The Prince’s First Love Was Me Chapter 10

Before long, the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard, and my parents and Lucy entered the drawing room.

“Ronnie. I heard we have guests?”

My mother, who had already gotten the news from a maid, approached with a warm smile.

“What’s going on? You didn’t say anything beforehand. This is so sudden.”

“Well, things just turned out this way. They insisted—really, really insisted—on coming today.”

With my back to the two men, I turned toward my family and made a miserable face.

I was trying to tell them how much trouble I was in right now.

All three of them looked the two men up and down with displeased expressions.

It hurt a little to see Aaron being treated like an unwelcome guest, but thanks to my family sticking together, my body, which had been stiff with tension, finally began to relax a little.

“But who are these young men? They look familiar.”

My father studied the two men carefully as he spoke. My mother seemed unsure, but she agreed with him.

The face that looked more familiar to my parents was probably Chris’s, rather than Aaron’s.

After all, Chris had often appeared at official events in Aaron’s place.

Just as Chris was about to speak, Aaron placed a hand over his chest and bowed politely.

“Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Aaron Redmayne.”

Silence swept through the drawing room. The servants watching from a distance stared in utter shock.

My family was just as frozen.

With my mother and Lucy standing stiffly with their hands over their mouths, my father decided he had to say something. He stepped forward with an awkward smile plastered across his face.

“Your Royal Highness. Please forgive our rudeness. The only time we saw you was from a distance about seven years ago, so we failed to recognize you. You have grown into a fine young man.”

Aaron responded to the greeting with a polite smile and handed over the wine he had brought.

“This is Rivaide port wine. It’s quite sweet, so it’s excellent even when enjoyed on its own.”

“Oh, my! How could we possibly accept something so precious? Let’s move somewhere more comfortable and continue our conversation.”

There wasn’t enough room to accommodate everyone, so we moved to the dining room.

My father cradled the wine as if it were a priceless treasure and cheerfully led the two men inside.

“Where did Becky go?”

My mother had quietly stepped aside and asked me.

“She was tidying up the flower beds earlier. I guess it’s taking her a while.”

I gave an awkward smile as I thought of Becky, who was probably too embarrassed to come back yet.

While the servants brought out refreshments, Chris had remained quiet. Once everyone was seated, he finally spoke.

“From what I’ve heard, the Lopez family has only two daughters. May I ask what the situation is?”

“What exactly would you like to know?”

My mother asked in a trembling voice.

“Why Ronnie has never been introduced to the world until now.”

At Aaron’s blunt question, all three of them exchanged uneasy glances without waiting for anyone else to do so.

I let out a long sigh.

‘At this rate, I’m going to die from stress.’

It felt as though I were watching a high-pressure job interview, and the tension was making it hard for me to breathe, too.

My parents couldn’t bring themselves to lie in front of a prince, so Lucy stepped in for them.

“People think we only have two daughters because my brother has been hiding his identity while working as a delivery person in the plaza. If people found out he was a noble, they might refuse to hire him in the first place, or they might fire him. We needed money right away, and working was the only way we could earn any. So my brother had no choice but to hide who he was and work to support us.”

Lucy rattled off a convincing story, as if she had been waiting for this moment all along.

I was secretly impressed by her quick thinking when Aaron nodded and slowly raised his gaze.

“I see. Then where is your other sister now?”

“Ah, my older sister is…”

Lucy gave an unnatural smile and rolled her eyes toward me.

Sensing danger, I abruptly cut into the conversation.

“Dahlia is in another country. She’s very serious about her studies. I shouldn’t say this, but paying her tuition is practically breaking our backs!”

“Ahahaha!”

I suddenly burst into loud laughter, and my hesitant parents soon joined in.

Taking advantage of the confusion, I quickly changed the subject.

“Anyway, what brings you two all the way here?”

Lucy’s eyes were filled with curiosity. She probably had a million questions about how the prince and I had met, and how long we had known each other.

To her credit, Lucy didn’t bombard him with questions all at once. She patiently waited for Aaron to answer.

Aaron gave an inscrutable smile and looked back and forth between my parents across the table.

Then, without hesitation, he revealed the very reason he had come here—the main point of his visit.

“I came to announce that Ronnie and I are in a relationship.”

Everyone stared blankly at Aaron, unable to understand what they had just heard.

Then my mother was the first to grasp his meaning. The teaspoon slipped from her hand.

Clang!

The metallic sound rang loudly through the dining room.

“R-Ronnie. You mean… you’re going to date our eldest son? No, you mean you are dating him?”

“Yes.”

At Aaron’s firm answer, heat rose to my face at the worst possible time. I fanned myself with my hand and sneaked a glance at him.

“I understand that you may not approve, but I had no choice. By the time I realized how I felt about Ronnie, it was already too late to turn back.”

