Okay, so good or bad news, I have decided to put both Chapter 18 and Chapter 19 together into a longer chapter... Enjoy!

If Nefera's life was a roller-coaster, the princess would be right at the top of the biggest downfall. She was bored. She hated routine, she had to suffer from a routine for three months when she was grounded, and though she now had free access to the outside world, she felt even trapped than ever.

The only thing that could change her mind and distract her somewhat of her boring life had been labeled as forbidden and dangerous by the princess herself. Recently, she had found herself eager for Saturdays to arrive. She adored Holt's company, truly. He was funny, even though most of his jokes were sex jokes, she'd laugh anyway.

Nefera didn't consider herself as a weak person, but a few meetings four times a month seemed to be enough to distract her from her relationship. To which she was committed, by the way. She was faithful to Jackson and didn't think she could ever cheat on him, she was a loyal girlfriend, but those last few weeks she had strangely felt her heart beating faster than it should while she was near a certain blue boy.

Of course, she was repeating herself that a simple crush would never kill anyone, but it was probably better if Jake didn't learn about it. Again, it didn't mean that she had fallen out of love for Jackson, far from it. She was crazy about him… When he was there.

Nefera had nothing to complain about, he was the perfect boyfriend. How many times had he ditched his friends just so he could spend the night at her place? She'd lost the count. And the cherry on top was sex, of course. He was now taking initiatives in bed, which she was thankful for, she liked commanding from time to time but she loved being submissive to the men she would sleep with.

But thoughts like 'I wonder how Holt is in bed' certainly didn't help. Poor guy hadn't had sex in nearly three months, all because of her, and it would not change anytime soon because her crush on him didn't help in that matter. Now, not only wouldn't she accept a girl to touch Jake, but she would also wince because she would think of Holt with someone else.

Those thoughts she was trying to forget, she mostly had them during the week, when Jake was at school and she was, well, home. Nefera had tried various activities to occupy her mind and body during schooldays but she had ended up giving up and staying in her bedroom, annoyed. No matter how hard she tried, she felt like something was missing.

Days like today. She was reading on a bedsit next to the royal pool, a lowly romance she had found in the library, trying to force herself to actually read the story when the guards came and told her that someone was asking for her. A little surprised, and wondering who it might be, she traveled the entire castle until she found herself in front of her unexpected guest.

"Holt? What are you doing here? It's Wednesday!", she said and she was displeased to hear that her voice sounded joyful.

Holt, on the other hand, didn't look happy at all. "Neffie, I'm sorry, I don't have good news for you.", he answered with a mourning tone. "I was worried ever since you mentioned that Jakey was working with this Operetta girl." The more he talked, the less she smiled. "I didn't tell you right away, but she doesn't have a saint reputation at school."

"What are you talking about?"

"I wanted to assure myself that he wasn't betraying you, so I set an alarm on to check if they were working and… Let's just say you wouldn't have enjoyed the view." Holt seemed to be repeating. The princess within her thought that he probably had tried to find the right way to tell her, but the mischievous Nefera could sense that something was wrong, and it all just sounded suspicious. Unfortunately for Holt, the second part had always been proved more right than the other.

"Are you serious right now? Why would you invent such a thing, I thought you were my friend!", said the princess, and this time her voice sounded pissed-off.

"Wha- I'm not inventing, Nefera. I'm telling you that when I got the control my head was between that girl's spread legs, for fuck sake. Why would I invent something like that?"

"Exactly Holt, why would you?", she was pacing in the Palace entrance, her head between her hands. "They are working!"

"Oh, c'mon Jake's clever! Why would their work take so much time?"

"You're just jealous. It's pathetic that you'd have to make up some false cheating story just because you want something that you will obviously never have", she spat and when she did she could see that he was now angry.

"Are you calling me a liar?" he yelled, as they were now both screaming at each other. "Why would I believe you instead of him? I trust him!"

He glared at her, took a deep breath, and slowly made his way closer to her. So close that she could feel his breath on her face. "Oh, really?", he whispered. "Then I guess you trust him enough not to look inside his phone tonight, hmm?" If she wasn't mad at him, she would have probably hoped for him to kiss her, for she could feel the tension between them and she wanted to kill him as much as she wanted him to take her in this very entrance.

She exhaled loudly and if he wasn't close enough he wouldn't have perceived her "Fuck you". Her eyes were filled with tears and her breathing was itching. "It would be my pleasure.", he replied, louder, before he walked away, fists clenched, leaving her standing stupidly in her hallway, heartbroken for too many reasons.

Jake didn't text that night and didn't come either. She tried to assure herself that it was only because Holt was in control but if she was completely honest with herself, she would admit that the ginger's words just kept replaying over and over in her head. Ever since he'd left her place she was wondering if she had made the right decision, if she trusted Jake more than she trusted Holt. She'd tried to calm down with a walk, hoping it would help her clear her mind but it didn't.

