JOHANNA.
King Ramsey stepped closer to me, his eyes dazzling while his brows arched. I've never seen his facial expression that way. It seemed like he was about to chop off my head. I swallowed hard, my right hand on the table, clenched. How did a contraceptive end up in my wardrobe? Who brought it in there? I've never seen it for once, although I know that such a drug exists. “My King!!” “You've not responded to my question, Anna. What is a contraceptive doing in your wardrobe?” he asked again. This time, I stepped a bit back from him. “Are you dumb because I saw it?” I shook my head. "I am speechless because such a thing has never existed in my life… I mean,” I scratched my head. “This is my first time seeing a contraceptive. I can't tell how it got into my room when I've never seen it. And, wasn't it there last night when you dropped the watch?” I exhaled a deep breath. This is one thing I've never imagined. Who must have dropped it there? I am not sick either, so I'm taking no medication. Why was it there just this morning but not last night? “My King—” he made a long face, tears gathered in his eyes. “I will have to look into the matter and find out the source. There's no way I kept that there when it's been two months since I even visited the hospital.'' I tried to hold him, but he let go, refusing my touch. “You can't take it personally when I'm the one who's baffled here.” “Then you have to tell me the truth. I found it myself…..no one told me. Are you trying to say that it fled into your room?” he nibbled on his bottom lip. “No way! Anna, you have to tell me the truth you've been hiding from me for….” “I'm hiding nothing….” Those words from him pierced my heart. I didn't expect that from him. Why would he believe so easily that I would take that medicine when I badly wanted to give him an heir? “That drug wasn't there last night. I took my nightwear there and you also placed your watch….why didn't we get to see it? How did it get there this morning?” He gulped and winked, and the tears he was holding rolled down his cheeks. “Johanna!!!!” his voice thundered within us. Five years of marriage, and this was the first time he was mentioning my name in full—he even screamed at me for the first time. “Why did you do this to me? For how long were you planning to keep doing this?” His words were so sympathetic that it made me quiver. Does he believe that I did it? How could he without even looking into it? He knows so well that my maids clean up my room. What if one of them owns it and leaves it there? I shook my head and stood before him. This time, I couldn't endure the pain that was ignited in me. “My King, can we just end it here for now? I can't celebrate my birthday in tears, you know……we can just settle this after today…” “The audacity to tell me to let it slide knowing how furious I am. Do you realize the pain you just caused me now? How painful it is to settle for less, love you despite the condition that brought you here—and this is how you would pay me back, huh? Do you think it's that funny, waiting for five years without an heir only to find out that you've been the one preventing pregnancy, huh?” he gritted his teeth. The whole blood running through my body froze. My world was beginning to crumble before me. If the man I loved dearly ends up shifting me aside, then I am nothing—it would be better to just die. He is the reason I don't ever wish to meet my demise so long as he's here, but why can't he trust me even if it's just this once? “My King,” I wanted to touch him, but he shifted backwards. I didn't mind either. He has every right to be mad at me. He has all the proof that I don't wish to conceive a child for him, because the drug was found in my wardrobe, but why can't he try to understand that I know nothing about that? “How about checking the camera to confirm if I was the one that kept it there? I know that at this point, you will hardly believe that I did…” “What do you think wasted my time when I went upstairs?” he let out a loud hiss and took his cell phone. “The camera was wiped out, so let's go to the hospital…” “Hospital?!” My face twisted. “Can't you at least celebrate today with me as usual? We can go there after you show me….” He walked out of my sight, turning deaf ears to whatever I had to say. “Does he mean it that I will go to the hospital? This is a disaster….” I thought, mimicking my bottom lip. I am not scared of going to the hospital, though, because I'm certain that I'm innocent. What I hate is that he's ruining my day just like that. He would have just kept the drug with him until after today. I took my cell phone too and walked out of the palace building. He was getting into the car, so I hurried and hopped in, too. “Do you mean it? I won't get the surprise nor celebrate the birthday again? You can't do it, right?” He sniffled, not ready to respond