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57 A Heart That Cannot Let Go

Author: Karima Sa'ad Usman
last update Last Updated: 2025-11-28 20:20:22

Richard’s POV

I didn’t remember walking back to my wing.

I didn’t remember the hallway, the guards standing stiff the moment they saw my expression, or the murmurs that followed when I passed. I didn’t remember the bowing faces that used to give me pride because I had been the Crown Prince, the heir, the future king.

Now every bow felt like mockery.

Every greeting felt like pity.

Every quiet glance felt like a whisper behind my back:

He couldn’t even keep his wife.

By the time I reached my office, my chest felt tight enough to crush bone. I shut the door behind me and leaned on it, palms flat against the wood, trying to breathe, trying to slow the storm inside my head long enough to think. But the thoughts wouldn’t settle. They spun, sharp and relentless, slicing into me with every heartbeat.

Where had it gone wrong?

Truly wrong?

Not the cracks, not the arguments, not the half-truths I had told myself were harmless. Not even the guilt I carried like a second skin.

I meant the mo
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  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   96 The Emergency That Broke the Palace 2

    Cassandra’s POVI walked back to my room slowly, every step heavy, as though grief itself had wrapped chains around my ankles. The palace corridors felt longer than usual, darker somehow, the walls echoing with the residue of Rachel’s screams. Each footstep landed with a hollow thud, and my heart matched the rhythm, slow, anxious, waiting for news that refused to come.Inside my room, I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the wall until the floral patterns in the wallpaper blurred into meaningless swirls. My hands rested limply in my lap. My mind felt suspended between dread and helplessness, both tightening around me like invisible cords.Time passed. Minutes. Hours. Enough for the sunlight to crawl across the floor, shifting from bright gold to a muted, fading amber. Enough for the weight in my chest to deepen until breathing required effort.Each second sharpened the fear inside me.A knock at my door jolted me upright, my pulse kicking painfully. For a moment I simply stare

  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   95 The Emergency That Broke the Palace

    Cassandra’s POVFor a heartbeat, I could only stare at Diana, hair dishevelled, cheeks flushed, chest heaving as though she’d sprinted across the palace grounds. Her panic rattled through the room like loose windows in a storm, vibrating through my nerves before I could fully process her words. Something was wrong, terribly wrong, and the fear in her eyes told me this wasn’t one of the palace’s usual inconveniences.I stepped toward her. “Diana, what emergency?”She swallowed hard, pressing a hand to her chest as though willing her heartbeat to slow. “Rachel. She’s in the great room, crying, wailing. She says her son is sick. Very sick. And she’s demanding that you come. Usually, the Queen Consort would handle such domestic matters but… Ivana isn’t home.”Of course. Of course the moment Ivana vanished, chaos would come knocking, screaming, tearing through the palace walls as if waiting for the slightest opportunity to spill out. The universe had a twisted sense of timing.I didn’t wa

  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   94 When the World Began to Burn 2

    Cassandra’s POVRichard didn’t speak.He didn’t move, didn’t blink, didn’t react, not even when the reporter on the screen stumbled as another explosion of shouting erupted behind her. He watched with the stillness of a man who had suddenly discovered cracks forming in the ceiling above his head, each one widening, each one promising collapse.His world, the one he clung to, the one he sacrificed me for, was splintering in real time.Then his phone vibrated sharply against the nightstand.Richard tore his gaze from the television, glanced at the screen, and the tension in his face deepened into something stiff and cold.“Emergency meeting,” he muttered. “Court session. Now.”The resignation in his voice was heavy. Familiar. Exhausting.I said nothing.What could I possibly say?He pushed to his feet, shoulders slumped under weight no crown had ever prepared him for. He dragged his fingers through his hair, an old habit I’d forgotten he had, and for a moment, he looked so lost I almost

  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   93 When the World Began to Burn

    Cassandra’s POVMorning crept into the room like an uninvited witness, slow, steady, unapologetic. Soft sunlight slipped through the gaps in the curtains in thin, golden slants, warming the sheets I had barely slept on. Warm air pooled across the room, carrying with it distant sounds from the courtyard: guards changing shifts, the soft murmur of palace staff beginning their day, the faint ringing of bells from somewhere deeper in the castle grounds.And for a small, fragile moment, I let myself pretend.Pretend that I had slept peacefully. Pretend that my chest didn’t ache with the weight of a thousand unspoken truths. Pretend that Arden’s arms hadn’t been around me only hours ago, breathing life into parts of me that had long been starved. Pretend that my life wasn’t fracturing, cleanly, mercilessly, in three different directions at once.But then I rolled over.And reality struck with a violence that felt almost physical.Richard was sitting at the edge of the bed, hunched forwar

  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   92 The Line I Refuse to Cross 2

    Arden’s POV“Yes, Your Majesty,” Abraham said, voice suddenly stripped of its earlier confidence. Now it held the rigid, spine-snapping deference only the King could command. “I’m with Prince Arden now.”I stood completely still as he repeated every word I’d said, every refusal, every threat, every calm, calculated rejection of the marriage they were trying to force on me. But he didn’t simply repeat them.He emphasized them. Sharpened them. Twisted them into daggers designed to provoke.Then he lowered the phone from his ear and hung up without another word, his expression tight with dread.Ten seconds later, my own phone rang.The sound sliced through the room like a blade. I didn’t move. I didn’t reach for it immediately. I simply stared as the screen lit up.FATHER.A name that once meant warmth, pride, and protection. A name that now felt like a chain around my throat.For one long, steady moment, I considered ignoring the call. For another, I considered throwing the phone

  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   91 The Line I Refuse to Cross

    Arden’s POVThe moment the office door shut behind us, the carefully maintained air of civility I had forced myself to wear downstairs shattered like thin, brittle glass.Here, in my space, my sanctuary, there was no need for masks.No need for diplomacy. No need for measured breath. No need to tolerate anything or anyone.Lord Abraham Welsh barely had time to exhale before I stepped forward, closing the distance between us with deliberate, predatory calm. He hadn’t even fixed his robes or smoothed his expression yet, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t interested in giving him time to compose whatever court-friendly lies he intended to deliver.“What is the meaning of all this?” I demanded, my voice sharp enough to slice through the thick tension.He flinched, an involuntary, human reaction he tried and failed to hide. The movement was small but telling, and under different circumstances I might have enjoyed it. Ministers rarely feared anyone but the King.But today? Today I was not in th

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