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Chapter 145
Last Updated:
2025-06-29 12:25:17
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Claiming The Archduchess EPILOGUE
EPILOGUEALEJANDRO POVNothing in all my battles, not the taste of blood in my mouth, not the ringing gunshots in my ears, and not even the betrayal of a man I called my brother, could have prepared me for this moment. Not even the sleepless nights I spent obsessing over the dad magazines and those little books I read to prepare for this moment. My wife’s screams literally tore my chest open. Her hands gripped the rails of the hospital bed like they were the only thing anchoring her to this world. Her face was soaked in sweat, her lips pale, and trembling. And her eyes… her damn eyes. They locked onto mine with such a humbling, desperate pain I thought I was falling apart. “Just a little longer, signorita.” The doctor encouraged gently. But I wasn’t listening to her. I was listening to Rayana. To every single one of her desperate cries. Every guttural scream and watching every single bead of sweat on her skin. Every broken breath she tried to push through. I felt all of it, deep
Claiming The Archduchess Chapter 148
Chapter 148ALEJANDRO POVThe soft glow of the late noon sun streaked through the thin lace curtain, casting golden shards across the quiet living room. I sat slouched on the velvet couch, my phone and all the drama it only ever brought forgotten in my lap as my eyes scanned articles and forums about baby care and fatherhood. The kind of reading I never, not even once, ever pictured myself ever doing. “Dad magazines,” I muttered under my breath, earning a soft laugh from Rayana who had her head in my lap, her eyes closed and a pleasant smile plastered on her face. She peeled her black eyes open and watched me with that knowing smile. The one that told me she was amused but understood the storm of nerves wreaking havoc inside of me. I needed to prepare. For the babies. For her… for whatever our future might hold. So I learned every single thing about parenting. About the colic phase, and even the hacks to changing dirty diapers. I made a mental note to change the room on our floor
Claiming The Archduchess Chapter 147
Chapter 147ALEJANDRO POV The drive to the hospital was a living frenzy. The car didnt move on wheels, it fucking flew. The engines roared like an angry beast, the world outside melting into blurred chaos. Red lights meant nothing, and horns only sounded like white noise. None of it mattered. Kimberly sat in the passenger seat sobbing quietly, hands clutched so tightly in her lap that I feared she might be digging into her own skin and drawing blood.Her hushed whispered prayers filled the gaps. I wished I could listen to them, dwell in them, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t listen. I couldn’t… I couldn’t breathe. Rayana. Her name was a loud roar in my skull. It was a plea. A panicked scream. She was fine a few hours ago, smiling, laughing, taunting me with her love. She went for a swim because she had said the water soothed her. The image of her waddling toward the pool, her belly round with life played behind my eyes on a broken loop. And then the scream. That becursed scream.Whe
Claiming The Archduchess Chapter 146
Chapter 146ALEJANDRO POVThe scream tore through the air like a knife lodged into my beating heart. I shot out of my chair like it had grown sharp spikes, heart stopped and lungs frozen. I knew that voice. I’d know that voice anywhere. High. Panicked. Raw and in pain. My Rayana. I didn’t think. I just ran. Out of the door, across the corridor with force; feet slammed against the floor like gunfire. My vision blurred, panic and rage rushing through my veins like heated gasoline. She’d gone swimming. She was running hot and needed to cool off. She promised she wouldn’t stay out long. I looked at how beautiful she was, how the little swimwear looked like it was tailored right on her body. But I didn’t kiss her…I reached the backyard at the speed of lightning, and that’s when I saw her. My wife. My everything. She was lying in a pool of red blood at the bottom of the stairs. Her arms were limp, her legs twisted in the most unnatural way. Her eyes fluttered like it was the last fli
Claiming The Archduchess Chapter 145
Chapter 145RYANA POVIt felt like living in a haunted palace. Cold rigid walls, dark whispers in the corridors… It was fucking maddening. A few days had passed since the chaotic morning in the dining room. Yet, the air in the house hadn’t settled. If anything, the pressure had thickened, full of unspoken threats and unshed emotions. Poline moved through the corridors like a shadow. But her presence was louder than thunderclaps. She didn't scream, she didn’t break things. Heck…. She didn’t even argue or blow the entire house down the way I thought she would. But she plotted. She worked in the dark, in silence, and without an audience. A quiet manipulator… Like a sparkling poison in still water. The maidservants were no longer cheerful when they passed me in the hallways. They bowed too quickly, kept their eyes low, and their gazes shifted. They always scurried off before I could ask a single question. The spark had drained from them, and all that remained were hollow emotions and
Claiming The Archduchess Chapter 144
Chapter 144RAYANA POVThe morning was supposed to be calm. Peaceful. Quiet. Filled with intense love-making and the sweet promises of the future. A quiet return to what we called a normal rhythm of our home. After all, I had my husband back, and I had just reached the core of his soul when he came undone and opened his heart to me for the first time. We were supposed to revel in the feel of all that. Instead, the first thing I saw when we walked into the dining room was an electric shock to every nerve ending underneath my skin. An insult to everything I had ever worked for. Poline sat at the head of the table, all pristine and shiny like she belonged there. Her spine was straight, shoulders pulled back, and dripping with aristocratic arrogance that was full of hatred. A knowing smile played on her lips like she had been fasting and praying her whole life to play that role; to sit there and insult my husband in his own house, in front of me, his wife, and his people. Her smile w
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