The Cursed King

The last couple of days almost seemed like a dream to Elise. There wasn't much work that needed to be done at the office so Alex and she spent most of it chatting and talking about the wedding and the preparations needed to be done.

Alex was unbelievably prepared and organized when it came to her suggestions.

She showed off a small presentation with already possible locations listed off, depending on what Elise wanted. Alex was very thorough with her boss' requests.

"If you'll be having your wedding at a beach, I don't recommend that you get one that's incredibly light-weight as the wind can blow it… so the good fabric for it is a slinky kind of silk," Alex said. 

"I see…"

Alex smiled and clicked the next presentation. "You don't have to worry about it getting wet or have sand in it either, but maybe you don't want one at the beach. Let's move on to the garden wedding theme."

Elise was so excited when she saw the mood boards prepared by Alex. She only accepted Loriel's proposal because she was in love with the man and she could visualize how happy their lives together would be.

However, she didn't expect herself to be so immersed in so many wedding frills after she saw the dresses, outdoor wedding setting, the decorations, and basically everything that a woman normally liked as a part of their dream wedding.

She didn't grow up watching romance movies or reading romance books. And she didn't have any dream wedding in mind. Heck, she couldn't even dream about her childhood and her life before she became Madeline York.

So, seeing the beautiful and dreamy wedding mood boards presented by Alex made Elise's heart flutter.

Now, she was looking forward to the wedding itself. She still didn't want the grand and over-the-top wedding scene, but she started thinking about the sweet decoration, the intimate guest lists, and how beautiful she would look in her wedding dress.

"These are all so nice," Elise gushed. She turned to Alex and added, "You are so talented. Maybe you should open your own wedding planner business."

Alex had sooo many collections of ideas that Elise found it hard to choose. The beautiful assistant to the Sanderman Group CEO chuckled at the compliment.

"I know a lot of things, usually. It comes down to the line of work as Marc's assistant," Alex explained.

"That includes preparing for weddings?" Elise raised a brow.

Alex nodded with a tired smile. "If it comes down to it, I can prepare and pick up the necessary skillset when I can."

"That's amazing," Elise praised Alex. She kept switching her attention from boards to boards. Too many great choices for her dream simple wedding.

Elise didn't know that Alex had already prepared them beforehand in just a couple of hours because of Marc so she was already impressed. If she knew that though, she would have gotten a tad worried about Alex always getting so much work because of her.

"Do any of these designs catch your attention?" Alex prompted her again as they went over the themes.

"Hmmm… I think I like that dress and think it would fit one at the cathedral venue you chose. It's small and very intimate." 

Elise also thought that it reminded her a little bit of a castle with its old architectural designs. Somehow, that made it feel nostalgic for some reason.

"Alright, we're settled with that one then so I'll compile all of this for later. Now for our next concern." Alex then pulled up another slide and then showed off several cake designs. "As for the wedding cake though, what do you have in mind? How many layers?"

"Now this is the fun part," Elise smiled. "Actually, I took up a baking course recently."

"Ah…" Alex said. "I think you mentioned that before. How was it?"

"Yes, I have. It was great! You tasted the cupcakes I brought you before, right?"

"Ah, I thought you bought them at some cafe."

"Well, the batch of those cupcakes was prepared by my teacher." Elise smiled. "Don't you think the cupcakes were cute? White frosting and maybe some sequin candy?"

"So a design like that then? I think I have something like that."

"I can maybe ask Chef Lucy to prepare the wedding cake," Elise was deep in thought. She was thinking about whether she should invite Lucius to her wedding. 

They were not that close, but she didn't have many friends either. And it would be awkward to ask Lucius to make a cake for her wedding and he was not invited.

Hmm… she had to ask Loriel what he thought about this. This was not just Elise's wedding. She wanted to know if Loriel was against anyone on her invitation list and if Loriel himself had anyone in particular that he wanted to invite. So far, Elise only knew Marc from Loriel's side.

Did Loriel have other friends or acquaintances? Or maybe distant relatives? Estranged family members?

Since they would be married and become family soon, Elise wanted to know everything about Loriel, including his friends and family, if he had any.

He seemed like a loner,  though. So, Elise would understand if he was truly alone. But, there was no harm in asking. Right?

*** 

"Family?" Loriel furrowed his brows when he heard Elise's question. He looked at her deeply and tried to find the right words to answer her question without lying too much.

He already felt guilty for hiding the truth from her and lied to her about so many things. Those were all white lies, but he still felt bad about it.

Unlike the old Loriel who could lie so easily without batting an eye, the current Loriel actually started feeling guilty.

Elise was too pure, sweet, and kind, that being around her made Loriel wanted to be a good person. A liar was not a good person, no matter what was the excuse to justify the lies.

However, dejectedly, he thought it was not the time yet to let the cat out of the bag. What if Elise felt betrayed and left him?

He needed more time to make up for everything and let her see how much he had changed.

'What can I say? You are my family, Wifey. I  don't have anyone else in this world,  but you.' Loriel bit his lip and held his breath.

"Yes, your family," said Elise with a smile. She touched Loriel's cheek lovingly. "I know you once said that you don't have anyone in this world because your family is all gone. But I thought maybe you were talking about your immediate family and you actually still have distant relatives or… maybe estranged family members that you just don't want to talk about."

'Well… Marc IS my distant relative. We are 75-generations apart. It can't be more distant than that.' Loriel wanted to laugh at his own thought but he held back.

The former king shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. I don't have estranged family members either. There is only me, alone."

He smartly avoided lying about not having any distant family members.

"Oh... so, there is really no one?" Elise asked softly.

Loriel shook his head and looked down dejectedly. It made Elise's heart ached. She finally confirmed that this man was really alone. And she could tell that he was lonely.

"I am sorry to hear that," she whispered. "But know this, Loriel... You are no longer alone. Now, you have me."

She wrapped her hands around his neck and planted a kiss on his lips. Loriel felt so touched by her initiative that his eyes became teary. He immediately batted his eyes to get rid of the tears.

He shouldn't be seen crying by his wife. She would think he was not manly or… she might pity him.

Yes, Loriel was alone throughout these fifteen centuries, and he was very lonely, However, he didn't want her to know how miserable and sad he was. She might feel guilty for leaving him and…

Ah… he really didn't want to remember it.

What's in the past, let it stay in the past. He was given a second chance and he wanted to start afresh with his wife. Actually, secretly, Loriel was thinking about leaving everything behind and just start over his life with Elise.

If Elise never regained her memory, why should he told her about what happened in the past and made her sad?

Didn't people say 'Ignorance is bliss'?

Elise was living a happy life now, and she was also healthy. If Loriel could keep her in this bubble forever and made her happy, it should be okay. 

Right?

If she someday remembered, then they could have a sit down together and talked about it.

"I love you. I  love you so much, Wifey," Loriel whispered dotingly and kissed Elise passionately. "I will do anything for you and make you happy."

.

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From the author:

Thank you so, so much for your support to this book. I am sorry, I couldn't publish chapters in September because I was focusing on Loriel's story in "The Cursed Prince". I will resume new chapters on October 1.

I will give mass release on October 1 to compensate for the lack of chapters in September.. I hope you are okay with that. xx