Reborn To Change My Fate-Chapter 283 - Two Hundred And Eighty Two

Ashlyn had just returned from her clandestine meeting with Prince Liam, slipping through the side entrance like a thief. Her heart was already racing from the adrenaline of treason.

She walked quickly toward the west wing, intending to hide in her room. But as she passed the intersection of the corridors that led to the master suite in the east wing, she stopped.

A sound echoed down the long, stone hallway. It was the sharp, unmistakable sound of porcelain shattering against a wall.

Crash.

Ashlyn flinched. She froze in the shadows, pulling her hood tighter.

Then came the voice. It was high, shrill, and vibrating with indignation.

"How dare you!"

It was Marissa.

Ashlyn crept closer. She pressed her back against the cold stone wall, inching her way toward the heavy double oak doors of the Grand Duke’s chambers. She held her breath, her eyes wide in the dim torchlight.

"How dare you speak to me in that manner?" Marissa screamed again, her voice cracking. "I am your wife! I am the Grand Duchess! I demand respect!"

"You are a liar!"

Derek’s voice roared back. It was a thunderclap, filled with a raw, ugly rage that Ashlyn had never heard from him before. It shook the floorboards beneath Ashlyn’s feet.

Ashlyn leaned in, pressing her ear against the rough wood of the door frame. She could hear heavy footsteps pacing the room, the sound of boots stomping aggressively on the floor.

"I told you I have nothing to do with Prince Liam!" Marissa shouted, her voice trembling with frustration. "He cornered me! He threatened me! I ran from him, Derek! I ran to you!"

"Lies!" Derek bellowed.

There was a sound of fabric tearing. Riiip.

"You gave him your chemise!" Derek accused. His voice dripped with venom and disgust.

"Your own undergarment! Something so intimate! Something that should only be seen by your husband in the dark! He sent it to me in a box, Marissa! He taunted me with it! He rubbed my nose in your infidelity!"

Ashlyn smiled in the dark. A thrill of pure, electric victory ran through her veins. The chemise, she thought. It worked. The seed I planted has grown into a forest of thorns. He found it. And he believes her capable of the worst.

"I didn’t give it to him!" Marissa cried out, sounding desperate. "He stole it! Or someone stole it for him! Why won’t you believe me?"

"Because he looked at you!" Derek shouted. "I saw him at the palace! I saw the way he looked at you! And you claim you have nothing going on with him? Do you think I am stupid? Do you think I am blind?"

There was a loud thud, like a fist hitting a table.

"He looks at you like he owns you!" Derek yelled. "And you... you let him! You play these games! You smile at him! You dance around him!"

"Think whatever you want!" Marissa snapped back, her voice turning hard. "I am tired. I am tired of explaining myself to an idiot who doesn’t want to listen! You are blinded by your own jealousy! You are pathetic!"

"Pathetic?" Derek laughed.

It was a cold, cruel sound that made Ashlyn shiver.

"Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?" Derek demanded. "You are nothing without me! Do you think you are the mistress of this house just because I let you hold the keys? You are a provincial girl I elevated! You are a nobody from a fallen family!"

Ashlyn heard the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. A chair being overturned. The fight was getting physical.

"Playing love with you suffocated me every day!" Derek spat. The words were full of hate. "Do you think I like that? Do you think I enjoy pretending to be the doting husband to a woman who flirts with my enemy?"

He paused, breathing heavily.

"In order to make sure the court sees us as a loving couple, I have to pretend!" Derek shouted. "I have to act like a fool! I have to smile while you humiliate me!"

Marissa’s voice turned icy. It was the voice she used when she was cornered.

"Do you think it would be possible without my cooperation?" she asked. "I saved your reputation! I saved your life in Strathmore! I cleaned up your brother’s mess! I built this house up while you were playing soldier and hiding in the woods!"

"If you wouldn’t do it," Derek replied coldly, "others would. You are replaceable, Marissa. There are a hundred women who would kill to be the Grand Duchess. Women who know their place. Women who are loyal. Women who don’t give their underwear to Princes! Women who would willingly climb my bed."

SLAP!

The sound was sharp, loud, and unmistakable. It vibrated through the heavy door. It was the sound of flesh hitting flesh with full force.

Ashlyn flinched, her hand going to her own cheek in sympathy. Marissa had hit him. She had actually hit the Grand Duke.

There was a moment of stunned, ringing silence inside the room.

Then, Marissa spoke. Her voice was shaking, filled with tears and a rage that had reached its breaking point.

