To @DrdeyaKhan, for the lavender scene... especially the part where the flowers are on Thea's palm. I didn't make a promise, dear doctor, but I did try my best on this, lol... Hope you like how it is portrayed in this chapter.
Enjoy!!!
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~~~ CHAPTER 49 - BEAUTY ~~~

We were inseparable after dinner. I knew mom wanted to talk to me but she preferred to give the time to Nigel and me first. So after tucking her to bed, Nigel and I went back to my room.

"Hey, you can't sleep here tonight," I said when we arrived there, pushing him to go out.

"I've slept here with you for two nights. Why not make it third in a row?" he pleaded as he hugged me. Both of us were standing near the doorway.

"I'm no longer sick. Besides, what would everybody think in the palacio if they'd know?"

"They wouldn't mind," he said, tucking behind my ear some strands of my hair which covered my face. "Besides, you're mine... and yeah... they wouldn't mind... and, I know, they've been praying for this... for you and me... This is how they love us, Althea." His voice was getting serious this time.

"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry," I finally uttered what I had been meaning to tell him since daytime. I wrapped my arms around his waistline

"Why are you saying that?" he asked, very surprised.

"For being so weak... for leaving you and mom... for being easily duped..." I said slowly, looking up to him.

Nigel kissed my forehead. "No, who am I to blame you for doubting me? I've had my own share of mistakes, too, princess. For years, I had made you feel that I took you for granted. If only I had been true to myself, then this wouldn't have happened to us. I might have stood by you and you might have stood by me during those times when fate tried to test the both of us."

"No, I'm really, really sorry..." I still insisted, placing the side of my head on his right chest.

"No, please... I don't want you crying anymore, okay? I hate it every time I see you cry. What's important is I'm here and you're here... Promise me that you'll never leave me again."

"Not anymore," I whispered and we hugged even more tightly.

"So what happened between you and Javier Suarez? Did you have a sort of a break-up?" he asked moments later.

Oh, yeah! Javier!

"Break-up?" I exclaimed, pulling my face from his chest. "There was nothing for us to break off because he was not my boyfriend."

"Really? That's interesting to know... So why did you have to run through the rain while he was following you? I really thought you had a lover's fight with him. It tore my heart apart seeing you with him in the rain... You looked like a desperate girlfriend, confronting him with something..."

I widened my eyes. Good Lord! "So you were watching us?"

Nigel held and raised my chin up with a forefinger. "I was there parking and waiting for you to come out..."

"Okay... I think... we need to sit down." I said when I realized that this called for another more time for a talk.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"That was it," I said, after telling him what I discovered about the Suarezes that night.

Though I told him he couldn't stay with me anymore in my room, we still couldn't help ourselves. We still went back to my bed. He was sitting there with his back on the headboard while I was placing the right side of my head on his lap and lying with my right side on the bed.

"It was awful, Nigel Joaquin. But I don't have even the slightest regret that I attended..."

"Really? And why? You liked being with Javier?"

I pinched his hard abdomen. "Brute."

He jerked. "Okay, care to explain?"

"Because I got to know the real Javier and all the rest of the Suarezes."

I looked up at him and he smiled.

"I don't think the governor would make it to the senate," he shared afterwards.

"I absolutely believe that, too."

"Most of the people in the province nowadays know that the provincial social welfare department didn't have much programs for the needy as what they've been claiming. There's really no need for us to be donating on them."

"Yeah... and I feel sorry for the poor because they've been screwed," I said, feeling really bad.

"When I learned about the scam, I personally went to the governor and expressed my discontinuance of my support. They really took it badly. Even the governor's wife, she stopped being friends with mom."

Oh, that was sad... Breaking off friendship just for some selfish motives. Well, I didn't want mom to be befriending that Mrs. Suarez as well. Mom didn't deserve such kind of friend.

"I've heard of a lot of things about the Suarezes being corrupt public officials but I didn't believe it at first," Nigel stated. "That's why three years ago when mom asked me to donate on the department, I just consented right away. Besides, she told me that my donation would also benefit your subjects in La Carlota. She said you love the children in the village."

"Really? Because of me? But you were still so in denial at that time about your feelings for me."

"Yeah... but I missed you at that time. It was semestral break, remember? And you were not with me in the capital. That's why when mom said there was going to be a charity ball, I immediately agreed. I wanted to go to the ball with you."

"Huh?" I asked, looking up at him as I changed position, placing the back of my head on his lap. "Did you actually want to go to the ball with me?"

He nodded lazily, eyeing me sexily. "Yup."

"But you were so rude at that time. You didn't even help me get in the car," I complained.