How was he so good at acting? Even the smallest details were perfect.

Despite knowing this was no time to be smiling foolishly, I couldn’t help grinning as I watched Aaron’s serious expression.

When his face was expressionless, he practically radiated icy coldness. But when he smiled, his entire image changed, and he looked like a mischievous young boy. It was fascinating, even now.

Aaron noticed me looking and flashed me a bright smile.

It was a confident smile that seemed to say, Are you watching? This is what I can do.

‘Yes, absolutely. I’m in constant awe. I applaud Your Royal Highness’s face—no, your acting skills!’

My family let out a collective gasp as they caught the exchange of glances between Aaron and me.

My father, in particular, pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a groan.

“May I dare to say something to Your Royal Highness?”

After taking a long time to choose his words, my father cautiously began.

Aaron readily nodded.

“Go ahead.”

“Ronnie is my eldest son and the heir to my title. As you can see, he is a grown man. According to the scandals published in the weekly magazines, Your Royal Highness has always dated young ladies from the most distinguished families. May I ask why you chose my son this time?”

Even in response to a question that could have sounded rather confrontational, Aaron remained perfectly relaxed.

“I believe that gender and social status don’t matter when something is beautiful. I wanted him, so I took him. That’s all.”

I wanted him, so I took him.

Perhaps those simple, no-nonsense words had a much greater impact than expected.

Everyone moved their lips as if they wanted to speak, but no one could get a word out.

“Have I answered your question sufficiently?”

Aaron looked around at my family, the corners of his mouth curving into a smile.

“Then please give us your blessing.”

It was a gentle command that shut down any further questions before they could be asked.

He hadn’t come here to ask for permission. He was telling them to bless us instead.

Aaron’s arrogant gaze and confident attitude made that perfectly clear.

My family all smiled awkwardly at the same time.

No one here dared to disobey an order from him.

Thirty minutes later.

As soon as the two men left, a family meeting was held in the dining room.

Becky, who knew where she had disappeared to all this time, also quietly appeared just then.

“Didn’t get caught, did I?”

“Nope. Your reflexes were incredible!”

Though I had been treated as a very strange person in the process.

I brought Becky over to the three family members sitting together with serious expressions.

“Big sis. What on earth happened? You’re dating a man! And not just anyone—a prince!”

“Lucy. Let’s get our facts straight. There’s nothing strange about Dahlia dating a man. What I want to know is why you started dating the prince while pretending to be Ronnie.”

Even though they were my family, I couldn’t tell them about the fake relationship contract. That would violate its terms.

So I explained my situation in as much detail as I could, sticking to what they could reasonably understand.

“The prince came to the café where I work. He suddenly confessed that he’d fallen in love with me at first sight. How could I possibly turn him down? The prince is objectively handsome, sexy, decadent, and elegant. Sometimes he has this sensitive, dangerous charm, but when he smiles, he gets these little dimples, and it’s so lov—”

As I kept talking, I unknowingly started acting like the leader of the Aaron fan club, preaching about him endlessly.

Only then did I notice my family staring at me with bewildered expressions. I scratched my cheek awkwardly.

“Anyway, it’s only natural that I, as a woman, would be attracted to the prince. I didn’t want to let the opportunity pass me by.”

“Dahlia. You should have thought about what would happen afterward.”

My mother was right. Dating Aaron as Ronnie carried far greater risks than I had imagined.

Of course, I was well aware of that, too. But at the time, I hadn’t had a choice.

‘He said he’d have my head chopped off if I refused.’

Even if I could go back in time, I probably still wouldn’t have been able to turn Aaron down.

Both my circumstances and my feelings had pointed me toward the same choice.

Looking at my family’s worried faces, I offered them a hopeful solution.

“Besides, the prince gets tired of his lovers pretty quickly, doesn’t he? Wouldn’t it be faster for him to dump me than for him to find out I’m a woman?”

My parents and Becky nodded, agreeing that I had a point.

Just by reading the articles in the weekly magazines, anyone could see how often Aaron changed girlfriends.

I thought the meeting was finally coming to an end, but Lucy’s objection quickly reignited the discussion.

“Either way, you’re going to be dating the prince. So what are you going to do about physical intimacy during that time?”

“Physical intimacy? For hugs, I can just wrap the bandages tighter. And my lips work the same way as anyone else’s, so what’s the problem?”

“Not the upper part! The lower part!”

All four pairs of eyes turned toward my lower body at once.

“Oh, goodness! How scandalous!”

Becky hurriedly covered her eyes with both hands. That left me completely at a loss as to how I was supposed to react.

‘Um, Becky. There’s nothing scandalous down there for me. When you react like that, it makes me feel like I should be covering something up!’