Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 (39 page)

Socializing has always been a strenuous
activity for her. She slipped into a corner to take a break. A
waiter passed in front of her with a tray. She took a glass of
cocktail and slowly sipped it. To her surprise, a rose suddenly
appeared at the side of her cheek. She turned around to see who it
was.

"You?" She exclaimed. "Your Highness,
what not a surprise to see you here."

"Miss Soraya, your sarcasm fascinates
me. How are you today? Irritated as always? Could it be that you're
developing hemorrhoids?" He teased.

"You!" She said holding back her
temper. She smiled. "Your Highness, I'm not always irritated, you
have that magic effect on me."

"You know, one very attractive side of
you is your bad temper."

"Why thank you, Your Highness. I'll
take that as a compliment. If you would please excuse me, I'm going
to mingle with non-royal but decent people." She said while leaving
him.

Pangeran Abdul smiled while observing
her walking away, biting his lower lip as he stood there admiring
the sway of her hips.

After leaving him, she went to find
Benny, knowing that Pangeran Abdul was at the party, it became
uninteresting for her. He was chatting with some rich you ladies
right at the side of the pool.

"Benny, I think I need to excuse myself
for now. It's getting late and my mother doesn't like me out at
this hour."

"But I haven't publicly thanked you for
being the face of my latest collection. We need to make a
toast."

"Benny, you know I can't drink." She
protested.

"Just champagne and just a sip. Come
on."

Benny rang a glass by hitting it gently
with a small spoon. "Everyone, pay attention. Thank you all for
coming to the party. I want to take this opportunity to thank my
lovely friend, Soraya Martina, the ex-Miss Jothar, who granted me
the honor of being the model for my new collection. Everybody,
please raise your glass for Miss Soraya."

Soraya thanked them and took a sip at
the champagne, just as she was about to put her glass down table,
she was approached by other people who wanted to congratulate her.
By the time she was able to put down her wine glass, she had drank
about four of them. Soraya felt her head was spinning. She stumbled
looking for a place to sit down and gather herself.

"Are you okay?" Said a familiar male
voice.

Soraya looked up at him, "Your
Highness, why are you here?" She slurred, feeling her head and eyes
heavy. She ran to the bushes and started emptying her stomach. She
felt a hand massaging her neck and holding her hair
back.

"You should have gone easy on the
champagne." He said.

She looked at him, her vision was
becoming blurry, and suddenly the world was dark.

* * *

Soraya woke up her mouth was dry, her
body hurting, and there was a sharp sting between her legs. She
tried to sit up, when she realized that she wasn't wearing anything
under the covers. In confusion she looked to the other side of the
bed. She was surprised to find that she wasn't alone. For a few
minutes, she tried to grasp what had happened. It finally dawned on
her, she had been raped.

She tried climbed down from the bed,
when she felt somebody holding her hand, she turned around. "You
monster, you monster!" She screamed at him. She used her hands to
attack him.

"Soraya, calm down, calm down...."
Pangeran Abdul Kadir said.

"How could you do this to me? You
ruined me." She screamed hysterically.

"Soraya, I didn't know that you've
never........I'll take responsibility for you." He said
again.

"Take responsibility for me? Can you
give me back what you stole from me? What right do you have to
violate me like this, just because you're a Prince and I'm a
commoner?" She started to cry uncontrollably, she leaped forward
towards him hitting and scratching him as hard as she
can.

"Hit me all you want, I deserve it." He
said softly.

Soraya straightened herself and looked
at him with hatred. "Fine, you had your way with me, you took what
you wanted. Now go!" She said coldly, "I won't let you trample on
my dignity anymore. Go! Get out of this room! Leave me alone!" She
yelled.

"Soraya, please listen to me. I'll
marry you, okay? I'll take responsibility."

"The only responsibility I want from
you is to see you go to jail for what you've done to me. But of
course, that's not going to happen. I can't subject my reputation
and my family's reputation to that kind of humiliation. And I'm
sure people will start pointing fingers at me because, I'm just a
small-time model, and you're the Crown Prince of this country." Her
voice was calm now. Soraya had always been strong and sensible. She
realized that what had been done is done. The most important thing
for her at this moment was to move forward with the ruins of her
life. "Go! I don't want to see you anymore!"

Pangeran Abdul Kadir got out of the bed
and put on his clothes, he turned around again,
"Soraya..."

"Go!" She shouted pointing towards the
door.

She watched as he left and closed the
door behind him. She rolled herself in a fetus position in the bed
and began to cry.

She threw the flower bouquet into the
trash can, these past two weeks, he continuously flooded her with
gifts of sweets and flowers that carry "forgive me" notes, they
were sent everywhere, to her home, to the boutique, even to every
job that she was contracted.

Her mother was excited about the idea
of the Crown Prince courting her daughter. "Ibu, please don't tell
anybody about this." Soraya asked her.

"But why? This is an honor for us and
the family." She replied.

"No it's not, trust me it won't be an
honor." She said in a serious tone.

Her mother looked at her with
hesitation and concern. This past few days her daughter had
changed. She was no longer the cheerful, feisty and happy young
woman she used to be. Now she would keep to herself all the time
and sit quietly, lost in her thoughts. Soraya always denied that
anything was wrong, but she knew her daughter well enough to know
when she was lying. Her motherly instinct told her that her
daughter's current state had something to do with Pangeran Abdul
Kadir.

* * *

Lately, she had had headaches. The
sight of food was her number one enemy. Every time she smelt or saw
any type of cooking, it would give her the urge to vomit. Her
mother noticed this. "Soraya, who is it?"