He brushed my cheek. "Well, how shall I say it... I was so enthralled by your beauty. The moment I looked at you coming down the stairs, I thought it was the death of me. You looked so beautiful that I got so lovestruck and I was still trying to deny the feeling. I was afraid that if I'd ever hold your hand right there in the living room, I wouldn't be able to help myself and I'd kiss you in front of mom... so I just walked ahead to the car. Yeah... It was so dumb of me... been that proud..."

A rattled gush of sensation crept in my tummy.

"You should have kissed me right there!"

"What if I kiss you right now instead?" he said, bending down his face to me.

"Brute," I said, kidding him.

He kissed me on the lips anyway. Well, it immediately turned everything so magical... just like that.

"You're always beautiful, princess... but that night, I just got so overwhelmed by your beauty. It was my first time to see you in a gown. I thought I saw a real goddess climbing down the stairs," he said, after the kiss, continuing the conversation.

"Yet you still treated me so badly that night," I complained.

"Well, I didn't want other guys looking at you... especially that Javier... That was my first time to see him. I didn't know he was your schoolmate in highschool... and I got so bothered at the two of you exchanging glances that night. I wanted to punch him, you know that?"

Oh, indeed that was a painful night for me but, tonight, I just wanted to smile thinking about it.

"But you enjoyed the company of the singer. Remember the famous Adelaida? You even danced with her... You were such a playboy, Nigel Joaquin!"

"Well," he said, clearing his throat. "Which one do you think you'd prefer? Me distracted by some singer or me causing chaos in the ball by punching some politician's son?"

I scowled at him. "Why couldn't you just restrain doing both?"

"You have no idea how much restraint I've been putting on to myself because of you..." he groaned. "You have no idea how much of a jealous jerk I had become. I was actually possessing you silently and secretly... It was a torture to me."

I smiled and seek for one of his hands. He clasped it immediately.

"Really? Then why did you still kiss that singer in front of everyone?"

"You saw it with your very own eyes, princess. I didn't kiss her. She kissed me," he said confidently.

Oh!

Trying to deny what he said, I shook my head hard on his lap.

"Don't do that," he complained.

"Huh?"

"The shaking, don't do that."

"Why?"

"You're gonna awaken the dragon in there," he said teasingly.

I blushed.

Once a jerk, always a jerk.

I decided to rise up from him but he pulled my head back down to his lap. "Just stay there and don't move."

"Then, I'd be having a stiff neck tomorrow. Is this my punishment?" I also teased him.

"Punishment?"

I sighed and pleaded him with my eyes. "For leaving you after you made our engagement announcement..."

He cupped my cheek. "No, please, don't ever think that you deserve a punishment. If there's to be punished, it should be me..."

"No, Nigel... Nigel..." I looked at him.

So, both of us felt guilty of everything.

"...and the manipulative persons responsible for it," he added. There again, there was that dangerous tone in his voice.

Oh, I just spoiled the nice conversation we had now. Okay, forget about it then.

"And, remember, you kissed me a couple of times in the patio that night?" I asked him, going back to the previous topic. "You kissed me hard and rough."

"Yeah... been really a jerk," he said, locking his gaze with mine. "You know, losing control... really lost control that night... Always losing my control when I'm with you... especially in my jealous state... I always turned into that monster."

We again let the both of us be lost into a gazing battle and there was again that funny feeling in my belly.

"And you annoyed me a lot during that ball," he added after several seconds of gazing each other. "You acted like you were jealous with the singer but you appeared enjoying Javier's company! You even went out of the function hall with him. Don't you know I followed the two of you and even observed while you sat with him on a bench?"

Huh? Was he there observing me and Javier? I thought he continued dancing with the singer!

Wrinkling my brows, I stared at him.

"You didn't know it, did you?" he asked me and I wasn't able to say a single word. "Well, I wanted to punch him right there and then. It wasn't easy for me, you know. That very moment, something in me wanted to possess you completely. Something in me persuaded me to make you mine that very night. Thankfully, I was still able to bring my feet back to the hall... If not---"

Oh, God!

So he was intensely jealous that night!

"Jealous brute," I mouthed at him.

"You have no idea, princess," he said, rubbing my cheek with his fingers.

With me lying my head on his lap, I stretched out my arms and encircled them around his waist that my face rested on his abs.

"Know what?" He asked.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"When you were crying that night in the patio, hitting my chest, and shouting me that I'm only yours and that if you had to seduce someone, it would be me, it hit my heart so much... and it finally sank in me that you were really true to your words," he narrated.

"Of course," I said immediately.

