Chapter 253
Kane’s POV
How the hell had it come to this?
Today, Evelyn was planning to meet with the king. In fact, I had a feeling that she had already left the house to do so.
I cast a glance at the clock on the wall and grimaced. The moment the sun rose, I’d gotten out of bed, showered, and went straight to my office.
This time, I locked the door. I refused to have any sort of interruptions-not when my mental state was on the verge of turning over.
My heart pounded in my ears as I aimlessly thought about what Evelyn was saying to the king. Was she really going to ask for a ‘temporary’ separation?
My insides coiled at the term, knowing that there was nothing truly temporary about it. She would leave to head back to her home, and if all went well, then she would be expected to stay there full time to ensure the success was maintained.
The mere notion of considering such an arrangement was laughable.
But I found no humor in any of it.
Deep down, I felt that I was losing my wife. And there was nothing I could do about it. Not really.
I rubbed my tired eyes with the side of my hand. I hadn’t slept for a single hour the night before. My head was filled with too many tremulous thoughts of Evelyn and our relationship that continued to tear at the
seams.
What the hell happened…?
My wolf snarled in the back of my mind. ‘You dare ask such a stupid question when you already know
the answer.’
He was right. So was Evelyn.
We’d managed to overcome a literal war with minimal losses. We faced such a life-threatening ordeal together, and we both made it out alive. That alone was a blessing, and I was willing to treat it as such.
Before Olivia made her sudden appearance, I was seriously thinking about planning another wedding for Evelyn and me. A real wedding that she deserved. I wanted to take that ridiculous marriage contract that I basically coerced her into signing and rip it up in front of her.
I wanted her to see how much I wanted things to be real between us-that they were real.
I meant what I said to her about wanting to start a family. For such a brief moment, I had gotten a taste of genuine happiness.
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Yeah, and then you went ahead and mucked it up when you allowed your goddamn ex to move in,’ he grumbled. ‘Seriously, what the fuck were you thinking?’
I wasn’t. That was it. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than my past with Olivia. That younger, more naive version of myself that knew nothing of life other than her.
Olivia appeared out of nowhere and goes on to act as though we never ended our previous relationship. I kept failing to set boundaries with her because it was something that I had never would have thought to
‘Yeah, well now look where it’s gotten us! Our mate is currently meeting with the king and could very well be on the verge of losing her completely!’
As I sat there at my desk, in the sheer silence of my thoughts, a series of questions began surfacing in my mind.
‘For a woman who supposedly lost her husband in a war, you’d think she would be remorseful.’
He had a point. When Olivia was brought to this very room by Henri, there hadn’t been a single tear in her eye. Not an ounce of remorse was traced in her tone.
“You’re right,” I said quietly. “She wasn’t even somber.”
‘Surely, there’s a way to confirm her husband’s death.’
“But why would Olivia lie about something like that?
‘Perhaps there’s more to her than we were ever willing to see.’
Such a thing was likely to happen when one was young and blindly in love…
But much time has passed since our relationship ended. I had learned that the world wasn’t as bright and hopeful as I once thought, but rather harsh and unyielding in its pursuit to wear me down.
That was until Evelyn came into our orbit.
Her shining resilience was so utterly captivating that I had no choice but to fall for her. Her kindness knew no bounds. No matter how difficult people made it for her, Evelyn persisted and never backed down from a challenge.
She was the perfect Luna. My perfect Luna.
Right now, she was very likely talking to the king, trying to convince him to grant her the separation she needed in order to return back home. It’s no wonder why I wasn’t invited to attend the meeting with her.
‘That’s because we would have likely fought against everything Evelyn would be requesting!’
I tilted my head back against the chair and let out a deep, frustrated breath.
Although I wasn’t keen on Evelyn being away for however long, I was proud of her determination to reestablish her mother’s legacy. From what she mentioned about her father and stepmother, it was
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going to take a lot of work to get things back to how they originally were.
In the meantime, perhaps I would be able to conduct my own little project of sorts.
‘What do you have in mind?’
“I think it’s time that we start to look into Olivia,” I said. Something about her didn’t seem entirely ‘right’.
I got up from the desk and opened the door to call out for Henri. Within seconds, he appeared.
“Sir?”
“Henri, can you provide a list of every casualty during the battle?” I asked him.
He easily nodded. “Yes, sir. Is there someone that we’re looking for specifically?”
“We’re looking for a guy named ‘Richard Gravens,” I told him.
Henri went stiff. “Richard Gravens…Isn’t that-”
“Yes, Henri. Richard was Olivia’s mate,” I clarified dryly. “Let’s just say that I’m not too keen on the explanation that she’d given us a couple weeks back when you found her. Some things just aren’t adding up in my mind.” 1
Henri left with the promise of finding out what he could on Richard’s untimely death. In the meantime, I had to do some serious damage control when it came to Evelyn.
Later that afternoon, I had been informed of Evelyn’s return from her meeting. It came as no shock that she hadn’t come to me to explain the outcome of her meeting. But I decided to take the opportunity to speak to the kitchen staff and plan a private dinner for her and me tonight.
As the hours passed, I took my time to head down to the lab, where I knew Evelyn was busy working. As usual, the halls were empty apart from a few passing guards.
When I got to the lab, I saw Evelyn pouring over several different plant books. I cleared my throat, drawing her attention.
“Oh, hey,” she said weakly.
“Hey,” I greeted. “I’m surprised you’re still down here given the hour.”
She glanced at the clock and groaned. “Geez, I didn’t realize how late it was. I guess I should head to the dining hall and eat something.”
“Or, you could indulge me,” I said with a hopeful tone. “Come have dinner with me tonight instead.”
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