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81 The Weight of a Crown I Never Wanted

Author: Karima Sa'ad Usman
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-12-10 21:13:32

Arden’s POV

For a moment I sat completely still, the phone heavy in my palm, the world spinning far too fast around me. The car felt tighter, smaller, as though the leather seats were closing in around me. My pulse beat against my skull. My lungs struggled to decide whether to breathe or seize.

Then something inside me snapped.

I hurled the phone onto the seat beside me.

The sound cracked through the car like a whip.

The driver flinched violently, the car jerking a little before he steadied it. “My Prince, apologies, ”

“It wasn’t you,” I muttered, voice low, clenched.

It was him.

The King.

Always him.

For years, he had manoeuvred my life like a chessboard, pieces arranged, sacrifices demanded, strategies enforced. None of them mine. Every significant choice stolen from me. Every path paved with consequences if I dared to step aside.

Tonight’s stunt was one of his most ruthless.

Cornering me beside the Longman heiress.

Before the entire country.

Before foreign dignitaries.

Before C
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goodnovel comment avatar
Juicy Miss 🥰
Sebastian offers therapy, and now, sacrifice? And for what? A weak father/king????
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  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   160 The Brother Who Broke First 3

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  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   159 The Brother Who Broke First 2

    Arden’s POVI saw it then,the way his face held too much pain for one day, one week, even one year. The way his shoulders sagged like the body had finally admitted it couldn’t carry the crown and the shame and the guilt all at once.I exhaled slowly, forcing my own fury to sharpen into something useful rather than explosive.“Listen,” I said, lowering my voice. “You don’t have to carry it alone.”Richard’s lips trembled.“I was… I was a fool,” he whispered.“You were manipulated,” I corrected. “And you let it happen. Both can be true. But you don’t get to drown in it now.”He swallowed. “Cassandra…”The name slipped out of him like pain.I felt my chest tighten, but I didn’t react. Not outwardly. Not in a way he could read.Richard’s eyes flicked up, searching my face like he was afraid of what he might see there.I kept my expression neutral.“This changes everything,” he said, voice breaking. “Everything I did… I did it for,”“Stop,” I said, not unkindly, but firmly. “Right now, you

  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   158 The Brother Who Broke First

    Arden’s POVBy the time Richard arrived, the sun had already started sliding down the sky like it was tired of watching this country suffer.The light outside my villa was that pale gold that made everything look softer than it truly was. Even the street beyond my gates seemed calmer than Eldenwald deserved right now. Cars moved with ordinary patience. A delivery bike cut through traffic. Somewhere in the distance, a siren rose and fell, the kind of noise you stopped noticing if you lived in a city long enough.Inside my house, nothing felt soft.The silence had teeth.I’d been sitting in the living room with my phone on the table and my mind stuck in the same loop: Cassandra’s name, Nala’s face, Belmont’s headline, the King’s pressure, the mob’s hunger, the lie they sold as truth.I had security on standby, but I didn’t want them in my space. I didn’t want anyone hovering. I didn’t want the sound of radios and footsteps and strategy talk. I wanted one thing only.To see Cassandra.To

  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   157 The Night They Sold as Truth 3

    Arden’s POVSebastien spoke again, pulling me out of my thoughts.“Richard called me,” I said suddenly, the information rising because it mattered.Sebastien paused. “He did?”“Yes,” I said. “He sounded frantic.”Sebastien went quiet, then asked, “Do you think he wants to beg for Cassandra?”I let out a slow breath.“No,” I said. “I doubt it has anything to do with Cassandra.”Not because Richard didn’t love Cassandra in his own twisted way.But because the tone in Richard’s voice, the fracture, the desperation, had sounded like something else.Something that snapped a man at the root.Something bigger than pride.Sebastien murmured, “Then what?”“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But something has gone wrong.”Sebastien sighed. “Richard is going through a lot.”The words were careful, almost protective.I could hear it in his voice, Sebastien always balanced us. Always smoothed edges before blood spilled.“I’m going through a lot too,” I said, my voice flat.Sebastien didn’t argue. He simp

  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   156 The Night They Sold as Truth 2

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  • Tempting the Wrong Prince   155 The Night They Sold as Truth

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