Chapter 247
“I’ll handle the plague,” He said. “We’ll get a plan in order. Root out the people who are sick and quarantine them before it spreads. I talk to my healers about developing a vaccine”
I let out a breath. “You’d do that?”
“You just told me children die, Ellie. So yes, of fucking course I would do that.” He shot me a look. “Give me a little credit.”
“I do give you credit. I just” I smiled wanly. “Thank you. Genuinely.
He nodded once, and then was quiet for another long moment before he said, “I need to ask you something, and I need you to actually answer it.”
“Okay.”
“In your past life,” he said carefully, “how did things end up with Dominic?”
“You know how they ended,” I said. “I died.”
“Yes, but before that…”
“He chose Vivian over and over again.” I kept my voice even despite the fact that I wanted to scream it all. ” Put my crown on her head before I’d even drawn my last breath, He always hated me, anyway. He only came to my bedside in the beginning, when I was first stabbed. I think that was the only time I saw him being even a little tender toward me.”
Lucas didn’t say anything immediately. I could feel him thinking.
“Then you need to get out,” he said.
“I’ve been trying to get out since the wedding. I made a mistake because I thought he was different in this timeline, but…”
Lucas cursed under his breath. “Well, what’s done is done. But you’re watching history repeat itself, and we both know it ends up with you dead. You can’t let that happen again. I won’t let that happen.”
I didn’t say anything.
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“Find out everything you can about how you died,” he said. “Your actual death. The wolfsbane toxin that our Gamma friend claimed to know nothing about. Something is wrong with that picture, don’t you think? If the assassin didn’t put the toxin on the blade, someone else did, which means someone was pulling the strings behind the scenes. Maybe someone who wanted you to die from the initial stabbing, and when you didn’t, they decided to take matters into their own hands. And maybe, once we figure that out, we’ll have the evidence necessary to get you out of that marriage.”
I pulled my head back. “You’re not saying you think Dominic was the one who poisoned me, are you?”
Lucas just shrugged, which was all the answer I needed.
I had thought about this, of course. That it might be Dominic or Vivian or both who had poisoned me. I’d tried to tell myself that it was an outside party, that my own mate and sister wouldn’t do something like that, but… I wasn’t so sure anymore.
+30 Bonus
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll look into it.”
We sat there for another minute, and then I uncurled from my seat and reached for the door handle. Lucas didn’t try to stop me.
“Thank you,” I said again, glancing at him.
“Go home and sleep,” he said. “You look terrible.”
“You’re so kind,” I said, sticking my tongue out, then got out of the car.
The house was dark and completely quiet by the time I got back. I slipped in through the side door and stood in the hallway for a moment, listening. Vivian and Dominic must have gone to bed, because I didn’t hear them. I took my shoes off and carried them anyway, though, just to be safe, and crept upstairs.
Dominic’s door was closed. No light was coming from beneath it. I moved past it, hesitating for a moment for reasons I didn’t comprehend.
Then, I slipped past and hurried to my room, resolving to do exactly what Lucas said I should do.
Sleep first. Then, tomorrow, I would start the investigation into the real circumstances surrounding my death.
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