Prince Benjamin's Story - Chapter Two

Click Here if You Missed Chapter One

Note to Blog Readers: this chapter mentions a lot of characters from prior books, so I wanted to make note of them to help you out.
As I mentioned in the previous blog post, Prince Benjamin’s story is a little side story that is a bridge between several other stories and brings together characters from many parts of the families. If you’ve never read the Royal Family Saga, this might get a little confusing.
The main character in this story is Benjamin, son of Prince Marcos, who is the son of King Sayid. You might remember Marcos as the main character in Part One of Billionaire’s Brother: Royal Family Saga Book Four. At the end of his story, he fled Madain Saleh with little Benjamin in one arm and his brother’s crown in the other. Marcos claimed the title of Crown Prince in absence of his older brother, Jared, who died in a tragic motorcycle accident. Now Benjamin is grown and getting married.
In this chapter, you will meet Alexandria Cohen-Stephenson, mother to Alex, Sr. This is the only story where you will meet her because she dies when Alex is very young. Until I started writing this story, I had no idea how close she and Benjamin were, or the reasons why her husband Garrett never really got along with Benjamin. Now I understand!
Other characters who make brief appearances in this chapter include several of the Cohen brothers, along with their wives, and children, plus their parents, Levi and Sarah.
Most notable of all the characters (in the whole series) is Nicholas Cohen, third son of Levi and Sarah Cohen. He is the main character in Part One of Billionaire’s Sons: Royal Family Saga Book Five. Coincidently, once this series is republished in three volumes, Nicholas will be the first main character of the whole series, as he should have been all along. His three children are introduced in this chapter, but if you’ve read the series, you might recognize them. Alexandria is mother to Alexander, Sr. (The Councilman), Alejandro is father to Hazel (who marries Mark, Benjamin and Nisha’s son), and Santiago is grandfather to Felicia (who marries Prince Aaron).
Others introduced in this chapter are Jacob Cohen (fourth son to Levi and Sarah), who fell in love with his wife, Maryam, while traveling on their superyacht. Also, their son, Emanuel (Manny) (The Hunter), and his new bride. You’ll get to know her a little better in Chapter Three, along with some surprise wedding crashers. Speaking of weddings, let’s get to it…
 
