The Villainess was Loved

Chapter Seventy-Nine: Happy Birthday

The rest of the night was a blur.

The prince and I slept in different rooms after a discussion too lengthy to bear, and come morning; I was dismissed to return to my resort…with two of his knights.

*

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*

Rheyes Kerhid Norvig Yarez

The sting on his face was not unnoticeable. He was genuinely stunned that Mitchelle had struck him, yet she looked as though she were the one in pain.

“How...how could you tell me that? How could you say that to me!”

She looked dishevelled, wild...downright ferocious.

The excuses died in his throat.

There was no way he could repeat for the nth time that by the time he bedded the countess, they weren’t engaged or courting; in fact, at the time, they were merely childhood friends.

“Mitchelle!”

“You were going to propose today, today Rheyes!! Instead, you tell me that you slept with someone, made her pregnant and are going to marry her?!”

Her hands shook as she said the words ‘marry’, as though that had been the finishing blow.

He had no idea why he felt defensive, perhaps the expectation that she would just say, ‘is that so’ and adjust to his plans, as she always did.

But perhaps this was bigger than he had, in his turmoil, downsized the issue to be.

“Were you under the impression that I was a virgin?”

“I don’t...I don’t know! You always said relationships were nothing you’d ever wish for, yet you...”

She took a deep breath.

“I am a virgin. Do you…”

“We will still wed after two years if you will not have found a suitable candidate. Do you wish to bed another in the meantime? Then by all means! Isn’t it nice to have some time to consider matters before you are tied to someone permanently?”

Mitchelle threw a cold laugh and placed her hands on her hips.

“By God, you are cruel.”

He wasn’t sure where he was wrong.

He would have been faithful to her had they been courting at the time, and after their wedding, he intended total honesty to her. But this was when they were merely friends; did she have feelings for him?

“You look hideous to me now, Rheyes.”

She whispered, then walked towards the large window bearing the view of the sea.

What else could he say that he hadn’t already?

He, too, regretted the situation.

If it hadn’t been for the countess’s carelessness, he would have been married into the most influential family in Kranis, second only to his grandparents.

It was an opportunity to expand their territory and stabilise enough to overthrow the Sylra and become the representative family of the North. Yet, here he was, stuck with a countess who bore him no profit.

If he hadn’t fallen asleep on that day, he would have watched whether she finished the birth control or simply hidden it under her tongue to spit out later for profits known only to her.

Should he add a restraining order for her later in the case that she would not be satisfied with their prenuptial agreement?

How…could he…how did he trust her that night? Because she answered his questions? Anyone with a sword to their neck answers questions! He should have just threatened her! Why the hell did he bed her?

Why?

Why couldn’t he leave things as they are?

‘No. I cant! I won’t!’

She went to war with his child!

His child would have died without him knowing its existence.

He could not trust her.

‘Should I take him from her?

No, she wouldn’t allow that, and it would be inconvenient if he were to mate with another.

For as long as he was alive, he had seen too many traumatised by family members that mated outside their ‘families’. Case and point: the Lundossa Household.

Though its stability is unmatched, the leading heads, Elizabeth Lundossa, and her husband, Pierre Lundossa, were unmated when they had Mitchelle and Sidney. Now both have mated outside each other and have started new families all under the Lundossa name, but as a consequence, both eldest children, to the main family, are either forgotten, Sidney, or treated like a marionette, Mitchelle, all because both parents do not hold enough empathy for them.

That cannot happen to his kin, or if it does, he’d rather have a buffer to warn him in case he goes too far.

‘What if I give him to the old king? Surely Grandpa would raise the child.’

‘No, the courts always favour the maternal side.’

So all he needed was evidence of the Countess’s incompetence, and for that, he needed to spend more time around her.

The marriage made sense.

But that by no means meant that he was elated…even if he would have the pleasant excuse to touch her.

“You think I am over the moon by this circumstance?? Imagine the shame I must bear before the old king and queen? Imagine the faces of my people? The union between a human and I solidifies nothing, but I need to take responsibility for this! This is not my first choice! But you, of all people, know what it is like being born into a mated family!”

“But you held her in your arms, Rheyes! Knowing all that, you still made love to the capital’s harlot. So what does that say about you?”

He sighed.

She was right.

She was right, but...she was...

He scratched his head and sighed.

“Okay, I understand. I will tell your father to break the engagement.”

“Are you mad? If you do that, I will be married off to the Raker household; Rheyes, I have no freedom. You were the only one I could depend on, and you know that! You know that, and now this??”

She turned to face him, finally turning her gaze from the window.

Her eyes were moist, the grace she held herself in still evident in her movement. Despite her flustered motions, not a hair stood out of place.

