Devoted and Foolishly Paid Love

By defying Julius Lander, I had undoubtedly made an enemy of one of the most influential men in the kingdom.

I had barely reached the entrance of the old Sinclair estate when someone stepped into my path.

I looked up and saw Lady Juliana Lander, Julius’s sister – also a close confidante of Charlotte.

There we stood, facing each other in the middle of the street, neither saying a word.

This was the same spoiled lady who once pointed her finger at me and called me shameless. But after everything that had happened to the Landers, she’d learned a measure of restraint.

Gone were the days of her loud outbursts. Now, she leaned in close, her voice dripping with scorn as she whispered in my ear.

I had no intention of entertaining her and started to walk away, but her next words stopped me in my tracks.

Juliana’s eyes glinted with malice. “You’re just like Edmund – nothing but a filthy, lowborn wretch.”

I lifted my gaze, my eyes cutting into her like a blade.

She smirked, idly toying with a lock of her hair. “Such impure blood, yet he still held the privilege of the eldest son’s title. It was unbearable. So, I asked dear Charlotte for the drugged fumes she used to disgrace your mother. Just a small amount, and it drove Edmund to madness, abandoning his carefully planned legal career to seek out the truth.”

She tilted her head, her smile widening. “He truly was devoted to you. Do you know how he died?”

My nails dug into my palms, and I felt tears rolling down my cheeks against my will.

I had long discovered that Edmund had perished in the dead of winter, his hands and feet broken, left to die alone in the snow with no one to claim his body.

Juliana laughed, watching me tremble with rage and pain.

She pointed to a corner by the Sinclair estate’s outer wall, her tone light and casual. “I had him dragged there that day, so he could see you fussing over my dear brother Julius. I made sure he was conscious, just so he could watch you tending to another man with such care.”

I lost control. I charged at her, only to be pinned to the ground by the servants at her side, unable to even brush the hem of her dress.

Crouching down, Juliana patted my cheek, her voice dripping with disdain. “Cleo, you and Edmund are the same – worthless. Your lives are mine to take whenever I wish.”

With a triumphant sneer, she turned and walked away.

I stumbled over to that corner by the wall, my heart shattering as I imagined the despair Edmund must have felt in his final moments.

I forced down the bitter taste rising in my throat.

Juliana, Charlotte… both of you deserve to die.

I looked up at the sky and wondered, perhaps, I too was fated to meet the same end.