7.
They've just signed the marriage contract and Kathleen's stomach quivered as they came out of the magistrate office, she glanced at her husband, the only thing she knew about the man she had married was his name, Derek Deloux, her husband, her heart pounded as the reality of what she has just done hit her, she had sought shelter from him, what if he turned out to be worst than Dave, well, she can handle it, there was nothing like emotions attached to this marriage, it was simply marriage by name alone, she would have nothing to regret.
Derek looked at her, "regretting already? The deed has already been done, now let's go home".
"Home", the word sank into Kathleen, she have no idea where home is, she had no idea about anything.
"Where exactly is home?"
He smirked at her question, "home is where the heart lies baby"
Her cheeks burned at the name he called her, "that's not the answer to my question" she fired back trying to cub her discomfort.
"I see my new bride is a firecracker, home is Deloux Castle" Kathleen's eyes widened at the name, The Deloux are royalties that controls multiple businesses in and out of the country, they are very influential and powerful, she recently heard that the head of the Deloux was sick and naturally, his heir would take control of the business. She glanced at the man sitting beside her in the car, he was throwing glances her way as he drives, no, there are many Delouxes, she must be mistaken, "do you mean.....are you...." Her voice trailed off, she couldn't get the question out, he might consider her silly for thinking he's from that royal blood.
"I am talking about the Deloux you know" her eyes popped out, " you are that Derek Deloux?" Oh, God! Now she knew she had married the devil himself.
Derek jaw twitched, "I am that Derek Deloux" he confirmed and watched her from his side eye as her lips quivered,he smirked, he knew his reputation outside, he is an irresponsible, good for nothing heir of the Deloux Enterprise, a disgrace to the royal blood who is only good with the ladies, a flirt and notorious Playboy, she must be repenting of her decision to get married to such a rogue, too bad she can't undo it now, she is his bride, though, he had married her for his own selfish reason, just to spite his mother's attempt to get him married to whom she had chosen for him, right from when he was very young, his mother has this obsessive behavior to always make every decisions in his life, down to the color of clothes he wore, at first, he had found it adoring that his mother cares so much about him, but as he grew, it became choking and he started going against most of her wishes much to her annoyance, although, his mother obviously preferred his Step brother Dave to him, but there's nothing she could do about Derek being the heir apparel, he was his father's son and Dave was her son from her first marriage so it was natural that she would want her own son to inherit the property.
Dave was not in any way more responsible than him, right now, he has gone off to God knows where and returns when he feels like.
Derek didn't care much about his father's wealth, in fact, he wished he could be allowed to just live his life without associating with the Deloux name, he had ladies flocking around him, he knew it was because of his background and also charming looks, ladies love badass and he was such a badass, he was expecting to see the pleasure on the face of his new bride that she had hit the Jackpot, instead, her face had gone pale when she realized whom she just got married to and the expression he saw wasn't one of pleasure at all.
Kathleen must have fallen asleep for the next thing she knew was Derek shaking her shoulders and calling her name, she opened her eyes and looked about, at first confused by her environment, her eyes suddenly caught the castle in front of her with caption boldly written on it as Deloux Castle and her heart thudded, had she just gotten married to the prince and heir of the Deloux? Derek came down from the side of his car and hurried to her side, he opened her car door and she came down to see maids hurrying outside to spread red carpet for the prince and her to walked on, he quickly waved them aside and Kath breath a visible sigh of relief, she walked with Derek to the door and they met a petite woman standing there gazing at her in confusion.
"Derek, you're home," the woman said as a way of greeting but the tone of her voice sounded forced to Kathleen's ears, the woman glanced at Kath, "who's she?"
Derek put his arms around Kathleen and smiled, although the smile didn't quite reach his eyes, Kathleen stood stiff as he does the introduction.
"Sweetheart, meet my mother," he told her gesturing to the woman who was looking at him as if he has suddenly grown a horn
"Mom, this is Kathleen, my wife".