Chapter 3

A tiny bundle lay in the center of the table.

The baby's face was mottled blue and purple, and his eyes hadn't fully closed. He looked so much like me, as though he'd inherited all my features.

I couldn't help but step forward, wanting to hold him just once.

But one of the priests immediately blocked my way.

"This child has passed beyond the world of the living. You must not touch him again."

"How are you going to bury him?"

"Since the child died a violent death, we've prepared a funeral pyre. Once his body has been reduced to ashes, his spirit will have no reason to linger among the living."

I stopped breathing.

"Once his body is reduced to ashes?" I echoed, my voice trembling uncontrollably.

Tears streamed down my face as I stared at his tiny features. He'd died such a horrible death because of me. I'd failed him as his mother.

I'd spent three days begging Tristan to let me into the Shelby estate, clinging to his cruel promise that each child I bore would earn the freedom of one member of my imprisoned family.

I'd carried my child for nine months, only to bring him into the world and watch him die. If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have suffered such a fate.

And now they wanted to burn his body, leaving him with no chance to rest in peace.

"I'm sorry…" I croaked, barely recognizing my own voice. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, sweetheart. I'm the one who got you killed."

Before I knew it, I was holding him in my arms.

"No!" I screamed. "You can't burn him. Nobody is allowed to touch him… I'm taking him with me!"

"Ma'am! You mustn't disrupt the funeral rites!"

The priests cried out and hurried after me.

I'd barely made it out of the memorial hall when I nearly collided with Rosalind. She stumbled backward before we even touched, and her fur cloak slipped to the ground.

The maids and older servants behind her immediately burst into commotion.

"My lady! Are you hurt?"

"Someone stop her! Quickly!"

The situation was only brought under control when Tristan arrived. He gathered Rosalind, who was trembling with fright, into his arms. Then he ordered the guards to restrain me and snatched the baby from my grasp.

"Tristan, I only came to pay my respects to the baby," Rosalind sobbed. "She deliberately tried to push me!"

"I didn't push her!" I cried. "Tristan, please, give our baby a proper burial. We've already failed him so terribly. How can we possibly—"

"The only person who failed him was you," he cut me off in a low voice.

He bent down until we were eye to eye, hatred burning in his gaze.

"You killed him. Your father killed him. Your entire family is responsible for his death."

His hatred for me had grown so deep that he could no longer see reason.

I stood frozen, unable to utter a word.

Rosalind suddenly covered her mouth and retched.

"Ms. Reed had only just discovered she's with child," an older servant said as she hurried to Rosalind's side. "After such a fright, she needs to rest."

Slowly, I turned to look at Rosalind's stomach.

My baby had just died, yet they already had another child on the way. My child couldn't even rest in peace, but their child would be born into a world of love and indulgence.

Tristan would carve little wooden rocking horses for him with his own hands. He would teach him to fight, perhaps even to wield a whip.

I'd spent six years fighting to save my family, only to lose five children. Not one of them had lived long enough to see daylight.

My heart seemed to stop beating. Every breath became an unbearable struggle.

Tristan swept Rosalind into his arms and carried her away. As he passed me, he tossed one final remark over his shoulder.

"Rosalind's child will be the only one I acknowledge," he declared. "There's a room full of children's toys in your quarters, isn't there? Have them all removed."

I tried to protest, but the priests had already taken the baby back.

They laid strips of parchment with sacred symbols over the swaddling cloth, then placed the bundle on the pyre.

"No!" I screamed. "Please, no!"

I wrenched myself free of the guards and lunged toward the flames, but I was so overwhelmed by grief and fury that I spat out a mouthful of blood.

As I collapsed, I faintly heard someone cry out in anguish. For a fleeting moment, I thought I saw Tristan rushing toward me, desperate to catch me before I hit the ground.

It must have been a hallucination.

My consciousness drifted into darkness, and I found myself back in the past.

Tristan and I had grown up together, fallen in love, and eventually confessed our feelings for each other.

Everything had gone smoothly until the day of our wedding.

I was already in the bridal carriage, on my way to marry Tristan, when Father led his troops to surround the Shelby estate.

That day, blood stained every corner of the estate.

I helped Tristan escape, and he vanished for three years.

When he finally returned, he had become the most powerful man in the kingdom, with the entire court under his control.

Father knew Tristan would seek revenge and had just finished gathering the evidence that would reveal the truth, but Tristan burned it all before anyone could see it.

Then he had my entire family imprisoned, leaving me alone. He wanted to strip away every source of support until I had no choice but to turn to him.

On my first night at his estate, he took me by force until I lost consciousness.

Before I lost consciousness, he whispered in my ear, "Isolde, we're enemies until one of us dies."

"Two hours remain before your forced departure. Please prepare yourself."

The system's announcement jolted me awake.

Only then did I realize I'd been unconscious for over two days.