"But then you said you hated me. You said I hate you, I hate you a couple of times. It crumbled my world apart... and I started to get panicked... and I even doubted your feelings more. I immediately thought you just pretended to love me all those years.... I really wanted to let you feel how hurt I was and I wanted to punish you by forcing you to have sex with me there in the living room. After that night, when I saw you crying as you ran upstairs, that was when I realized that I had been hurting you so much already..."

"You did hurt me so much that night..." I confirmed.

"I know... I felt it, too. Actually, I wanted to run after you on the stairs... But it was too late for me to move my feet... I was deep-rooted on the floor. Seeing you climbing upstairs, that was the time that I said to myself... I would no longer hurt you and I'd kill myself if I'd ever hurt you again."

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Third in a row...

We decided that he'd stay in bed with me. We were both lying now and he was already closing his eyes.

"Good night, Nigel Joaquin," I whispered to his ear, brushing it with my lips in the process.

He smiled. Still with his eyes closed, he said ruggedly, "You're playing with my ear... Don't tempt me."

Electric volts came flaring my whole body. I blushed and turned my body away from him.

Suddenly, his arm encircled my waistline and pulled me to him that my back was pressed to his front.

"You're so soft. You're like a baby," he whispered.

Soft? I blinked my eyes and, then, I realized his left hand was actually cupping my left breast.

"Oh, so I'm like a baby to you!" I complained, thumping his hand. "Get that hand off my---!"

"Sssshh, I'm concentrating here. Don't distract me," he said, cupping it even harder. I was glad I was wearing a bra or else...

"Concentrating?" I asked, trying to distract myself from his annoying hand.

He didn't reply. I just felt his rugged breathing near my ear.

Later, before I finally fell asleep, I heard him say, "Concentrating on restraint, princess."

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

When I woke up, he was still there with me. Obviously, he had awaken before me because he was already watching me as I opened my eyes.

He smiled at me. It was very beautiful. It was the most beautiful smile ever.

I smiled, too.

He wrapped my waistline even more tightly with his arm to bring my front to be pressed to his. His muscles flexed every time he made a move.

One word that I could describe him as he embraced me like this ---

Hard.

He was the epitome of physical hardness, of pure masculinity, of a perfectly defined body.

I blushed.

All of a sudden, I realized that I hadn't brushed my teeth yet and here I was breathing on his nose. I covered my mouth with my palm.

His forehead wrinkled. "What are you doing?"

"Haven't brushed my teeth yet," I said with my palm still covering my mouth.

He smiled and took my hand away from my mouth. "That makes us two even," he spoke confidently like he was not bothered with bad breath at all.

Well, in all fairness to him, he absolutely had no bad breath.

His left fingers touched the corner of my right eye. "Wish to see your eyes every time I opened mine," he stated softly, gazing at me.

"I love you," I whispered, saying those words for the first time after three years.

He smiled triumphantly. "I thought I won't be hearing these words anymore coming from you," he exclaimed as he climbed on top of me.

With that, he made out with me like there was no more tomorrow for french kissing...

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Nigel left finally for the capital. Well, he had been gone in the office for days so he needed to go back.

Aside from that, he was intent into the investigation of Dylan and Maria Stella. He was determined to unearth facts. I wanted to know the whole truth as well.

Before he got into his car, he whispered something to me. "You better bake next time for me. I missed your cupcakes."

"A brute with a sweet tooth," I mumbled jokingly.

"The brat is talking..." he counteracted, but stole me a kiss afterwards.

Mom and even the servants who were there in the driveway saw his proud expression of love. Oh, God! I really thought I had to get used to this public display of affection from now on. Well, it looked like he couldn't just help it.

With that, everyone already knew what we were and there was no need for an explanation. They all looked happy... especially the dear woman whom both Nigel and I called MOM.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

When Nigel left, mom and I finally had the talk. I told her everything that Nigel and I were able to discuss.

We had that morning walk in the flower plantation. We dawdled, hand in hand, as I told her everything.

"I thought you really stopped loving my son," she sobbed. However, in those sobs, I knew she was relieved and happy. "I thought you were going to marry that Javier."

"Marry? How could I marry him? He was not even my boyfriend," I rattled as I held her arm.

"So now, we can plan for the wedding!" she excitedly mused. "The wedding finally!"

"Mom," I whined, " Nigel isn't proposing yet."

"Oh, not yet? Such a sluggish brute!" she complained. "But," she revived in a serious tone, "I'm really, really happy for the both of you, darling. It's been a long journey but I'm glad the both of you finally find home."

We hugged in the center of a footpath. Literally, we were in the midst of the wide tract of flower plantation. Embracing mom and breathing the fragrance of the morning air, it was soul-soothing.

