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Chapter 0054
David’s statements during his press conference were only the beginning. He really wasn’t prepared to accept that our relationship was over. I couldn’t believe that he truly thought he would ever be able to win me back after that, but he seemed determined.
The same night as the press conference, a delivery of roses was made to the house. When I learned that they were from David, I refused to accept them, and the delivery man had to leave with the flowers.
More flowers came, along with other gifts. I refused them all and demanded that they be sent back to the person who ordered them.
I wasn’t sure if they really ended up going to David or if he was just informed that the delivery had been refused, but either way, I felt it would only be a matter of time until he got the point.
Apparently, that was foolish of me because after a week of refusing his gifts, letters started to arrive.
Without opening any of them, I used a red pen to write “Return to Sender” across the front of each envelope, then put them back in the mailbox.
David would have to get the point eventually and stop trying to contact me–or at least that’s what I wanted to believe.
I knew that he couldn’t afford to keep this up for long. Eventually, he would have to accept the fact that he was never going to win me back and move on with his life.
When he did, then I would be able to move on with mine and begin fulfilling my part of the deal with Alexander.
We both agreed that as long as things with David were still so scandalous and such a topic of public discussion, it would be a bad idea for the two of us to begin seeing one another or to announce our relationship.
Due to Alexander’s past with women, we both wanted to make it clear that our relationship was different.
After all, it wouldn’t be long before we were announcing an engagement, and we needed people to see that it was legitimate and not something that was being rushed into.
The campaign for alpha king had not truly begun, so we had plenty of time to play the long game.
But none of that could commence until David gave up his foolish attempts to win me back.
Third Person POV
Another letter, with Ella’s red handwriting scrawled across the front, was sitting on the dining room table when David walked in. White–hot anger flooded through him as he stared at the envelope.
David knew that something must have happened to Ella; there was no other explanation for her behavior. He had known her his whole life and never once had she refused an apology from him or anyone else.
It went against her nature. She was never so forward, never so bold or confident, and the sudden emergence of these traits from her had ruined everything
He had it all so carefully planned out, but the moment he proposed, it all started to fall apart. He should have known when Ella hit him with those flowers at the proposal that something had gone terribly wrong.
The two of them had talked about marriage for a long time; she knew that eventually he would propose to her, so why should she have been so frightened that she lashed out like that?
Did she have a secret? Had she begun to develop feelings for someone else? With her wolf dormant, Ella was not capable of feeling the mate pull. And she was a goody–two–shoes who always played by the rules; she would never
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Chap 0054) !
cheat.
So he shouldn’t have had anything to worry about. But if another man wasn’t to blame for Ella’s sudden change in behavior, then what was?
She would have forgiven him in the past, even for something like this. All he would have had to do was apologize with tears in his eyes and offer her a token of affection, and she would have crumbled.
But now she was taking his apologies and throwing them back in his face as if they meant nothing to her, as if David meant nothing to her.
But that just couldn’t be true. He wouldn’t accept it.
Maybe he was just too hasty and needed to give her more time to cool off. After all, she had seemed truly upset.
The way she looked at him on the wedding night when she and her friends walked in on him and Amanda… He had never seen such a look of hatred from Ella before. He didn’t know she was capable of it.
Things were so messed up. David had to find a way to fix it. He couldn’t lose to Ella of all people. He was even willing to sacrifice Amanda to make things right, but that didn’t seem to move Ella at all.
David regretted putting the blame on Amanda, but he had had no other choice in the moment. He had to convince Ella to give him another chance.
If she had been alone when she walked in on them, he was sure that he could have done it, but there had been so many other people there. Everyone shouting and causing a scene had gotten Ella more worked up than she already
was.
If it hadn’t been for that blonde girl, the Alpha King’s Daughter, David was sure that Ella would have listened to him.
Thinking about the way Elizabeth had comforted and encouraged Ella when she rejected him filled David with deep rage. He knew there was nothing he could do to get back at her considering her status, but he wished that there were. It was infuriating to him that that girl thought she could stick her nose into other people’s business the way she had.
as sure that s
that she
It wasn’t as though she and Ella were friends; Ella had never mentioned her before, and David was would have if they were actually close. So why did she seem so invested in protecting, Ella?
Her presence had made David’s father so much angrier with him. It wasn’t bad enough that he had messed up, he had to do it in front of the King’s Daughter.
but
There was no way they could talk their way out of this; they were forced to take responsibility for what had happened. Standing up at that press conference and speaking about what had happened was nearly too much for David; his pride couldn’t take the blow.
As he was reading the prepared statement that his mother had written for him, he realized that it wasn’t necessarily over yet. There was still a chance that he could draw Ella back to him. After all, she loved him; he had no doubt about that.
She had always been so eager to please him, so dependent on his approval. There was no way that could have vanished overnight.
Nothing was making sense to him. He picked the letter up off the table and carried it upstairs with him. In his room, he used a small knife to cut the envelope open, took the letter out, and put it in a fresh envelope, which he sealed and addressed to Ella.
He stopped rewriting the letters after the second one was returned; it seemed like a waste of time. And he had no time left to waste.
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Chapter 0054
David had to win Ella back. He had to salvage his reputation and his power. Failure was not an option.