to me anytime. I felt cold down to my belly. This is still like a dream to me that such a filthy drug that I've never dreamt of seeing for once was found in my room. It's too suspicious because it wasn't there last night, and he must be thinking that I took it this morning and forgot to hide it. King Ramsey never spared me a glance. He didn't say a word to me either until we reached the hospital. “What do you want to know here?'' I broke the silence between us when he was about to get off his seatbelt. “I feel so offended that my King couldn't trust me, yet you've been treating me nice since I came into your palace….” Tears welled up in my eyes. He took off his car key. “When we get in there, you will find out.” he unlocked the car and alighted from the car. I blinked, letting the tears that gathered in my eyes roll down, and then I wiped them off before stepping down from the car. We went to the doctor's office and were offered a seat. “I need to know if she's been taking a contraceptive or not. Is it possible to find out?” King Ramsey rolled his eyes and nodded. “Do whatever it takes to find the result….” The doctor left the office and returned with his specimens. He drew out my blood and left again with it. My heart kept pounding heavily even when I was sure I hadn't been taking it. I wonder what the King will do with me if I turn out to be at fault because I'm sure he won't let me leave the palace because of the contract. My breathing accelerated. I grasped my clothes firmly, my chest burning. Minutes elapsed, and then the doctor returned with the result and dropped it on the table before the King. I lifted my head a bit, and my gaze met with the doctor. “What does the result say?” the King asked him. The doctor looked at me again, causing a cold pit to form in my belly.KING RAMSEY. As I watched the doctor, my heart had already sank into my belly. I wouldn't want to hear the news that would make me hate my Luna whom I had loved from the first day I set my eyes on her. It would be better if she was just barren without a reason than if it was a result of taking a contraceptive. Anna was right that the drug wasn't in her wardrobe last night. When I dropped my wristwatch, there was nothing like this in her wardrobe, but seeing it now, how will I believe that she is innocent of it when it's in her room? The camera footage of her room for a month now was even wiped off and that was kinda suspicious…..but there's no way I will think she's innocent when there's all proof that she's been taking it. I believe that she forgot to hide it as usual, which made me see it. But why would Anna do such a thing if she was truly taking it? Didn't she love me because her father forced her to stay with me in exchange for his debt? Was she planning to run away someday?
JOHANNA. Which female wishes to be demoted from Luna to a slave over something you know nothing about? Isn't it better to keep being in my father's house and be treated like a servant there instead of being a Luna for five years and then becoming a slave—not even a servant? I was taken out of my room and stripped of the royal gown I was having on. Although I didn't leave the palace building, the room I was in this time was like hell. The female servants were all occupying the room, how shameful it is to share that sort of room with the maids that once served me. None of them could come near me, I was isolated, and the mockeries from them were too much for me to endure. “I will leave this palace if the King still won't come to his senses. I didn't do that, and he wouldn't let me look into it and prove my innocence….” I muttered and sat on the floor. Throughout the night, I wept like never before. My eyes didn't shut a bit. For some time, I thought about going to see the King
JOHANNA. “Ouch! What's this heavy on my arm?” I struggled to open my eyes despite how heavy it seemed. I swirled my neck to the side to see an enormous figure lying beside me. “Didn't I pay for a room alone? How come I spent it with someone?” Slowly, I opened my eyes, but the sight of him beside me made my lips drop open. It was an illusion. I just wished he was on my side, so I shut my eyes again and laid back, waiting for about a minute before I opened them again. He was still there, lying beside me and sleeping peacefully. “What on earth happened?” My gaze fixed on his face. “Did he find me? Never! He must have been drunk as well... but why? He doesn't drink.'' I slowly pulled out my arm and hurried up from the floor. I was completely naked. “Shit! He f*cked me!” My pupils dilated while I searched around for my clothes. His leg was on it, so I had to carefully take them without waking him, and then I had them on. My heart was racing. I wouldn't want him to wake up and see me
