A pang of jealously hit me as I watched Nicandro offered his arms to her and led her to the centre of the ballroom.

Seconds later, the low melody turned into a higher one, which meant the dance had started and bodies started to sway. I looked over to Sha and the Australian guy, they seemed to be having a nice conversation, as well as that girl dancing with Nicandro.

I wasn't mad at Nicandro for dancing with that girl anyways, she made a bold move and people around were watching. If he were to reject her and dance with me, all attention would be on me and that was the last thing I needed with Felon still roaming around.

I turned around to walk away as it was getting awkward for me, standing alone, and staring that Nicandro. And that was when I saw Perez, leaning against the pillar. He noticed me looking at him shot me a wink and started to walk towards me.

God help me.

"That was pretty brutal, wasn't it?" He remarked.

"Yeah? And what are you going to do about it?" I challenged him. But really, I just want to get out of here. The air suddenly felt suffocating, and my dress felt too tight.

He reached out his arms towards me. "You can dance with me and show him what he's missing out."

I widened my eyes at him. He can't be serious. I noticed that eyes were on us and looked at him again. He is quite serious.

But why dance with me? I'm sure there were plenty of ladies who wanted to dance with him since he is royalty. How did he manage to reject all of them?

I didn't bother to continue wondering and attract more attention by standing there and walked with him to the dance floor. It wasn't like I could reject him; he is a prince after all. I made eye contact with Sha; she gave me a holy-shit-you-one-lucky-bitch look which I returned with an oh-my-god-I-cannot-believe-this look. She has then spun around and now back facing me, and I returned to my disinterested resting face.

Perez raised an eyebrow at me. "Aren't you going to ask me about that girl?"

"I was thinking your chatty mouth would do the job for me." I quickly looked at another direction when I saw Nicandro turning towards us. I didn't want to see the expression on his face.

He let out a laugh. "So you do have a sense of humour, unlike my cousin. I think I like you better when you're jealous."

I rolled my eyes. "Stop joking around and just tell me."

"And she's feisty too." He commented before I glared at him, and he started to speak. "That girl is actually a duchess from Switzerland, Alina Vetsch." Great, the initials of our names are the same.

He continued. "Her family is one of the last fifty families of the nobility left in Switzerland and also one of the richest in the country. She and Nicandro had known each other for a few years now since our families have done some businesses together. But a particular business that my grandfather did with her grandfather was a contract that if both are not in committed relationships when they turn twenty-one, they will need to marry each other."

I held my breath. "What?" Nicandro has never told me that and he would never keep something like this from me.

"Don't worry, your lover boy didn't know about this, nobody did. The contract was kept a secret and was only discovered after my grandfather died. But since he signed it without consent from Nicandro and he is now dead, the contract is not solid anymore. Nicandro wants out of it, but her family argued that a contract is a contract, blah blah. Therefore, one of the big things that will be happening on this cruise is deciding the fate of the contract."

I took a few seconds to process all that Perez said. I don't want to imagine what else was dug up from his grandfather secrets business. But I also noticed his tone when was talking about the contract. It almost seemed like he didn't want it to happen.

"What do you have against the contract?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. It couldn't be that he cared about Nicandro and I, plus Nicandro and his relationship had always been rocky, so he should find satisfaction in watching Nicandro forced into something.

He hesitated for a few seconds, mind drifting off to somewhere. "Let's just say if that marriage happens, here's someone in that family that I despise more than seeing Nicandro's happiness get stripped away."

Before I could drill him for more information on who that person is, I realised that Perez was leading both of us towards Nicandro and Alina. "What the hell are you doing?" I whispered shouted at him, but he ignored me, guiding me closer and closer to them.

"You'll thank me later." He mumbled softly as the music comes to a stop, everyone on the dance floor stopped dancing and those standing around gave warm applause to the band. I was relieved that I didn't lose my footing as I did at the winter ball when dancing with Perez. We were only standing probably standing five metres behind them, and I was hoping he doesn't do something attention-drawing to ruin the contract.

Everyone on the dance floor started to scatter off as the band stood up to leave. To my demise, Alina turned behind us and recognised Perez, started walking towards us.

Perez gave her a small bow. "I hope you're having a good night, my lady."

"I am your highness, Nicandro here is a great dance partner." Nicandro. They know each other well enough for her to be addressing him informally. She let out a soft chuckle which Nicandro returned with what I hoped was a forced smile.

She didn't even look my way for one second, which only meant that she knew Nicandro was hoping to dance with me before she had to pull out her bold plan. That also meant she has already started planning how to get me out of the equation. Once she is out of here, I bet the first thing she would do is ask her assistant to dig up any damming dirt to use on me.

I also sensed tension between them, which got me thinking the person that Perez despised must be someone close to Alina. She spoke up amongst the awkwardness, "Well Nicandro and I should-"

"Actually, I want to talk to my cousin about something first. If you mind, my lady?" There was a clear force in his voice whilst Nicandro and I just stood in silence. That question was also rhetorical since there were people around us who were clearly watching us, and she wouldn't cause a scene with both princes.

"Of course, gentlemen." She did a small curtsy before walking and tried very hard to not roll my eyes at her.

