Chapter 2

2、

I woke up early the next morning while he was still fast asleep.

I climbed over him and slipped out of bed.

After taking a slow walk around the rear gardens, I returned to find him throwing a furious fit in the main courtyard.

"Claire, where did you go?"

Austin pulled me into a fragile, desperate embrace.

"I thought you left me."

"I do want to leave you."

The arms pinning me loosened slightly, as if he never expected me to answer so bluntly.

"Austin, your heart belongs to someone else. Why keep chaining me to your side like this?"

"Her name is Cynthia, isn't it?"

The ridiculous thing was that I only learned her name because he muttered it in his sleep the night before.

"How can I compete with a woman you cannot even forget in your dreams? Austin, let's get divorced."

He panicked, scrambling to explain, but a breathless guard burst in before he could speak.

"Your Grace! The Queen is failing! She won't last much longer!"

One moment Austin was begging for my forgiveness, and the next, he dragged my crippled body straight toward the carriage.

If I still could not see the truth by now, I would be a complete idiot.

I was simply stunned by the sheer absurdity of the royal family, which was far more dramatic than any scandalous novel.

A younger brother secretly in love with his royal brother's wife was shocking enough.

Yet that very brother happened to be my husband.

When I finally laid eyes on Cynthia, my confusion only deepened.

"Is this the woman you were willing to kill me for?"

Her face was sallow and sickly, yet she was dripping in heavy gold and diamonds even on her sickbed, looking like a tacky social climber.

Austin's brows furrowed in annoyance.

"Claire, you must not speak of Her Majesty that way."

What a hypocrite.

I was taken to the side chamber, where they drained three full bowls of my blood.

When I dragged my thoroughly exhausted, trembling body back out, I walked in on an intimate scene.

The newly revived Queen was leaning against my husband's chest, kissing him on the lips.

My husband was completely lost in the kiss.

If it were not broad daylight, their clothes would have probably been scattered across the floor already.

There was even a trace of my blood smeared from her lips onto the corner of his mouth.

It was the most revolting sight on earth.

Austin gently helped her lie back down.

When he turned around, he finally noticed me standing there, watching the show.

"Claire…"

For a second, he looked utterly panicked and flustered.

"You must be Lady Claire. Thank you for saving my life," Cynthia said, sitting back up from the bed.

I supposed both royal brothers fell for her delicate, damsel-in-distress act.

Otherwise, I truly could not find a single redeeming quality in her.

"Your Majesty, if you truly wish to thank me, just grant me a decree of divorce."

"Absolutely not!"

The voice that shouted in objection did not belong to Austin.

It sounded strangely familiar.

"Claire, long time no see."

Everyone in the room dropped to their knees, leaving me standing alone in the center.

It was a face I knew all too well.

It was my dearest old friend.