Page 51 of Is It Wrong to Escape My Fate?
Winston started chuckling, a hand covering his mouth. “That confirms it. You’reneverallowed to leave us, princess. You’re too invaluable.”
Vincent visibly deflated at this. “She’s not? I was going to ask her if she can be my lab assistant. I think I need an outside perspective for my experiments. Tunnel vision kills my brain, and I lose sight of the goal sometimes.”
Winston lost the mirth in his voice, but his face held the same smile. “No.”
The Prince deciding for me again made me remember how I ended up in this room in the first place. I would’ve happily helped Vincent in his endeavors without knowing what it was for, just because I enjoyed watching him be passionate about it.
But at the same time, I was losing precious time for my own research.
“I only need an hour or two weekly, maybe,” Vincent bargained, glancing at me. “Like in the afternoon before dinner? Just for consultation and reading over my notes.”
“Yes. Tuesday afternoons,” I agreed before Winston could protest. If it were only for a couple of hours, then I could squeeze it in with my schedule. Vincent celebrated by pumping his fist and relaxing on the couch.
“Bea …” Winston looked at me wearily, while Samuel watched me our of the corner of his eye, pretending to refill his wineglass. “Vincent is not a Champion. While I did give him a mission for the betterment of the Kingdom, you’reourCaregiver.”
Now I was getting pissed off. “That doesn’t mean I can’t care about others. I care about alotof people. My maid, my knights,my brother andhisknight, my friends, and now unfortunately you hooligans. You don’t get to control that.”
“Did you hear that?” Claude yelled, dislodging himself from my legs and jumping up. “Bea admits she cares about me!”
“I heard,” Samuel validated Claude while I glared, and he responded with that annoying smirk.
“She cares about all of us,” Winston corrected. “But I do not prefer to share her with others outside of the Champions.”
Oh, no.He did not just say what I thought he said.
He did.
Enraged, I got up from my seat in a flash, my skirt billowing at the speed. “I don’t care if you’re the Crown Prince. You don’t get to decide that for me. I will share myself with anyone I want to, thank you very much.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder to keep it out of my face.
He was smiling. To the regular onlooker, they’d probably think my declaration didn’t affect him. They’d be wrong. I could sense his anger despite that gentle, angelic face. Boy, he clearly didn’t like having his authority challenged, huh?
Maybe this was the point where I’d get executed, and my whole family along with it. Sometimes I should really think first before opening my mouth and letting my emotions get the better of me.
I didn’t want to die. I never did. I wanted to escape. Getting executed by the Royal Crown wasn’t the way to go. Dying was never the way to go. Escaping my life was the only thing to do. Standing up for myself shouldn’t get me killed.
Why should deciding my destiny deserve death?
“Bea …” Vincent whispered, just as Samuel stood up too.
“Winston, you’re scaring her,” he growled. I wanted to laugh. I wasn’tscared. At least, not in the way they thought.
I feared for my pseudo-family who didn’t deserve to die. For the OG Bea whom I replaced without knowing what happened toher—
My —
Fate.
When the Prince lost his composure slightly, his genuine emotion slipping through the sheen of his purple eyes, I bolted from the room. I didn’t care if this made me a coward. If I could get a head start, there might still be a chance that I wouldn’t die today.
I tried to recall where the exit was, but I wasn’t even halfway there whenDerrick, of all people, appeared from behind and ran along with me.
“What’s going on?” he gasped, looking behind us. “Where is this place?”
“How did you get here?” I winced at my sharp tone, my anger and fear still at the forefront of my mind.
“I felt your heightened senses and fear — I’ll explain more later!” He glanced back again. “Why are we running from the Hero?”
“Baby girl, don’t run away!” Claude shouted after us. Of course I should’ve expected at least one of them to chase me. “Win’s a huge, cocky, terrible idiot! We’ll make him apologize to you if it’s the last thing we do!”
