The Emperor's Only Love

In the Rosewood Garden at Winterpeak Abbey, a young man and woman played and chased, laughing as they went.

"That shameless tramp has no decency at all. Miss, you're supposed to be the future Crown Princess. Yet, she still throws herself at His Highness without any self-respect. A bastard daughter thinking she can compete with you for the Crown Prince? Yeah, right. Miss, why aren't you worried at all? What if His Highness actually falls for that tramp?"

I listened to my servant, Lily Woods, as she went on and on. I smiled at her but did not bother answering.

I had always been sensitive to cold, so I sat in the garden pavilion with a hand warmer, perched on a stone bench covered with thick cushions, watching the man and woman chasing each other in the distance.

The man doing the chasing was none other than the Crown Prince, Dorian Ashford, who had been favored and adored since birth. Everything had always gone smoothly for him, with everyone doting on him and worried about disappointing him in any way.

The woman being chased was my sister, Celeste Vale. She was born to a mistress. She was blessed with a face that could captivate any man and a heart full of ambition as she dreamed of rising above her station.

In my past life, I had been so foolish that I could not see that Dorian had already fallen for Celeste by that point. I had stubbornly inserted myself between them and joined their little game of tag.

When we both fell in the snow at the same time, Dorian immediately ran to Celeste's side, helped her up, and looked at her with obvious affection and concern. He saw blood on the snow and carefully checked her over for injuries.

Meanwhile, I became the third wheel nobody wanted around.

"Miss, your leg is bleeding!" Lily said urgently, her voice full of worry.

Even now, thinking back on it, I could still feel the stinging pain from where the tree branch had cut my calf.

Just then, Celeste walked over with a shy smile on her face and asked curiously, "Seraphina, why aren't you playing with us? Is it because you don't like me?"

"I get cold easily. You two go ahead and have fun," I replied, turning slightly to avoid her hand that was reaching toward me and brushing off some nonexistent dust from my hand warmer.

She asked again, "Don't you like His Highness, Seraphina?"

"Do I? When did I ever say I liked him?"

Celeste looked surprised. She could tell something about me had changed, but she could not quite put her finger on what was different.

In my past life, on the road to my political marriage, a group of bandits suddenly appeared and took turns violating me. I screamed for help until my voice gave out, but no one came to save me, and they did not stop until I was dead.

Right before I lost consciousness, I thought I saw Dorian standing there with an expression of wild, triumphant madness. It was as if he had just won a battle.

He walked over to me and lifted his foot, then stepped on my face like I was an insect he was crushing. His actions were brutal, but his tone was sickeningly gentle.

He said to me, "Consider this my way of repaying you for betraying me back then. Do you know how Celeste died? She was pregnant with my child, and she went through exactly what you just did. We couldn't even find her body afterward. You should thank me for showing you mercy. Do you know who sent these bandits after you? It was me."

At the end, he lifted his foot off my face. When he noticed the blood staining his shoe, he wiped the sole clean with the little fabric left on my body, as if in disgust.

My tears had long run dry. My face was swollen and covered in a mixture of blood and dirt.

All I wanted was to die, and he seemed to see right through me.

"You want to die? How could I possibly let you off that easily?"