King Adarian had been in an ambiguous relationship with the beautiful Lady Fredericka Lowenheim since the death of his wife. Lady Lowenheim looked on with jealousy as Graciella danced with the king. They looked good together. The once frail Graciella had grown to a beautiful woman who was delicate like a flower.
Graciella's eyes shone brightly as she danced in the arms of the handsome and charming king. After this, Olivia suspected her sister was in love with the king Adarian. At the next ball Olivia seduced the King in spite of having a fiancé. Everyone was shocked at Olivia's brazen actions. She had drugged and seduced the king. King Adarian Caliban was originally supposed to become engaged to the widow Lady Fredricka Lowenheim. But now the engagement would never happen.
Olivia's actions caused harm to the families reputation. Not only that but it was possible to charge her with treason because she had drugged the king. Olivia not wanting to face the consequences of her actions, had a rush marriage with the king's cousin, her original fiancé , Oscar Caliban.
In order to protect the Praxis family reputation, the king married Gracialla instead of Lady Lowenheim. At first King Adarian had thought Graciella and the Praxis family had planned the whole thing using Olivia as a scapegoat. He was aloof and cruel to Graciella, telling her she would never have his love.
At her inauguration as Queen, Graciella met with may foreigners and local nobles. She even became friends with a foreign brother sister pair, and began to exchange letters with them. Adarian made her stop writing to the brother. Her letters should not be to other men.
Because of their jealousy against her, and their love for King Adarian, Graciella was plotted against by Lady Lowenheim and Olivia. She was almost poisoned. They had sent Kidnappers and Assassins after Graciella. Plots, plots, and more plots happened. Graciella, ever fighting for survival. Every time one of these events would happen, Graciella would be rescued by Oscar or one of Adarian's knights. On one occasion Adarian himself even went to her rescue. All the reader's thought this was a big breakthrough in their marriage.
Oscar would try to hide the evidence of what Olivia had done. King Adarian would get jealous at Oscars closeness with his wife. He was possessive. Graciella could belong to no one but him. What a far cry from when he thought her father had set up this marriage! He had thought she married him because she wanted power! But Graciella wasn't like that. And the actions of both Lady Lowenheim, and Olivia were proving Graciella to be just as innocent as she had claimed to be. He was falling for his wife.
Olivia terrorized her husband with the fact that she slept with his cousin King Adarian. Oscar was still in love with Graciella, But now the King had bedded his current wife Olivia, and married Graciella the love of his life. In a jealous rage Oscar tried to kill the king and committed treasonous acts. This caused his own execution with his wife Olivia, who was involved in every step of the treasonous plan.
Seeing Adarian and Graciella's marriage seemed to be going well, Lady Lowenheim slowly went crazy because she couldn't have the king anymore. She was spreading vicious rumors about Graciella again. Behind closed door's this led Adarian and her to argue, because he did not think Lady Lowenheim had a reason to lie. And now Lady Lowenheim had pulled out a mysterious red bottle from a secret drawer. She would definitely succeed this time.
…
…
Olivia Carter had read the whole rest of the day after her release from the hospital, stopping only for food and potty breaks. She read late into the night, and finally made herself fall asleep to the shouting of the neighbors down the hall. Her lullaby. This morning when she woke up, she read some more. She stopped for breakfast, and then set herself up a little nest in the living room. She finally got so into it that she couldn't put it down at all, but the next chapter wasn't available to read yet. In her fervent reading she had skipped lunch. A mistake.
She knew she needed to eat something. Her Phone battery showed 5%. Great. She wanted to order food, but now she had to go get her phone charger from the bedroom. She leaned back into the sofa. It was a deal she got when the neighbor lady needed to move out in a hurry. She had to move the small sofa into the apartment herself. But she had gotten it done. Life was like this. It didn't matter that there had been 3 men who had watched her tiny figure struggle to move the sofa, and complained that she didn't get someone to help her. If she hadn't known what kind of guys they were she might have given up on her pride and asked them for help, but she was not stupid. She saw the way they looked at her. The way they leered at her like she was prey. She knew she could only truly rely on herself. Just like now. She had just gotten out of the hospital, and she had to take care of herself.
She sighed and looked at her battery again. 4%. Nope, She definitely needed to go get her charger. She groaned and kicked her legs in a fit. The story ended on a cliffhanger, she skipped lunch, her phone was just about dead, and she did not want to move from her comfortable spot.
She sighed again and got up to go to her room. She looked for her charger, and didn't find it in her purse. She looked at the nightstand, it wasn't there either. She got down and looked under the bed. How did it even get there? She reached for it, barely grabbing onto it. She pulled the charger from under the bed, stood up and began to walk back to the living room. She wanted to get back to her comfy nest and order takeout as soon as possible.
As soon as she took a few steps, she realized her mistake. She had stood up too fast. Vertigo. Everything spun, and she had to hold onto the doorway so she wouldn't fall down. The dizzy feeling slowly subsided. She slowly let go of the wall. She really needed that takeout quickly. These anemic spells seemed to be coming more often lately. She wondered if it was an after effect of the… of… the…
Olivia started to breathe hard, and closed her eyes. No. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think. Just don't think. Hyperventilating after vertigo and anemia is really not a good idea. Five things you can see. She opened her eyes.
5 The cups on the coffee table.
4 The blanket on the sofa.
3 The lamp by the door.
2 The jacket hanging from the coat rack.
1 The mystery spot in the wall that she couldn't ever wash off.
Four things you can touch.
4 The phone cord in her hand.
3 The carpet beneath her feet.
2 The cool surface of the wall.
1 The fuzzy sweater she was wearing.
Three things you can hear
3 The cars in the street.
2 the baby crying down the hall.
1 The annoying drip coming from the kitchen sink...again.
Two things you can smell
2 Her shampoo.
1 The trash that needs to be thrown out. Olivia frowned. One more thing to add to her list.
One thing you can taste. Taste? But she hadn't eaten yet! Wait! Wait… it was ok. Her pulse had returned to normal, and so had her breath. She was ok now. She needed to get herself together so she could start looking for a job again. She knew her savings wouldn't last long. Especially if she kept eating out.
She plugged in her phone right after it died. Great. Stupid panic attack. It wasted her time. All of this was just one big waste of time.
She walked to the kitchen to make herself some soup. She was pretty sure she had some canned soup she could eat to tide her over. She would eat out for dinner instead. She bent down again to look in the bottom cupboard for a small pot. She stood up too fast again hitting her head on the top of the cupboard.
"Ah!" She cried out as she stood up and hissed in pain as she held her head. This was not her week. She took a step. Dizziness overtook her. She didn't even have time to react. Darkness took over her vision. She couldn't even tell she had fallen down. As she crashed to the floor, her head hit the corner of the table. Thin blood pooled out of a brand new open wound that appeared on her head. Olivia lay on the kitchen floor, and breathed her last as blood pooled around her.