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22 The Villa in the Shadows
Last Updated:
2025-09-16 00:38:13
Karima Sa'ad UsmanArden and Cassy are under the same roof. What do you think, and do you think she should have reached out to Richard?
Latest chapter
Tempting the Wrong Prince 106 The Silence Between What Was and What Hurts Now 2
Richard’s POVWhen I reached the press hall, it was already packed, journalists shoulder to shoulder, cameras raised like rifles, microphones jutting forward like spears. The heat of the crowd was palpable. Officials were sweating through their suits despite the air-conditioning. Security stood rigid, eyes scanning the room as if expecting violence rather than questions.The tension was a living thing, thick, electric, crackling across the air like static before a lightning strike.As I stepped up to the podium, the barrage began instantly, like gunfire.“What does the palace advise the people to do while waiting for concrete action?”“Are you aware there have already been riots across several districts? What is your plan to prevent escalation?”“Have the reserves been released or not, Your Highness?”“Who will oversee them? Will the public be informed?”“What accountability measures, ”I lifted a hand and microphones surged closer.My jaw tightened, but my tone remained steady. “His
Tempting the Wrong Prince 105 The Silence Between What Was and What Hurts Now
Richard’s POVThe walk back down the corridor felt like moving through molasses, every step heavy, every breath thick, every sound warped around the pounding in my skull. The overhead lights seemed too bright, the floor too reflective, the air too sterile. My vision swam with each step, but I kept moving because stopping meant thinking, and thinking meant facing a truth I wasn’t ready for.I had just spoken to my father about famine, revolt, political collapse, about my brother being hunted, cornered, pressured into an engagement that could very well destroy him. I had spoken about riots, shortages, deceit, and a kingdom buckling under the weight of decades of mismanagement.But none of it, none of it, felt as suffocating as the single truth consuming me:My son might die if I was too late.That reality gnawed at me with a ferocity that threatened to rip me open from the inside.When I reached them, my mother, Rachel, Diana, and the doctor, they all looked up at once. Four faces, four
Tempting the Wrong Prince 104 The Burden of Blood and Duty 2
Richard’s POVI stepped slightly aside, away from the prying curiosity in my mother’s eyes and the suffocating tension that clung to the hospital walls like dust. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, the scent of antiseptic sharp in the air, the weight of fear heavier than any crown. I lifted the phone to my ear.“Father.”His response was brisk, clipped, already strained by the unraveling chaos of a kingdom at its breaking point.“Richard, where are you? You need to get back to the palace immediately. We’re preparing a press release. The people are panicking, the riots are escalating.”I closed my eyes briefly, inhaling through the tightness in my chest. Of course. One crisis was never enough. Eldenwald had a talent for bleeding in every direction at once.I paced a few slow steps down the hall. “Is the food reserve being released? What am I supposed to tell them if there’s nothing tangible to offer?”“Not yet,” he answered, irritation hardening into frustration. “I’m still assemb
Tempting the Wrong Prince 103 The Burden of Blood and Duty
Richard’s POV The doctor’s footsteps echoed down the corridor long before he reached us, slow, steady, unforgiving. In the suffocating quiet of the hospital wing, each soft tap against the polished floor struck my nerves like a hammer. Nothing in this place moved quickly except fear, and fear had already wrapped around all of us like a noose.When the doctor finally appeared, his shoulders were squared with practiced calm, but there was a heaviness behind his eyes that made my stomach clench. He bowed lightly.“Your Highness. Your Majesty.”My mother straightened instantly, slipping into her queenly posture as naturally as breathing. Regal, composed, unreadable. I could barely mimic a nod. My spine felt rigid, my lungs tight, as if one wrong inhale would shatter the fragile space holding me together.“How is he?” I asked, though the words scraped out of me like broken glass. “My son.”The doctor didn’t answer immediately. He clasped the clipboard to his chest, his fingers tightening
Tempting the Wrong Prince 102 What It Costs to Face Myself 2
Richard’s POV“So tell me,” I continued, stepping closer, close enough that the harsh fluorescent lights carved brutal honesty across both our faces, “since when did spending time with a nanny become an obligation, Mum?”Her lips parted, ready to defend herself, ready to twist the entire situation into something convenient, but I didn’t allow her the room. Not anymore.“You created this mess,” I said quietly. Too quietly. The kind of quiet that shook even me. “And I will stick to the terms we agreed on. Once the children are healthy, Rachel returns to Erinville. Permanently. My life is already in ruins because of all the ways I let you meddle.”Rachel’s crying intensified at those words, her sobs ricocheting through the sterile hospital corridor like shards of broken glass, slicing through the tension, the guilt, the regret. But as her face crumpled and her shoulders shook, something terrifying dawned on me.I felt nothing.Or maybe not nothing, just a hollowed-out numbness so deep it
Tempting the Wrong Prince 101 What It Costs to Face Myself
Richard’s POVRachel threw herself into my arms the second she saw me, sobbing, shaking, clinging like a woman drowning. Her body trembled violently against mine, fingers clutching at my coat as if she feared I might vanish if she let go.For a brief, disorienting moment, I didn’t know what to do with my hands.My mind rejected the embrace. My chest constricted.Not out of cruelty. Not out of blame.But because her touch, her presence, felt like a physical reminder of every wrong turn I had taken. Every compromise. Every lie I allowed to grow legs and walk through my marriage until it destroyed everything in its path.James was the one who needed me. Not her. Not this suffocating display of emotion.But Rachel cried harder, fists bunching the fabric at my shoulders, until my mother swept in, dramatic as ever, and wrapped a comforting arm around her.Typical.Ivanna’s voice trembled with anxiety, but the performance was still polished. “Rachel, how did this happen? Wasn’t James fin
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