Chapter 218 It is All Anne's Fault
Candy screamed at the top of her lungs, and Holden clenched his teeth and lunged at her, clamping his hand over her mouth.
Candy struggled with everything she had, but she'd only just miscarried yesterday from the beating Holden gave her. Just crawling out and making it this far had drained every last bit of her strength. The pain made it impossible to break free from his grip, and the royal messenger seemed to hear nothing at all — he didn't even look back. His retreating figure reflected in Candy's slowly dimming eyes, like a nail driving her life shut at this very moment, with no hope visible anywhere in her future.
Once the royal messenger and his party had boarded their carriage and left, Holden finally released Candy with disgust. He drove his foot into her back like he was taking out his rage on her. "You really thought you could report me? A whore who spreads her legs for anyone — you should be grateful I even let you stay in this house. If you try to say anything to anyone again, I'll have you sent to the asylum!"
Candy lay motionless on the ground, tears sliding silently from the corners of her eyes.
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Even though Holden wished Candy would just die, he didn't want a death on his hands. So he dragged her back to the room, this time locking the windows shut and bolting the door as well, making sure she couldn't run out once she got her strength back.
After taking care of all that, Holden dropped into a chair, exhausted, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Without his position as commander of the Dawn Knight Order, what was left for him? What chances did he have to climb back up?
Victoria woke again the following evening. She had actually come around shortly after returning to the Titan family estate, but what she hadn't expected was to find out that Candy was pregnant — with a child of unknown parentage.
Just picturing the smug, vindicated look on Candy's face made Victoria's blood boil. But that was nothing compared to what came after — Holden's sudden violent breakdown had terrified her so badly she'd passed out on the spot.
Now that she was awake, Victoria forced herself to sit up, her eyes drifting without thinking to the carpet on the floor. The spot where Candy had lain was darker than the rest. Victoria knew it was blood. A wave of unease rose in her chest. "Where are my attendants?"
She hadn't seen them since she woke up, which puzzled her. But before long, Holden walked in, his face grim. When he saw that Victoria was awake, a flicker of relief crossed his face — only to be swallowed up again by that dark expression.
Victoria didn't know what had gotten into him, but the moment she saw Holden, her body gave an involuntary shudder.
Holden noticed his mother trembling. He paused mid-step and stopped about five or six paces from the bed. "Mother."
Victoria nodded. "You don't look happy. What happened?"
"Yesterday a royal messenger arrived from the capital, carrying a decree from His Majesty."
The words came out with some difficulty. Normally he wouldn't burden his frail mother with news like this, but knowing the demotion might somehow be connected to Victoria, Holden couldn't keep the edge of accusation out of his voice.
"His Majesty has ordered me to leave the Dawn Knight Order and take the position of Knight Commander in the Blaze Knights... Mother, I haven't done anything to offend His Majesty or any other noble. There's no reason he should suddenly assign me to a post like that. You took Nina and the others to Princess Kirenya's banquet a few days ago — what exactly happened there?"
"Did you manage to offend someone again and drag me down with you?"
Victoria heard this and slapped the bed in fury — though the gesture came out weak and limp, carrying no force at all.
"Who could we possibly have offended! Princess Kirenya had bad intentions from the moment she invited us. I didn't figure it out until I got there — she wanted to use us to humiliate Anne in front of everyone. What she didn't count on was Anne turning the whole thing around in just a few words!"
"That vile Princess Kirenya — the moment she realized we were no use to her, she pinned everything she'd accused Anne of on me instead. She put me in an impossible position."
Victoria gritted her teeth. "And Nina — that's my failure for not raising her better. She actually screamed at Princess Kirenya's daughter and the other noble ladies right there in front of everyone. Then when she found out Anne was going to marry Prince Friedel, she started shrieking at Anne too, and Prince Friedel put her in her place."
"But none of this is our fault! If Anne hadn't played the meek and harmless act so convincingly before, we never would have known she had a spine — that she'd actually stand up to Princess Kirenya. If I'd known that from the start, I never would have gone after her!"
Holden listened to Victoria's complaints in a daze. It felt like a thorn had been buried somewhere inside him, and every time Anne's name came up, it drove in a little deeper, twisting the pain further.
Anne had been commander of the Ivy Knights. He had been commander of the Dawn Knight Order. The gap between them had only been a matter of title. But now he'd not only been pushed out of the Dawn Knight Order — he was being sent to the Blaze Knights as Knight Commander, ranking below Anne even within the military world.
It didn't matter that the Ivy Knights and the Blaze Knights had nothing to do with each other, or that Anne had no authority over him. The difference in their standing still gave him the suffocating feeling of being crushed under her feet.
And soon he would have to rush to the capital to hand over the Dawn Knight Order's affairs, then report to the Blaze Knights — where who knew what kind of humiliation was waiting for him.
When it came down to it, all of this misfortune had come from that marriage.
Holden couldn't stop himself from thinking: this was all Anne's fault. If she hadn't insisted on the divorce, she never would have ended up on the eastern front, and those military achievements would have naturally fallen to him instead.
He had thought his steady rise through the ranks on the southern front was the beginning of a brilliant life. He never imagined it had been the peak. Since then, he'd been stepping downward, one step at a time — and whether there was any way back up, Holden no longer knew.
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Back in the capital, Anne hadn't yet returned to her territory. She was sitting in the main hall of Atarat Manor, with Selyma glaring at her from across the room. After a long silence, Selyma finally spoke. "When are you ever going to give this up?"
Ever since returning to Atarat Manor from Princess Kirenya's banquet, Selyma had felt more and more unsettled. Friedel was already as stubborn as they came — and now pairing him with Anne, who was just as fond of pushing things by force, made Selyma wonder how either of them would ever manage to live together.