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Damian was taken away by the Royal Guard. For plotting the murder of a high–ranking military commander
not even the Duke and Duchess could save him now.
I finally saw the extent of Rhys’s injuries, a dozen cuts and bruises hidden beneath his armor. My heart ache as I tended to his wounds. We were silent for a long time. Then, as if it were a casual thought, he spoke.
“Do you… have another whom you love?”
“If you do, I can speak to the King, and we can have our marriage annulled…” He couldn’t continue.
I looked up sharply. “What do you mean by that?”
He closed his eyes. “You said Damian was a substitute. What about me? Am I also just a substitute for the man you truly love?”
I burst out laughing. And then I told him about the day my carriage crashed. “The man who saved me then… it was you, wasn’t it?”
His eyes burned into mine.
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Chapter 2
15:43
“When I first saw you up close,” I said, “I felt it, a faint recognition. I knew I had chosen the wrong man. But it
doesn’t matter. After all this, we are together now.”
Later, he told me the other half of the story.
Rhys never knew who he was. His first memories were of begging on the streets. The first time he ever saw
me, he was a boy, beaten half to death for a stolen piece of bread, left to die in the middle of the road. He
heard the approaching sound of horses and thought his life was over. But then a young girl’s anxious voice
called for her servants to fetch a physician. He later learned she was the daughter of the King’s most trusted
advisor. Seraphina of House Ashton.
He joined the army, clawed his way up through skill and bravery. When whispers began about his resemblan
ce to the nobles of House Thorne, he donned the mask. The next time he heard my name, it was attached to
Damian’s, a betrothal he watched from afar.
“To see my own face on another man… I hated it,” he confessed, his hand tightening around mine. “I couldn‘
help but think, if I had not been a beggar, if I had been the heir of House Thorne, would she have loved me?”
“Then, my chance came. My men heard that Damian was secretly looking for a sorcerer who could make an
automaton. I posed as one and fooled everyone. That fool never stopped to think how such a thing could be
possible. But I have him to thank. He finally allowed me to get close to you…”
When he finished, I pulled him into my arms. We had found our way back to each other, despite it all.
Damian’s crimes were laid bare. The King, in his fury, sentenced him to death. The old Duke knelt before the
throne and offered his title, his legacy, everything, in exchange for his son’s life. The King relented.
The Duke and Duchess, with a broken and barely living Damian, left the capital that night. They were too
ashamed to ask for Rhys’s forgiveness. As for Clara, her reputation was ruined. Her parents hastily married
her off to a merchant in the south.
When I heard the news, I was feeding Rhys a piece of cake.
“My love,” I asked, “do you feel any sorrow for them?”
He smiled. “I have you, my lady. That is all I shall ever need.”
And so the years passed, quiet and good. My life was finally my own.
