Chapter 1
Chapter 1
My best friend and I were transported to another world together. She became the Empress, and I was her lady–in–waiting.
The Emperor adored her for three years, and for three years, she doted on me.
She said I couldn’t be single for two lifetimes, so she arranged my marriage to the nation’s top general, a man with an eight–pack,
promising me a life of carnal bliss.
The reality? After a year of marriage, he hadn’t touched me.
I went to the palace to cry on her shoulder. “That bastard is useless in bed! What do I need him for?”
She burst into tears right along with me. “The royal physician says the Emperor is sterile! What do I need him for?”
Through our tears, our eyes met.
“I want a divorce,” I said. “You?”
“If you’re leaving, I’m leaving!”
And so, a great fire claimed the lives of the Empress and the General’s wife.
A few months later, in a small border town, two beautiful, wealthy ladies appeared.
The maid woke me before the sun was up.
!, who usually slept until noon, forced myself out of bed, dressed with a heavy heart, and managed to rush out of the general’s resi- dence just as Marcus Thorne was stepping into his carriage.
“What are you doing here?”
Marcus’s voice was clipped with annoyance as he took in my breathless state. His handsome, chiseled face was a mask of indiffe- rence, but his dark, piercing eyes betrayed his impatience.
“I need to go to the palace!” I explained hastily. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Empress. I wanted to visit her.”
He frowned. “Do you have to go right this second?”
The way he said it made it sound like I was using the visit as an excuse to ride with him, as if I were some predator looking to dev-
our him.
I pouted, mumbling under my breath, “Your carriage is the only one with silver–thread charcoal and a fox–fur blanket. It’s warmer.”
He paused, then finally moved aside to let me into the carriage for the journey to the palace.
Marcus had always been cold and distant with me. I knew he looked down on me, a former palace maid, believing I was beneath
him, a blemish on the honor of the great General Thorne.
But after today, he wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.
Because my visit to the Empress was for one purpose: to get a divorce.
My best friend, Selena, and I had been transported to this alternate historical reality together. She became a powerful Empress from a noble family, exclusively favored by the Emperor for three years. I became her handmaiden, living comfortably under her
protection for those same three years.
11:50
Chapter 1
She’d declared that after twenty years of being single in our past life, I deserved to experience a man in this one. She raved about
General Thorne’s physique, promising me he would deliver nights of earth–shattering pleasure.
I’d snuck a peek at him once at the training grounds. The way his sweat–soaked tunic clung to his torso, outlining every single one of his eight abdominal muscles…
I was hooked.
So, Selena had bartered a red lace camisole I’d made for her to convince the Emperor to issue a royal decree of marriage.
But a year into our marriage, Marcus Thorne hadn’t laid a finger on me.
He had court duties. He had troops to drill. He rose before the chickens and went to bed after the dogs. I, on the other hand, need- ed fourteen hours of sleep a day.
He wasn’t home when I went to sleep, and he was already gone when I woke up.
Even on the nights I forced myself to stay awake, waiting for him, he would just lie beside me, stiff as a board. A few times, I’d mustered the courage to place a hand on his chest or wrap a leg around his waist, and he would instantly sit bolt upright. “What do you think you’re doing?!” he’d bark.
It made me feel like some villainess forcing herself on an innocent maiden, or a desperate, lonely widow. Overcome with shame, I eventually stopped trying.
Slowly, the household staff realized I was a wife in name only. The quality of my food, my clothing, my general care… it all began to slip.
The winter was harsh, and my already fragile health gave way to a high fever. With the limited medical technology of the era, I was sick for a month. During that entire time, Marcus never once checked on me, let alone cared for me.
What was the point of staying with a man who didn’t even see me as his wife?
I had made up my mind. Today, I was going to the palace to ask my best friend to help me divorce Marcus Thorne.
