The room was stained with her blood. Her body was quivering with pain but her eyes still stared at the man coldly.
"My parent's death was not natural, was it?" the man raised a brow. He moved the dagger from his left hand to his right hand and laughed.
"You are still strong, aren't you?" He looked at the wound on her body.
Anyone at her place would have been begging him to spare their life but she was staring back at him with the same look of domination he had received all his life.
"I would have spared your life if you had begged me, Lia. but you are still that cold brutal woman who would not flinch no matter what happens. I have always hated you for that." he walked closer and crouched on the ground.
Her sharp green eyes were red yet they held so much authority that he felt small in front of her. But not anymore.
"Hush! Close your eyes and I will end it for you," he whispered slowly as he caressed her cheeks. His expression was worried as if he could not bear to see her in pain.
But she pushed his hands away in disgust. Her face twisted with a look of disdain.
"Did you kill them?" she repeated with more force when he snickered.
"Staying cold till the end, huh! You wench." He pulled her hair with force until many broke and fell on the ground, "yes, I killed them. I mixed slow poison in their food from the day you married me.
I thought I would be promoted to the position of duke once they leave, but you... You took the position yourself. You greedy bitch, how could you do that with your husband?" He yelled at her hard but she did not flinch or wince.
Even when excruciating pain hit her body, she did not let herself feel weak in front of her husband.
The man she loved and married. He was just a knight, yet she never cared about his position. She shed blood and sweat and created opportunities for him. She made him a perfect man, one who was well-versed in politics, administration, and noblesse oblige.
Her father gave him the title of Earl by making him head of their vassal families despite the anger and rebellion of elders.
Yet.. he killed them. And now he was killing her.
The moments full of love and care, they shared flashed past her eyes but it only increased her hatred and rage towards him.
"Beg me and I will spare you." madness filled him. He felt humiliated by the cold and rebuking look in her eyes.
He pushed her on the ground and trampled her hands with his shoes.
"You have used the same hands to fight the assassins whenever I tried to kill you." Then he kicked her stomach many times until blood started to drip from her belly.
"You did not accept to be a mother and live a peaceful life. If only your barren belly has produced one heir. I would have spared your life. But no, you want to wear men's clothes and walk in front of those nobles who stare at you with lust." he growled hard.
His eyes were red and completely lost. As if he was spellbound.
"You enjoy it. Did you not? Is it because of this body and this face? Do you think they respect you? No! Each of them imagines you in his bed. That is why they roam about you, you slut." he used his full force to press her face on the ground.
Her skin was battered and bruised. If not for the poison in her blood, she would have taught him a lesson on who is a bastard here.
But the pain did not stop her from glaring at him fiercely.
"Ha! Hahaha! If I am so weak in your eyes that I need my body to climb the ladder, wait for a day, and duel with me. I will show you who is stronger when the poison will be flushed out of my body. You bastard!" she sneered when she noticed shock evident in his eyes.
How could she fall for such a fool? To think that his weakness was adorable. She must have lost her mind.
"Darling!" Katherine held his hands and pulled the man easily. "She would never understand her mistake. Why are you wasting your breath on teaching her? I can not bear the sight of blood anymore. I am feeling nauseated."
Tears spilled out of her bright blue eyes and her face looked aggrieved as if she had suffered all this pain.
Michael's face softened immediately. He held her in his arms as if he was protecting her from Lia.
"Oh, it must be because you are pregnant. Now be a good girl and wait for me. I will end it fast." Lia's eyes narrowed at the woman.
The woman who used to be called her sister. Another snake! She was already pregnant with her husband's child. What a pair!
"I thought that I would get an apology from you but you are too foolish and stubborn. I need to go and spend time with my lover." he crouched and held her hair again.
"I will still make it fast." he whispered, "goodbye Camelia."
"This is not the end, Michael. This is the start of my revenge. Even if I have to return as a ghost, I will accept the deal with the devil and haunt you all your life. The peace you are expecting with my death will never come to you. Because, I, Camelia Sol Casten, vow revenge against you." her sharp and dominating voice was full of power.
He felt that she was still sitting on the throne, he would never be able to reach.
He gritted his teeth and slit her throat. Her eyes stared at him mockingly till the end.
That way, her story ended. Only to... Restart.