Chapter 71: her father can ruin you.

"Who said you can't have two mothers?" my words surprised me too, but it was the most genuine words I had said to anyone ever.

He was equally surprised as he looked at me with widened eyes.

"What are you saying, your highness," he asked, stunned.

I smiled, as I held his head and slowly put it on my lap, running a hand in his hair slowly, "I am saying that your mother will always be with you, in your heart. I am not trying to take her place. I am just trying to make my own place Killian. And let's start with friends when you feel that I am worth being called your mother and your heart has accepted me, only then to call me, mother. Is that alright?" I asked with a kind smile.

It felt good to know that he trusted me enough to share his past. It was my duty to make him feel secure.

He nodded, "thank you." he whispered as he closed his eyes, leaning further to my touch.

I could see he was enjoying it. My eyes gleamed with unshed tears. And a beautiful smile crept on my lips, a smile that had no smell of revenge, a smile that had no malice towards others.

My heartfelt at peace.

How much time had passed, I only realised when Lina entered.

"Your highness" before she could speak further I put my finger on my lips to ask her to stay silent.

Killian slept on my lap. And there was peace on his face.

I had never seen him this peaceful in my two lifetimes and I don't want to disturb him in any case.

She stopped in her tracks as her eyes followed mine and she noticed Killian sleeping on my lap.

I signalled her to come closer and she nodded.

She tiptoed towards me and whispered, 

"Your highness, lord's chamber, had sent the notice that he had missed all classes of today. They are asking for his presence." 

I furrowed my brows, "since he had already missed his classes, why were they asking for his presence now?" I asked, bewildered, looking at the time it was already 5 pm. 

"For punishment, your highness," she replied biting her lips and bowing further as she saw my darkened expressions.

"Who dares to punish him, he is just a child and he can take leave once in a while. Ask them to come and meet me tomorrow if they want to punish him." my words were dripping with poison and she could feel it as I saw her flinch.

She nodded and tiptoed out of the room.

"I will protect you, Killian. Not for me, but for you. It felt like I had missed a lot of things in my past. But don't worry, I will not waste my second chance.'' I promised as I kept running a hand in his hair.

Cassius pov

"Your highness, your hand needs rest too, the wound is much deeper than it looked." said the physician, bandaging the wound.

But I didn't feel anything.

"Father, mother was helping me in practising, she even gave me a few pointers, she would never hurt me" these were the words of Killian, he said to me a while ago, they were ringing in my ears like an alarm bell.

'Was I wrong, about Marianne? Or had she corrupted his mind just like Isabella had.' 

I called her once I was done, I was sure she had heard me as her footsteps halted, but then she walked further without looking back at once. She was getting good at ignoring me.

But I need to look into the matter deeper before it will be too late for Killian. He had already suffered once when Elizabeth died, I could not let him suffer again.

"What the hell were you doing there?" Charles spoke in a very low voice as Philip was standing at a distance talking to the knight's head, Mr Enguine, but I could see his blazing eyes.

"Did you not see she was going to attack his chest." I retorted and his face darkened further.

"Hatred had blinded your rationality, Cassius, even if she wanted to kill Killian as you plead, she is not a fool to do it in front of the knight's division and dozens of servants.

But what you did, everyone saw that. Now how would I clean this mess?" he snapped and I could see the papers in her hands were almost torn and crumpled.

"We just had a fair match, she had also wounded me.'' I justified and he pinched the space between his eyebrows.

"You attacked her neck, Cassius. If I had not intervened on time, her head would have been laying on the ground alongside a lifeless body.

And don't you dare to deny that! I know the power of the force you had used in that attack." he snarled and I bit my lip.

"You don't know about her Charles.'' I hardly take his name anymore, but I did. I was annoyed that everyone was blaming me.

Could no one see her tricks! Why would she come and spar with Killian out of nowhere?.

Not even a single person in the palace was aware that she had so much talent in sword-wielding. It felt like she had been trained to serve as a knight.

"It is not me but you, who is forgetting who she is. She is the daughter of the richest man in the empire.

That man is silent just because of his daughter, otherwise, he had the power to challenge every earning business of yours and ruin it.

And as far as I know Marianne is asking back her properties. That she even went and requested my new wife, the empress, that she wanted to start her own work. you don't even have those properties in the first place. Right?

If you had told the whole world that you are marrying her because of those properties, at least you should have taken them when her father offered it to you."