Chapter 3
When I woke, Ronan was seated at my bedside, his expression grim and cold.
“You begged the Queen Dowager for that royal edict just so you wouldn’t have to be embarrassed during Annabelle’s christening banquet, didn’t you?” he snapped. “So you could avoid the shame of facing the noble ladies?”
I opened my mouth to speak, to explain, but he cut me off with a wave of irritation.
your twins to attend the ceremony, out of charity, not duty.”
“Enough. Annabelle, in her grace, has consented to allow y
“But let’s make one thing clear,” he added, voice sharp as a blade. “Their attire, their place in the procession, their honors–none shall eclipse those of Annabelle’s son. The heir takes precedence, as is his birthright. This is a truth they shall uphold all their days.”
1 looked at him, deadpan “Save it,” I said flatly.
Three days from now, I’d be gone. Dead to this place, in every way y that mattered. My children and I would vanish–no banquet, no title, no twisted favors
mroded.
His brows furrowed. Inexplicably angry, he hurled the medicine bowl at the wall. It shattered with a sharp crack.
“Then go ahead! Be the cast–off duchess you’re so desperate to become. Take your illegitimate children and rot in some godforsaken abbey!”
He stormed out, his cloak trailing behind him like a shadow.
Not long after, Annabelle strutted in with her attendants, no longer bothering to play the delicate, soft–spoken lady. She was smug, commanding, and utterly triumphant.
“Well, well. You’re not the duchess anymore, Eleanor,” she sneered. “So what makes you think you still have the right to stay here?”
Beatrice stepped forward, trying to block them, but Annabelle flashed a sigil carved with the Whitmore crest.
“By His Grace’s orders. And you–how dare a lower maid stand in my way?”
I pulled Beatrice back
There was no point fighting
I sat silently and watched as they tore through my suntripping down curtains, smashing porcelain, dragging furniture across the floor. Nothing was
spared
Even the pair of jade lovebirds Roman had carved for me himself–his wedding gift–were shattered into a hundred glittering shards across the marble
Door.
Beatrice’s eyes welled up with tears. “That was the duke’s gift to Lady Eleanor!”
Annabelle arched a brow, lips curled in amusement. “Oh, I knew. That’s exactly why he told me to make sure they were destroyed. Said they were a disgrace now. Said you asldpig to leave was the biggest insult of his 19e”
Lisgrace. Right..
I remembered it all too well from the last time around–begging Ronan to spare our children as he shoved us into the hunting grounds, watching him sheer with disgust as he kicked me away.
He had once called loving me the greatest mistake of his life.
Annabelle suddenly yanked the blanket off my legs. “Still sitting there like you own the place? Get up and get out!”
She’d already had my shoes shredded
So I walled barefoot across the wreckage–over broken glass, splintered wood, and the remains of what was once a lille built with him.
Three years of marriage. All it took was a single hour to erase t
By the time we reached the remote servant’s quarters, rain was pouring in sheets. Annabelle tossed us a torn umbrella lile it was charity.
Beatrice and I did what we could to keep the twins dry, but by the time we got there, the swaddling cloths were soaked
That night, both children developed levers.
Beatrice tried to fetch the estate’s physician, but Annabelle’s gains blocked her at the courtyard gate.
“A discarded wile?” one of them scoffed. “She doesn’t even outrank a kitchen maid now. The estate’s physician isn’t for her kind.” Chapter 3
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I clenched my jaw.
d stone paths, straight toward Ronan’s
Then, barefoot and soaked, I crawled through the dog gate and sprinted across the estate, past the gardens and
residence
Candlelight flickered from his windows.
Inside, I saw him with Annabelle, gently rocking a cradle, murmuring sweet nothings as the infant cooed in return.
One of the maids giggled nearby. “His Lordship summoned a physician the second the young heir made a fuss. Had him stay the whole night, just in case. That child and Lady Annabelle–they’re the duke’s whole heart now.”
I’d known. Gods, I’d always known. But seeing it feeling that warmth meant for someone else–it still sliced through me like a knife,
I showed the maid aside and stumbled up the stairs, rainwater dripping from my hair. I dropped to my knees at the threshold, desperate
Roban please. My child has a high
gh fever. Just one physician. Just let him take a look.”
Lightning split the sky.
Annabelle’s child let out a shrill wall
She rushed out, face painted with tears, arms thrown wide like the perfect portrait of maternal panic
“Eleanor! Why would you come here just to scare my child like this?”
She gave me a violent shove. I tumbled backward down the steps, something dark slipping from my sleeve as I fell.
A servant picked it up. Her gasp pierced the silence,
Saints above! It’s the young heir’s birth sigill”
Annabelle collapsed into Ronan’s arms, sobbing uncontrollably. “I only asked her to leave the main hall, to give us some space. I never thought she’d come here to curse my son!. He’s only a day old. How could she be this cruel?”
Inside, the child’s cries were turning hoarse. His face had gone red, then purplish–blue.
The whole room was chaps.
Annabelle staggered toward the fireplace, snatching down one of the heavy drapes. With trembling hands, she twisted it into a makeshift noose and flung it over the iron chandelier overhead.
“I’ll do it,” she sobbed “Eleanor, I’ll give him back to you. Just don’t kill my child–please, I beg you!”
Ronan’s pupils shrank in panic. He caught her in his arms, gripping her tightly.
“Don’t be foolish, Annabelle No one’s hurting our child. I’ll protect him–whatever it takes.”
A high priest was summoned within the hour.
After examining the room, the child, and the sigil, his gaze finally settled on me
“There’s only one pure,” he said solemnly. “You’ll need the heart blood of her offspring.”
Roman didn’t even besitate.
“Bring me her allegitimate children,” he ordered.
