Chapter 3Bloody Debt

By the time I stumbled into the back garden, Liana had already directed the groundskeepers to dig up half the frozen earth.

“Stop! All of you, stop!” I screamed, heedless of my appearance.

But the servants knew my place in this house. They paid me no mind.

I rushed to Liana.

“Tell them to stop! Make them stop now!”

Liana waved a dismissive hand, and two of her personal guards pulled me away.

She toyed with a string of pearls, a light, cruel laugh on her lips.

“A wretched little thing like that doesn't deserve to be buried in the hallowed grounds of this estate.”

“The frost is deep, and the beasts in the forest are hungry. Once we dig the little beast up, we can toss it to them. Consider it an act of charity.”

Her words struck me like a physical blow. I was filled with a blinding rage.

I don’t know where the strength came from, but I broke free from the guards and seized the front of Liana’s dress.

“Liana, you took my child from me. I’ll kill you!”

I pulled the simple wooden pin from my hair and lunged, aiming for her throat.

The pin had barely scratched her delicate skin when a powerful hand shoved me from behind.

I slammed into a stone bench, and in an instant, the cold steel of a dozen swords was at my throat.

Liana, feigning terror, collapsed into Damien’s arms, sobbing.

“Damien, my love, you came just in time! If you hadn’t, I would never have seen you again.”

Damien’s brow was a knot of fury, but his eyes were fixed on me, silent and unreadable.

I ignored the animosity between us, my voice a desperate plea.

“Damien, please. I beg you, make them stop.”

“Punish me however you want, I’ll accept anything, but that is my child!”

“Damien… he is our child…”

Ignoring the blades at my neck, I crawled step by agonizing step and knelt at his feet.

I clutched the hem of his trousers, my voice a raw, ugly rasp.

“He was a boy, Damien. He will never learn to ride a horse or draw a bow now…”

In countless nights past, Damien had kissed my hair and whispered in my ear:

“Elara, my love, when we have a child…”

“If it’s a boy, I will teach him to ride and shoot.”

“If it’s a girl, you will teach her poetry and song.”

But now, our child never even had the chance to see this world.

The memory must have struck Damien too, because his pupils contracted sharply.

He instinctively glanced at the ravaged garden, his face shadowed and dark.

Liana sensed his hesitation. She dabbed at her eyes with a lace handkerchief.

“Damien, the Master Physician came yesterday. He said my ceaseless headaches are caused by the unquiet spirit of a dead infant buried on the grounds.”

“It was foolish of me. I was only thinking of myself, not of my lady’s feelings.”

“If she truly cannot bear it, I suppose I can continue to suffer…”

I didn’t hear another word she said. All I saw was a groundskeeper unearthing a small bundle wrapped in red cloth.

The searing crimson made my tears fall anew.

I tugged desperately at Damien’s leg.

“Damien, if you just spare my child…”

“I will give up my position as your wife. I will give it to Liana!”

“My wife?”

Damien’s brow furrowed, and then a storm of fury erupted in his eyes.

He gritted his teeth. “Elara, does the title of Lady Vaughn disgust you so much?”

I knelt there, sobbing too hard to speak.

His lips thinned into a white line, his face ashen. Suddenly, he let out a harsh, barking laugh.

“You are truly something else!”

“A dead infant is an ill omen. To leave it here will only bring disaster upon this house. Men! Bring me tinder and dry branches…”

Damien squeezed his eyes shut, hiding the raw crimson within them. He bit out each word.

“Burn it. On the spot.”