"Mita, we have a guest room here in the palace ready for you, you will have to stay here tonight. You have to start getting ready very early in the morning."
"Ayahnda, I'll take Mita to get her things from the house and bring her back here later."
"Very well."
He helped her bring down her shoulder bag, and bid her goodbye at the bottom of the stairway, before walking back to his car to drive home. Ali felt something missing, they had just lived together for less than a week, but he had gotten used to the idea of having Paramita waiting for him to get home. Now he has to go home to an empty room.
He was about to read a book, when there was a knock on the door.
"Raden, there is a guest looking for you downstairs," Maya said while knocking on the door.
"Who is it?" He asked, not really in the mood to see anybody.
"Raden. It's Miss Dewi......" She whispered.
"Go tell my mother about the visitor, and tell her that I asked her to accompany me to talk to Dewi."
"Yes sir."
Ali wondered whether it's a coincidence that she came here when Paramita was spending the night at the palace, or if she knew beforehand.
The door opened and Raden Nabilla came in, "What does she want?" She whispered.
"I don't know, mother. But can you please keep me company while I talk to her."
"Of course, we wouldn't want you to get into trouble with your wife."
He helped her walk down the stairway and into the living room where Dewi was waiting, she looked up at Ali, and was about to run into his arms like she used to, but seeing Raden Nabilla with him, made her realize that things had changed between them.
"Ananda Dewi, what a pleasant surprise, I haven't seen you in quite a while, how have you been doing?"
"Raden Nabilla, good evening. I'm getting by, how about you?"
"I've been very busy lately, preparing for the big event."
"I see. Abang, can we speak, please." She said directly not wanting to waste her time.
"Let me arrange for some refreshments," Raden Nabilla said while standing up and walking to the door.
"Sure, Dewi. What's on your mind?"
"Abang, it's been hard on me, to lose you this way. We didn't get a chance to speak properly at the event."
"I tried to communicate with you, but you were busy, then things just got out of hand, so we never got a chance to talk about it."
"Don't you love me anymore?" she asked him straightforwardly.
"Dewi, don't do this to yourself. It's time for you to move on. I'm already married, I love my wife. She's the only person that I want to spend the rest of my life with."
"How can you forget me so easily?"
"What can I say? I'm sorry. I've never met anybody like her before, I just couldn't help myself."
"Just like that? You're not going to tell me anything else?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know, maybe say that you were weak, you fell into temptation or you made a mistake, or something else to justify what you did to me."
"I don't want to justify anything. It was an order of The Sultan that I became engaged to her, and then I fell madly in love with her for many things, even I can't explain, it just happened. I realized I hurt you badly. I'm sorry."
"I don't know you anymore, how can you say it so coldly and not show any signs of remorse."
"Dewi, I regret hurting you, I really do. And again, I can never apologize enough for it. But I don't regret finding her and having her in my life. It was the best thing that ever happened to me."
Raden Nabilla came back in followed by Maya who was carrying a tray of snacks and drinks.
"Dewi, my dear. Please don't cry anymore." She said, "It's time to forget and move on. Why hang on to someone who is already married to another."
"But she will never love Abang as much as I do, she'll never love you like me."
Ali pondered for a while, "Dewi, you might be right. I know that she loves me at some level, and maybe not as much as you, she doubts my feelings for her, and she's holding back. But she's mine now, so I will make her fall in love with me completely. And if I don't succeed, I don't really care. I have enough love for the both us."
This made Dewi cry harder.
"Ali, how can you be so insensitive." Raden Nabilla reproached. "Dewi, here. Drink this my dear. Calm down, everything is going to be alright. You still have your career, your fame, your family. You'll forget about this and be able to move on."
"Dewi, speaking about your career. The other night I saw you with my uncle Jonathan." Ali said digging for information.
"With my brother?" Raden Nabilla asked.
"Mountain Records approached me, they offered a better contract deal for me and they offered to pay my indemnification for breaking my contract with the previous company. So now I'm with them."
"Congratulations my dear," Raden Nabilla said. "See your career is improving."
"Dewi, why would a record company with target market for rock music and boy bands, contract you who's from a different genre altogether?"
"Ali, if you can't say something nice and positive, just be quiet." Whispered Raden Nabilla.
"What about Madam Soraya? She was with the two of you." He asked again.
"Joni introduced us, he wanted Madam Soraya to be my agent. But she turned down the offer, today. Her daughter probably told to do that to make it difficult on me."
"My wife is not like that." Ali responded. "If she had a grudge against you, she's more likely to come up and punch you right away."
"Ali...!" Raden Nabilla pinched his side.
"Dewi why did you come today of all days?" He asked.
"Joni gave me permission to leave the studio, he understands my feelings. Today is the last day before the wedding reception."
He took a deep breath. "Even though tomorrow is the reception, but Mita and I have been married for a week now. Dewi, look at this as an opportunity to advance your career, you just signed a new contract, that's a good new opportunity for you. I remember when we were together, you felt torn between spending time with me and your work schedule. Now you can focus on one thing. You and me, we're just not meant to be."
