Chapter 2 Abuse

I returned to the princess' residence.

Before I could even catch my breath, Alicia came at me with a kick. Though she was sitting in a wheelchair, the force of her presence had not diminished in the slightest.

She wrapped her hand around my neck, her eyes sharp. "You went after Yves again? I told you. If anything happens to him, I'll make you pay a hundred times over."

My consciousness was fading, and tears from the pain spilled from my eyes.

She sneered and flung me away.

My forehead hit the edge of my bed, and blood spilled.

Alicia froze for a moment. She seemed as though she wanted to help me up, but when she noticed my dead, indifferent gaze, her hand slowly fell back to her side. "I was only out for five days, and you barged into his yard and tossed his pendant into the lake? If I had come home any later, you'd have turned this whole place into a mess!"

She was still chastising me. I thought about my poor daughter. She was only three, and Yves Samson killed her before she could even see the world properly.

I wanted to explain.

But when I met Alicia's furious gaze, I swallowed every word back down. She would not believe me. She never had.

As usual, I knelt and lowered my head. "I'm sorry, princess."

She looked at my pale face and frowned. The old me would have denied things I had not done, but what use had that ever been?

When Yves had nightmares, he told her I got a priest to curse him because I was jealous. Alicia made me kneel in the snow for an entire day, until I developed a fever and collapsed unconscious.

Another time, he drank too much because he could not control himself, then told her I had forced him to drink.

Back then, I was still ill with a cold. Even so, she forced alcohol down my throat for the entire night, not stopping until I went into shock.

This time, Yves rode a horse into my yard, crushed my mother's pendant, and pushed my daughter into the lake. Then, he told everyone it had been an accident. That I had been careless and failed to watch her properly.

This woman sentenced me without even asking. Of course. She still had no idea that our daughter was dead.

Alicia gave me a once-over and sneered. "And where did you learn this from, Michael? No one's buying it. You bully him, and by doing so, you insult me. Do you really think I still love you, Michael?"

She pulled me up, her eyes filled with ice-cold fury and hatred. Then she dragged me away in a hurry, not caring that I was still weak from days of mourning and hunger.

She dragged me all the way to Yves' room.

The moment Yves saw my dishevelled figure, he, pretended to be surprised. Then he threw himself into Alicia's arms. "Why did you bring the prince consort here? I told you I don't mind. It's just a pendant. If he wanted it, he could have had it.

"Well, it was supposed to be your birthday present, but now it's gone. Oh dear. What should we do now?"

His hostility was aimed straight at me. I saw the malice hidden in his eyes.

Alicia sneered. "You tossed the pendant into the lake. So, you will retrieve it yourself, Michael."

It was late autumn. And my body had never been able to withstand that kind of cold.