"I want a divorce, Derek," she screamed. "I want out! I want my freedom! I can’t live like this anymore! I can’t live with a man who doesn’t trust me!"

"Good!" Derek shouted back instantly. "Good! So that we can live separately! I am already tired of your face! I am tired of your schemes! I am tired of wondering whose bed you are warming when I am not there!"

He paused. Ashlyn heard him walking toward the door.

"I’m going to my study," Derek announced. "I don’t think I can sleep here with you tonight. If I look at you for one more second, I might strangle you."

Ashlyn heard heavy, fast footsteps approaching the door. He was coming out.

Panic seized her. She turned and ran. She darted into a nearby alcove, pressing herself into the deep shadows behind a large marble statue of a lion. She held her cloak tight, making herself small, holding her breath.

The bedroom door flew open.

BANG.

It crashed against the wall, chipping the plaster.

Derek stormed out.

He looked terrifying. His white shirt was unbuttoned halfway down his chest, revealing heaving muscles. His hair was wild. His face was a mask of pure, red fury. He didn’t look left or right. He grabbed the handle of the door and slammed it shut behind him with a force that shook the paintings on the hallway walls.

He marched down the hallway, heading for the west wing study, his boots stomping on the floor. He was muttering curses under his breath.

"Witch," he growled as he passed Ashlyn’s hiding spot. "Treacherous, lying witch."

Ashlyn waited until his footsteps faded away, until the silence returned to the corridor. She let out a breath she had been holding. Her heart was racing with glee.

"They are fighting," she thought, her eyes shining in the dark. "It is real. It is falling apart. The perfect couple is destroyed. He hates her. He truly hates her."

She crept back to the door. She wanted to hear the aftermath. She wanted to hear Marissa crying. She wanted to hear the sound of her sister’s total defeat.

She pressed her ear to the wood again.

She heard sobbing. Soft, broken weeping. It was the sound of a woman whose heart had been broken.

Then, a voice.

"Lily!" Marissa called out. Her voice was thick with tears and snot. "Lily, come here!"

A moment later, the door to the adjoining maid’s room opened inside the suite. Lily entered the bedroom.

Ashlyn leaned closer.

"Yes, Your Grace?" Lily asked, sounding terrified. "Oh, Your Grace... your face... you are crying. Did he hurt you?"

"He... he left me," Marissa sobbed. "He believes the lies. He hates me, Lily. He called me a whore."

"Hush, Your Grace," Lily soothed. "He is just angry."

"No," Marissa whispered. Her voice suddenly changed. It became hard, desperate. It was the voice of a survivor. "I have no choice. If he won’t protect me... if he casts me out... I need a new protector. I need someone stronger."

Ashlyn frowned. What?

"Help me, Lily," Marissa said, her voice low and urgent. "Help me deliver a message. Write it tonight. Right now and send it first thing tomorrow morning. Before Derek locks me in or sends me away."

"A message?" Lily asked, confused. "To whom, Your Grace? To your father?"

"No," Marissa whispered. "To Prince Liam."

Ashlyn’s jaw dropped. She clamped her hand over her mouth to stop a gasp of shock.

"To Prince Liam?" she thought, stunned. "She is actually doing it?"

"Tell him I accept his offer," Marissa said clearly. "Tell him I want to see him."

Lily gasped. "Your Grace! You want to be his mistress? But you are more than that!"

"I know!" Marissa snapped. "But I have no other choice. I need someone more powerful to buy my freedom!"

Marissa lowered her voice.

"And tell him," Marissa added, "that I am ready to be bedded by him. I will give him everything if he protects me from Derek."

"Your Grace!" Lily cried. "That is a serious betrayal!"

"It is survival!" Marissa hissed. "Derek has abandoned me. I will not go down with this ship. I will not be discarded. Go, Lily. Deliver it to the Prince’s contact at his residence. The first light of the morning, tomorrow ."

"Yes, Your Grace," Lily whispered, sounding defeated.

Ashlyn pulled back from the door. She stared at the wood, her mind reeling.

She smiled. It was a twisted, victorious smile.

"Marissa," she thought. "You truly have clever methods. Not even divorced yet, and you are already trying to latch onto Prince Liam. You are trying to jump ships before yours sinks."

She stepped back, moving silently down the hall, her heart pounding with triumph.

"But you are too late, sister," Ashlyn thought, clutching her cloak. "I am already there. I am already his."

She began to walk away, her steps light.