The Villain's Life Is Now Mine

Confrontation

The palace gates loomed ahead, wrought iron twisted with gold and the family crest gleaming under the moonlight. The carriage rumbled over the cobblestones. Its wheels slowed by the guards waving it through. Raven leaned against the window, her bruised cheek pressed lightly to the glass. Her body still ached, her hands were bandaged, and there was dirt under her nails. Her cloak reeked of sweat, smoke, and blood.

And yet, it was the silence in her chest that scared her the most. The silence where panic used to live. The stillness after chaos.

It was the first time she'd truly felt like she'd survived something. "Lady Raven?" the guard beside her asked softly. "We've arrived."

She didn't answer. Just opened the door and stepped out. The courtyard was flooded with lamplight. Servants rushed to meet her. Her maid, pale and frantic, nearly sobbed when she saw her. "Milady! I thought you were! I thought!"

"I'm fine," Raven said, brushing past her.

At the top of the stairs, the doors burst open. "Raven!" Her father. He was still in his robes, the silver trim loose around his waist, and his eyes, sharp and almost youthful, were red at the edges. He ran to her, collapsing into a hug so fierce she nearly stumbled. "You're alive," he whispered. "I-I heard it was him, that thing, that monster-"

"I'm okay."

He pulled back to look at her face, his fingers trembling as they touched the scrape along her temple. "What were you even doing out there? Alone? After everything that's happened, after what you-" He cut himself off, swallowing hard. Raven stared at him. And realized, for all his dramatics, all his fawning, he was genuinely terrified. Not just of losing her again. But of what had already been lost.

"I needed to get out," she said, softer now. "I needed to breath."

He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Come inside. Let the maids tend to you. I'll have the chef make your favorite. You must be exhausted."

"No." He froze. "I want answers," she said. "Now."

He looked at her warily. "What sort of answers?"

She folded her arms, ignoring the pain in her ribs. "About me. Before. About the Crown Prince." His mouth went still. "I keep hearing his name in whispers," she said. "Servants go silent when I ask. And I don't remember him. I don't remember why I supposedly loved him, or what happened at that banquet. But you do."

He sat down heavily on the marble bench just inside the hall. "It's not that simple, Raven."

"Try me."

He looked up at her, his expression tired in a way that no performance could fake. "I never understood your relationship with the prince, That's the truth. One day you were children, tolerating each other, and then suddenly, you were obsessed. Desperate."

"Desperate?"

"You wanted the engagement more than anything. Even when he seemed... uninterested. Even when his words were cold. I asked you why, again and again, but you'd smile and say it was love." Raven's blood chilled. "I thought maybe I didn't understand the way you showed affection," he went on. "Your mother was like that, too-guarded, strange, intense. But then the rumors started."

"What rumors?"

He hesitated. "That the prince tried to end it," he said. "That you wouldn't let him.

She sat down beside him slowly, her knees buckling. "And the bridge? The accident?"

He shook his head. " I wasn't there. No one really knows. You and the prince went out on the balcony during the banquet. A few minutes later, you were gone. They found you in the river. You were in a coma before anyone could ask questions."

"Did the prince say anything?"

"No," he said. "That's the strangest part. He didn't come to visit you. Not even once." Silence pressed in around them. "Raven... " Her father touched her shoulder. "I don't know what happened between you two. But whatever it was. It scared me." Her pulse thundered in her ears. "Do you still want to be engaged to him?" he asked carefully.

She shook her head. "No. Not if I don't remember him. Not if it wasn't real."

He nodded slowly. "Then we'll handle it. I'll send a letter to the court. Canel the betrothal if it hasn't been formalized."

"I want to know more first."

His hand tensed on her shoulder. "Raven-"

"I'll be careful. I won't be reckless again."

He gave her a look-half exasperated, half relived, and let out a long sigh. "Just don't disappear from your maid again, or I will have her collapse on the floor from stress."

"She's stronger than she looks."

He gave her a faint smile. "So, are you."

She stood, brushed off her skirts. "Good night, father."

As she turned to leave, he said one last thing "If you find out the truth... be ready for it to hurt." Raven didn't look back. She climbed the stairs in silence, her body arching, her mind reeling. The prince. The obsession. The river. What kind of girl had Raven been?

And what had she done that scared even a crown prince into silence? She paused at her bedroom door, her hand resting on the frame.

No matter how painful, she had to know. Because this was her life now, Ravens life, and if she was to rewrite it, she had to start from the truth.