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When the two brothers heard Aramade was also around, they ran towards the door instantly. Prince Ire yanked the door open, scaring Grace a little. Her brows shot up at Prince Ire wondering what was happening, but she was too excited seeing Aramade again to think of anything else. Ire came down slowly. He managed to compose himself, that no one could guess he was in a difficult situation. He quickly thought of how to handle the situation and use it to his advantage. What came to his mind felt like part of him was going to die, but that was the best option at the moment. The moment Prince Adewale spotted him, Prince Ire forced a smile on his face since Prince Adewale had a huge smile on as well. "Long time bro! Been long you visited the palace." Prince Ire said, standing before him.

"I miss everyone actually," Prince Adewale replied. The two brothers shook hands and greeted with smiles. "But I've been extremely busy and you know pleasing your King can be so strenuous." 

"Hmm...you are right." Prince Ire stared at him, trying to spot if something was off in his behavior towards him, but Prince Adewale's smile was the same. His reaction towards him was the same. The way he responded was exactly the same way Adewale he knew would have responded. Is he acting? He thought but immediately waved it at side. "Let's seat," he offered. 

"Well, well..." Prince Adewale turned to Aramade. "Mr. Man, it's ladies first. At this stage, should I be teaching you that?" He chuckled, getting Aramade to smile.

"Prince Adewale, I'm actually fine. I can wait."

"Hmm..." Prince Adewale cleared his throat, threw a quick wink at Prince Ire to talk to Ara first. "Actually, I met her here. So, I'm guessing she's also here to see you. I will just wait." He turned around, but stopped. He turned back at Prince Ire instead. "I thought she works here?"

"Not anymore." Prince Ire responded, telling himself not to fall for what Prince Adewale was playing. If he hated him so much and had been acting this way since he knew him, then it was just an act to convince him they were cool. He was now their suspect. He shouldn't lose guard. He was still the same Ire who had no time for shit! 

Aramade smiled. She was happy to see Prince Ire was doing so well. After he had confessed to her, she knew he would be extremely worried, and he didn't bother to hide it until she played a joke on him. Ara knew she wasn't supposed to come to the palace but she understood he was going through a lot and she wasn't at ease that she wanted to check up on him, see how he was doing, and be there to cheer him up. Aramade knew how those strange pictures bothered Prince Ire a lot. He acted like it was nothing at first, and thought he could handle it, but things were getting too scary and Ara could feel it that he badly needed answers. She could sense that Prince Ire was beginning to worry. She wished she could be beside him to share words of affirmation and encouragement to him just like he would have done. Aramade moved closer to him. "I brought you--"

"Do you think I need you here?" Prince Ire's voice came out bluntly, staring at Aramade with no smile. Like he never once cared for her. Like she was just everybody else. Exactly how he would have talked to her if she was still his worker. "I can't remember giving anyone the authority to come in here anytime they feel like. I just wanted to get to know you and I don't feel like anymore. You should get that. Fun is just for a while."

Aramade paused and stared at him. She had just been disgraced but waited still. Her eyes were intensively fixed on Prince Ire for answers. Her eyes were beginning to turn red. Cloud of tears had formed, but she summoned courage to hold them. She couldn't cry. She couldn't get her pretty face wet, but her heart wouldn't listen.  We were fine. We were fine some hours ago. What happened again? So bad she could only ask herself. She wondered if something else was going on that she didn't know about. She looked up at him hoping she would understand it was because of what he was going through, but all she met was his cold eyes staring back at him. God, no. She released those tears. They did fall on her pretty face, but only made her even more beautiful that someone wanted to kiss them away. Hug her, and tell her it was just to protect her. God, Ara murmured. At this point, she realised how much she loved Ire that she didn't even care the situation around her. She grabbed his hand, and moved closer to slightly touch his face. The two stood before each other staring passionately at themselves.

At that moment, Prince Ire was weak. Part of him was hurting. He wanted to grab Ara and wipe those tears away, kiss her face till those tears dry up, and also made that trembling lips of hers smile at him with the magic his hands could do by touching it, but he couldn't do anything stupid after  all he said. He needed to act and make it look so real.

Prince Adewale looked in between the two. He saw Ara in tears and could tell what was going on between the two had gone beyond getting to know themselves. She was ready to listen to him still. That showed she wasn't ready to walk away.  But staring at his brother, he had seen Prince Ire talked many times. To him, he was the most heartless, rude, inconsiderate guy he had ever known. He wondered if Prince Ire knew how everyone hated him even before he travelled out of the country. His face held no emotion towards Ara and deep down, Prince Adewale felt bad for the pretty girl. At the beginning, he knew it could never work, because financially, the gap was too much. He looked away. So bad Prince Ire was his brother. If he could change that when coming to the world next time, he would rather they had no relationship bringing them close together. Prince Adewale decided to speak. "You seemed really too close and I thought you really liked her Ire. What happened?"

Prince Ire detached himself from Ara and turned to Prince Adewale. "I see no reason to keep stooping so low with a worker. I can't imagine you want me to really date someone like her. Are you wishing me bad? Below your class, is not the game. Dad keeps saying that anyways." This was exactly how Prince Ire would have spoken if nothing was between them initially. Ara knew. And she hates it so much.

