Chapter 4

At daybreak, Father was taken to the family chapel.

He had only stepped one foot inside when he looked up numbly and was met by Mother's furious slap.

"Gideon, you truly amaze me. No wonder you've been wearing that dead face every day. So there was another woman in your heart all along!

"Who is the shameless woman you were having an affair with? How dare you promise to elope with her out of the royal estate?"

Mother threw the letters and a woman's undergarment found in Father's room into his face. Her eyes were filled with unmistakable rage and hatred.

Behind her, the steward took Adrian's hint and hurriedly dropped to his knees in feigned panic, knocking his forehead against the floor.

"Your Highness, mercy! This old servant swears he once saw the prince consort being intimate with a woman. I truly could not see her face. I did not hide it knowingly. The prince consort threatened us and told us we must never speak of it!"

"I didn't..."

Before Father could finish, Mother's voice cut him off like ice.

With a cold laugh, she waved her hand and ordered the steward to bring in the servants Father had dismissed when he left. Her tone was thick with murderous fury.

"Fine. If you won't speak, someone near you must know the truth.

"Question them one by one. If no answer comes, execute them on the spot. I want the prince consort to learn whether he can bear the price of betraying me."

Before Father could even breathe, the old nurse who had cared for him and my aunt since childhood was dragged in.

She cried that Father was innocent, that he had never had even half a moment of intimacy with another woman. A sword slit her throat before she could say more.

The second was Father's personal attendant, a young man who had been like a brother to him. He begged Mother to spare Father, but the guards dragged him to the pond and held him underwater until he drowned.

Screams, pleas, and sobbing filled the chapel.

Father broke down and lunged toward them, but the guards held him so tightly that he could not move an inch.

"I didn't. I told you I didn't!

"Seraphina, why won't you believe even half a word from me? Please, don't hurt them..."

The third person brought in was an orphan Father had once saved and kept by his side. He was only twelve or thirteen.

He cried and shook his head at Father, telling him to leave quickly and not worry about them. Mother gave a cold smile and personally cut him down.

"Leave? Eli is in my hands. How would Gideon Frost dare leave?"

Adrian gave Father a vicious smile from the side, then turned to Mother with a frown.

"Your Highness, why hasn't the prince consort said who that woman is? Perhaps killing only these people is not enough. Why not include little Eli? The prince consort loves him most, after all..."

Mother, long since blinded by rage, seized me and lifted me up. She set the sword against my throat and shouted.

"Gideon, I will give you one last chance. Speak or not?"

The child's head rolled beside Father, tears still on his face. Looking at the corpses and blood covering the floor, Father laughed and sobbed as he collapsed. Only despair remained in his eyes.

He nodded in grief, shaking so badly he could barely speak.

"I'll speak. Don't hurt them anymore..."

Mother's clansmen had heard the commotion and rushed over. When they heard him, they immediately cursed Father as heartless and ungrateful, shouting that he should be dragged to the execution square and beheaded before the public.

They threw whatever they held at Father. His forehead split open. His body was covered in wounds.

I cried until I could barely breathe. At last, in one instant when Mother's grip loosened, I threw myself toward the blade without hesitation.

Blood burst out. Amid everyone's disbelieving cries, my body fell to the floor and all strength left me.

As I was about to lose consciousness, I stared at Father's bloodless face, shook my head, and cried.

"Father, don't worry about me. Go... Go now. Never come back..."

The light in Father's eyes vanished completely. He staggered to me, gathered me into his arms, and let out a hoarse scream.

"Seraphina! How dare you? How dare you kill Eli!"

Mother's eyes widened in shock. She shook her head and opened her mouth to explain, but then seemed to realize something and reached toward Father in panic.

The next moment, Father rose with me in his arms. While Mother tried to stop him in terror, he slammed his head against the pillar.

Blood sprayed across Mother's face. She stared at Father and me, both fallen in a pool of blood, in a daze. Then she broke down with a scream.