Chapter 68 The Betrayal Kiss

Chapter 68 The Betrayal Kiss
68: The Betrayal Kiss

If there is one universal truth in this world, it’s that courage only shows up when you are absolutely terrified. Tonight, I was terrified.

After weeks of hiding, bleeding, collapsing, pretending I finally reached a point where I could no longer hold the secret alone. I wasn’t just protecting myself anymore. I was protecting a life. A heartbeat. A future. And that future deserved honesty.

I deserved honesty. Lucian deserved to know.

So I stood in front of the mirror, inhaling until my ribs hurt, smoothing my dress over my still-flat stomach with a hand that wouldn’t stop shaking. I whispered to my reflection, like practicing for war.

“I can do this.”

My child kicked softly in reply encouragement, or panic, or both. Unborn, yet already braver than me.

I stepped out of my chamber into the dim corridor. The fortress smelled like smoke and stone dust progress, reconstruction, recovery. Everyone believed Dravenmoor was healing.

They didn’t know the future of the kingdom was the size of a cherry and growing inside me while the Queen plotted its death.

I made my way to the strategy hall Lucian’s temporary office. My heart pounded harder with each step. I felt sick. Excited. Terrified. Hopeful. All of it wrapped in one.

Tonight, Lucian would know he was going to be a father. Tonight, finally, we would be on the same side again.

I reached the tall wooden double doors… but before I could knock, voices drifted from inside. 

Lucian’s. Exhausted. Frustrated. Narissa’s. Soft, soothing, purposeful.

I froze.

“I know you’re overwhelmed,” Narissa murmured. “You’re doing everything for Dravenmoor, and no one sees the weight you carry. Not even her.”

Her.

Me.

I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling my heart thunder dangerously.

Lucian didn’t reply, but the silence was answer enough. The chair scraped he had stood up, pacing. I could imagine the look on his face. Tired. Stretched thin. Trying to be strong for everyone.

Narissa didn’t stop.

“You can’t keep sacrificing yourself for a woman who doesn’t support you.”

I stepped back from the door as if slapped.

A single memory hit me lying bruised on cold stone while the Queen tried to break me and Lucian nowhere.

Not his fault… and yet… she knew exactly where to stab.

Narissa continued, voice thick with unshed tears. “You deserve someone who will stand beside you. Someone who wants to rebuild Dravenmoor with you. Not someone who runs away from her duty every time things get hard.”

I covered my mouth with my hand to stop myself from making a sound.

Every one of her words was a lie but each of them sounded true to someone who didn’t know what I was suffering.

Silence again. Apology silence. Exhaustion and silence. Then Lucian exhaled a defeated, tired, heartbreaking sound and sat down again. Narissa moved closer. I heard the soft rustle of her dress.

“Lucian,” she whispered. “You don’t have to be alone.”

The footsteps stopped either she reached him, or he didn’t step away.

My pulse was hammered. The air turned thin.

Please… don’t…

But fate enjoys cruelty.

Through the small gap between the doors, I saw it. Her hands rose to his face. Her mouth pressed to his. Her lips lingered. And Lucian… didn’t move. He didn’t kiss her back but he didn’t pull away. He just stood there.

And that was enough.

My stomach dropped so fast I had to grab the wall to keep from collapsing. All the noise of the world dissolved into the sound of my heartbeat and the tiny one inside me.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to burst through the doors and tell her she would never win. I wanted to tell Lucian the truth that he wasn’t losing me, he was gaining a family.

But instead, I turned away.

Because in that moment, I realized something so painful it was almost peaceful: If Lucian could be taken from me this easily, then he was never really mine to lose.

The corridor blurred I didn’t know if I was walking, stumbling, floating, drowning. The world spun. My knees weakened. I dropped to the floor halfway down the hall, both arms instinctively wrapping around my stomach.

My child fluttered. As if sensing my heartbreak.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, voice breaking. “I’m so, so sorry.”

I wanted to disappear. But the universe wasn’t done with me. Footsteps echoed. Not Lucian’s. Not Narissa’s. The Grand Queen.

Of course. Her timing was surgical. She didn’t look surprised to find me kneeling on the ground like a shattered prayer. She only smiled slowly, victorious.

“As I expected,” she murmured.

I stared up at her, tears streaming silently. “You wanted this.”

“Yes,” she answered without hesitation. “Because a kingdom is built on logic, not love. And you,” her eyes lowered pointedly to my stomach, “are an obstacle logic cannot afford.”

There was no threat this time. No poison. No rehearsal. Just the truth.

“You will leave,” she said. “And you will do so quietly. Before anyone discovers what you carry.”

“And if I don’t?” I whispered.

Her smile turned lethal. “Then I will let Lucian choose.”

Choose. Between me… and the political salvation of his kingdom. And deep down in the part of me that still loved him desperately I knew what he would choose.

Not because he didn’t love me. Because he loved Dravenmoor more. 

The Queen walked away. But this time, she didn’t have to push.

I broke on my own.

I sat on the floor long after she left, sobbing quietly so the court wouldn’t hear and feast on it. Minutes or hours passed I didn’t know. Then, something inside me shifted. A feeling. A decision. A survival instinct as old as motherhood itself.

No one is going to save me. No one is going to save my child. So I will.

I wiped my tears with shaking hands.

Tomorrow, before dawn, I will disappear. Not because I’m weak. Because it is the only way to protect what, who matters most.

I stood, trembling but steady enough to walk. Enough to plan. Enough to survive.

Behind me, through the closed doors of the strategy hall, I heard Lucian’s voice faint, muffled, unaware. Calling my name. I didn’t answer. Not this time.

Because somewhere deep in my soul in a part of me that loved him beyond life I wished things had been different. But for the first time in weeks… I placed a hand over my stomach… and didn’t feel alone.

Tomorrow, the world would lose its Luna.

But tonight, all that mattered was escaping with my child. We leave at dawn.