Prince Adewale shook his head. "Love could change anything. You haven't met my girlfriend yet."

"I regret not learning from you." Prince Ire said. "She made you buy her a new ride, and you also did well with her lekki boutique. A new house at Ikoyi. She's spending your money well. Now you could say I know her." Prince Ire provoked him.

"Whao!" Prince Adewale stared at Prince Ire, angry.  But he looked away from him and turned to Aramade. "I guess this brother of mine hasn't change. Everyone said he changed but I knew he didn't change at all. Next time, you should watch these rich guys before you part your legs for them," he said to get back at Prince Ire and he succeeded, but he couldn't do anything. He needed to make them all believe he wasn't with Ara anymore. "I will take my leave first." Prince Adewale turned towards the door.

"You should follow him as well." Prince Ire said referring to Aramade. "Grace! Please close my door." Then he climbed the stairs back  to his room like nothing happened. His brother, Prince Adedamola was the first person to confront him.

"What did you just do?"

"Protecting her."

"But she doesn't know."

"She can't know."

Prince Adedamola heaved a sigh. "I trust you," he told his brother and also left his apartment.

<<<<<<<<

"How did it go?"

Prince Adewale closed the car door and fasten his seat belt before responding. "I made a mistake visiting him."

"I thought you just wanted to see Dad? Why do you keep trying to have a good relationship with him? What's it going to get you?"

"Debisi, he's my brother. Our brother." Prince Adewale responded. "No matter how weird or how much I try to say I don't like his attitude, he would always remain my brother. And dad really wants us to get along."

"Why are you always comfortable with him?" Princess Adebisi was annoyed and she wasn't hiding it. "Almost everything you have, it could have belonged to him because Dad wanted to please him and make him start behaving like a good son, but he would always remain a damn drug addict! He's useless! He exposed mom Dewale!"

"No Debisi. That was mom's mistake. I'm a man, and I would never take that from any woman. Also, everything I have now is because I worked hard for it. He's intelligent, and I'm nothing less."

"What do you know."  Princess Adebisi whispered to herself but he heard her.

Prince Adewale stared at his little sister and laughed. "I don't always recognise you when you dress in this your costume. Why anyways? If I your elder brother can't recognise you, how will others recognise you."

"Hey, what's wrong with her?" Princess Adebisi suddenly spotted Ara who just walked out of the main gate of mumusi palace. She decided to use that to change the conversation between her and her brother.

"He broke up with her. I guess she's still crying."

Princess Adebisi kept quiet and watched Ara for two seconds. She put on her black face cap, took her black kajal and disfigured her face with the long abaja tribal mark she made on her face herself. It was very obvious, giving her an ugly look and totally made her look different. All Prince Adewale could do was laugh, watching her sister with curiosity. He wondered why she does that at times. He watched his sister brought out and put in her mouth one of the sweets he disliked the most because of the awful smell.  "I will be right back." Princess Adebisi got down from her car and walked towards Aramade. Prince Adewale who sat inside the car was watching from where he was and saw how his sister intentionally hit Ara who thought it was a mistake.

When Ara saw the face, she was disgusted by the smell coming out from her mouth when she said sorry. She quickly walked away and couldn't believe someone has an ugly tribal mark like that. God, what's all these rubbish I'm facing today self! She said annoyingly and stopped crying. She hissed and wiped her wet face unable to get the awful smell and such a long tribal mark off her head.

After confirming what she wanted, Princess Adebisi walked back towards her car. She was about opening the door to the driver's seat when the ringing tone of her cell phone distracted her and  stopped her from opening the door. She moved back and brought out her phone. It was Derin. She rolled her eyes, but eventually picked it. "Hello," her tone was flat with no excitement at all. "It's been a long time."

"A very long one. But babe, I'm calling to confirm something." Derin quickly said, getting Princess Adebisi to roll her eyes even more. Derin was always calling to disturb her, ask her for something or confirm something from her ever since she got married to the governor. Derin continued when she noticed she had been given room to talk. "Remember when you told me Ire would be taking that girl out on his birthday."

"Yes."

"And remember I told you I would go there as well to see if he could listen to me and let's start over again?"

"Yes."

"Bisi," Derin paused. "Ire just called to ask me who knew about my movement that day. He wanted to know who I told."

"And I hope you didn't forget that despite me being the one you told, the governor is always aware about your movement. Did you tell him that too? That three people knew about your movement that day. Me. The Governor. And the person who reports to him all the time."

"Oh!" Derin sighed. "This is serious."

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Author's Note

Guys😄 who is the culprit self?
Osumi o🤣 we sha want this love to be dangerous. May we not fall inside love that will claim our lives ijn😄
Do you think that was the best thing Prince Ire could have done to protect Ara?
PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO SUPPORT WITH YOUR VOTES😄 THE STAR 🌟 BUTTON GIVES ME A BIG SMILE😄 (naso naso I go dey remind una ejhoor🙏Eni se lasan😁)
A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO EVERY ONE WHO HAS BEEN VOTING 🙏 I'M GRATEFUL.😄 Shey you don vote all chapters sha, cause if not, Please don't take my thank you🤣)