Truly perfection.

A queen he traded for a har…

He rolled his tongue and turned away to avoid the fullness of his thoughts, but that by no means meant that Mitchelle was done speaking.

“If I were standing by a cliff, ready to jump for all the burdens I bear, then you lump this on me… are you not the one who pushed me off?”

She asked.

“How could you? You know me; I know you. This arrangement was perfect, so how...why...how could you do this?”

“It was not planned.”

“Yet you still fed her your seed! Could you not spill it to the ground? The sheets? Were there ghost-eating-sperms chasing you! What is the reason this could not be prevented!!”

“Mitchell-”

“Do not! Do not say my name as though I am the unreasonable one! You betrayed the plan! You betrayed me! Me, Rheyes…you betrayed me!”

After a moment too long, he finally spoke.

“….I am sorry.”

Her expression resembled that of a person who had just received the worst news they never in a million years thought they would.

“You are sorry? Hah! …now this really feels beyond my control.”

Tears trickled down her eyes, and when he reached into his jacket to offer a handkerchief, she smacked his hand, and the cloth flew to the floor.

“Tell me something, Rheyes. Do you intend to mate with her?”

“Never!”

“Oh? But I believed that before too. I believed that you would be the last person to bed a human, the last person to impregnate a human…the last person to hurt me,…but boy…you sure were eager to prove that I know nothing of you.”

She sighed.

“When you finally mate with her, will you say ‘I’m sorry’ then too?”

“I will not mate with a human.”

“…Leave. I cannot- I cannot even bear to look at you right now.”

*

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*

“Well, that was a bust.”

Stanley said in the period of unabashed silence interrupted only by the rough rattle of the carriage as the driver sped across town to the Resort the countess had promised she was at.

“Shut up!”

“I mean, how did you think it would go?”

“Less emotionally? I mean, she now has a chance to roam around. The only problem is her parents; if I can have her stay under my protection for the next two years, then wed and mate with her as planned, matters should square off. I may need to confront her father but-”

“What do you mean ‘roam around’?...Your highness, do you think she thinks of another when she is with you?”

“Her parents…are controlling, she has never had the chance to be with another to understand what she truly wants. When we were children, she often told me that there was nothing she longed for more than freedom. I promised to grant her nothing but that, and I broke the word I gave.”

“Your highness, you…you think she is upset at your failure to grant her freedom? You think that is what breaks her spirit?”

“I know what you are about to say, but you do not know her as I do. She is looking for freedom.”

“Oh my god... as dumb as a shoe.”

Stanely muttered, albeit a little too clearly.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

Stanley responded with a straight enough expression to convince him that he had said nothing.

“Your highness, people, are not dolls; just because you tell them not to love does not mean that-“

“Love is too blinding for my tastes.”

He dismissed the moment he sensed the direction of the conversation.

*

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Mitchelle Sinclair Lundossa

“Mother, I cannot go through with the engagement?”

[What? Why? What is wrong with marrying a King?]

“He is marrying a human.”

[And you will let him?]

“It is not about ‘letting him’.”

[If you let your pride take you back home, you realise that your father has a list of candidates for you to meet; it will be week after week of engagement meetings. Do you understand that?]

“Mother he-,”

[Since you told me you could handle this, I will not take your side. You are too old to come crying when everything falls apart.]

“But he is marrying another woman. He is going to have a child, he-”

[Mercy, look at me.]

‘My name is Mitchelle.’

But she did not correct her mother, merely followed her instruction and gazed at her holographic image through the communication sphere.

[If it takes five years, make this work. The connections with the first prince should not be downsized. I am sure your father will understand this as well. So do not come home. You cannot give up on this because he will forget you if you do. Listen, he said two years, wait for him. He has not mated with her, and she has yet to birth the child. You have not lost your place, so do not disappoint us. We are counting on you, okay?]

‘What?’

[It is normal for him to have strayed before you, once you get your pride out of the way, it is easy to forgive such errors. Do not worry. You will do we-]

The sound of a child screaming interrupted the call.

[Sorry honey, Melanie is crying. I have to go! Remember, stay and mark your territory! It is your seat in the end! Make us proud. I will see you after your vacation!]

“Oh- okay, goodbye, mother. I lo-,”

The screen turned blank, cutting her off, and once the static died off, the emptiness roaming the room filled her.

“I love you, mother.”

She finished the fullness of her sentence to no audience, even the one intended.

“I love you too! Mitchelle, happy birthday!”

She said, mimicking her mother’s speech patterns before throwing her body to the bed and letting the tears from her already swollen eyes rewash her visage once again.

‘I….I am tired.’