Betrayed By The Hero, Loved By The Lord
Chapter 158: Holding on (3)

Chapter 158: Holding on (3)

Vivienne was confident it was going to be worth it as long as Darius was dead soon.

"I only have three regrets in life, Darius. One of them is marrying you," said Vivienne.

Darius was angry once more as he thought of her other regrets. If he had to hear that she regretted letting Xavier slip from her fingers then he just might kill her. "What are the others?"

"I don’t have any reason to share them with you. You don’t tell me all your secrets, so why should I tell you mine?" Vivienne asked, enjoying that she got under his skin. "Don’t take me for a fool."

"You were a fool hopelessly in love with me, Vivienne. I’ll let you walk around like you’re winning now but at some point, I am going to turn you back to my quiet wife. You owe me a son," Darius said, turning to a more important matter. "You can’t get out of that. You can enjoy it or it can be a nightmare. You decide."

"Since when has our intimacy ever been enjoyable? You would have been lucky if there wasn’t someone before you to let me know what feels good- Don’t!" Vivienne yelled, backing away from Darius as he approached her. "My father is not far and should he find you trying to hurt me, he will kill you."

Darius still raised his hand, aiming for her neck. Rather than choke her like he wanted, Darius touched the necklace she wore. "If you don’t stop being this way, I will hang you from the palace gates and all you will be wearing is this necklace."

Darius continued, "Hanging you won’t kill you but the men gawking at your naked body might make you want to die. Some part of me cares for you since you were my first wife and you gave me a daughter but don’t think I wouldn’t kill you if you keep up this act. There are plenty of women to replace you with."

Darius released the necklace to let it fall back in place. "Or, should I keep you alive and have the maids feed you stories of how Selene is raising your children-"

"You!" Vivienne glared at Darius. Why now did that name need to come up?

Darius backed away from Vivienne. "I wasted my time with you. I thought you were special but the real special woman wasn’t ready to show up when I had to pick a wife. You’re a useless woman struggling to give me more children. All I did was take what he didn’t want and I see why he didn’t want you."

"It doesn’t feel good, does it? You want to talk about me competing with Xavier but I know you want to compete with his wife. Wanting to get answers to why her but not you. You can’t judge me when you are no different. I want you in my room after dinner. We have a son to make," said Darius.

If this next child wasn’t a son then they would simply try again until it happened or until one of his official mistresses gave him a son.

After how Vivienne spoke to him today, Darius thought of ripping the chance for Vivienne to be the mother of the next king out of her hands. It was the best way to punish her for what she spoke of today.

"I cannot be with you today. My father is taking me for a ride around the town-"

"Being with your husband is more important. What is it the humans say? After marriage, you belong to your husband. It’s one of the most sensible things those creatures came up with," said Darius.

It always humoured Vivienne to hear Darius quote the very creatures he hated. "Unfortunately for you, I am a pureblood, not a human. I will follow the ways of my people and go with my father. I’m sure you will find some other woman to busy yourself with."

Vivienne turned to head to the door so she could leave before the conversation got more heated and went in search of her father who was to stay nearby.

"You look upset," Victor noticed right away. "Did you anger him? I only sent you to tell him of wanting to help pick those women."

Seeing how Vivienne looked now, Victor regretted sending Vivienne to speak.

"I did tell him about it but then our conversation got out of hand. He spoke of having Selene raise my children as queen and came at me as if he wanted to choke me. He is losing his mind," Vivienne said, telling the story to her liking. "Do you believe me now?"

Victor could only take what Vivienne told him since he couldn’t hear what was said inside the room. He should have let Vivienne wait for Darius to walk around the palace for them to speak.

Victor doubted this was exactly how the conversation went but he wouldn’t hear the truth from either one.

"He is not happy you are inside the palace. He thinks that we are plotting something. You must be careful since he would need to find a good reason to send you away. I don’t want him to tarnish your name," said Vivienne.

"Come child," Victor said, taking Vivienne’s hand to walk with her. "Our carriage awaits us."

There were too many spies in the palace for them to keep speaking about this here.

Only after they reached the carriage and set out for the market did Victor ask Vivienne to speak.

"The truth this time," said Victor.

"I already spoke the truth. I told him that I would help to pick who enters the palace. Our conversation became heated so I mentioned his father and he mentioned having Selene raise my children. He has agreed to take Natalie into the palace-"

"Natalie?" Victor interjected. "It is Juliana you were meant to offer. She is more naive so it will be easier to use her. When you return, tell him you have changed your mind."

"Very well," Vivienne agreed. "I will have a headache keeping her at my side. What will you do about him? He doesn’t seem to care about our vote?"

"That is because the king is a foolish man. He thinks it won’t ever come to a meeting to vote on replacing him. I won’t allow it to happen since no one will replace you as queen. My grandson will sit as the face of this kingdom and when that time comes, you won’t need Darius anymore. You can take any man you like then," Victor offered.

Victor planned to be the one to stand behind his grandson so Vivienne would not be needed.

Vivienne looked out the carriage window. "That sounds like a wonderful gift. There is only one man I want. I want the man I should have gotten from the start so I need you to keep collecting more allies to back him into a corner. I want that woman dead with Darius. Bury them in the same hole as a gift to me and get me back Xavier."

"I will try," Victor promised, but he wasn’t certain he could keep it. "Focus on having your son, Vivienne. Don’t bother yourself with anything else."

Vivienne couldn’t do as her father wanted. She was still annoyed by what happened at Francesca’s gathering and by Xavier not attending the ball. "Father, I need a favour from you. Could you have your friends put out suspicion Selene was involved with her parents’ plans? I want the town to remember everything about the Harrisons."