Chapter 4
When I woke up, I was already lying in bed.
Nora, my maid, had cried so much that her eyes were swollen. “Your Grace, you’re finally awake.”
“Thankfully, His Grace reacted quickly, or that hatpin would have killed you.”
The room was filled with the strong scent of medicine. I stared blankly at my chest, which had been bandaged. Even my legs had been re–treated and wrapped.
In a daze, Lucian walked in.
“Why were you so stubborn? Why can you just explain yourself one more words?”
“If it hadn’t been for the delivery man chasing us down to return the missing items, I never would have known those silk and jewels were for Ruby.” “You were running a high fever and still insisted on going out. Even if you had just sent someone to tell me, we can just wait another day or two.” Faced with Lucian’s rare display of compromise, I remained silent.
A trace of guilt flickered across Lucian’s eyes. “Come with me to the palace for tomorrow’s banquet.”
My voice came out hoarse. “No need.”
“Don’t worry,” he said softly, “I’ve asked the tailor to alter your dress. No one will notice the injuries.”
Lucian continued laying out all the arrangements.
“After all it’s our child, it will be better for us to pick him up together.”
I was too exhausted to argue and simply responded with a faint yes.
By tomorrow, Aveline would tell him that the child was gone anyway.
What I didn’t expect was that the next day, Ruby followed him as well.
Lucian looked a little awkward. “Don’t worry. Ruby is only going to the palace just to meet a friend.”
I didn’t think much of it. Halfway through the banquet, worn out by the endless socializing, I asked Nora to help me to the garden.
As we crossed a small bridge, I saw Ruby kneeling respectfully before Liora.
So, she was also a spy arranged by Liora.
When Liora saw me approach, she made no effort to hide, gazing at me with amused interest.
“How does it feel, losing your child? Not so great, is it?”
“Felicity, all these years, I put in so much effort to make Lucian hate you. Yet you shamelessly clung on him. Truly pathetic.”
“Did you really think that having a child would let you climb to the top? Let me tell you, dream about it!”
“Even if I don’t want Lucian, he will never love anyone but me.”
I couldn’t even be bothered to argue. “Whatever.”
Liora was momentarily choked with rage, her face flushing red.
“You really are a filthy mongrel!”
“Let me tell you something. Your child could have lived.”
“But I was afraid you wouldn’t give up, so I had someone smother your baby to death in the castle.”
I stared at Liora in disbelief. “You, you…”
Liora stepped closer, her expression triumphant.
“Oh, and when your child was suffocating, Lucian was right next door, having sex with Ruby.”
“But the name he called out was mine.”
“Enough!” I completely lost control and grabbed Liora by the throat.
Chapter 4
ܩܩDream
But a powerful force flung me into the pond.
Lucian wrapped his arms protectively around Liora, looking down at me with a chilling stare. “You really don’t know when to quit!”
I clutched desperately at the rocks by the shore and cried out to him.
“The child, the child…”
Before I could finish, Lucian kicked me back into the water.
“Still trying to gain sympathy using the child?”
“Felicity, you can stay in the river and reflect on your mistakes. When you finally realize what you did wrong, then I’ll think about letting you out.”
With that, he led Liora away without a backward glance.
It wasn’t until late into the night that Aveline dragged my frozen, bruised body out of the water.
The doctor said the cold had seeped deep into my bones and that I would be crippled for life.
Aveline sighed and handed me a large sum of money.
I was placed into a carriage, and when I finally saw my mother, whom I hadn’t seen in ten years, I could no longer hold back my tears. I threw myself into her arms and wept uncontrollably.
After spending three days and nights with Liora in Astrid City, Lucian finally remembered me.
He casually made up an excuse to return to the castle, only to be told that I had never come back.
Worried, Lucian headed to the palace and hurried to Aveline’s room.
Just as he was about to ask someone to announce his arrival, he heard a familiar voice inside.
“Your Majesty, please let me,return to Astrid City. It’s been ten years since I ran away with that scoundrel. No one will remember it now.‘ “As for Felicity, the child she cherished so dearly is dead. She won’t come back.”
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