<img src=”https://choicesfanfic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/An-Heir-Aesthetic-300×300.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”300″ class=”size-medium wp-image-7497″ /> <em><strong>Aesthetic Credits: </strong> Viktoria – FC Joanna Prus <br />/ Istvan – FC Rob Evans<br />/ Both images borrowed from their Instagram<br />/ I own none of these images, all used with love and respect <3<br />/ Rings – enoirvado / Vegas view – Instagram sin1city / Quotes – all taken from Pinterest and none had credit for where they came from.[/</em>caption]
Drake lay in bed in his room in the Vegas suite the next morning, feeling like he’d been hit by a train; he text Cassie,
<strong>“Baby are you around? Xx”</strong><em>
The little bubbles appeared as she typed back,
<strong>“Hey you x how is The Hangover going? 😉 Xx”</strong></em>
Drake groaned and rubbed his face. He hit dial. There was too much to say on a text message.
“Oh Cass I can’t wait to be home. Vegas is so not me. This has been a shit-show baby.”
Cassie frowned, concerned, down the phone,
“Drake you sort of knew you’d hate Vegas before you went… Are you just not enjoying it or has something happened?”
Drake debated not telling her, what happens in Vegas and all that, then he reconsidered. This was his Cassie and they always told each other everything. Even the ugly stuff.
He sighed,
“Jesus, Cassie I don’t know where to start. We’re going to have to sack Andreas when we get back. He managed to hook up with some girl in this club Maxwell took us to. Never even noticed that Istvan had disappeared-”
Cassie interrupted,
“Ehh, what do you mean ‘disappeared’? Is he alright? Where were you and Maxwell?”
He groaned,
“Maxwell was dancing and I… Don’t get mad. Please.”
Cassie was silent she’d half an idea what he was going to say, she could read Drake Walker like a book… Drake continued,
“I went to get some cigarettes…”
A disappointed sigh came down the phone,
“I really wish you wouldn’t do that, Drake you know what I see every day at the hospital baby…”
Drake cleared his throat,
“I knew you’d be mad, but it’s only one or two to be sociable Cass… Anyway, Andreas dropped the ball, Istvan went back to the suite with some girl from the club-“
Cassie’s jaw dropped as she gasped down the phone,
“What?! He did what?!”
Drake groaned again, this honesty thing sure wasn’t all it was cracked up to be… Drake restarted,
“He brought some chick back to the suite, but it’s ok nothing happened!”
Cassie sounded suspicious,
“Nothing happened, but he brought her back to the room? Without any of the rest of you being there? Doesn’t sound like nothing happened to me…”
Cassie’s heart ached for Viktoria, she knew they were having some problems just now, but that didn’t make picking up some bar skank for fun times ok; had Istvan lost his mind?! Cassie thought Viktoria was his world! Drake repeated the last words of his sentence,
“Nothing happened, Cassie. That’s what he said, and I believe him. He would tell me Cass. It sounds like he planned on something happening and then got cold feet, I don’t know. He’s a mess.”
Cassie sighed,
“The whole damn thing’s a mess Drake…”
Drake nodded down the phone, she was right, it was a total mess,
“She tried to call him last night. Petit, I mean.”
Cassie raised her eyebrows,
“She did? And what happened?”
Cassie was rooting for the royal couple to sort things out, they’d been so welcoming to her when she started dating Drake a few years ago. She considered Viktoria a personal friend, and until this phone call she’d considered Istvan to be bonefide Prince Charming! She still couldn’t believe they’d separated because they were so damned perfect together.
Drake wearily groaned,
“Nothing. He was, um, otherwise engaged and missed her call… He tried to call her back, her phone was switched off. He’s been trying all through the night and it’s still off. And the longer it goes the more irrational he’s getting…”
It was Cassie’s turn to groan,
“You know she’s in New York. Can’t you get on a flight and just go get her?”
