An oppressive silence descended, thick and heavy. Finally, Rezette sighed, a humorless laugh escaping his lips.
“Surely, Elise wouldn’t…” His voice trailed off, a horrifying realization dawning. “Surely, she couldn’t have planned this from the start.”
Seven months had crawled by since that fateful day in mid-February. Elizabeth, shivering in the grip of late winter, had been thrown into the harsh reality of the Van Yela camp. The whole experience felt surreal, like a cruel dream.
The doctor’s advice echoed in Rezette’s ears: “You should sleep regularly like me. Deeply, comfortably.”
Elise’s voice, laced with a heartbreaking longing, cut through his thoughts: “If you had just loved me… Everything would have been fine.”
These conflicting memories gnawed at him. If Elise planned to flee anyway, why the whispered desires, the unspoken intimacy? Did the news of her not being pregnant bring a secret relief? Could it be that despite her outward distress these past months, a part of her was glad they wouldn’t have a child?
Until their arrival in Rotiara, Elise had always readily shared his bed. Even Genovia Irrien, even with her cruel taunts toward Elise, hadn’t shaken Elise’s desire for his closeness. Her whimpers about another woman touching him felt like a lifetime ago.
Perhaps Argan’s survival had shifted her feelings, a possibility that had worried him all along. Her desperate plea, “When will the baby be born?” and her tearful confession, “I want it, your child…” – why these declarations then?
Only one explanation gnawed at Rezette’s sanity – betrayal. She had betrayed him.
The realization struck him like a bolt of lightning. Regardless of a child, she had always intended to leave by autumn, come what may. She left the contract out in the open… She didn’t fulfill the terms… A horrible truth dawned. She never intended to keep them from the start…?
Fury, a cold, simmering rage, bubbled up from the depths of his heart. His breath hitched, his vision swam with red, and a wave of heat flushed his face as the weight of her betrayal settled in.
Elise, his beguiling yet treacherous wife, had vanished, leaving behind a trail of deceit. Her last words, spoken with those very lips that once whispered endearments, might be her final act of cruelty – a final pity for the husband who’d soon awaken to an empty bed.
When had her escape taken root? Was it after their harrowing journey from the Tene River, or perhaps it had festered even before? Regardless, it was a reckless gamble. Elisabeth Aseica, no matter where she fled, could never truly outrun him. But to leave, especially with a potential heir on board? That was a betrayal that scorched him to his core.
“Search,” he finally commanded, his voice heavy with a chilling finality that sent shivers down spines. “Seal off the borders. With her delicate constitution, she can’t have gone far.”
Rezette’s gaze swept over his assembled knights, his fiery eyes finally landing on Rebecca Petisson. As she met his stare with a tremor in her voice, she realized a dam within him had burst. The fragile control he’d maintained since Elise’s disappearance shattered. She could already feel the coming onslaught of rage, a fury that promised to be even more terrible than before.
“From this moment, the territory is on lockdown. Divide the knights and scour every corner, every conceivable path! No one enters, no one leaves, until she’s found!”
His command left no room for argument. As the knights readied themselves, Rezette’s grip tightened on the crumpled note. With a storm brewing in his eyes, he stalked towards the bedroom – the starting point of his relentless pursuit.