Olivia stared back at Candace, her brown eyes glaring with intensity.
"What is it to you?" She spat.
"You two are not married. There has been no wedding, no announcements. Stop making up lies and making him look bad!" Candace threw back.
Olivia sniffed. "For your information, the Emperor has sent out a marriage decree to my family. Arrangements are currently being made for us to be married within the month."
"Olivia. You can't marry him." Candace gave her a stony look. "He's already married to me. Retract your statements now."
Olivia gave her a frosty stare. "I am not claiming something that is not based on reality."
"Your reality is skewed, Olivia." Candace raised an eyebrow. "He is my husband."
"You need to get over yourself, Candace. You can't marry all the Princes of Erenveil even if you're the Prime Avgo Female." Olivia sneered.
"Do you know what the Prime Avgo Female turns into?" Candace gave a cold hard smile. "I turn into the Empress of Erenveil. You really do not want to piss me off."
Olivia sniffed with disdain. She looked as if she wanted to say something confrontational, but at the last moment, she gave a slight bit of capitulation.
"We will be sisters-in-law. I do not want to ruin our relationship over this matter."
Olivia pursed her lips, as if extending an olive branch of peace.
"Look. I don't have any quarrel with you, Candace. Even during the Avgo Event, we didn't have any dealings because I was disqualified so early on. If you pick a fight with me now, it will only make you look bad."
Candace smiled, an upturn of her lips that did not reach her eyes.
"You think too highly of yourself. We don't have a relationship, and after today, we will never meet again. If you want to live a peaceful life and die of old age, back off my husband."
Olivia sniffed with indignation. "You've won the Avgo Events. You're the Prime Avgo Female and you have three Crown Princes as your husbands. Why are you picking a fight with me?"
"Listen up and listen carefully." Candace pointed a finger at Olivia's face. "This is your last chance, Olivia."
Candace threw her a deadly look. "Back off my husband."
"Not going to happen, Candace. I am pregnant with Leonardo's child. I cannot allow you to destroy my family like that. He is my husband, the father of my child!"
Candace's eyes glittered with anger. Olivia had been given three chances to back off. Three strikes.
She was dead meat.
"Hmmm. I heard all about that night you were with my man. Let me ask you this, Olivia. What did you do to Leo to make him pass out after only two mojitos, hmmm?"
Olivia's eyes were wild. "I did absolutely nothing!"
"Is that right? In that case, absolutely nothing will show up when we replay the visuals of that night, right?"
"What???" Olivia's eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh, you didn't know that the ship you are on is a warship that has been equipped with medical devices to be used as a hospital during wartime?"
Olivia's eyes widened.
Candace laughed. "All warships have visuals constantly recording at ALL times during a war, in the event that there is foul play and evidence needs to be gathered and submitted for sentencing."
She clicked her tongue. "Tch tch tch. I wonder what will show if I start looking at the time around four weeks ago when Leonardo was trying to heal your wings."
Candace snapped a finger.
A visual recording that Slate had prepared of Olivia and Leonardo began to roll.
At first, it was just the two of them, laughing and drinking a couple of drinks. Leo looked relaxed and was saying something that made Olivia laugh.
Candace sighed and sped the video forward until the second glass of mojito was made for Leonardo. At that moment, Olivia reached over and handed him the glass.
Candace paused the video and began to play, frame by frame.
"I wasn't going to do this because I love my husband, Olivia." She turned and gave an air kiss at Leonardo. His eyes gleamed with tears. "But you gave me no choice."
The frames continued to roll, in slow motion, frame by frame. With a single action of her finger, Olivia dumped something from her ring into Leonardo's drink.
Candace paused the screen and turned to Olivia with a deadly gleam in her hazel eyes.
"Olivia. Do you know what the penalty is for assault on a member of the royal family?"
"I was—that was not an assault! I was—" Olivia suddenly realized that she was implicating herself and went quiet.
"I gave you three chances to back off because I did not want to hurt my husband by going back over this filth, but since you refused to comply, I had to show the evidence of what you did."
Candace pointed her finger at Olivia.
"Once this evidence is shown, you will have no other recourse but be tried for assault on the Imperial Prince of Erenveil, Doctor Leonardo."
"But he is not hurt!" Olivia jumped up, shouting.
"You damaged his distinct and perfect reputation Olivia, and caused him great emotional distress. Would you like to see more of this visual recording?"
Without waiting for Olivia to agree, she rolled the remaining clip.
As the visual continued, it didn't take long for Leonardo to become woozy and disoriented.
Within minutes, he had slumped onto his seat. Olivia was seen making a quick gesture with her hand and a couple of large attendants carried him away.
The next visual cut into a scene within Leonardo's quarters. He had been stripped of his clothing and was lying on the bed unconscious. His golden blond head was lolling on the pillows, his chest moving in rapid shallow breaths.
The clip continued rolling, this time in double speed, showing Olivia removing her own clothing and clambering onto the bed next to him.
At this point, Olivia was not even looking at the visual. She already knew what was going to happen next.
The visual showed Olivia reaching out and fondling Leonardo's muscular body even as he remained unconscious.
Reaching lower, she began touching and petting his manhood hoping for some physiological response from him.
Around Candace, the brothers gasped. A few looked away while the rest looked on in horror. She was actually assaulting him as he lay there unconscious!
Leonardo's face reddened with embarrassment. He was a man, but this was not something he wanted his wife and brothers to see.
His lips compressed into a thin line, but he said nothing. This was important evidence that needed to be shown so that he could be cleared of Olivia's machinations.
The visual continued, showing Olivia trying for at least half-an-hour, fondling and playing with his limp member. Once she realized she could get nothing to happen, she settled for nestling into his body and promptly fell asleep.
Candace sped up the visual until the artificial morning sunlight began to slowly lit up the room.
At the point Leonardo woke up, Candace paused the visual.
"So. Olivia. You tried your best to get my husband to be sexually aroused, forgetting one important thing."
Candace raised a single middle finger in a vulgar display.
"Sexual assault on an unconscious man is hardly arousing! That is criminal!"
"And now you say you're pregnant. Was it immaculate conception or did you play around with some random guy and tried to pin the baby on my husband?"