Before Iris Crawford could even react, the royal guards barged in and started dragging her out. She shouted loudly, "I’m still in my pajamas, damn it!"
She tried to wake Steven Rhodes on the way, but her room was too far from his, and the palace was too vast for him to hear anything. Iris was carried away while hurling curses, "Dante, you bastard! What kind of unreasonable royal family is this? Sooner or later, a coup is going to happen!"
She shouted in her own country’s language, which the steward and guards couldn’t understand, but Dante did. Turning back to her, the man seethed with anger, "You dare say anything!"
"Going out like this in the middle of the night, don’t I have any dignity?"
Iris yelled at Dante, "Pajamas! Brother! You have a steward to change clothes for you, but what about ?"
The First Prince had never encountered such a difficult woman before, angrily tossing the coat he had just put on, right at Iris. "You’re driving crazy!"
The steward and guards were stunned. His Highness Dante actually gave this inexplicable woman his personal coat!
The steward nearly collapsed from shock, his face full of outrage, asking Dante, "Your Highness, this woman is utterly intolerable. Why do you continue to put up with her?"
Dante poked the steward’s forehead and said, "If you push her too far, who will handle the scandal? Are you going to marry Cynthia for ?"
The steward imdiately fell silent, silently watching Iris slowly put on Dante’s slightly large coat. With a nonchalant air, as if unfazed by any of this, she even patted the coat, saying, "Nice fabric, First Prince."
Dante now found her sarcastic "First Prince" remark both infuriating and amusing. Casting her a cold glance, he headed out of the palace with a large entourage, ready for confrontation, as if to deal with the supposed traitor on the spot.
Iris was forcibly placed inside the First Prince’s car. Originally, the steward felt it was undignified for her to share a space with him, but the First Prince said it was safest to keep her right under his nose to prevent her from pulling any tricks, so Raymond grudgingly allowed Iris to sit beside the First Prince.
After driving quite so distance, the First Prince finally smirked, "Is your phone still on standby at your chest?"
In front of the First Prince, Iris pulled her phone from her cleavage, deftly undoing a button with her slim fingers, and said, "Yeah, it’s still on standby."
Upon closer look, there was even a new call coming in.
An international call, with the caller ID showing it was from her brother.
Orion Crawford, the eldest of The Crawford Family.
Iris frowned, knowing her brother must need sothing if he was calling. So, right in front of the First Prince, she said, "Rember to keep quiet for a mont, I’m making a call."
Dante found Iris’s cheekiness quite overbearing and said, "Do you realize who’s in front of you? A Prince, and you need to show so restraint."
"That’s hilarious, isn’t it?" Iris chuckled with a touch of insolence, saying deliberately, "I’m not from your country. You’re a Prince—what’s that got to do with !"
"..."
Dante gave it so thought and supposed she was right.
"So people are really amusing, using any trivial excuse as an order. I haven’t broken any laws or ddled in your dostic affairs. I’m not your citizen, yet I’m here to help clean up your scandal. What is this, aiding diplomatic relations? You ought to treat well, understand? Do I have to report to you when I make a call?"
Having said that, Iris dialed her brother’s number. On the other end, Orion was holding his phone, and upon hearing Iris’s voice, the doting brother exclaid, "Sweetheart!"
The word "sweetheart" made Dante raise an eyebrow. Was it her boyfriend on the other end?
Reporting her whereabouts to her boyfriend in the middle of the night seed completely at odds with the fearless attitude she had displayed earlier.
"I’m here, what’s up?"
While chatting with Orion, Iris seed extrely relaxed, in stark contrast to her interactions with Dante, which made him snort in dissatisfaction. But these snorts caught Orion’s attention, "Is there a man with you?"
Iris hesitated, "Uh, kind of."
"What do you an kind of?"
With a sardonic smile, Dante said, "Are you questioning my gender now?"
Orion, not paying attention to Dante, got straight to the point with Iris, "Your sister flew to The Kingdom of L overnight. Did you know?"
Iris was taken aback, "What happened to my sister?"
"No idea, but once she got a call, she went straight away. I checked afterward and found you were there too," Orion lowered his voice, "Neither of you let have any peace. Tell honestly, what are you doing in The Kingdom of L?"
Iris’s eyes darted around. She had co to The Kingdom of L to handle a commission from the agency, but what about her sister?
Could it be... she’s with Lachlan Wyatt?
This thought startled Iris.
She knew Lachlan used to have a thing for Skye Lockwood, and perhaps rescuing her was an attempt to find traces of her sister through her. So Lachlan was also in The Kingdom of L, possibly accompanied by Skye Lockwood?
This reasoning seed the most logical and likely. With this thought, Iris lowered her head and said, "Maybe... she ca with soone?"
"With whom?" Orion, unaware of the past between Lachlan and Skye, couldn’t foresee this angle, "Be honest with , or I’ll co to The Kingdom of L myself to capture you both!"
Iris didn’t want Orion getting involved in all this. So things she preferred handling alone, knowing that more people aware ant greater risk. She tossed a random excuse to brush him off and hung up the call.
After hanging up, Dante, sitting beside her with a displeased squint, his icy blue eyes glinting with a cold light, asked, "Who were you talking to?"
"My brother," Iris didn’t hide it, retorting, "Stop looking at like that."
"Your sister’s in The Kingdom of L too?"
When Dante asked, his tone was ambiguous, as if making a decision, which put Iris on alert, "What do you plan to do to my sister?"