I looked around and saw where the remarkable fragrance came from. We were surrounded by purple spike-like flowers on long narrow stems. These purple rows of flowering plants probably consisted only a fraction of the whole plantation but, at this moment, it struck me to know that mom and I were actually in the middle of them. Did mom have this kind of flowers? I didn't know she had these flowers...

"So beautiful," I said when I noticed them.

Mom picked some of the stems with flowers in them. She reached out for my left hand and placed the stems on my palm.

"They are very beautiful, mom," I whispered.

"They are lavenders," she said, "and they don't usually thrive here in our country because of our tropical climate, but we are able to grow some of them here in our farm. These flowers here actually get the most special of attentions from the farm workers because they needed a lot of care for them to thrive... because of the climate. I had to check on them everyday..."

"Really?" I asked bewildered, still gazing the flowers on my palm.

"You know what, darling? Every time I saw these flowers, they always remind me of you."

Trying to get an explanation from her, I looked at her face.

"When you first came here, you were like these lavender flowers. You were a shattered child trying to move on with life, someone who screamed at night within my embrace because of the trauma that she'd been through. I admit it was hard for me at first to help you move on... but by paying more attention to you and showering all your needs, I was glad you rose up and strongly thrived here with me. You are so unique, just like these lavenders which grow so rare in our country. I'm glad that I was able to grow beautiful lavenders here in my farm in spite of our type of climate, but I'm more thankful to God that I was able to witness how a young girl turns out to be this very beautiful woman in front of me amidst all life's circumstances."

Tears fell from my eyes as I gazed at the flowers in my hand. Mom's words actually reached the innermost part of my heart.

Mom continued speaking, "Lavenders are valued for centuries for their physical beauty, soothing fragrance, and healing properties. You, my darling, will be forever valued here in The Fields because of your inner and outer beauty. There's something in you that makes people love you. Look how everyone in the palacio cares for you... and, most of all, you have the healing power. You greatly help me ease the pain of my daughter's death."

"Oh, mom..." I quipped, embracing her.

"That's why, you will always be a darling to me," she said, "and always be my son's princess."

It was indeed a moment. It took us a long time to pull away from each other.

Finally, when our emotions cooled down, mom and I decided to sit down on the mowed bermuda grass in the foothpath, exactly on the spot where we hugged each other.

"I know Nigelito had been upset with me for some time because of the forced engagement, darling," mom opened up a new subject as we sat down.

"Yeah, he told me that one before. He actually blamed both of us. For him, we were like cohorts making him the victim of our crazy engagement crime," I stated the words exactly used by Nigel.

"Oh, yeah? He described us that way?"

"Yup."

"Oh... yes... he didn't like it at first..."

"But he said that while he was hating me, he was crushing on me at the same time," I confessed.

"Really? So I was right all along... He'd been crushing on you... Know what, darling? I thought at first that he only saw you as someone like our dear Anita... but he told me later that he wasn't seeing you as a sister. You want to ask me why I still persisted on the engagement in spite of his objections?"

"Why?" I asked immediately.

"Because in spite of his objections, my heart felt him. I always caught him staring at you when he thought nobody was watching him. I knew all along that you are special to him... Oh, that boy! Until now, for me, he's still a boy, a boy who is madly in love." Mom smiled at me teasingly.

I felt the heat in my cheeks, so I looked down and still saw the lavenders on my palm.

Beauty... according to mom.

Beautiful... just like the flowers on my palm.

Now, I would like to believe myself to be pretty. So, it was true that Nigel found me beautiful even before.

"And I've been confident of the engagement... Remember I had been to an arranged marriage before? It started out as forced but turned out to be a lovely marriage. Thus, I don't find any reason why it won't work on you, too. For me, you're the only rightful woman for my son. I couldn't allow anyone else to be with him."

"Thank you, mom... Really, thank you... You really spoil me with everything... even your son, you are willing to give him to me."

"Of course, because I love you and I will give anything that will make you happy. That was what I promised to your parents in their grave... And you are my daughter... You are destined to be my daughter."

Oh, my heart was filled with so much happiness now.

I held mom's hands, "And I promise to love him with all my heart, mom. I promise to be with him and don't let anyone or anything else break us apart again."

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A/N

Hello, world!

First off, I'd like to express my thanks to every one who congratulated me last time for my scholarship. Thank you very much for your love, concern, and best wishes extended to me and to my family. You, guys, are really the best!

If you liked this chapter, please VOTE, COMMENT, SHARE, and FOLLOW!

Next update: Saturday
Next chapter title: The Signature (Whose signature? That's for you to find out... 😜😛😙)

Always,
(sapphiregirl22) ~_^