Gabriel’s POV:
[FLASHBACK: 3 YEARS AGO]
The moment I charged my question at them, I could see the paleness on their face growing more vivid. With the sudden change of expression on their grimace, somehow without even uttering a word, their actions proved that my hunch was correct.
Something was definitely wrong in there!
A surge of uneasiness fluttered in my heart as I stiffened my glare on them, sounding ardent from my command, “Move aside. Let me in.”
“P-Pardon? Milady…” One of them trailed off their words in confusion and blankly glanced at each other with utmost confusion prominent on their grimace. The other guard gulped his saliva and tried to convey his answer in a fumbled manner, “Milady, for now, let me take you back to your room and I will soon escort you here once I have notified His Grace about your arrival. Please understand it—”
“I TOLD YOU, MOVE ASIDE!! ARE YOU DISREGARDING A ROYAL COMMAND!?”
My impatience and concern had already reached the edge of endurance from their perplexed gesture. Unknowingly, I lashed out my frustration, while glaring at them. I was aware that it was rude of me but I had no other choice, apart from forcibly entering the room since I had already sensed the guards were deliberately hiding something from me.
Hearing my loud rumble, the two of them exhaled heavy sighs and hesitantly drifted apart from blocking my way to the giant metal doors. As soon as they moved aside, I couldn’t contain the rush of mixed emotions inside me while my heart was racing too fast. My hands shook a little as I pushed those doors open and barged in.
But…what is this?
Like a huge jolt of thunder that struck a sharp blow on my head, I stood numb and jaw-dropped for a moment, witnessing the sight ahead of me.
It seemed as if Marcus had just woken up from his sleep and was sitting up on his bed. Next to him, a familiar young woman, looking drowsy was seated beside him.
But the most shocking sight which left me jaw-dropped was to see both of them naked!
The young woman was covering her chest with a thin white quilt whereas Marcus’s giant bare upper body was covered with bruises and marks as the result of a passionate night.
For a brief moment, my eyes refused to believe the disgusting truth before me. The woman next to him was not any unfamiliar one but in fact, someone whom I had entrusted and adored as my little sister.
Lilith, the daughter of the Prime Minister of our kingdom whom I had always known to be an innocent woman, woke up naked in the same bed, next to my fiancee!
While both of them were still rubbing their eyes unaware of my presence in the room, Marcus heftily grunted out aloud first, “What’s the loud commotion going outside? Guard, what’s happening there?”
I realized that he had faintly assumed that the guard must have stepped into the room. So, it was Marcus, who had commanded those guards to stop anyone from letting in. Tears of painful despair swelled my eyes as I watched those marks on his bare body and without realizing it myself, the scarf that I was carrying along with me, slipped down on the ground.
“Hey, why are you not answering me—”
But before he could complete his sentence, both Marcus and Lilith lifted up their grimace and I could see their faces turn deadpanned in shock the moment they saw me inside. Lilith let out a startled shriek and quickly covered her body with the quilt whereas Marcus wadded his big eyes around as he mumbled in disbelief, “G-Gabriel?”
Immense agony had shattered my heart into a wreck the moment I discovered the illegitimate affair going behind my back. Even though I was aware of Marcus’s fondness towards beautiful women, never in my distant dream, I had imagined finding him naked in the same bed with the woman I had regarded as my sister. The truth was shocking and painful as I still stood numb, while tears dripped down my eyes.
“G-Gabriel? W-Why are you here!? No, I…I mean, y-you had never come in my room before without a notice, s-so, what made you come here?” Marcus jumped up from his bed and covered his lower half with a towel lying nearby on the ground as he tried to reach me.
As soon as he sprang up, Lilith too cowered in fear and tried to stand up from the bed while glancing fearfully at me.
While I was still processing the painful reality before me, Marcus reached me and groped my hand, staring at my teary eyes. “G-Gabriel, t-this is not what you think. We…just had a brief fling with each other, but we don’t have anything between us. I still regard only you as my fiancee and I will marry you, not anyone else!”
Each and every word that he uttered couldn’t process the bitter agony I was enduring in me. Moreover, his touch felt like piercing thorns on my body as I shoved my palm away from his grip. Before I could speak a word further, Lilith walked a few steps near us and mumbled in a clumsy voice, “S-Sister Gabriel, I am sorry but this is not what you think. W-We really doesn’t have that kind of thing going in between us—”
“Don’t!” Before she could finish her answer, I scorned a cold glare at her. I gritted my jowls and grumbled aloud in a teary voice, “Don’t you dare…call me sister with your dirty mouth! You don’t deserve that!”
“S-Sister…”
Lilith hitch her words with a gasp and she blankly stared at my hostile face, holding a glimpse of tears in her eyes. She seemed disheartened by her gesture but by this time I had gotten a grasp of her true self.
Holding a heavy heart, I realized, her kind innocence was just an act she had put in all these years to plot this painful betrayal against me. Pathetic, isn’t it?
_____________________________