Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 (30 page)

"There's something else that bothers
me. Could it be just a coincidence that your mother, my step uncle
and Dewi were together?" He wondered.

"Why wouldn't it be a coincident? I
mean my Mama is an artist promoter, your step uncle a music
producer and Dewi is a singer, it's just that all three are
connected to us in some way."

"I don't know, I have a bad feeling
about this. I'm going to look into it. How do you feel after seeing
your mother again?" He asked.

"I have mixed feelings, I feel sad at
her indifference, angry at her accusations, I kind of missed her,
but I can't understand why she treats me the way she does. When I
was younger I used to cry myself to sleep asking myself why she
doesn't seem to love me, as I grew I became angry and wanted to
rebel, although I never dared to go far with it. Now, I just want
to understand why she is the way she is." She said in a sad
tone.

"Well, I don't know what she's thinking
and why she treats you like that, but you can be sure that you're
not alone anymore, you have me now.

Chapter Twenty
Five

"Puteri, there's a call for you, it's
from your mother," Maya said to her.

"Go ahead Ananda, take the call," Raden
Nabilla said while taking the spatula from her hand and continued
to mix the dish they are cooking.

Paramita washed her hand and dried them
with a towel before accepting the wireless receiver from Maya.
"Hello." She said.

"Mita, I tried to call you to the East
Wing Pavillion, but they told me you were at Raden Hamzah´s
residence. How are you, are you feeling better now?" Said the voice
from the other side.

"I am." She answered curtly.

"Mita, I want to see you, can you come
and meet me?" Soraya asked her.

Paramita's heart thumped at the
invitation, she didn't know whether to feel happy or worried about
it. "Mama, I'll have to ask my future husband first. Where can I
reach you?"

"Oh right, how can I forget? I'm
staying at The Wirakarta Five Star hotel, suite number 1040, I want
to meet you at the restaurant for lunch." She explained.

"Okay, mama. I will call you in a few
minutes." Paramita replied.

She was about to dial Ali's number when
a call entered. "Hello." She answered.

"Mita? How did you answer the phone so
fast?" Ali's voice on the other side.

"Abang, I just got off a call with my
mother, and I was just about to call you." She
explained.

"That's nice of her to call you." He
said.

"Yeah, she wanted to meet me for lunch
at her hotel. So I was going to call you to ask if I can
go."

"Well, the Queen wanted me to tell you
that she will be waiting for you this afternoon to fit your Kebaya
for tomorrow. But since your mother called you to have lunch with
her, you should go there, I think it will be a good opportunity for
you to talk to her and find out her relationship with my uncle and
Holy Mountain. But I don't want you to go up to her room, it's too
dangerous for you, you should wait for her at the restaurant where
there will be a lot of people around you."

"I understand. Okay, I will call her to
let her know that I'm going to meet her."

"What hotel is she staying at?" He
asked.

"The Wirakarta Five Star."

"Okay, just make sure you eat at the
hotel restaurant and don't accept to go to any other place with
her. I will have Captain Bagas to personally go with you, so wait
for him to get there."

"I don't really need a bodyguard, I can
take care of myself you know."

"If it was anybody else you're meeting,
I totally agree. But this is your mother, and I know you would let
her kill you before you raise your hand against her, and I don't
want anything to happen to you. So wait for Captain
Bagas."

"Alright!"

"I'll see you this afternoon then. Take
care." He said.

"Bye."

******

She decided to dress practically for
her lunch date with her mother, dress pants and comfortable shoes,
allowing her to move freely, and if necessary stomp her mother's
foot if she tried to attack her again.

Captain Bagas arrived with a driver, he
opened the door for her to get in, and closed it behind
her.

"How do you do Captain Bagas." She
greeted him once he had sat down on the passenger side of the front
seat.

"I'm doing well, Your Highness. I'm
glad to see that you are doing fine also. Congratulations on your
marriage." He answered to her politely.

"Thank you! I think my husband already
told you where we are going."

"Yes, Mam. He also ordered me to go
with you inside the restaurant and wait until you have finished
your business with you mother."

"Thank you, this is embarrassing, that
I need to have a guard with me while I meet my mother." She said to
him.

"Not at all, Mam. I understand your
husband's concern. You are a very strong woman and intelligent like
we all saw in the jungle, but this is a very different circumstance
than what we faced before." He said carefully.

"Thank you again, Captain." She
said.

The Wirakarta Five Star was a modern
high-rise building in the central district of Wirakarta. Paramita
went to the front desk to ask the receptionist to announce to her
mother that she had arrived and was waiting for her at the
restaurant. There was hardly anybody there, it was quiet,
traditional music sounded softly in the background to enhance the
ambient. A waiter came up to her and asked her if she already had
reservations. It turns out that Madam Soraya had reserved a seat in
advance. Paramita felt uneasy when she saw that she was lead to a
table for four.

She braced herself and sat down. From
the corner of her eye, she could see that Captain Bagas had already
stationed himself at a table within eyesight away. The waiter
brought her a glass of water and asked her if she would like to see
the menu or if she wanted to wait for the other guests to arrive.
"I'll wait." She replied.

Madam Soraya appeared shortly after.
She dressed elegantly as always. Her skin and hair perfect and
beautiful, making her look way younger than her real age. Paramita
remembered how people would confuse them as sisters when they were
seen together.

"Mita, my child. It's good to see you."
She said to her daughter. Paramita got up and kissed her on both
cheeks. Madame Soraya never liked the local custom for children to
kiss their parent's hand. She would make sure that her daughter
would greet her the "International Way" so she called
it.