Walking back home, she found Cleo lying on a couch in the living room, while swiping up on her phone.

"You're not with snake face tonight?", she asked, trying to cover the pain in her voice.

"He has a family dinner with his mother. Why?"

"No reason.", said the elder. "I heard some girls at the mall talk about an 'Operetta' the other day. D'you happen' to know her?"

Her sister made a face when she heard the name. She frowned and Nefera already knew that Cleo wasn't a fan.

"Yeah, I know her. That slut tried to steal Deuce away from me last year. Why do you care about her?"

Nefera missed a heartbeat. "What do you mean 'she tried to steal Deuce'?", she asked, hoping she'd misunderstood her baby sister.

Cleo snapped her tongue in annoyment, unhappy to be bothered by her sister and to be reminded that dark part of her past. "That bitch had started to hang out with my boyfriend because she wanted to fuck him, Nefera, may I be any more explicit?"

Nefera felt nauseous and disgusted at what her sister just told her, so she ran away and locked herself in her bedroom without a word.

The next evening, she still couldn't stop thinking about Holt's words. She knew she should, given that she was currently on her back, legs spread while her boyfriend was fastening the rhythm in and out of her. It felt good, but not enough to alter her train of thought. The princess was absent-minded, moaning every one or two seconds so he would be satisfied, but she really couldn't call this a mind-blowing sex, she wished it was, though, so she could stop picturing Jake doing the same thing with another girl.

"Are you good?", he asked, panting and sweating as he'd stopped from moving.

"Yes, yes, keep going, don't worry."

"You sure? You don't seem to be enjoying it."

"My mind is elsewhere that's just it. Keep going."

Staring at him, she moaned for the next couple of thrusts, but soon enough her mind was driven to really bad thoughts as she imagined if Jake was thinking about his mistress while he was fucking her. He came within the next minutes, and she barely acknowledged his apologies for coming before her.

She was brought back to reality when he leaned in front of her opened legs, ready to give her a lick if he wasn't cut short by Nefera's sudden clasp of her legs.

"No thanks.", she said with a fake smile, before turning her back on him as she tried to drift off to sleep.

Her sleep never came, she was torturing her mind with a single question. Should I have trusted Holt? And suddenly, as she recalled what Holt had last said to her, she had her answer. I guess you trust him enough not to look inside his phone. She didn't trust him enough, and what she'd heard about Opreretta was making her doubt even more.

Casting a glance at Jackson, who was sound asleep, she got out of her bed to come to his side, hoping she would not wake him up. She didn't know his password, but thankfully or not his phone could also be unlocked thanks to his fingerprint. The princess took his index softly careful not to be too harsh with him and she put back his hand when the screen unlocked and she sat on the floor.

She was caught by his wallpaper, it was a picture they took a few weeks ago. You couldn't see her features in the photo since her nose was nipped in his neck but she found it cute altogether, which made the fact of him cheating even more repulsive to Nefera.

She didn't know where to start so she wandered from files to files until she finally ended up by opening his text messages. Operetta was within the last persons he'd texted after Deuce, Holt, and herself.

The last text he'd sent was 'I hope that we will ace the presentation.', which seemed normal to Nefera. She burst out of tears and put her hand on her mouth as she tried to be silent. The text before that was saying he would miss her boobs after all of this was over.

Not needing to know more, she closed all of the apps she had opened before and she put his phone back where it was before, not noticing her tears crashing on her bedroom floor. She went to her bathroom, put some freshwater on her face, and tried to calm herself down. She cried herself to sleep that night.

If Jackson's life was a roller-coaster, he would be right at the top of the biggest downfall. He didn't know yet, but today was the last day of his "honeymoon era", as he will later call it.

If he was completely honest, something felt off, already. A lot of things should have warned him that he should worry. First, Holt had trapped him while Jackson and Operetta were wrapping up their presentation. Jake didn't know what had happened then, he assumed that the two exes had had an explanation and he had not heard of Operetta since, so he did not worry about it.

His girlfriend, also, even though he was madly in love with her, he could tell there was a gap slowly but surely forming between them. Again, Jake thought innocently that she was only wishing to spend at least one weekend with him, and so, he'd left a message to Holt, asking him if there was any possibility for Jake to have his Saturday. Of course, Holt hadn't answered.

Not knowing how to make up to his princess, Jake thought that the best thing was probably to ask her what was wrong, and so that's what he planned on doing, on that fateful day.

It was Friday, two weeks before the last day of school, at noon, in the cafeteria. As always, Jake was eating with his best friend, who was absent-mindedly toying with one of the snakes on his head, anxious about a basketball game that Jake had completely forgotten.

"Dude?", asked Jake to his friend. "Has Cleo already been… Like, not there, while you two were doing it?"

