Chapter 6
I stared at Orion in surprise, filled with confusion.
Wasn’t Serena the one he adored most? He had never tolerated her being wronged in the slightest. So why hadn’t he entered her bedchamber on their wedding night?
For a noblewoman, that was the ultimate humiliation.
And since even Alice knew about it, it must have already become the talk of Helios’s high society. How was Serena supposed to face anyone now?
Sensing my gaze, Orion’s eyes lit up. He quickly ran toward me.
When he saw Rowan and I holding hands, a bitter smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
“Claire… last night, I didn’t go into Serena’s room. I…”
“That’s enough, Orion. I don’t care about any of that.”
In the past, he had made me suffer repeatedly for Serena’s sake. And now that I was married, he suddenly came groveling to me–it was laughable.
I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm.
“No, there’s something you must know…”
“Do you remember that banquet the year you first came to Helios, when I fell into the water?”
I looked at him warily.
Of course I remembered. That moment had planted the seeds of tragedy in my previous life.
I had jumped in to save him, and from that moment on, I had fallen in love.
But he had never shown me any affection. Instead, he had showered Serena with attention from that day forward.
“Claire, last night I refused to consummate the marriage. It wasn’t until after midnight that I went to Serena’s room… and I happened to overhear her talking to her maid.”
“All these years, I thought it was Serena who saved me. I was wrong. It was you. She only happened to pass by and took credit for what you did.” Orion had spent the whole night alone in the study, his mind spinning with memories of everything that had ever happened between us.
It felt like his heart was being carved open, one inch at a time. Even breathing hurt.
The mystery that had haunted me for years was finally solved–but inside, I felt nothing.
None of it mattered anymore.
“So what, Orion? Are you telling me that you love whoever saved you back then?”
“Then your love is laughably shallow.”
Orion tried to say more, but I had already left him behind.
After we left the palace, Rowan used our honeymoon as an excuse to take me on a trip around the outskirts of Helios.
Since arriving in Helios, I had been confined to the royal palace for ten whole years. And with the memories of my past life on top of that, it had been far too long since I had felt truly free.
Once I was let loose, I ran wild like an unbridled horse–we didn’t return to the palace for half a month.
And the moment we came back, I heard news about Orion and Serena.
On the day we entered the palace to offer our thanks, Orion had actually requested the king to annul the marriage decree and let him marry me instead. The king was furious.
“Absurd! Marriage is not a child’s game–you can’t just change your mind like that!”
Orion was punished to kneel in the palace for eight hours. By the time the servants helped him back, it was already dark.
Later, because Orion still refused to touch Serena, she then drugged him..
When he regained consciousness, they had a huge fight.
Chapter 6
“Serena! You call yourself a lady of nobles, yet you stoop to such disgusting tricks!”
Serena had never seen this side of Orion before. She burst into tears and completely lost her composure.
“You refuse to lay a hand on me—who are you saving yourself for?”
“Princess Claire is already Rowan’s wife. If you lust after your own sister–in–law, how are you any better than I am?” That hit a nerve. Orion slapped her across the face, and when she kept crying and shouting, he just shut her in her room. Word of it spread quickly throughout Asteria. The noble ladies would gather just to laugh at Serena behind her back. “They flaunted their love before the wedding like some fairytale romance. But it turns out it was all for show!” “She even had to use drugs just to get him into bed. What kind of vulgar tricks is she using?”
“And Prince Orion… not only did he lose the crown prince title, but he ended up marrying that kind of woman…” Therefore, even though the days when Orion confined her at home were long over, Serena still stayed indoors.
