Chapter 23
I was inplete and utter shock as I watched her standing there in leather pants, a button up shirt
and arge cloak to shield her body from the elements. Her hair was tied up into a perfect chignon
at the base of her neck. It felt like I was seeing a ghost from my past. I hadn’t thought about her in
thest four years and now seeing her right in front of me, it felt like a rude awakening.
She turned to Jaxon and bowed low. “Your majesty, it is an honor to finally meet you.”
“He nodded to her and I couldn’t stop the words from leaving my m*uth. “What are you doing
here?”
She turned to me and I saw a brief sh of irritation in her eyes and I knew that if we were alone,
she would have said something rude but instead she stered the fakest smile she could muster on
her face.
“It has been a long night and an even longer journey. Why don’t I get some rest and we can talk
about it
tomorrow?”
I nced over at Jaxon because I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t form the words and before I
could even say anything, Cressida had walked into the pce. She took off her clock and handed it
to a guard who took it with a confused expression on his face. She acted like she was at home and
like the castle belonged to her. She crossed the length of the distance between us and stood
directly in front of me.
“Your majesty, you don’t have to wait around, it is just family talk,” she said to Jaxon. “I’m sure
Freya can take me
to my room.
“One of the maids will take you to your room,” he corrected. “It iste and Freya has some things to
attend to.”
Her lips pursed and I knew she hated his decision but she couldn’t directly oppose him seeing as he
was the king. She bowed to him in a way that was both respectful and disrespectful at the same
time. She turned back to
me and before I could react, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders in a hug.
Ipletely froze up because Cressida had never hugged me in my life. It felt weird and my skin
crawled. I wanted nothing more than to push her off but I knew I couldn’t so I stayedpletely still
while waited for her to pull away.
As she finally decided to pull away, I heard her whisper. “You look good but we will talk about why
I’m here
tomorrow.”
I would have thought I imagined the words if not for the little smirk that grew on her lips. I took an
urgent step back and Jaxon’s arm reached out to wrap around my waist and hold me. I was so
grateful for it because it felt
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like the only thing keeping me sane and stable at that moment. I thought my knees were going to
buckle or I was going to run and I did not want to give her the satisfaction.
One of the maids walked over to her and curtsied softly and then she was gone. As soon as she
left, I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding and I felt Jaxon staring at me as if he was
trying to figure out what was going on in my head.
“What’s the story between the both of you?” he asked and I shrugged. “You looked ufortable. If
you want her gone then I will have her gone.”
“It’s fine,” I waved him off.
I wanted to know why she came and I wanted to know what she had nned. If I knew Cressida as
well as l thought then there was definitely something she had nned and until I was able to find it
out, she needed to be under the roof where I could keep an eye out for her.
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“Let’s go to Kiara,” I said with a forced smile. “She must be waiting for us.”
Jaxon didn’t want to drop the subject that much was certain but he sighed and nodded and without
removing his hand from the small of my back, we made our way over to Kiara’s room. I briefly
wondered if Cressida knew about Kiara and what her reaction would be if she found out.
Kiara was awake when we got there but barely. She was half asleep already but she tried her best
to put on a brave smile. I couldn’t tell her the story because of how distracted I was so Jaxon did it.
Sheined a few times that he wasn’t doing the voices properly and it was actually amusing to
see the feared Alpha King doing animal voices for his daughter.
My heart threatened to burst out of my chest the more I watched them. He tried his best and soon
she was asleep. Once he noticed, he let out a sigh of relief and kis*ed her forehead before standing
up to return the book to her shelf. While he did that, I leaned over my daughter and kis*ed her hair.
“I love you,” I whispered to her. “More than anything in the world and I hope you never doubt that.“”
I pulled away and I saw Jaxon watching me with an unreadable expression. I couldn’t form words in
my throat so instead I walked past him and I started making my way towards my room but he
stopped me by grabbing my arm and leading me towards his room. I was shocked and confused
but I couldn’t find it in myself to fight him because the truth was that I didn’t want to be alone so I
allowed him lead me.
When we got to the room, I realized how I was still in my dirty clothes so I made my way into the
bathroom to take a long needed bath. I spent so much longer than I should have under the shower.
I allowed the hot water
burn my skin as my mind moved to ces I hadn’t bothered to think about in years.
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I couldn’t help but think about my step mother and everything I faced at her hands. Now that I had
my own
child, it was almost like I was looking at it through a new pair of lenses. I would never dream of
treating Kiara like that and as much as I liked to think that my father was innocent in all of it, I could
finally see that he was not.]
I finally got out and dried my body with a fluffy white towel before putting on a robe. When I got into
the room, I saw a pair of basketball shorts and a shirt on the bed. I didn’t know if they were for me
but I decided to put them on anyways. The shirt fell to my knees so I decided to ditch the shorts. By
the time I had returned the shorts to his massive walk in closet, Jaxon walked into the room.
Jaxon was in sweatpants that hung low on his hips but he was shirtless. When he saw me, he
paused as if he was taking me in and then the corner of his lips tilted up. He sat on the bed with his
back against the headboard and gestured for me to sit next to him. I hesitated for a split second
before deciding to climb the bed and crawling over to him.
At first, I sat with a few feet between us but Jaxon reached out and pulled me closer to him. It was
at that moment that I noticed the steaming mug right next to him. He handed it to me and I took a
sniff- chamomile tea.
“I hear it calms people down,” he said as he handed it over to me and I took it with shaky hands.
“There’s a story there, between you and that woman, what is it?”
I hesitated before speaking. I swallowed down the tea allowing the heat burn the back of my throat
hoping it would give me some sort of utterance but it didn’t. my throat still felt like a desert and I felt
like I was going to choke on my words but I decided to try anyways.
“She’s my step mother,” I said slowly. “We never had the best rtionship. Seeing her here, I know
there has to be something wrong. She never liked me and honestly the feeling was mutuat. I’m just
worried that she is going- to bring bad news about my father.”
“The same man who sold you to me,” he wasn’t saying it to be rude but it still came out sounding
like that. “Those people aren’t your family. Was I in the wrong by buying you? Yes but your father
should have never sold you to me. He owed me a lot of money and he offered you in exchange for
wiping that debt clean and some
more.”
It hurt to hear those words from him but I knew they were true. They weren’t my family because
family would never have sold me like that. No matter what happened, I would never sell Kiara or
treat her badly.
I let out a sigh. “I just don’t want to think about it right now.”
“Then you don’t have to,” he pulled me in and pressed a soft ki*s on my hair. “Sleep, we can handle
it tomorrow.”