Chapter 3

Just as I returned to the Payne manor, a goblet came hurtling toward my head and smashed into me on the forehead.

Warm blood trickled down my brows and blurred my vision with crimson.

Dad sat in the living hall, his face livid as he yelled at me, "Get down on your knees this instant!"

Mom then rushed up to me, cursing and shouting loudly, "Monique was only accompanying the Crown Prince to the Royal Stables, and you still dared to try and kill her? Are you only going to stop after she's dead?"

I didn't move.

Colin then escorted Monique into the living hall. Her face was pale and colorless as she said, "Mother, don't talk about Meredith like that. She was just upset about losing her horse. That's the only reason why she misbehaved."

Colin looked at my blood-covered face and was stunned for a moment. However, Monique coughed lightly, and he immediately looked at her and pulled his robe tighter around her body.

"Are you still afraid?"

Mom immediately felt sorry for her. When she turned to look at me again, her eyes were filled with nothing but disgust.

"What the hell are you still standing there for? You must be punished according to familial law!"

The nanny came over and pinned me to the ground and lashed at my palms with a leather crop. My palms swelled at once, and it hurt so badly that my shoulders trembled with pain, but I bit my lips tightly and refused to make a sound.

In my past life, I had protected Colin from an assassin attack and gotten deeply wounded where the bone was exposed, and yet I still never cried out in pain.

Back then, he held me in his arms, tears streaming down his face.

"Merry, I promise, whoever dares to hurt you from this day forward will suffer my wrath! I will kill them no matter what!"

After 30 lashes of the leather crop, my palms were so badly injured that the flesh had torn open.

Monique finally spoke.

"Mom, the royal wedding will be held in two days. I still want Merry to see me off. Don't hit her anymore."

Mom then told the nanny to back away and said, "Lock up this scoundrel in the dungeon and make her copy the Holy Scriptures 99 times. She will not be allowed to be released until she finishes writing them all!"

The dungeon was cold and damp. I was forced to stay in a kneeling position as I painstakingly copied out the ure, holding the pen in my trembling hands. Every word I wrote tore at the wounds on my hands, and soon, the paper was soaked with my blood.

In the middle of the night, I developed a high fever. In the midst of my haziness, I felt someone grabbing my hand and wiping away the blood on it.

I immediately opened my eyes and saw Colin crouching over me. I immediately withdrew my hand.

"What are you doing here, Your Royal Highness?"

He frowned. "Monique pleaded for mercy on your behalf, so I have decided that I will be bringing you into the palace as my concubine after the royal wedding.

"She's weak and fragile. Whatever children you bear in the future will be registered under her name. This way, you will be able to stay with me, and it will also fulfill your sisterly bond with her."

A buzzing sound filled my ears at once.

In my past life, I had nearly died during childbirth because of the pain. But even when my daughter was grievously ill, they still never allowed me to see her.

And when my son was old enough to learn to write, the first word they taught him was how to spell Monique's name.

I trembled with anger and grabbed one of the scrolls, meaning to hit Colin with it. However, there was a sudden cry at the door.

It was Monique. She stood at the door, tears streaming down her face.

"Meredith… I haven't even married into the palace yet, and you're already seducing the Crown Prince in our own home? How could you be that impatient?"

Mom rushed in at once and slapped me hard without another word.

"You bitch! You think you have the right to destroy Monique just because of your damn jealousy?"

My face smarted from the stinging slap. However, I suddenly burst into laughter.

"Yeah. I'm jealous, alright. So jealous of her, in fact."

The entire dungeon went silent.

"I'm jealous that she has always been the apple of your eye ever since she was born. The moment she said the cold was too much for her, you took all my winter clothing, warm bedding, and coal stove, and delivered them all straight to her room."

Tears began streaming down my face without me knowing it.

"She said that giving out food to the needy was too much work, so I was the one who stood in the scorching hot sun for hours until I collapsed from heatstroke, but she was the one who gained the reputation of being kind and virtuous.

"I was so sick that I lay in bed and couldn't even get up, but she said she wanted to eat fresh pastries from the capital bakery, and you forced me out into the snow just to buy them for her."

I stared at Mom and made my words very clear.

"Am I not your daughter too?"

Mom's expression changed slightly. Colin also hesitated, his eyes flickering with uncertainty.

However, Monique took a step forward and cried even harder than before, her face completely pale.

"I… I didn't know that you hated me this much… Then… Then I'll let you be the princess consort instead… I'll just kill myself here now to atone for my sins…"

Then, she suddenly went limp and collapsed to the floor in a dead faint.

Colin's face turned grim at once as he rushed over to her to hold her up.

"Fetch the physician!"

Half an hour later, the physician approached Colin with a grave expression on his face. He said, "This lady has a weak heart, and the shock and anger she experienced prior to her collapse have damaged her spirit. She must drink the blood of a close female relative for three days for her condition to stabilize."

Mom immediately came up to me and said, "Merry, Monique is the princess consort, and nothing can happen to her."

Dad also said, "It's just a few bowls of blood. It won't kill you. It'll be over in no time."

I felt a pain in my chest.

"What if I said no?"

Colin got to his feet, the last trace of warmth in his eyes completely gone.

"Pin her down."

The nanny lunged at me at once and held me to the ground, forcing me to extend my arm. A dagger then slit into my wrist, and my blood flowed into the bowl.

It hurt so much that my vision blacked out for a while.

However, Mom continued urging, "Take more blood. Take more. Monique has a very weak body. We have to make sure that the blood is enough for her.

At that moment, it finally stopped hurting for me.

After they were done taking the blood from me, I was dragged back into my room and dumped onto the floor.

I didn't know how much time passed after that, but a carrier pigeon landed at my window, and I crawled over to it with my broken body, untying the bamboo tube from its leg.

The letter contained only a single line of words.

"This is the pill to fake your death, Merry. I will marry you in two days."

I clutched the pill in my hand as tears finally streamed down my face.