"Ibu, what are you talking
about?"

"Who is the father of your baby? Who
made you pregnant?"

"Baby? What makes you think I'm
pregnant?"

"Soraya, you haven't been eating,
you've been fainting and vomiting, and I don't think I saw you
having your period."

"No! No!" She screamed hysterically, "I
can't be pregnant, no....." Taking her head into her hands and
pulling at her hair, she started crying and screaming at the top of
her lungs.

"Soraya, Soraya, calm down, what
happened to you? Why are you like this, child? Talk to me..."Her
mother cried.

"Noor......get me some water....." She
shouted at Noorhayati.

Noor ran into the living room with a
glass of water. "Madam, what happened with Miss Soraya?"

They were surprised to hear a banging
at the door. "Soraya....Soraya.....are you okay?"

"Madam, there's is a man at the door
calling for Miss Soraya." Noor exclaimed.

"Noor, open the door." She ordered
recognizing the voice, "There must be a reason he's here at this
hour."

Noor opened the door Pangeran Abdul
Kadir was standing there accompanied by a tall man with a very
pleasant face.

"What happened? I heard screaming." He
entered without waiting to be welcomed in.

"You!" Soraya's mother stood up and
pointed her finger to his face. "What did you do to my daughter?
Why is she like this?"

"Madam, please. Soraya, Soraya what's
wrong?" He headed straight to the woman crying and curled up on the
floor.

"Don't touch me......stay away,
Ibu....tell him to go...I don't want to see him, don't touch
me......" She screamed.

The other man kneeled near her, "Miss
Soraya, Miss Soraya, Pangeran told me what had happened. Miss
Soraya calm down. Please, pass me the glass of water." Raden Hamza
said to Noor. Noor gave the glass to him, "Miss Soraya, drink this,
this water. This will help you to calm down."

She accepted the glass from him and
took a sip at the water.

"Drink some more." He said to her.
"Have you calmed down?"

She nodded.

"Why don't we go to the living room,
let me help you." He helped her to stand up and walk to the living
room, before gently helping her to sit down on the couch. Soraya
mother hastily sat down beside her daughter, hugging her
protectively.

Pangeran Abdul Kadir sat on another
chair in front of them while Raden Hamza stood by his
side.

"Madam, I came today to ask your
permission to take responsibility of your daughter." Pangeran Abdul
Kadir said.

"Responsibility?" She asked. "Your
Highness, are you the father of the child my daughter is
carrying?"

"Child?" Pangeran Abdul Kadir and Raden
Hamza looked at each other.

Soraya's mother looked to her daughter,
and caressed her hair. "Soraya has been vomiting a lot lately, and
her period is late this month."

"Madam, I will take responsibility." He
said with conviction.

"No....No..."Soraya suddenly spoke,
"Ibu, if I'm pregnant, I will take care of this baby myself. I
don't ever want to see him again." She said while pointing towards
Pangeran Abdul Kadir.

"Soraya, think about it. Our custom
won't accept a child born out of marriage. Your child would be
shunned by society, it would be humiliated and made fun of. Is that
what you want for your child? That wouldn't be fair for your child,
especially for the child of the Crown Prince."

"Ibu! He took advantage of me, he raped
me. How can I marry him?" Soraya protested standing up and running
to her room, locking the door behind her.

"Pangeran, I'll talk to my daughter and
make her come to her senses." She said to Pangeran Abdul
Kadir.

"Madam, please take care of Soraya and
my child." He said to her. "Excuse us" He said leaving the
house.

* * *

The two men left the house. Raden Hamza
sat behind the steering wheel he somberly placed his forehead
against it. "What were you thinking?" He growled.

"I feel so ashamed of myself, God
forgive me......" Pangeran Abdul Kadir said while touching his
brow.

"Pangeran, you're the future Sultan,
the leader of our country and the future religious leader. Think!
What type of Sultan do you want to be? For heaven's sakes, you have
three daughters, how would you feel if somebody....."

"Cousin, I know I made a huge mistake,
I didn't know that she was still ...."

"Even if she wasn't, what made you
think you had the right to take her without her consent? What gave
you the right to take advantage of her? What happened to everything
uncle Sultan taught you? To the high moral he educated us with? Did
you forget it all?"

"Cousin you're right, I was wrong. I've
been walking in the wrong path. I let power and position corrupt
me."

"It's not too late to change. God will
open the doors of redemption if you seek it."

"........" Pangeran Abdul Kadir was
speechless, he could only sit and regret his actions.

Chapter Thirty
Three

"I don't agree! I don't approve of you
taking another wife!" Princess Farida said in a cold
voice.

"Farida, she's already pregnant with my
child, I have to take responsibility for her."

"No! And even if you marry her now, you
cannot acknowledge the baby! It's stated in the religious
law."

"Adinda Puteri Farida, don't be
stubborn, don't think about Pangeran, but think about this poor
woman and the child in her womb!" Puteri Siti tried to persuade
her.

"Kakanda Puteri Siti, even though you
married Pangeran first, but I'm still his main wife. I have made my
decision, and no is no. I won't take a shameless woman like that as
part of our family."

"Farida, what happened to her wasn't
her fault, it was mine."

"Good, then you deal with it alone!
Don't involve me! I don't want anything to do with this problem."
She said. "If I can't be happy, I won't let you be happy either."
She thought while looking at her husband with hatred.

She stood up and left the living room.
Even though Lotus Palace was a beautiful and serene estate, she
never felt happy there. She hated it since the day she moved in,
after her wedding day. For her, it symbolizes oppression and
imprisonment, imprisoned by marriage to the brother of the man she
loved.