Chapter 2 The Child She Chose to Lose
904 Words
Lenora drank the medicine.
The cramps in her abdomen came violently. Cold sweat soaked her forehead, and she bit through her lip to suppress the scream that almost escaped.
She fainted three times from the pain.
She had no idea how much time had passed when a sudden warmth spread between her legs.
Lenora knew then that the child was gone for good.
She didn't cry. Instead, her shoulders shook as she burst into laughter.
She laughed at her own blindness for loving the wrong man. She laughed at the years of devotion she had wasted. And she laughed because from this day forward, the world would be wide open again. She would never have to force herself to endure humiliation in a gilded cage for a man who was never worth it.
But as she laughed, tears blurred her vision.
Covering her face, she finally broke down and sobbed.
Lenora lay pale in bed for three days.
During those three days, Cedric had already returned to the Royal Capital of Kingsreach, yet he never appeared once.
Though her heart had already grown cold toward him, she couldn't stop remembering the past they had shared.
She first met Cedric ten years ago.
That day, the young general rode into the village on a white horse with a silver saddle, descending like a divine warrior to drive away the enemy soldiers who were burning and looting the place.
Lenora had still been the junior disciple of the Vale of Healers. She had left the valley alone to treat patients, only to encounter the invading soldiers. In her panic, she twisted her ankle and fell, unable to get up.
Smoke and chaos filled the air.
Cedric dismounted at that moment and lifted the dirty, dust-covered girl into his arms.
The young general's face was cold, but his embrace was steady and warm.
She still remembered him wiping the soot from her face as he teased, "Turns out you're a little beauty."
Lenora lowered her head shyly.
From that moment on, Cedric took root in her heart.
Three years ago, when Cedric was ambushed and left unconscious in the wilderness, Lenora carried him back to her small medical cottage without hesitation. She cared for him day and night without rest.
He had been poisoned with a strange toxin that refused to heal.
So Lenora used her own blood as the catalyst for the medicine. Every day she cut open her wrist and filled an entire bowl with blood.
She even climbed a cliff during a storm to pick a rare herb that only bloomed in the rain. Because of that, she caught a severe chill that turned into a lasting lung illness.
Three months later, Cedric finally woke.
By then, Lenora's arms were covered in scars from the blade. Her body had been weakened by blood loss, leaving behind a permanent illness that could never be cured.
Even a slight chill would make her break into cold sweat, her heart racing painfully.
Cedric had held her tightly and said he would marry her.
Back then, even the smallest injury to Lenora would make Cedric panic.
The first time she tried cooking, she accidentally burned her hand. Cedric summoned every physician in the Royal Capital of Kingsreach, afraid she might be left with a scar.
When she was pregnant with their first child, her back constantly ached and she struggled to sleep. He would hold her through the night, massaging her muscles to ease the pain.
As the months passed and her belly grew heavy with deep stretch marks, he showed no disgust. Instead, he blamed himself for not being able to share her suffering.
"I never want you to go through this pain again."
Yet the love that countless noble ladies in the capital envied had turned out to be nothing more than a cruel joke.
The pain in her body spread to her chest.
Lenora wrote the divorce letter and went to see Lady Eleanor.
The old woman looked at her with open ridicule. "So you've finally figured it out? Realized you're not worthy of my son and decided to step aside?"
Lenora nodded. "Yes. I'm willing to divorce Cedric."
"At least you have some self-awareness. A merchant-born healer like you was never worthy of my son."
Lady Eleanor sneered, then glanced at Lenora's stomach.
"You may leave, but the child in your belly must stay. The Hawthorne family's bloodline cannot wander outside."
"The child is already gone." Ignoring the shock in the old woman's eyes, Lenora stood up to leave. "The divorce letter is written. Please find a way to make Cedric agree."
She had barely stepped out when she heard Lady Eleanor call excitedly to a maid.
"Which noble young ladies in the capital are still unmarried? Bring me their portraits so I can choose. That low-born woman finally had the sense to leave. I must pick a proper wife for my son…"
There was no need to choose.
Lenora sneered inwardly. She wondered whether Lady Eleanor would lose her mind if she ever discovered that Cedric was having an affair with the imperial consort.
But none of that had anything to do with Lenora anymore. She planned to pack her belongings and leave as soon as Julian replied.
Just then, a servant rushed in to report:
"Madam, the general has returned from the southern campaign. He is waiting for you in Orchid Court."
- Writer