KING RAMSEY.“Don't tell me stories. Just bring Anna to me.” my voice thundered as I faced the guards. They were on their knees, quivering like it would solve the issue on the ground. “What is the essence of having you all here when you can't protect the Palace? What is the use to pay you monthly?” My face turned red, teeth gritting.Behind me was my beta. I don't even know what to say to him for not being cautious as always. How would they—the whole of them be at work - and Johanna vanished in a twinkle of an eye? I've sent them to search the whole Pack, thereby ordering the Gammas to block the boundaries, yet that didn't work.My fist tightened around my staff. Why? Why would she leave? Where is she now? Who did she go to? I couldn't answer any of these questions…..and I didn't care to know. All I wanted was to see Anna in the palace, even if she would patrol around as a slave.Did she leave to be with his lover out there, or did she just run away? Johanna is my property, even if sh
JOHANNA.The hall was filled with the masses. They were all celebrating the return of their Princess. Was I truly the Princess? How long did the slave master know of me being the Princess and kept it to himself? Why and how did I get lost after my birth?There are tons of questions that I need an answer to, and so I hope the ceremony ends anytime soon so I can meet my father. I was motherless since no one was talking about their Luna here.“Your Highness!!!!” I was startled by a feminine voice from behind. When I turned, I met a maid who bowed to me. “Do I owe you anything?”“You have to get dressed and join the ceremony. They are all waiting for the Heiress to show up,” she explained.I looked at myself. The Heiress? This still seems like a movie. What about the family that trained me up, how did they manage to get me? Now I see the reason they hated and despised me. They mistreated me because I wasn't their biological daughter. But why would they take me in if they knew they wouldn
JOHANNA.I was battling with my eyes that almost shut. Tiredness swam all over my body. I had trekked to this clan, and it wasn't fun any longer like it was when I was still in the woods. The moment I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, my father cleared his throat—my eyes snapped open.He was standing before the crowd, gripping his royal staff. “I think it's time to declare the most important part of this ceremony….”I adjusted on my seat, eyes glued to my father to hear what he had to say, which was the most important part of the ceremony.“Years back, a week after the Supreme Heiress disappeared and none of the guards could find her, I made a declaration—a vow to anyone that would bring her back to me.”The weakness in my body subsided. My eyes narrowed while I was all ears to hear what he had in store for us.“I declared that whoever found the Supreme Heiress amongst the men of this Pack would be married to the Heiress and would be the next Supreme King….”My heart stopped pump
KING RAMSEY.Facing the moon, I crossed my hands backwards. Last night, I spent my night in a tavern, drunk, and I couldn't continue that way. Tonight seemed to be the worst and longest night for me. It was 1 a.m., yet I was unable to shut my eyes.The thought of Anna flooded my mind. Where is she exactly? Hope she's safe even after escaping. Even if she has been cheating on me and has run to her lover, she needs to be well, at least, until I find her.One thing I'm certain of is that no matter how long it takes, I will surely get her back to this palace. Seeing her daily, even if she was a slave, will ease my mind and make me concentrate.I've gotten no good news from the guards and my Beta. I have no clue about Anna and the slave master—but all I focused on was Anna. If she had done all that in five years of living with me, then she must pay for making my heart bleed and wasting my time. But if she is innocent, then she must take back her position while her sister would be my consor
JOHANNA.I sneaked into the restroom and leaned on the wall. Two weeks had passed since I agreed with my father to return to the Divergent Shadows Pack. He was enraged when he learned that I was the deposed Luna and was framed, but I had already decided to prove my innocence to the other Clan.My temperature was still rising despite the medication I had taken. “This f*ck can't stop me from leaving. I have to go back there and look into that matter,” I murmured, my lips twitching. “If my father finds out that I'm sick, he will cancel everything that I planned. I can't let this sickness stop me from leaving today.”I spitted out saliva into the WC and gasped. “Wasn't I supposed to be getting better by now? That medicine isn't working….” I grimaced and stormed out of the restroom.Evelyn was still arranging my belongings that I was going to leave with. “Are the envoys ready?” I inquired and she nodded. “We have to hurry so my father won't change his mind.” I glanced at her. “What of yo