As soon as the royal physician stepped outside, a heavy anticipating silence filled every corner of the room. Holding a perplexed look on her face, Maxim ruffled his hair with his fingertips and turned around towards Zordan.
As expected, standing next to the bed like a statue, he was blankly staring at Gabriel’s pale face. Breathing faintly, she didn’t show a bit of movement and was lying down on the bed, looking like an ice maiden. If it wasn’t for her faint breathing, it would have been hard to define if she was dead or alive.
Maxim could vividly notice the pain-stricken gaze in Zordan’s dark eyes, which made him appear a bit grim. He walked a few steps near and grumbled in a low voice, “Prince Zordan…can you tell me at least one thing? For how long do you intend to torment yourself like this?”
The hint of frustration was prominent in his cold voice as Zordan lifted his gaze up and stared outside the glass window. His wadded dark eyes were shimmering with tears but pursuing his soft crimson lips, he was trying hard to suppress his tears inside.
“It’s all my fault, Maxim.” Keeping a brief pause, Zordan mumbled in a hushed voice.
But his timid response acted like a catalyst to trigger his frustration even more. Maxim frowned his brows and grumbled at him, “Your fault? Since how everything’s your fault, Prince Zordan? I have been sticking with you for so long and who knows better than me for how long you have cherished Lady Gabriel with all your heart!!?
It’s been 15 years already!! If it would have been someone else in your place, they would have given up long ago but I respect you! I admire you to see that you have indeed loved her with all your heart! I also know how many sacrifices you have made for her without a second thought! Then why!? Why are you bearing her hate now? Why don’t you tell her everything?”
“I can’t do that, Maxim.” Zordan gritted his jowls as his voice trembled a little before he gave his firm response. He laid his orbs to gaze intensely into him as he muttered, “No matter what I do, the truth can’t be altered that I am the sinful man who has killed her father! And…after she saw that with her own eyes…how…just how can I expect her to forgive me?”
“But there was a fuckin’ reason behind it!!” Maxim grunted his vent aloud by clenching his fist tight. His ardent voice indicated that he was driven by frustration and concern for Zordan as he lashed again, “Pardon me for raising my voice at you, but I am just too frustrated! Why…Just why do you have to be the villain in her eyes when you have been always innocent? Why can’t you tell her that her own father was planning to murder her!?”
“Maxim!!”
Suddenly, his loud vent startled Zordan as he was surprised to hear the grave secret that he had buried down in front of Gabriel come out from him in the heat of the moment. Holding a panicked look on his face, Zordan took a quick glance over at her to make sure she was still unconscious and didn’t hear what he had just uttered.
After confirming, he turned his cold eyes at Maxim with an irked glare on them as he scolded, “Hey, didn’t I warn you earlier…never to speak about the secret, especially when Gabriel is nearby? Do you even have any conscience, how much this painful truth can break her heart?”
“But what about you, Your Grace!?” Maxim didn’t show any trace of calming down and gritted his jowls, as a vein popped out at the side of his neck. “She misunderstood everything and accused you of a sinful man! Yet still, how can you be only worried about her? Are you a Saint?”
“I don’t care…and I don’t bother if I have become the most heinous monster in her eyes, but…I don’t want to break her innocent heart!I can’t do it anymore when I have hurt her enough already!” Zordan replied in a slightly trembled voice as if the gush of mixed emotions had stirred him up inside.
“But…Your Grace! This is wrong! Why should you be blamed when you are the one who is suffering here–”
“I TOLD YOU THAT I DON’T CARE WHATEVER HAPPENS TO ME!!”
His teary eyes glistened in the dark as he uttered a bit loud, peering a dark gaze at him. A glint of tears was visible in his round eyes as he continued after a pause, “She loved her father the most! He was the…most precious person in her life and the only reason, she decided to come back to our pack after disappearing for 3 years! Then how…how do you expect me to tell such a bitter truth?
How can I tell her that it was her father who wanted to sacrifice her daughter’s life for his selfish deeds? How would her poor heart bear this betrayal?! Do you have any damn clue, Maxim!? What if she falls into grave danger? How am I going to forgive myself anymore if something happens to her!?”
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