Chapter 106 - Bad Feeling

Lena's headache didn't improve after she had slept, in fact it felt worse the next day and she had too much to do which only made her more annoyed. 

The only positive was the fact that she was able to sleep through the night without having another bad dream. The last thing that she needed was for her nightmares to deprive her of sleep during a time when she was struggling to keep a normal sleep schedule was it was. 

Since there wasn't anything pressing going on and her father noticed that she still didn't seem to be feeling much better by breakfast, he insisted that she stay home and could deal with any office matters from the house. That was the whole reason that he had given James after all so that she had someone to help her out when she couldn't come to the office. 

She didn't like it, but didn't argue with him. She wasn't sure she would have the temperament to deal with too many people outside of family in the first place. The headache was an annoyance, but what was making it worse the fact that the bad feeling she had didn't go away even after she had slept. 

She didn't have bad feelings often, but in the past when she had one it was a precursor to something bad happening. The bad event that followed varied in how serious it was and didn't always prove to be fatal, but that did little to help her feel better about it. 

At least that morning Ryan wasn't arguing with her about the amount of coffee that she should or not have. She hoped that if she had enough caffeine it would distract her from her headache and everything else so that she could continue to focus on the work that she needed to get done. 

It was Friday but she had already rescheduled for dance practice to be skipped for that day and to continue as usual on Monday. She hated having to skip anything on her schedule, but she just didn't have the bandwidth to deal with it today. 

Her overactive mind was trying to place where everyone was so that she didn't have to worry about anyone being out of place that could potentially be in danger. She knew where her father, brother, and fiancé were which helped and she knew that Julian had returned last night although rather later then expected from the business dinner he had been attending. No one else as far as she knew had left which meant that everything at the immediate time should've been safe. Even Clive and his wife with their child were doing well in the hospital. He had actually messaged that morning to say that he should be able to return working his previous schedule in the next week. 

All of this just indicated to the princess that she needed to breath and relax and remind herself that there was nothing that she needed to worry about and that her bad feeling was probably just related to the terrible headache that she was dealing with. 

Samuel was worried about the fact that Lena didn't seem to be feeling much better in the morning, but rather than allowing for him to hang around her, she insisted that he kept up with his schedule and went back to training with Clarice who had been called in for another extra day since they weren't going to be visiting the office. 

Samuel wasn't so distracted today during his training, but he told Clarice about his concerns as she assured him that she would check in with the princess later and talk with her about what was going on. She wasn't sure that the younger girl would actually tell her what was going on, but it didn't hurt to ask and see what she had to say. 

Samuel was still texting with Jay who was asking more questions though still keeping them at a pretty shallow level such as what kinds of foods did he like, pets, why did he want to study business or finance in college, what did he do growing up. To some of the questions he gave more vague answers since he didn't feel comfortable talking about the Lena or the Red Scorpions. J may have seemed harmless, but he still didn't know what walk of life he was from or what his real intentions for suddenly approaching him were. 

J did indulge him by answering some of the questions he asked, but similar to how Samuel replied, there were certain things that he skirted which gave the other the impression that he had his own secrets that he didn't want to let come out yet. 

When he tried to bring the conversation back to the other answering the question about how he knew his mother and what secret she was hiding, J simple texted back that he was still being impatient and that if they could continue talking nicely like this for the next week, he would be willing to tell him and perhaps even meet up with him to talk about it.

Talking was one thing, but he wasn't sure about meeting up with the other. He knew that Lena would shoot it down right away if she knew that he wanted to meet what she would consider to be a stranger who was claiming to be family but gave no real evidence or proof that he was. Though compared to Samuel, the princess probably did have the type of network who would be able to find out in an hour who he was and what he wanted with Samuel. 

His only sticking point when it came to getting the princess involved was the fact that he wanted to have time to handle the situation himself if there was anything going on with him family. After he figured out to process everything if there was anything serious that his mother was hiding from him, then he could talk with Lena about it and try to figure out his relationship with this mother. 

If it turned out to be nothing more than the fact that his mother lied about her family because she didn't get along with them and didn't want them back in her life after she got married, that was something he could handle. He knew kids back in high school who had to deal with that type of situation. That type of scenario was something that he could deal with. The cageyness surrounding the situation and the fact that J hadn't given him a real name to work with told him though that there was most likely something bigger going on. 

When he told J that he wasn't sure about meeting with him since he didn't yet know him that well, the other said that was a pity because he was sure that they would get along better once they met, but he understood where the other stood and said they could work on that at some other point in time. 

"Why are you looking at your phone in such an intense manner?" Lena asked. She had come out of her office and was going to the kitchen to ask Ryan to brew her a stronger cup of coffee when she noticed Samuel sitting in one of the chairs in the living room staring at his phone rather intently. The direction he was sitting in didn't allow for her to see what he was doing on his phone, but the surprised look that flicked across his face as though he had been caught off guard by the other made her think that he might've been hiding something. 

"It's a surprise." He quickly replied as he pocketed his phone hoping that the princess would believe that. She gave him a mixture between an unimpressed and slightly annoyed look. 

"I'm not fond of surprises, especially when I have too much going on." She told him as she approached the chair he was sitting in. The only time that Samuel found her intimidating anymore was in such a situation where he was sitting down and she actually stood above him. 

"Tell me." She ordered, her tone sharp but not overly demanding. 

"It's actually for our engagement party. So maybe you could wait until then to find out?" He reasoned. The promise ring was the only surprise he had for her, but it was the only thing he could think of to say to hid the real reason why he was surprised. He didn't want Lena to see who he was texting. 

"Is this the supposed surprise that you set up with my father?" She asked standing in front of him now, her arms crossed as she looked down at him, watching his expression carefully to see if there was anything else that he was hiding. 

"Yes. That surprise, which is why I would like if you would be willing to wait to find out about it. It isn't ready yet anyways."  Her fiancé replied as he looked up at her. She was quiet as their gazes locked. He seemed to be a touch uncomfortable with keeping eye contact with her, but the fact that he didn't fully look away made her want to believe that there wasn't anything else that he was hiding from her except for this. 

"Fine, I will indulge you, but if I found out that there's anything else that you're choosing to hide from me aside from this, you'll be in serious trouble." Samuel didn't doubt that for a second, the princess thus far hadn't made any empty threats that she didn't follow through on.