Everlastingly Loving You - Chapter 53

Sophia had fainted, yet just as her head hit the soil, Nicholas’ eyes widened; he instinctively caught her.

So she wasn’t alright after all.

Her chest heaved up and down.

Nicholas said as he gently lifted her. The palace lobby wasn’t too far a sprint away.

Even whilst she was unconscious, it was apparent she was in a multitude of pain.

He whispered incomprehensibly, ‘Stay with me, Windsor. Please.’

Time quickened when he’d sprinted to the lobby with Sophia in his muscular arms. It was easier since he knew the palace by the back of his hand, but of course, it was a given since he had grown up there.

He called for a valet to drive him to the nearest hospital. There was the palace infirmary, but it wouldn’t suffice.

“Bring us to the hospital, as quickly as possible,” Nicholas ordered the royal valet – who doubled as a bodyguard, in case anything were to happen.

He nodded, driving the fastest he could, per Nicholas’ request.

He drove past the speed limit, and before Nicholas knew it, he was at the hospital, seeing to it that Sophia was in the best hospital room the hospital had to offer.

Obviously, he wasn’t allowed in the emergency room considering the fact that he wasn’t family.

He had his valet find a way to contact Louis and Julia; Sophia’s closest family, if one excluded Emilia and the rest of her dysfunctional family.

It didn’t feel too long before Louis and Julia came barging in the hospital, demanding to see his sister.

Clarisse hadn’t been there with him; she was back at Beldovia, on edge over the whole ordeal, especially since she wasn’t allowed to be by her friend’s side, with the whole Samar and Sanguis, she didn’t want to start a war, no matter how much she wanted to visit Sophia in her current state.

“Where is she?!” Louis bellowed.

The medical staff cowered. Louis was not one to be messed with.

Had it not been evident enough, he’d been incredibly worried, as a brother would be when his sister had been shot. He’d already lost most his family, he didn’t want to lose his little sister next.

She was all he had left as family.

Whilst he rushed to his sister’s side, Julia was grilling Nicholas for details. She had the right to know what had happened to her granddaughter, and why had it happened.

Even though Nicholas knew Julia didn’t blame him for what happened, he sure felt horrible, as though it was all his fault. He kept repeating to himself how this shouldn’t have happened, replaying possible scenarios in his head had the evening gone less eventful.

“It’s not your fault,” Julia reassured Nicholas, giving him a pat on the back.

Julia wasn’t one to get emotional easily. She’d always been cool and calm no matter what situation she faced. Her rationalism made her an amazing queen, as well as a grandmother. A mother though, not considerably.

“My granddaughter’s tough, she’ll pull through,” Julia told him; she was apparently worried for her granddaughter, but she knew Sophia all too well. She wouldn’t let a bullet get the best of her.

__

Sophia woke up from some kind of trance. Her eyes darted around, she quickly realized she was having some sort of deja vu. She’d been walking towards Bartholomew.

She stood there, confused.

‘What was happening?’ She wondered. Why was she back there in the first place?

Last she’d remembered, she had fainted in the palace gardens, and now, she was right back here, where it’d all started.

She then noticed this was the perfect chance to resume what she started. She had a second chance to kill him. To kill Bartholomew and exact sweet, sweet revenge.

With a newfound passion, she glided closer and closer to him. He took a couple of steps back.

“Oof!”

He fell to the ground, trying to somewhat crawl away as she neared him.

“You can’t escape your demise this time, Barry,” Sophia said in a heinous manner.

She exuded a palpable aura of darkness.

‘Barry’, or Bartholomew, whatever one decided to call him, seemed taken aback. He wouldn’t admit his fear had crippled him right then and there.

He wondered, ‘Whatever could she have meant by ‘this time’?’

He shook it off. He was more concerned about the lady with a knife that was mere minutes away from killing him.

He reasoned, raising his hands up in a sort of surrender, “Why don’t we talk about this?”

Sophia scoffed. She’d known her fate, there was no talking about anything. He didn’t deserve the time of day. Her mind had been made up. He had shot her, that was it.

“There’s nothing to talk about, you fool,” she retorted.

“Did you forget you shot me?” She asked glaringly.

And at that very moment, the spot he’d shot her began to ache.

“I could’ve died,” Sophia whispered.

“My entire life would’ve been over.”

She muttered, “The kingdom would’ve been left to Emilia, for goodness sake!”

Emilia could have driven the kingdom to ruin… heck, it was fortunate she hadn’t done so already, thanks to Julia’s opposition.

“And for what, merely because I rejected you in front of a crowd, what is this, elementary school?” Sophia scoffed.

“We’re meant to be someone people can look up to, something you clearly don’t fathom, which isn’t a surprise,” Sophia said, unimpressed.

His behaviour was migraine-inducing, truly.

“For your foolishness, it’s your kingdom that pays the price,” Sophia said.

“Your brother, what was his name again?”

“No matter, you despise him, yes?” Sophia asked.

Bartholomew’s face darkened.

“No,” he refused, attempting to crawl away from her.

Sophia had her knife against his neck in seconds.

“Just one severed artery and…”

She made a gesture.

She smiled as she raised her knife.

“Or perhaps stabbing you would be more convenient,” Sophia said slyly, smiling in delight.

Barry’s eyes widened from terror and fright. He couldn’t form coherent words.

Sophia’s smile widened, as she raised her knife, gripping it tighter and tighter.

“Stop!”