Chapter 2
Once upon a time, Alaric and I had known what it meant to love.
I still remembered the first time I saw him–riding through the capital in a cloak of crimson, astride a warhorse. A young nobleman so breathtaking he stole the breath from my lungs.
Back then, he’d saved me.
I was just a lowborn girl, a bastard shoved into the icy river by the other maids. He rode past, saw me flailing, and without hesitation leapt down to pull me out. He shouted them away like a storm breaking over the sky.
He used to be reckless, bold to the point of arrogance. And when his brashness finally caught up with him–when a blade fell toward his neck in a duel he couldn’t win–I threw myself between him and the steel.
The sword carved a jagged line down my back, so deep it nearly ended me.
He didn’t sleep for days after that. He knelt before his parents again and again, insisting he would marry me, despite my status.
Despite everything.
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But then the Thorne family was branded traitors.
My father’s faction forged false charges and forced Alaric into ruin. And when that wasn’t enough, they used my sickly younger brother to threaten me into severing all ties with him.
When I visited him in the dungeons… he was no longer the proud nobleman who once dazzled the city.
He was a broken man, bloodied and beaten, caged like an animal by the same snakes he once scorned.
I had nothing to offer him.
So I smiled like the most shameless courtesan in the empire, unfastened my dress, and stepped into the fire.
“Sirs, what’s so interesting about a half–dead traitor? Wouldn’t you rather have a little fun with me?”
When Alaric looked up, eyes bloodshot and stunned, I smiled cruelly, twisting the knife.
“Oh come now, Lord Alaric. Don’t look at me like that. Did you really think you were still that golden boy on horseback?”
“Your house is finished. Your bloodline will be wiped from history. And I’m supposed to stay loyal? Please.”
Their laughter echoed off the stone as they dragged me into someone else’s arms–right in front of him.
They opened the finest chamber and tossed me inside like a reward.
The next morning, I slipped food into his cell, the best I could beg for. I told him to keep living.
His red–rimmed eyes met mine, full of disgust.
“Get out,” he rasped.
When I woke again, he was gone.
Only pain remained–raking down my spine, blooming in my belly. Blood stained the sheets. My face turned ashen.
It was the third time he’d taken my child from me.
The first had been when he shoved me toward a blade meant for Lady Celeste. I lost the baby as I fell.
The second, when Celeste saw my swelling belly and began to starve herself in grief, he’d chained me to his bed for three days–until the child slipped away.
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And this time… this time had been the cruelest.
Chapter 2
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A maid brought in a plate of sugared fruit. “His Lordship said you might find it bitter,” she murmured. “He had these prepared last night.”
I stared at the sugared plums for a long while.
Once upon a time, when Alaric had made me cry, he’d ride halfway across the city just to buy them for me.
Even if it meant queuing for hours. Even if I slammed the door in his face.
Now, I only felt the sting behind my eyes.
Outside the window, the servants‘ laughter drifted in.
“Look at her, still playing the temptress. She thinks she can compete with the lady of the house? Pathetic.”
“Lord Alaric rushed to Celeste’s bedside at dawn, you know. Not like this one. She can’t even keep him with her body. She should just step aside and stop being an eyesore.”
That’s how Alaric always was…
Just when I thought I’d hit rock bottom, he’d toss down a rope.
Only to pull it back.
Then toss it again.
Then rip it away.
Again and again, until I didn’t know if I was drowning or suffocating.
Alive, but never free. Dead, but never released.
I let out a bitter laugh and dropped the sugared plum back onto the plate.
Chapter 2