They both sat down at the table. The
waiter came with the menu, "We are waiting for a friend." She told
him, "We will order once he gets here."

"Who are we waiting for?" Paramita
asked.

"It's someone you know, don't worry
about it. So I'm still waiting for you to apologize" Soraya
said.

"Apologize, me? What for?"

"You don't think there was anything
wrong with your aggressive behavior towards me? You think that
throwing me around like a piece of garbage is okay?" Soraya said to
her angrily.

"Oh, do you mean the day you tried to
kill me by overdosing me with...Exte....uh...PCP?" Mita answered
with the same tone.

"PCP? What are you talking about? What
I made you drink was an herbal remedy. To prevent you from becoming
pregnant."

"Mother, I never had sex at the time,
so there was no way I could become pregnant, I'm not the Virgin
Mary. And that pill was not an herbal remedy, it was a very
dangerous drug, I have the blood test from the Royal Hospital to
prove it. What you did was cause be to get high, psychotic and it
could have cost me my life, and so if you got thrown around like
garbage by me, it was because of your own doing." Paramita dropped
her obedient daughter tone of speech.

"Dangerous drug? But that can't be. My
friend said it wouldn't harm you. He told me that it would just
prevent you from becoming pregnant, that's all."

"What friend mother?"

"A friend, you don't know
him."

"What friend mother? You tell me now!"
She said again almost yelling.

"Joni. He sent me the issues of the
tabloids and called me at the Villa in France, he told me what had
happened, he suggested that I take the earliest flight back to
Jothar and talk to him about the situation. And out of good faith
he gave me the herbal remedy."

"Joni, as in Jonathan Tan?"

"Yes, it was him." She answered, her
voice shaking.

"Mother, here's what I see is wrong
with this situation; first how can you openly discuss my private
matters with a stranger, second how can you trust a complete
stranger over me, and third....... oh my goodness, what were you
thinking?" Paramita cried out with despair.

"I didn't know....Mita, I'm your
mother. How can you think that I will try to harm you?" Soraya said
almost crying while reaching out for her daughter's
hand.

"I'm not thinking it, mother. It's
proven by the blood test."

"It has to be a mistake."

"It's not."

"My baby. Please forgive me. I didn't
know. You do know that I will never do anything to harm you. You
know that don't you?" She pleaded.

"Mother. Do me a favor. Don't talk
about what we talked about today with your friend. In fact please,
I beg you please don't go and see him again. Please. You will do
that for me, won't you? You owe me that." She thought for a moment.
"You know that he is my future husband's relative and it's
embarrassing that he thinks of me as a loose woman."

"Mita, I'll do what you asked." She
stood up and walked over to her daughter, she gave her a hug and
kissed her forehead. "Mita, I know, I haven't been the best mother
in the world. But I want you to know, I love you. You're my only
child left in this world. How can I not love you?"

"Only child left in this world?"
Paramita asked with surprised. "Do you mean I had a brother or
sister?"

Soraya wiped her tears carefully with
her handkerchief to not smudge her makeup, she sniffed and said,
"You had an older brother. I was four months pregnant when I
married your father. We weren't able to marry by law, just by
religion. But when his then first wife found out about it she was
very upset. Her family complained to the Religious Leaders, they
said that the child I was carrying had no rights to be recognized
by the father. Even though, we were already married, but I was
pregnant out-of-wedlock, so my child was a bastard no matter what.
The pressure was too much for me, for more than a month I was in so
much stress and depression that I had a miscarriage."

"And then what happened?"

"I was sick and hospitalized for a
month. I bled uncontrollably. The doctors said that I could never
have another child again. But a year later, I found out that I was
expecting you. It was the happiest day of my life. Finally, I will
have my own little baby. Your father wanted to officially take me
as his third wife, but he didn't get permission from his other
wives. I finally realized that it wasn't meant to be between him
and me, so I left him to find my future. I was two months pregnant
when I immigrated to England. My baby, I want you to understand
that I don't ever want to see you go through what I went through.
It was horrible."

"Mama, I know how it's like to lose a
child from the womb. I mean, I never experienced it myself. But I
stayed by a friend who was pregnant and had an abortion. She had
complications and was hospitalized. I was by her side at the
hospital for a month. She suffered greatly."

"Mita, so do you understand me now? Do
you understand why I was petrified when I heard the rumors that you
were pregnant? And......and I want you to know how unhappy I am
that you are going to marry that man who your father chose for
you."

"Mama?" Paramita felt appalled. "But
you were the one who first told me to obey what my father wanted.
You insisted that I marry the man my father chose for me, you even
went so far as to claim that the queen will take away all your
assets."

"But I didn't know that Ali was already
dating another woman and had already proposed to her."

"Well, it's too late now, isn't it? If
you had thought of this back then, all this would have never
happened. Now I'm already legally married to him, and the official
wedding reception will be held tomorrow."

"Mita, it's not too late. It's never
too late. We can still cancel or to save your father's face you can
ask for a divorce after a prudent time, we'll leave the country and
go back to England."

"What makes you think that I want to
leave him?"

"You don't want to leave him? Oh my
goodness, you've slept with him, haven't you?"

"Mama........!"

"Oh, Mita...."

"We are already married,
mother."

"I know....I know.....It doesn't
matter. Being married, it's only natural that you're not a virgin
anymore. Do you love him?" Soraya asked.