Chapter 142

How to Tame My Beastly Husband — Chapter 142. The Other Side of Raphael (1)

If King Selgratis hadn’t asked Hamilton to look after his son, he would never have done something so troublesome. Hamilton clicked his tongue, tearing a strip off his own shirt to staunch the bleeding from the boy’s shoulder.

Only then did he check on Bella, who still lay on the floor.

She was so wasted by her addiction, she could not possibly have survived the wound from his sword. But he remembered a brave young woman, who had once wanted nothing more than three meals a day.

“Do you hate me for killing her?” He asked Raphael, when she had breathed her last.

It didn’t matter if he did. Hamilton would accept even resentment and revenge if it meant Raphael would work harder because of it. He was not sorry he had killed her. Hamilton had wanted to kill that bitch since Raphael was four years old, and she had hurt him so badly, he had almost lost the sight in one eye.

“Ah…”

Raphael looked startled by the question, and his eyes went to Bella’s limp body. Hamilton could only wait in silence for the boy’s decision. Hamilton had killed his mother before his eyes. He had no right to object.

But Raphael only staggered to his feet and reached for Hamilton’s arm, his hand trembling, his grip tightening in spasms, as if he hardly knew what to do. Then he said the last thing Hamilton expected.

“…thank you.”

Hamilton closed his eyes.

He was fonder of the King’s boy than he had ever expected. His chest was tight.

There was no way he could prevent his feelings from influencing his work. Even if Raphael could not yet go to the palace, Hamilton wanted to take the boy into his own home.

But he couldn’t do that without the permission of the King, and unfortunately Selgratis had wanted to leave his son in his mother’s hands. For his own reasons.

Let him be. He will be more grateful if his father saves him from terrible circumstances. If you reach out to him first, it will not mean much when he is allowed to come to the palace. It will be counterproductive if you save him too soon.

Bella was not the only one who had changed. The man who had asked Hamilton to protect his firstborn son was gone. What remained was a heartless man who thought only how to get the most use out of a boy with a knack for the sword.

Biting his lip, Hamilton hugged the boy tightly. Thank God he had come in time to save him. None of it was his fault. He had only ever suffered the cruelty of the adults around him.

“Let’s go,” Hamilton said, wrapping the boy in his own cloak. “There’s no reason for you to stay here any longer.”

King Selgratis would not be pleased about this, but there was no help for it. If Hamilton had not intervened, Raphael would have been killed, and surely the King would have wanted that far less. He would not punish Hamilton for this.

And that was how Hamilton was the one that pulled Raphael out of hell.

* * *

Annette had been shocked to learn all this.

Raphael’s mother had nearly killed him, with both violence and neglect. Annette would never have guessed it, when he seemed so indestructible now.

That’s why…that’s why he never talks about his past.

Thinking of his stern, forbidding demeanor, she suddenly felt like crying. And all those deep scars on his chest and shoulders, all this time she had thought they were honorable wounds, sustained in battle. But perhaps, some of those scars…

Raphael had never really healed from all of it. He would rather hide his wounds, even if they festered, rather than speak and risk being pitied. Like a wild beast, he would suffer and die in silence, with his head held high. No one else would ever know how much he had suffered, or what pain he had felt.

His stubbornness broke her heart. It would have been easier if he was just a bad man. But she had already discovered the secret side of Raphael.