Chapter 2
Elara snuggled up in Kael's arms, looking heartbroken, tears falling nonstop down her cheeks.
She sobbed, "Kael, I'm just an illegitimate daughter. I'm not worthy to be your wife. Just let me go. Let me die."
Kael hugged her even tighter, his heart aching for her, tears threatening to fall. He whispered, "Elara, you're the best woman in the world."
Elara blushed as she said coyly, "Kael, you're the most wonderful man in the world."
I smirked, curling my lips in a sarcastic smile.
Well, the two of them were just perfect. Hope they two stayed stuck together forever.
Cordelia took my hand and gave it a gentle pat, saying, "Seraphina."
I gave her a reassuring look, then turned to Kael.
"Kael, I want 200 thousand dollars," I said calmly.
"How much?" Kael asked in disbelief.
"Two hundred thousand dollars? Are you insane?" Maren and Elara both exclaimed in shock.
I shrugged, acting like it was no big deal. I said, "It doesn't matter if you don't pay it. Let the whole city gossip about Elara snatching my groom. Guess that makes you the heartless one, Kael.
"Losing a little face is nothing, but if the imperial official starts poking their noses in about your family's lack of discipline and virtue, and the Emperor himself decides to step in, well, that's a real disaster."
I let out a sigh and added, "Kael, you keep saying that you only love Elara, but when it comes to putting your money where your mouth is, you won't even pay up two hundred thousand dollars for her.
"So, in your eyes, is my lovely, delicate Elara not even worth that much?
"As all those storybooks say, true love is priceless, stronger than gold. If you have love, even plain water is enough. Without it, even a golden mansion feels cold and empty.
"Kael, why get so hung up on money? Isn't love supposed to matter more?"
Kael gritted his teeth and replied, "Fine, two hundred thousand dollars. I can pay up."
I thanked him with a graceful smile.
Back then, when Kael knew Elara was gone, he hated me so much that he was dead set on taking revenge on me.
And he sure did.
In the dead of winter, he shoved me into the lake, but I grabbed his sleeve and dragged him right in after me.
I could swim, but he couldn't.
The servants rescued him, but he came down with a nasty chill and lay in bed for ten days.
He lunged at me, hands around my throat, trying to choke the life out of me, but I kept my cool and drove the dagger hidden in my sleeve straight into his chest.
He almost died right then and there.
He was bedridden for more than half a month at that time.
He tried to poison me, but I swapped our cups. He ended up foaming at the mouth and nearly died right alongside Elara.
That time, it left him stuck in bed for a whole month.
I couldn't figure out why, if he loved Elara so deeply, he didn't just go die and keep her company?
Seeing that he couldn't get rid of me, he started plotting again.
He set me up and was trying to make it look like I was having an affair with the stablehand.
But when he kicked down the door, the one tangled up with the stablehand wasn't me, it was his own mother, Henrietta Thorne, caught red-handed.
After Kael failed to frame me time and again, turning Alex into a joke among the elite, he started targeting Cordelia next.
He bribed her servants and set up an ambush while she was heading out to church.
The carriage that Cordelia was riding in almost fell off the cliff.
The shock wrecked her health. She was stuck in bed and died within a year.
I hated Kael to the core.
I had someone deliver a box to Kael, packed with ninety-nine love letters written by Elara for him.
Kael locked himself in his study, laughing one moment and crying the next.
He stopped obsessing over getting back at me and started looking for women who looked just like Elara.
After a long search, he finally found the woman who resembled Elara the most was working in a brothel.
According to the laws, officials were forbidden from taking a courtesan as a wife.
Kael couldn't stand to leave his favorite courtesan, so he simply moved into the brothel and lived with her, sharing meals.
From time to time, I'd have someone drop by the brothel to ask Kael for money.
If he didn't give it to me, I'd cut off Henrietta's medicine.
Kael was terrified I'd actually kill Henrietta, and even more afraid I'd push Elara's lookalike to suicide. So he handed over the steward's seal and keys to me, no questions asked.
Just a couple of days later, Kael died from exhaustion in bed.
I shot a glance at Elara's belly.
If Kael found out he was about to be an unexpected dad, who knew if he would be happy or just freak out.
Back then, it wasn't until I saw Elara being sold off to a brothel by some scholar guy that I realized she'd only faked her death.
As for the two hundred thousand dollars I was asking, it was not too much or too little. It was exactly what I used from my own stuff to cover what the Thorne family owed.
At that time, Elara had just died, and Kael and I were locked in a cold war.
As Kael's wife, I couldn't just stand by and watch the whole Thorne family be destroyed.
All the things I did to help them, Kael didn't know. Henrietta was the only one who knew the truth.
Alex had borrowed that money while he was still alive.
As the repayment deadline was approaching, Henrietta urged Kael to marry me.
The Thorne family was ungrateful and ruthless. They used me to pay off their debts, and once they got what they wanted, they were ready to throw me away.