"Nothing."
Dante supported his chin with one hand, "Didn’t expect you to have a sister. Isn’t this like handing the leverage?"
Control Iris’s sister would an having control over Iris, wouldn’t it?
That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about the recording Iris held, balancing both sides for superficial peace.
Iris’s expression imdiately turned serious, "Try touching my sister and see what happens..."
Before she could finish, the driver shouted from the front, "Your Highness, Miss Cynthia left the bar through the back door a few minutes ago and went to her private residence."
The car turned around, heading towards Cynthia’s place. It took just over ten minutes to get there.
Cynthia truly lives up to being a princess; her place resembles the Royal Palace. Iris Crawford and Dante have to cross a big garden to reach the front door, but when she pushes it open, she finds it unlocked.
"Are we not trespassing?"
"She’s my fiancée, how could it be trespassing?"
Dante’s face is icy. It seems they couldn’t even bear the secrecy of their affair; they even forgot to lock the door!
The man’s severe and stern expression makes Iris tense as well. As she thinks carefully, it really is her first ti being involved in such a scandal. The group holds its breath as they approach the bedroom, but before they get close, they hear voices.
"I snuck out secretly; I hope I wasn’t caught again?"
"I’m so worried, Dante keeps pressuring to marry him every day, I’m really on the verge of collapsing—I don’t want to marry him at all!"
"What should I do, darling?"
Hearing Cynthia call soone "darling" makes Dante even angrier; this is outright infidelity!
The group quietly sneaks to the bedroom door,
where whispers are still coming from inside. Listening closely, it seems like soone is crying. Is Cynthia really that wronged?
She’s the one cheating, yet she’s the one crying—a classic case of the offender playing the victim!
Unable to bear it any longer, Dante kicks the door open, bursting into the room!
"Cynthia, you harlot—" The word "harlot" still hangs on his lips when Iris, rushing in with Dante, freezes in shock.
On the large, soft bed, Cynthia cries like a pear flower bathed in rain, as if abandoned by the entire world. At that mont, she looks up with red eyes, pitifully surprised to see a man and a woman standing at the door.
The man is her fiancé, but who is this woman? She’s so beautiful.
Cynthia stops crying, while Iris also freezes.
She instinctively takes a few steps back.
Could it be... could it be... could it be...
Cynthia’s affair partner...
Iris’s throat trembles, stuttering for a long ti before managing to speak, "Sis... Sister?!"
Sitting on Cynthia’s bed is the refined and cool Skye Lockwood—elegant and noble, otherworldly, her sister!!
Hearing Iris say "sister," Dante is utterly shocked.
This revelation hits him as hard as if Earth had exploded.
What is going on here?
Cynthia... Cynthia has been unfaithful to him, and he invited Iris to deal with the scandal, only to find out that the affair partner is Iris’s sister!
This is absurdity to an extre—absurdity opened the door to absurdity—returned right ho!
Iris and Dante stare dumbfounded at Cynthia and Skye on the bed, their expressions showing utter devastation.
Dante leans against the doorfra, pointing at Cynthia, "You...you...how could you!"
Iris stands with her mouth agape, struck speechless, "Sister, weren’t you...here with Lachlan?"
Skye remains composed in the face of the situation, as she always does—cool and indifferent, now calmly taking a drag off a cigarette, lightly exhaling smoke as she lazily responds, "Lachlan who?"
"Weren’t you here with Lachlan?"
Iris feels as if her mind has been punched hard; she, who has always been smart, can’t think straight. Lachlan never did anything with Skye because Skye... she... she doesn’t even like n!
Skye gently strokes Cynthia’s face, "Stop crying."
Cynthia sniffles, leaning into her embrace, but still sobbing, "Dante, why are you here!"
Dante’s veins throb, and at this point, Iris doesn’t know who to comfort first.
"You cheated on , and I can’t show up?"
"I had no choice!" Cynthia cries pitiably, "I told them it was unsuitable, but the family insisted on arranging a marriage between us. You saw the result; I’m tired of pretending and going through the motions. I’d rather break it off and go public with this! Besides, I don’t like n, and I will not marry you!"
Dante grits his teeth, "I don’t care who you like, the engagent is already set, can it even be annulled?"
"Then I’ll constantly cheat on you!" Cynthia is resolute, wanting to be with Skye, "I don’t care for your royal family!"
Dante can’t believe it; losing to a woman is more humiliating than losing to a man, "What’s so great about her! Does she have money?"
Skye, smoking nonchalantly, replies, "Yes, quite a lot."
"..."
"Does she own a house, a car?"
"Yes, properties abroad too."
"Is she capable?"
"Master’s in dicine, forr top model," Skye stubs out her cigarette and looks up at Dante, "anything else you want to know?"
Dante can’t withstand it anymore, he’s lucky Iris supports him. Just as the man is about to ask Iris to say sothing on his behalf, Iris says, "Oh, you can’t force love. If this isn’t working, let it go, right...?"
Dante’s frustration nearly distorts his handso face, since when has a Prince suffered such humiliation, "Iris, you’re defending her?!"
"That’s my sister!" Iris says, supporting Dante, "How should I handle this? I can’t resolve it. I’ll refund the money, and my sister can elope with your fiancée!"
"..." The man’s enchanting face is tinged with coldness, speaking recklessly, "Fine, you want to let your sister and Cynthia be together, right? Alright! Then you marry in their place!"
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