Chapter Ninety Nine

Maximillian You know that moment when everything shifts—and you don’t need anyone to say a word because their faces say it for them? Yeah… that was me the second Edwina’s parents walked into that hospital room.I didn’t need a mirror to know I looked like the villain in their story. They didn’t even try to hide it. The disappointment, the anger, the blame—it was all right there, aimed straight at me. And honestly? I couldn’t even argue with it.Because what kind of man lets the woman he loves end up in a hospital bed… because of his own family?I stood there, hands stiff at my sides, forcing myself not to look away as more of them filed in—my parents, my grandparents, her sisters. The room felt smaller with every step they took, like the walls were closing in, squeezing the truth tighter around my throat.This is on you.They could say it wasn’t. They probably would. But I knew better. I’d seen the tension. I’d noticed the looks. And what did I do? I trusted my sisters. Trusted them

Last Updated : 2026-04-27

Chapter Hundred

EdwinaA year laterThe chapel had never felt so heavy.Every pew was filled — dignitaries, business partners, old family friends, CEOs of companies that bore the Sebastiani name in their boardrooms, politicians who had shaken Andrei's hand across negotiation tables, and ordinary people whose lives had been quietly changed by a man who never thought small.They had come from every corner of the world, dressed in black and grey, their faces carrying the particular exhaustion that only grief can produce. Outside, the bells had tolled at dawn and had not stopped until the procession entered the chapel doors.The casket sat at the front of the nave, draped in the royal colors of Mercia — deep crimson and gold. Atop it rested his crown. Not worn. Just placed there, quietly, as if even the crown understood it had lost its king.I sat with the family in the front pews, close enough to see everything, far enough to feel like I was watching something I wasn't sure I deserved to witness. These

Last Updated : 2026-05-22

Chapter Hundred and One

Maximillian Pastor Emmanuel stepped aside, and the chapel held its breath as Dad rose from the front pew.He buttoned his jacket as he stood — a small, automatic gesture, the kind muscle memory produces when a man has spent his whole life being watched. He walked to the podium the way he walked into every room — like he owned it, like the floor had been expecting his footsteps. But I watched his hand grip the edge of the podium when he got there, and I saw what the rest of the chapel probably missed.He was holding on.He unfolded a single piece of paper, looked at it for a moment, then set it aside.He wasn't going to read it."My father," he began, and then stopped. Cleared his throat. Started again. "My father used to say that a man is not measured by the height of his throne but by the depth of his roots.""He said it so often that we stopped hearing it the way you stop hearing the sound of rain after a while — it just becomes part of the atmosphere."A quiet ripple of recogniti

Last Updated : 2026-05-24

Chapter Hundred And Two

Maximillian Six months later Julian was hiding something big.I'd known it for weeks — the way his gaze would slide just a fraction too far to the left whenever certain topics surfaced, the measured pauses before ordinary sentences, the almost imperceptible shift in his posture whenever Edwina's family came up. He was carrying a secret he'd tucked behind his ribcage, believing no one could see the shape of it pressing against him from the inside.He thinks I don't know, I thought, watching him from across the breakfast table one morning, keeping my expression carefully neutral. He really thinks I have absolutely no idea.I wasn't going to call him out on it though. That wasn't the kind of brothers we were. Julian would tell me when he was ready — I was certain of that much. So I waited, patient and quiet, carrying the weight of knowing without letting it show.After the funeral, Mercia held me like a place that had decided it wasn't done with me yet.I stood at the window of my ch

Last Updated : 2026-06-18

Chapter Hundred And Three

Maximillian Julian was nervous. Anyone with eyes could see it — the way his knee bounced under the table, the way he kept lacing and unlacing his fingers like he was trying to remember how hands worked. Nobody pushed him to speak. We all just sat there, waiting, the silence stretching long enough that it started to feel like its own kind of conversation.Something's coming, I thought, watching him. Something he's been carrying around for a while.It made sense, in a way. This was the first time in longer than I could remember that Julian had actually summoned everyone — called a family meeting like we were a board he had to report to. Whatever he was about to say, it wasn't going to be small."Um..." He cleared his throat, lacing his fingers together again. "What I'm about to say is very important to me, so I'd really appreciate it if you all could take it in stride." Then he did something that made the whole room shift — he stared pointedly at Bianca. "Whatever opinion you might

Last Updated : 2026-06-29

Chapter Hundred And Four

EdwinaSix months later I sat very still while the hairstylist moved around my sister, watching Esther's reflection in the mirror like I still couldn't quite believe what it was showing me.My big sister is getting married today. To my boyfriend's brother.It still didn't feel real, even with the dress hanging on the door and the hairstylist's hands moving fast through Esther's curls. Esther had never said the words out loud, not once, but I had always known — the quiet worry that sat underneath my sister's smiles, the fear that she'd go through life without ever finding someone who loved her the way Mom and Dad loved each other.Well. I guess she doesn't have to worry about that anymore.In a few hours my sister was going to become a princess, and looking at her now, I didn't think I'd ever been happier for anyone in my life."Eddie, do you remember when you were little and you told Evelyn and I about the dream you had?" Esther asked, catching my eyes in the mirror."What dream?" I

Last Updated : 2026-06-30