"If you were in my shoes, and someone stole away the person you love, can you just forget about it? She doesn't love you, one day you'll realize that and come back looking for me." She said beginning to be hysterical.
"I'll never leave her."
"I hope she'll leave you, just like what you did to me. I hope you'll feel the pain that I have to go through."
"If she ever leaves me, then I'll follow her to the end of the world until she comes back to me, even if I have to spend the rest of my life waiting."
"What if she finds someone else and forgets you."
"That's my problem, not yours. Look, there is no sense in you waiting for me. Go home, you're wasting your time here. Maya will show you out. Mother, I'm going back to my room now. Good night." He stood up and left without turning around.
"Dewi, I think you should go home now, do you want me to call you a taxi?" Raden Nabilla asked.
"It won't be necessary, Joni had lent me his car and driver, and he's waiting for me outside." She said in between sobs.
"Okay, wipe your tears and calm down, it would be embarrassing if someone saw you like this."
"Raden Nabilla, can you please talk to Abang and make him come to his sense."
"But my dear, he's right. He's already married to someone else. You shouldn't try to come between them. What you and he had in the past has already gone. Dating someone is not the same as marriage. You should move on with your life. You are a very pretty and successful young woman, there will be someone out there who will love you and appreciate you more than..., more than my son."
* * *
Raden Nabilla knocked on Ali's door. He opened it and she came in. "You could have treated her a little better and acted more sympathetically. You acted like a brute and chauvinistic man."
&nb
sp; "If I showed her signs of sympathy she'll just act out and become more hysterical, I know her." He replied.
"Luckily my brother sent his driver to accompany her, I can't imagine if she had to take a taxi in that condition."
"He did?"
"Yes."
"Huh! I wonder...." Ali said to himself.
"Is it true what you said to Dewi? About your feelings for Ananda Puteri, is it true? Or did you just say that the discourage her?"
"It's true, it's all true."
"You've changed." She said while looking at him, "I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, you're not the person you used to be. Please think about that. Your brother...."
"My brother is chasing after my wife. I have some patience with him, but it's wearing off. I want him to stop trying to meet her behind my back or persuade her to leave me."
"Meet her behind your back? I don't know what you're talking about."
"Today he was at the restaurant with Mita and Madam Soraya. Even Madam Soraya told him off when she realized his intentions. I mean it, if he keeps trying to come between me and my wife, I won't forgive him."
* * *
He sat in the darkening room. His mother's tears made him feel bad, but he was determined not to be moved by her sadness. She was innocent in all this, but the people around her were intentionally trying to harm his wife. He closed his eyes wishing that she was here by his side to share his restlessness. They had only been apart for a few hours, and he is already feeling empty inside.
There was a subtle knock at the door, Raden Hamah didn't wait for him to answer to come inside. He closed the door behind him and turned on the light.
"How are you feeling?" Raden Hamza said while putting his hand on his son's shoulder.
Ali shook his head in despair.
"Your mother told me about Dewi's visit....."
"For some strange reason," Ali cut his father's words, "At this moment, I can't find it in me to care about Dewi. I'm too worried about Mita. About everything that had happened to her, about our relationship, about our future. Everything."
"Talk to me, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's weighing on your mind."
"When I first heard that I was supposed to marry Mita, I was shaken because I had other plans. But as an obedient son, and subject, I complied with what you as my father and The Sultan as my sovereign ordered me to do. I put all my strength to leave Dewi behind and move on to accept my future wife, to accept our marriage, and be a good future husband." Ali swallowed his spit, "But then I got to know her, and discovered that we had many things in common, she makes me feel comfortable, with her I don't have to pretend to be what I'm not, she laughs at my jokes, and we can talk about many things. She looks strong but she's emotionally vulnerable and lonely, I don't know why I'm compelled to protect her and fill her void. But more importantly for some strange reason, she makes me very happy and complete like I've never been before."
"So what's the problem?" Raden Hamza's brow joint together in the bridge of his nose.
"I know she wants to be with me, she says that she loves me too. But she's like a dove, one wrong movement and she'll fly away from me. Why doesn't she believe my feelings for her?" He looked at his father.
"Ali, yours is a matter of time and patience. Look at it this way, if she were a dove, she was handed to you right into your hands. Now it's up to you to make her trust you enough to stay. If you love her like you claim you do, then win her heart, even if the two of you are already married, you have to court her, just like any man courts the woman he's in love with." Raden Hamza smiled.
* * *
After his father left, he picked up the phone to call her. It rang four or five times before he heard her warm familiar voice on the other side of the line, "Hello, do you miss me already?" She opened the conversation.
"I feel like I'm going to die from anxiety." He answered.
"Awww, I miss you too, luckily it's just one night." She replied cheekily.
"I know, but I wanted to let you know something before you hear it from somebody else and misunderstand me."
"What is it?"
"Dewi came to the house just now."
"Is that so? What did she want?"
