The day I should have been celebrating my husband’s IPO, I woke up to a funeral wreath and a memorial tablet with my own face on it. My handsome, wealthy husband was gone, and I was apparently a widow. A widow? I’d just been popping champagne with him hours ago.
Someone had drugged me. And I’d somehow landed in a story I knew all too well. I’d been reborn into the original female lead of a novel. The one who falls for a scumbag named Jerry Hughes, gets her entire family killed, and ends up tortured to death in a military brothel.
No. I wasn’t going to play that part. An assassin climbed through my window, trying to quiet the hysterical widow. “Stop squirming.
You’re scaring me,” the man grumbled as he climbed into bed with me. Look, when you time travel, you get laid. And this guy was a ten out of ten. I had to commit to the role.
My “husband,” J Hughes, stormed in the next morning, furious to find another man in his place. He was alive. And he’d brought some pregnant mistress, Wanyang, back with him, demanding I accept her as his second official wife. I played the wronged, lovesick wife perfectly, weeping and clinging.
But in my head, I was already planning the exit. He wanted a show? Fine. I’d give him the divorce he deserved.
And I’d take back every bit of my dowry. It was the only way to save myself from the original plot’s tragic ending. “Good,” I said, swiping my tear-soaked face. “If you insist on bringing her in, then I’m going to the palace to see the Empress Dowager.
We’re getting a divorce. Or you get out. ”
He called my bluff. He’d married me for my money, after all.
But I knew things. I knew his precious essay on governance was actually written by me, the woman he claimed was an illiterate merchant’s daughter. I knew his affair, his debts, his schemes. And I knew the law.
An imperial marriage couldn’t be dissolved without the Empress Dowager’s decree. And she hated me for marrying him against her wishes. So I couldn’t divorce him. But I could make his life miserable enough that he’d want to.
“Fine,” I said. . “Then we both lose everything. ”
The Hughes family was broke.
They’d been living off my dowry for years. My threat to expose him terrified him more than her pregnancy did. He started panicking. So I did the only thing that made sense in this ridiculous world.
I went to Maplewood Tavern, bought the whole place, and hired the most handsome male performers I could find. I was going to build my own fortune, my own network, and live exactly how I wanted. No man was going to cage me again. .
”
While I was out, hatching plans and drinking in a private room with a man I’d picked up off the street, my estranged brother, Vernon, showed up at the tavern with Theo Fletcher, the most dangerous commander in the kingdom. Vernon was furious I’d opened a brothel and disgraced the family name. He threatened me, even. But I was done being bullied by anyone named Stevens or Hughes.
I told him we’d cut ties long ago. He had no say over me.. ”
Then things got complicated. The Princess Royal, Brandon Francis, the main villain from the novel, was back in the capital.
She was obsessed with the original female lead, the one she’d had tortured to death in a past life. She’d staged an entire trap for me at her spring banquet, trying to ruin my reputation and force me into her arms
But I’d read the book. I knew her tricks. I handed that overdramatic yellow dress to my husband’s mistress, Wanyang, knowing the princess despised anyone else wearing her color.
Wanyang went to the banquet in my place. And instead, I ended up trapped ina room with Commander Theo Fletcher,the man I’d met at the tavern. The man I might have married in another life. He didn’t recognize me at first.
And I played dumb, pretending to be a lost, proper wife. But the moment he got close, I knew that voice. It was him. Eric, my little male escort from Oliver’s place.
The one I’d thought was just a pretty distraction
“Will you leave Jerry Hughes and stay with me? Belong to me alone? ” he asked. “Yes,” I said, breathless ashamed
The world was spinning.
I’d walked right into her trap. But I came out with something better than I’d bargained for. Eric, the man I cared about, was commanding general Theo Fletcher, the kingdom’s most feared warrior. And he wanted me.
. ,
But everything unraveled fast. The princess found us together. She was furious, humiliated.
She’d planned to catch me cheating so she could have me. Instead, she caught me with someone she hated even more. She had her guards drag Jerry Hughes’s pregnant mistress off, blamed her and Zayn Lambert, the son of the vice minister who’d harassed me, for the mess. And then she turned her attention to destroying Theo Fletcher entirely.