"God, it's insane how well you have your cool together cousin. I would've slapped that bitch's face." Perez mumbled under his breath and Nicandro raised an eyebrow at him. "Anyways, happy talking and make her as jealous and possible, alright?"

Perez patted Nicandro's shoulder before walking away, leaving me and Nicandro standing by ourselves. I could feel Alina's dagger eyes from behind me and I couldn't even look at him. At this moment, I would gladly swap Alina with his grandfather because, well at least he wasn't attracted to Nicandro. God, this is so awkward.

Thankfully, he spoke up. "Be at the entrance of the ballroom in thirty minutes."

I looked at him as if he had grown two heads. "You can't just leave, you're the host. People will notice."

He leaned slightly towards my left ear, not looking at me and whispered. "Watch me." Then he gave the palm of my hand a light squeeze before walking away, leaving me uncomfortable. In a good way though.

I then went looking for Sha in this very crowded room for the next ten minutes, but to no avail. I decided to go to the refreshments corner because if she was anywhere in the ballroom, she would be there. And yet, she wasn't there.

That was when the bartender slid a napkin towards me. I gave him a look of confusion, but he ignored me and went back to making drinks. I looked at the napkin and saw that there was something written on it.

Australian guy invited me to a bar on the upper deck of the ship. You can come to find me once you are done talking to the CROWN PRINCE of Spain (;

- Sha

Well, that explains it. I think I would go look for her after I had met up with Nicandro, which I'm supposed to meet him in fifteen minutes. Still don't though know how he's going to pull this one off. I'll be waiting to be surprised once again.

A woman then sat beside me at the bar, and I decided to take my leave since I wasn't going to drink anything anyways. But as soon as I turned around to leave, she called out to me. "Take a seat will you, Tiana?"

I turned back with confusion washed over my face as I looked at the woman. She was slightly older, mid-fifties if I were to guess. Her thick British accent was very distinctive and had dusty blonde hair and some of which were white. Who is she?

"How... do you know me?" I asked while trying to figure out what her angle was.

She let out a sigh. "I figured my brother didn't tell you about me." Brother? Then that was when it clicked. British accent and dusty blonde hair...

She was Breton's sister.

Several questions flooded through my mind. Why didn't Breton mention her at all? What was their relationship like? How did she get invited on the cruise? What did she want to talk to me about?

I thought back to Breton saying he had bad blood with some people who were invited. I bet it was just one person and that person is sitting beside me now. Makes me wonder what happened between them. I knew Breton was rich, so his family was probably rich, but to be the one thousand guests on this ship? I wonder what details Breton had left out about his family.

I was so deep in thought that I hadn't realised she had already ordered drinks for both of us. She raised her glass at me. "I'm Kristine, nice to finally meet you."

I raised my glass back at her and took a small sip of my drink, which was alcoholic as I expected and tasted like peach. I never liked alcohol, but I also didn't want to ruin my first impression with Breton's sister.

"I'm sure you have got a number of questions for me." She said as she set her glass down on the table. "Shoot."

That definitely wasn't what I was expecting. I thought I was one who was going to be questioned.  "Breton has never mentioned you to me so your relationship must be rocky. What happened?"

"Me and Bret's relationship have been rocky since we were little. My father was the minister of health, and my mother was one of the best neurosurgeons in the country, so there was always this pressure of us making a name for ourselves in Britain. Bret never wanted that, which was part of the reason he went to America to finish his studies, eventually settling down in Singapore, and I was the overachiever you could say." She chuckled and took a sip.

"I guess it was because of me he got twice the pressure from my parents and everyone around us, leaving him very alone growing up. We actually reconnected when he agreed to be my team's legal representative for my campaign trail for prime minister and I was beyond happy to have my brother by my side. Then an incident happened during that time which was daunting for both of us, and we haven't seen each other since then. It has been five years."

Holy moly I'm currently having a conversation with the prime minister of the UK, which is Breton's sister! Well, that answered basically all my questions. Except for the incident which happened, but I wasn't going to prod given that she had shared so much already. I felt for Breton, clearly he was still very affected by this to not talk about it at all.

"I'm really glad he has you. For the first time in his life, I think he wasn't alone anymore." She gave me an understanding smile which made me a little emotional.

"It goes two ways. I never had a father figure in my life, and no one had ever filled that role in my life until Breton." I can feel my voice getting thicker and my vision getting slightly blurry.

"Sorry, never meant for this conversation to go down the emotional road." Kristine joked and we both chuckled at that.

My eyes then wandered off to the big clock on the pillar and saw that it was fifteen minutes to ten, which meant I was supposed to meet Nicandro at the entrance. Talking to Kristine was great, but I would feel better talking to Nicandro now.

"You haven't really touched your drink," Kristine remarked. I managed to take two sips of it but couldn't bear the taste of alcohol anymore.

"I actually don't take in alcohol," I answered honestly and politely.

Her face immediately turned into a shade of guilt. "I'm so sorry, I should've asked before I ordered your drink. What do you want? It's on me."

This is my window now. "There's no need. I'm going to meet someone now so..." I trailed off.

"Oh, of course! It was so nice talking to you, Tiana." She went for a hug which I embraced.

"Likewise. I hope to see you around the ship in the next few days." With that, I left the seat, exited the refreshments corner, and made my way to the exit.

However, Nicandro wasn't there like he said he would.