"She wanted an explanation, and why I could easily forget her." He explained.
"Well, those are not unreasonable reasons. What did you tell her?"
"I told her that I am sorry for what happened, but we're married now, and I'm head over heels in love with you, and that I want to be with you forever."
"Goodness, she must have felt bad hearing that."
"Well, what else could I do? It's better to be up front than leading somebody on."
"You're right about, not leading her on. I feel bad for her. In this case, I am the other woman, the boyfriend thief."
"Don't look at it that way, we are together because of fate, you didn't know me until we were actually engaged to be married." He said, "But I did get some more information on her connection with Jonathan Tan, apparently he approached her and offered a very juicy contract for her. Which I think is strange, because he doesn't usually produce the kind of songs that Dewi sings. He also wanted your mother to be Dewi's agent. Your mother refused though."
"Hmmm, so this Jonathan Tan seems to be in the center of everything." Paramita wondered.
"It seems that way, but who else from his family is involved? And what are their motives?"
"And how does this fit in with Pangeran Bashir my uncle?"
"I'll let you go now, I have to make my evening prayers. It's getting late."
"Okay, my sisters are arriving soon, I'm going to be introduced to them."
"Have fun then," Ali said, "I love you..."
Paramita didn't see that coming, she was rendered silent for a while, "Thank you." She replied.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Paramita hung up the call and held the phone to her chest while smiling. Realizing that she was acting like a love-struck adolescent girl, she blushed and quickly threw the phone on the bed. She went to the mirror to fix her makeup.
"Ananda Puteri, your sisters are here," Puteri Siti Hamidah said while opening the door. "Bunda Siti, I'm coming," Paramita said with excitement.
Puteri Siti Hamidah is her father's second wife, a princess from a small Sultanate that exist only for its cultural and historical heritage, but without any political power at all. She is in her early forties, not so tall and had gained a little weight through the years. Paramita liked her a lot, because of her carefree and light-hearted nature. Not uptight and bitter like the queen.
They went out of the bedroom linking arms, the three princesses had arrived a little bit earlier, they had been to their respective rooms and are now gathered together in the inner living room. They were happily chatting with each other. Paramita felt a pang of jealousy, although she had sisters, she never knew them and spent all of her life as the only child.
"Look who's here...."Puteri Siti Hamidah said with a cheerful voice.,"This is your youngest sister Mita..."
The three of them stood up, Paramita assessed that her sisters had significant age difference from her, even her sister who is directly above her must be in her early thirties.
"Mita, this is your older sister who is directly above you, Kak Nurbaiti. Kak Nurbaiti is the daughter of Permaisuri, and these are my daughters, just like you. This is Kak Mini and Kak Tini."
"Mita, you are as beautiful as Bunda Siti described, isn't she?" Puteri Nurbaiti said to her sisters, "I hope you'll be able to turn Raden Ali's head from that famous singer he's been dating. Otherwise, he may take a lover within a few months after marrying you" The tone of her voice made Paramita feel uneasy.
"Yes she is beautiful, and of course she will be able to win her future husband's affection," Puteri Karmini replied with a smile.
"Adik, why didn't you come to live with us sooner, now all three of us, no, all four of us a married, and we won't have enough time to get to know you better," Puteri Hart
ini added.
"Sisters, thank you for receiving me so well as your little sister, I'm very happy," Paramita said.
"Ah, look at all my lovely daughters gathering in one place," The Sultan exclaimed as he entered the room with the Queen at his side.
"Salam Ayahnda." They all said then one by one they kissed his hand and the Queen's.
"Ayahnda, where is Kakanda Abdurrahman, why isn't he joining us tonight?" Puteri Nurbaiti asked.
Paramita observed silently as she saw the Sultan glanced at the Queen, upon seeing her husband's eyes, the Queen looked down and bit her lips. Paramita thought that this was strange.
"The plane got delayed because of bad weather, he'll probably land tomorrow morning."
"I feel bad for him," Paramita said, "He must be tired of tomorrow."
"Not too tired, not like us, he got to use the private jet," Puteri Karmini said to her.
Through the corner of her eyes, Paramita could see that the Queen was about to say something, but the Sultan gestured her not to.
"So there is a family secret that they're keeping." Paramita thought to herself.
"Ananda Paramita," The Queen dismissed her, "I think you should go back to your room and rest, you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow."
"The old bag wants to get rid of me right away." Paramita thought, then said, "I, Ibunda Permaisuri. Ayahnda, Ibunda Siti, and sisters, please excuse me."
She turned to a left them, she could briefly see Puteri Siti Hamidah sneering towards the Queen's direction.
* * *
In her room, Paramita couldn't help but wonder what secrets are the Sultan and Queen keeping that they can't even say it to their family. But if she had to make a wild guess it had something to do with the crown prince.
She looked at her watch, the night was still young. She entered the bathroom and washed herself getting ready for the night prayers. Praying for patience in facing the treatment she received from the Queen, for the attempts to her life, and for the trials that will come in the future.
Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 Page 23