Tempting the Wrong Prince의 모든 챕터: 챕터 201 - 챕터 210

Cassandra’s POVI heard him exhale, like he’d been holding a breath he didn’t trust himself to release until he knew I was secure.“Good,” he said. “Stay there. Don’t leave until they clear everything.”“I won’t,” I whispered.Then Ivana moved.Fast.Too fast.She snatched the phone from my hand with the kind of reflex that came from entitlement, her eyes wide and frantic.Thinking it was Richard.She didn’t even wait for the person on the other side to speak.“Richard,” she said, voice breaking in a way I had never heard before. “I’m missing you. I’m sorry. Come home.”The room froze.Even the security aides paused, as if witnessing something forbidden.Ivana, Queen Ivana, apologising.Ivana, begging.It was so unnatural that for a second, my brain couldn’t process it.Then Arden spoke.Not harsh. Not mocking.Just… Arden.“Ivana,” he said evenly. “It’s Arden.”Ivana froze mid-breath.Her entire body locked.And in that split second, I saw it on her face, humiliation crashing into ra

Arden’s POVI moved to the bar counter near the patio and poured water for all three of us. Not alcohol, not yet. We needed clear heads.I carried the glasses over.Richard took his without looking at me.Sebastien drank half of his in one go.I sat last.For a few minutes, we did something that probably looked ridiculous considering what was happening outside these walls.We talked.Not about politics.Not about hunger.Not about Belmont.About childhood.About stupid fights.About the girls who used to have crushes on us back when we still looked like princes in storybooks and not men in a crisis.It started with Richard, oddly enough.He stared at the fountain for a while, then his mouth twitched, almost a smile, and he said, “Do you remember the girl who used to wait outside our school gates just to throw letters at you?”Sebastien’s eyebrows rose. “Which one?”Richard looked at him like he was insane. “Exactly. Which one. Arden had a fan club.”I rolled my eyes. “I was fifteen. I

Arden’s POVWe were still standing there, three princes in Father’s office, when the air shifted, that subtle warning the body feels before the mind catches up. The king’s desk was between us like a border. His tea steamed faintly in its cup, untouched for the first time since we walked in. The screen behind him still glowed with headlines and diplomatic updates, the sort of information that should have brought relief, the sort that should have steadied a ruler’s hands.Instead, the room felt like a wire pulled too tight.Richard stood to my right, still wearing that new, hard calm he’d found after the hospital, like grief had burned him clean and left only bone and discipline. Sebastien was to my left, restless as always, his anger running under his skin like electricity. I was in the middle, steady by force of will, because if I let myself think about Cassandra for too long, I would stop being a prince and become something far more dangerous.Father looked pleased with himself, almo

Arden’s POVFather didn’t collapse like a man who was simply tired.I had seen tired.I had seen stress. I had seen the way leadership wore men down in small, ugly pieces, the sleepless nights, the clenched jaw, the constant headaches that came from carrying an entire nation’s fear on your shoulders. I had watched him rub his temples in court as ministers argued and as hunger turned the streets into something volatile.But this time, it wasn’t fatigue.It was a switch going off.One moment he was staring at me with anger sharp enough to cut, ready to speak the kind of disappointment that turned into punishment, and the next moment his face twisted like something inside him had been grabbed and squeezed. His eyes didn’t only narrow, they lost focus. His hand went to his temple too late, his tea cup rattled, and then the king of Eldenwald folded like the crown had finally become too heavy for his body to hold.The office erupted.Chairs scraped. Guards moved instantly. Aides rushed forw

Arden’s POVThe doctors wouldn’t let us in. Not fully. Not yet. The ICU was sealed, sterile, controlled. They only allowed us to stand behind the glass and watch.It was humiliating, in a way.To stand behind a barrier while the king of Eldenwald lay hooked to machines.To watch his chest rise and fall under medical supervision instead of royal authority.To see tubes and lines and monitors around him like a reminder that no crown stopped a body from failing.The first time I saw him through the glass, something cold ran through me.Father looked smaller.Not physically, he was still the same man, the same frame, but the machines made him look like he belonged to them now. Like he was no longer the one commanding a room.A nurse adjusted something on a monitor. A doctor checked his IV line. A machine beeped steadily, indifferent to titles.And then I noticed who was standing near the bed, reading a chart, speaking softly to one of the ICU nurses.She turned slightly, her profile catch