She used me, my family, my brother, everything. She had my brother Vernon assassinated and pinned it on Theo, hoping to turn us into enemies. But Theo was my closest ally, not my enemy. We knew her games.
I didn’t fall for her tricks. I read her plans like an open book. And when the emperor tried to marry her off to Theo out of spite, she swapped the brides. She sent me to Theo’s manor in her place.
And she married Jerry Hughes, my useless ex, just to keep control of him
I wasn’t going to let her win. Not again. Not in this lifetime. The night of the wedding,and I was dragged out of my bridal chamber by hired thugs demanding the Hughes family heirloom.
They said it looked like an incense burner. They poisoned me when I refused to talk. But my brother wasn’t dead. He and Theo had faked it all.
They got me the antidote. And in that chaos, everything came out. The so-called incense burner was cleverly hidden. And it wasn’t what it was for.
It was revealed in the end. It held the Imperial Seal, the key to the throne. And all the Princess Royal’s schemes, her ambitions, her rage, they all collapsed when she found out her precious seal was a fake
She rebelled anyway. She tried to seize the throne.
But she was outmatched. Theo, my brother, everyone who mattered, they weren’t falling for her lies anymore. I watched her stand there, broken and raging, and I felt something close to pity. She’d suffered.
She’d been sent off as a peace offering, abused, humiliated. But she’d become the monster she claimed to hate. And in the end, she’d destroyed herself. I handed her my own books on governance, on building a state.
And I pointed her west, to the border, where she could start over. Not as a princess whose worth depended on a man’s favor. But as a ruler in her own right. Almost like an empress.
She took it. She didn’t say thank you. But she didn’t say no, either. And that was enough for me.
,
,
“I won’t kill you,” I said quietly. “But if you ever come back to the capital, I’ll have you executed. Go lose yourself somewhere far away from me. ”
She just stared at me for a long moment.
Then she smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile. But it wasn’t a cruel one, either. Something almost like respect.
“Haley Stevens,” she said. “If Theo ever treats you poorly, come to Nanley. I promise you’ll live without a single worry. ”
I smiled back.
“Rest assured, I won’t give him that opportunity. ”
The next day, she was gone. And I was still here, alive, with a husband who loved me, a brother who’d faked his death to protect me, and a business empire growing by the day. I’d escaped the novel’s plot.
I’d escaped the military brothel. I’d escaped everything that was supposed to destroy me. I was walking through the palace gardens, thinking about the spring banquet, the trap, the way everything could have gone wrong, when Theo fell into step beside me
“My empress,” he said dryly. “You haven’t come to see me in three days.
”
I arched an eyebrow. “I’ve been busy hiring male escorts for Maplewood Tavern. It’s going to be the finest pleasure house in the capital. I have standards to uphold.
”
His eye twitched. “I am standing right here, and you’re already plotting to fill your establishment with other pretty faces? ”
I grinned. “Jealous, Commander?
”
His hand found my waist. “Terrified for their safety. I’d hate to see anything unfortunate happen to them. ”
I laughed, leaning into him.
“Well, you can always come by and keep an eye on me. If you’re good, I might let you stay for the entertainment. ”
He sighed, but he was smiling. “Haley, you’re going to be the absolute death of me.
. ”
“That’s the plan,” I said cheerfully. “Now, let’s go find my brother. He’s been nagging me half to death about getting remarried.
And I need to make sure he hasn’t gone and gotten himself into real trouble this time. ”
His hand slid into mine. “Fine. But afterward, you and I are going to have a long conversation about boundaries.
”
I squeezed his hand. “You can try. But you’ll be bored within an hour. I’m a much better listener when I’m not being interrogated.
”
He laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t know how I survived before you. ”
I smiled up at him. “You didn’t.
You were just waiting for me to show up and fix everything. ”
He snorted, but he didn’t argue. And for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like I was playing a part. I felt like I was finally living my own story.
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