Chapter 2
Gunner didn't linger long in my room.
"You rest," he said, patting my hand with a look of deep concern. "I'm going to find my mother and Clara right now.
"I'll make them answer for this!"
A cold sneer touched my lips.
My child was dead.
What answer could possibly bring my child back?
I suppose Gunner went and threw a little tantrum at Clara.
That evening, she stormed into my courtyard with a matron at her heels, her posture radiating arrogance.
I was reclining in bed, feeling the System's energy slowly knitting me back together, a ghost of strength returning to my right arm.
"Vivian!" she snapped. "You've had Gunner all to yourself for years. I only 'borrowed' your doctor and midwife for a few hours.
"Look at you. Still breathing.
"Honestly, who are you putting on this tragic little show for?"
She rested a hand on her own stomach, her expression smug. "You'd better learn your place, Vivian.
"I'm the one who runs this house now.
"As soon as my son is born, Gunner will make me the true wife. If you're smart, you'll step aside. I might even let you live."
She might let me live?
But I stopped begging others for the right to live a long, long time ago.
I pulled the sword I had hidden beneath my pillow.
Before she could even process what was happening, I drove the blade straight through her.
The matron beside her opened her mouth to scream.
I wrenched the sword free, its steel dripping with warm blood, and plunged it into the matron.
My aim was perfect.
Just one clean strike, and she was dead before she hit the ground.
Just then, a maid's voice called from outside the door.
"My lady, your husband has arrived."
"Tell him to get the hell out!" I roared.
My plan wasn't complete. I couldn't afford to tip my hand just yet.
As expected, Gunner stopped at the door.
I calmly instructed my maids to drag the bodies to the back of the house and scrub the blood from the floorboards.
Whispers filled the halls of Norton Manor, all telling the same tale: the young heir, Gunner, was utterly and hopelessly devoted to his wife.
My word was law.
Gunner didn't dare enter, but his voice, dripping with faux sympathy, carried through the door.
"Vivian, I've already scolded Clara," he called out. "I've confined her to her rooms for a month and cut her allowance for six.
"I know you think it's not enough, but she's pregnant, and my mother is protecting her so fiercely. My hands are tied.
"Can't you try to see it from my side?
"Just be patient. Once I have real power, I swear, I will never let you be wronged again."
I laughed, a soft sound. "I know. You can go now. I need my rest."
His decree was utterly toothless. Clara had swaggered into my rooms to gloat not an hour after he had left.
And the alternative, suspending her funds, was even more absurd. That would only make his mother fiercely protective. She would see it as a tragedy and start siphoning off my own money to subsidize Clara.
If you could trust a man, pigs could fly.
Gunner stood outside my door for a long while, but I refused to let him in.
Finally, his servant spoke up, "My lord, if you ask me, you're far too good to her.
"What kind of wife locks her husband out of her room?"
Gunner sighed dramatically. "Watch your tongue.
"She's hurting.
"I'm her husband, so it's my duty to understand and care for her.
"She has no one else in this world but me. Of course I have to be good to her."
The servant was practically swooning. "My lord, you are so devoted!"
My maid had just returned from disposing of the bodies. She caught the end of their little performance, and her brow furrowed in disgust.
"Ugh, he's playing the devoted husband again, getting high on his own drama," she muttered under her breath. "If he were truly devoted, that mandrake root would have been here days ago.
"He sure does talk a good game.
"It's a pity he never actually backs it up with action."
Gunner, still lingering outside the door, went rigid.
The air in the hallway grew thick and still.
After a long, tense silence, I heard him speak, his voice strained, "I'm going to my mother now. I'll have her open the storeroom and get the mandrake root to help Vivian recover."