Deuce suddenly was interested in his best friend's question. "Meaning? Did the sucker fell asleep? Are you that bad?"

"No, she was pretty much awake, but it was as if her mind was on something else.", Jake shifted and got closer to Deuce, whispering "She didn't even want me to go down on her."

It made his friend laugh, but Jackson was dead serious. He knew his girl now, he knew her well. He wouldn't call her a nymphomaniac, but she rarely if not never denied him sex. Never had she said to him a single "Not tonight, I'm tired" or anything, - which Deuce envied badly. And when his lover spread her legs for him, she never stopped until she reached her climax.

Actually, he wouldn't care if it had only been that. This morning, when he woke up in her bed and tried to reach for a hug, she resisted and remained her back to him. So, he thought that maybe she exceptionally wasn't in a good mood. But when she still ignored his texts all day long, he finally realized that something had happened. Something he didn't know about. Yet.

She had been crying all morning. As soon as he left her bedroom she'd burst into tears. Ignoring his texts, she decided to take care of herself. Frozen spoons on her eyes so that her eyebags would disappear as much as the swollen form her face had taken after a whole night spent crying.

Allan brought her body scrub, wet towels, and a variety of nail polish so the Princess would be distracted. The last time he'd seen her like that was the morning after she was grounded, but today, he didn't know the reason behind his master's sobs. He guessed that it had something to do with young Mr. Jekyll, seeing how Nefera was sending him straight to voicemail each time he called.

After her nails were painted, she sent Allan out of the room, she needed to think, to be alone so she could act.

"I can't stay with him.", she said, on her own. "I need to break up with him."

Nefera stood from the chair Allan had prepared for her and started to pace in the room.

He needs to hurt., said her inner voice. As much as me, if not more.

But every time she tried to elaborate revenge whatsoever, she just started to cry again, she was devastated, and, weakening.

She sniffed and wiped her tears with her hand. "Holt was right. I should have believed him." Not knowing why, she dialed the blue boy number, probably hoping that he would pick up the phone but it didn't even ring, meaning the phone was off.

Allan came back a few minutes later, hands full of body and hair products, and he took care of the princess until 5:00 PM.

She was nearly falling asleep under Allan's back massage when she heard a knock at the door and heard her servant answering.

"Your Highness, the guards say a boy is asking for you in the living room. I think it's your boyfriend, should I send him off?"

She raised her head from the massage table and shook her head no as she grabbed a silk orangish robe and went out, wearing only the robe and her bitch face. This face showed nothing, if indifference, and she usually kept it for people she despised, her heart broke an umpteenth time at the thought that Jake was now a part of those people.

Using the few strength she had, she managed to join Jackson in the palace's living room. She wanted the pace of her legs slow and determined, but they were slow and afraid. When he was in her sight, she could tell he was worried, as he nearly jumped on her, grabbing her arm and asking her what the fuck was going on.

"You've been weird for a couple of days now and you won't even reply to my texts or pick up the phone.", Jake whined. He expected an answer such as "Sorry, babe, something is bothering me I just needed to take some time off so I turned off my phone."

But she looked at him blankly, he couldn't see any emotions in his lover's eyes. He followed her glare, she was looking his hand around her wrist. She watched it as if a cockroach had touched her; with disgust. He was confused.

She looked back at his face, straight into his eyes. "I cheated on you.", she said. And the roller coaster was plunging. He raised his brows two times. "Wh-What?"

Nefera inhaled. "I met someone. I cheated on you, it's over, Jackson."

He watched her defiantly, still expecting her to crack a smile and to laugh at his reaction. Still waiting for someone to come in, mocking him, and telling him that it was a hidden camera. When none of this happened, when his tears had filled both of their eyes, he simply nodded and turned his back on her.

He couldn't see anything, on the way out of the palace, even less as he traveled the whole sand area. His breathing had accelerated, his sight was blurred, and he could only hear his heart pulsating in his ears. A sob was stuck in his throat, he thought about the last time he'd cried, he couldn't even remember when it was, as he searched through the files of his phone.

A melody came out of his phone and he turned up the volume. And then, nothing.

There it is! The end of the beginning, the last chapter of the first part. There will be a non-chapter post right before the 1st chapter of the second part, it will be a little summary of the past 18th chapters and I will also answer questions if there are any :) I hope that you like the story until then and that you liked this chapter as well. 'Til, next time, Lohu22.

Just a little disclaimer. While writing it I thought that the sex scene between Nefera and Jackson could be misinterpreted as rape by some of the readers. I didn't write it as such, I imagine Jackson as someone you could tell if you didn't want to 'keep going'. I wanted to emphasize the fact that she literally can't stop thinking about Holt's words, even in such private moments like these.

I do not caution rape nor am I a big fan of (fan)fictions that romanticize it. It is something serious and I wouldn't want to offend or hurt any of my readers. I hope you will understand my point, in any case, thanks for reading.