, shocked by the pitch of my voice rising a bit, and that makes a few heads turn in our direction.

"Can we please finish our dinner in peace?” my mom says after clearing her throat and we all take that as our cue to continue our dinner without saying anything.

I have a lot to say or should I say that I have lots of questions on my mind that I need answers to, but at the same time I can't be washing my family's dirty linen in public and that is the only reason why I am keeping quiet, but at the same time, I can't seem to calm how my blood is boiling right now as a result of how angry I am at the possibility of the two people sitting in front of me pulling a stunt like this all in the name of trying to control how I live my life.

My taste buds seem to have lost their function because I can barely make out the taste of what I am eating, and the delicious dishes I was savoring earlier now taste like I am chewing on sawdust which is highly inconveniencing me.

"All this may be one hell of a mix-up," I try to console myself as I pick up the sushi on the plate with my chopstick and I scoop it into my mouth.

left to the state of my emotions right now, I would have liked to stand up, abandon my food and walk out of the restaurant but it goes against my principles.

no matter how angry I am, I just can't find it within myself to waste such an expensive plate of food because I know exactly how it feels like to transition from having everything to having nothing, so I quickly finish up my dinner because the uncomfortable silence is giving me enough room to think about the possibility of being a part of the princess selection ceremony and the more I think about it, the angrier I get, so I walk out of the restaurant to wait for them outside.

After pacing back and forth for a while, I see my mom and stepfather approaching the car so I walk up to both of them impatiently

"Can somebody explain what all this is all about?” I question them

“Was this the motive behind you asking me out for dinner?” I press for an answer, waving the file in the air in a disgusting way.

"Easy on the volume sweetheart, you are talking to your parents here,” My Mom cautions.

"Easy on the volume?” I scoff in disdain.

“I am here having a mental break down and that is all she can say?” I think within myself as I wait for them to explain.

"I signed you up for the Princess selection because I felt it will be a nice opportunity for you” my stepfather finally speaks up.

“At least, I have the right to do that as your father,” he adds, and I can feel my insides recoil as soon as those words made their way out of his mouth.

"What!” I exclaim

“you are talking about rights with me?”

“Are seriously doing this right now?"I ask him irritated

"Kiara calm down and let's deal with this like civilized people instead of you raising your voice at your father," my mother cautions me again.

“Don’t tell me that you are also a part of planning this,” I asked my mom, refusing to believe it, but as soon as I saw the guilt painted on her face before she quickly masks it off, my jaw drops

"damn!"I exclaim, hitting my forehead with my palm before squeezing out a disgusted "Even you?"

my mom has always been the type that doesn't rely on people for favors at all because of her belief and values that is why instead of going to my grandparent's house to live a comfortable life after my dad's death, she relocated us completely from myrtle circle to pearl coast where we started from the scratch.

I know for a fact that Maddie's mom offered to help many times but my mom refused, saying that we should figure out our problems on our own instead of taking undue advantage of other people and saddling them with unnecessary responsibilities.

what happened to that mom who refused to rely on her husband financially after remarrying, because she relied on her first husband for so many years financially?

what happened to the mom who strived to be a better person?

why does she want me to get involved in a process that will lead to an arranged marriage with the royal family?

Just why?

"It's not like I support it 100%, but at the same time, I am not against it because you are a lady and marriage is inevitable for you, so if you don't get married now, you will still eventually have to get married to the man that we support you to marry so what is wrong with you getting married now?" my mom presses for an answer.

"so what happens to love?” I ask them but they have indifferent looks on their faces.

“come on guys, this is the twenty-first century, and arranged marriages are not even a thing anymore because teenagers like me have a different perspective on what love and marriage are "I Urge them, not minding that we are still outside the Asian world, sorting our family issues, and a lot of people going in and out of the restaurant are sending us weird looks, but I can't care less because all I need right now is immediate answers and I don't want to go back to our house before getting all the answers that I need because no one will listen to me there.

"I raised you with a strong sense of value and cultural standing Kiara and no matter how old you think you are, we are still your parents, and as long as we remain your parent, our rights to make decisions for you, are still very much intact unless you want me to sever all ties with you" my mom declares without batting an eyelid.

"What?”

“you are seriously going to break all ties with me?”I ask her with tears of frustration welling up in my eyes.

"just to prove your point, you will sever all ties with me?” I ask with my face flushed with a deep shade of red.

"well, we can avoid all this drama if you do what you are told to do,” my Mom says and I could feel my muscles tense up as soon as she hit me with those words so I clench my fist and look down, trying to prevent those tears from falling but my tears betray me.

I know my mom is a disciplinarian and she is strict with her parenting, but I would have never imagined that she will go to such lengths to prove her point, so what does that make me to my mom?

it means she doesn't love and value me as much as I love her because if she did, she won't propose severing her ties with me over a princess selection that I may not even get selected for

"fine, you guys have made your decision..... it is left to me to make mine," I say to them wiping the tears from my face with the back of my palm before walking away from them