Prince Benjamin’s Story – Chapter Two
 
Prior to Nisha’s entrance into the chapel, Benjamin had taken time to scan the room full of wedding guests, many of whom he didn’t recognize. His father sat beside his best friend, Nicholas Cohen, or Uncle Nick, as Benjamin had always called him. He and his wife Adele filled the empty space where Benjamin’s mother, Princess Lyla, would have sat. Cancer showed little regard to status or age and took her when Benjamin was just a teenager. His father’s words telling him that his mother was smiling down on him today brought him comfort, helping him to get through this day without her.
Uncle Nick’s twin sons, Alejandro and Santiago, sat behind their parents, along with their girlfriends and Alexandria’s new boyfriend, Garret. Two years younger than their sister, the twins had been annoying brats growing up. Now they were quickly becoming respectable young men. If rumors were true, Alejandro and his girlfriend, Avellana had gotten serious and talked about getting married and moving to some fancy political college in the United States.
Alexandria stood with Nisha’s sister and her best friend, looking playfully elegant and spirited in an Indian version of a bridesmaid’s gown. Benjamin winked at her and they both chuckled. It was really too bad they didn’t like each other as more than friends. Their parents would have loved for them to marry. Too late now. She had met Garret the same weekend Benjamin had met Nisha.
Now Benjamin was about to place a crown on Nisha’s head, and Garret sat beside the twins, pulling at the collar of his cheap dress shirt and glancing at his watch. He hadn’t known what he’d gotten himself into when he met a hot chick on the beach in Cancun during spring break. Finding out Alexandria was an heiress who rubbed elbows with royalty had been a shock.
Continuing his perusal of the wedding guests, Benjamin noticed Uncle Jacob with his wife Maryam, and a young man who Benjamin assumed was their son, Emanuel. Known as Manny, he’d brought his young bride along. She looked vaguely familiar as if Benjamin had seen her before.
Uncle Sam and his wife Leanne sat beside Uncle Joseph, who had taken a vow of service and joined a missionary church as a priest of some sort. Only two years older than Benjamin and Alexandria, Joseph seemed more like a cousin than an uncle. Benjamin cocked his head wondering if he should call him Father Joseph now since he was a man of the cloth. He’d have to ask about that later.
Behind the Cohen brothers sat the patriarch and matriarch of their family, Levi and Sarah, who seemed just as regal as any of the Sayid Royal family could. Here in Puerto Aventuras, the Cohens were more like royalty than the Sayids, and twice as wealthy. They had created a small dynasty and Benjamin was honored to have them attend his wedding.
The Cohen’s oldest two sons, Liam and Lyle, had been disowned years ago because of some scandal, and they’d taken their wives and disappeared. No one seemed to know where they’d gone, and Benjamin didn’t care to ask. He knew of one child, Ishmael, who had been born on the same day as Father Joseph—that was going to take some getting used to—and one of the Cohen’s wives had been pregnant when they’d been disowned but Benjamin didn’t know which one.
Before Benjamin could take any more time scanning the guests, his bride appeared at the far end of the room and took his breath away.
Nisha was a vision of elegance in a traditional wedding ensemble from India. The red gown woven with gold thread was practically a silk tapestry. He was glad she’d chosen Indian customs rather than boring white satin and lace. Not that he cared what she wore, he just wanted to join his life to hers and celebrate their love for the rest of eternity.
Born and raised in Mumbai, Nisha had claimed she wanted to draw upon the multicultural nature of their heritages. Neither she nor Benjamin had any ancestry in Mexico yet here they stood on the sandy beaches south of Cancun about to take their vows. They lived in a global society of riches and abundance with little regards to country of origin.
Because Nisha’s parents had experienced persecution following their interfaith marriage, they encouraged Nisha to create her own path and not feel pressured to follow any specific traditions. The fact that she was marrying the son of an exiled prince on the other side of the world didn’t faze them. They were excited by the pageantry and elegance and considered the occasion a destination wedding. The insistence from Benjamin that they refrain from paying him a dowry was no doubt appealing.
Maybe after travelling to Madain Saleh, Benjamin could take his bride on a private jet to visit Nisha’s homeland.
Her slow progression down the aisle held grace and dignity, the epitome of the princess she would become in a few short moments. Her crown waited in a small velvet box that rested on the altar before him along with the ring that had been handcrafted for her using a two-carat diamond that had been removed from her crown. An ancient stone that had been passed down through generations.
If King Sayid were here, he would likely participate in placing Nisha’s crown. But in his absence, Benjamin was now the only man in the room qualified to do the honor. Since his coronation last month, Benjamin was Crown Prince of Madain Saleh, second only to the king, even above his own father, Prince Marcos. He swallowed hard against the magnitude of the weight of the crown, a weight that had less to do with the gold and jewels from which it was made, and more to do with the responsibility and honor.
Upon agreeing to this union of marriage, Nisha was also agreeing to take upon herself the same responsibility and honor. She had to recognize that she could very well be the next queen of Madain Saleh. No pressure.

Miss a Chapter of Benjamin's Story? Click Here!

Click here if you’d like a complimentary digital copy of the Complete Genealogy of the Royal Family Saga. (You might need that in order to follow this!)

If you’d like to read the entire series in its present form, here is the order:
Billionaire Crown Prince
Billionaire Hero
Billionaire Professors
Billionaire’s Brother
Billionaire’s Sons
 
The new series (coming in spring 2022) will be published as a three-volume series in chronological order! I’ll let you know as soon as I have those available for preorder.

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