Drake let out a laugh,
“Heh. Cass, baby you’ve been in New York. How easy do you think it’s going to be to find her when we don’t even know where she’s staying?”
Cassie conceded that he was right, changing the subject, she smiled down the phone at him,
“Come home baby, I miss you so much… Thor keeps looking out the window for you…”.
Drake ran his hand through his hair and stared at the ceiling,
“Ohhhhhh Cassie… You’ve no idea how much I want to be laid out on the sofa with you and that goofy mutt right now…”
—
After last night’s fiasco Andreas was holed up in his bedroom ashamed to show his face. Maxwell was with Istvan in the lounge area of the suite. Maxwell sat on one of the sofas sipping a Frappuccino watching Istvan was pacing like a caged animal,
“Istvan why don’t you sit down? You’ve left her – what – a hundred voicemails? Her phone’s off, or out of signal. She wanted to speak to you last night. She’ll pick them up when she can. Maybe she’s on a flight?”
Istvan stopped and regarded Maxwell closely,
“A flight? Why would you say that Maxwell? Where is she going? What’s she told you??”
Maxwell raised his hands submissively,
“Istvan I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to her!”
Istvan snapped,
“Why not?? You’re her best friend!!“
Maxwell’s eyes widened and Istvan dropped his head, voice softening,
“Try to ring her Maxwell? Please? I need to speak to her, she’s my wife. I need to know why she called me last night… I need to know why she’s not picking up when I call her back. What if she’s in trouble? What if something’s happened to her?”
Maxwell sighed,
“Listen, I will call her Istvan, but it’s not going to make any difference if her phone is off… You know that, my friend, yes?”
Maxwell pulled out his phone, he raised it to his face,
“Call Little Blossom.”
Siri replied,
“Calling Little Blossom.”
Istvan stood wringing his hands in front of Maxwell as they heard Viktoria’s voice come through the speaker,
“Hello? Maxwell?”
—
Viktoria had pulled herself out of the bed after the last fit of tears. She’d finally gotten the courage to call Istvan, to tell him how she felt, how she was wrong to walk out, how she couldn’t live without him, and he didn’t answer the phone… Was it because he didn’t want to speak to her, or because he genuinely missed the call?
She’d thrown herself in the shower. Closing her eyes, she’d leaned her hands against the tiles, letting the hot water flow down her back and the steam caress her. Viktoria had pictured his face, his smile, his kisses. She wanted to talk to him so badly, to feel his skin against hers. Vik missed Istvan so much that her chest physically ached. She’d known what she had to do.
Viktoria had finished up in the shower and wrapped a fluffy white towel around her body. She’d looked at herself in the mirror: she looked like she’d been ill, her eyes were dark, her skin dull. She sighed, heading into the bedroom to get dressed. She had discovered that her skinny jeans were significantly less figure hugging than they had been when she left Cordonia a little over three weeks ago. She’d decided that she must have easily lost a stone…
Her mind was made up. She needed to speak to him and tell him all the things she’d reflected on cooped up in her hotel room over the passing weeks… If she couldn’t reach him on the phone, she was going to do it face to face… Viktoria was going home. To Cordonia. But honestly, as beautiful as Cordonia was, location didn’t come into it: she’d realised that her home was wherever Istvan was. It didn’t matter where she was in the world as long as he was by her side, holding her hand, smiling at her, laying beside her every night…
Viktoria had grabbed her bronzer, trying to make herself look less pale and tired… She’d slicked on some ruby lip-gloss and a little mascara; that was better, she didn’t want to look like a wreck when she saw him again. Grabbing her bag and passport, Viktoria had headed out of the hotel room, to check out, then onwards to the airport.
Viktoria was desperate to see her husband but suddenly sitting there in the cab, she’d become nauseatingly nervous. Would everything be the same when she went back? Would he even be happy to see her? Could he feel the same about her now? She did walk out on him after all…
—
TBC – VP 💖
