How To End This Marriage-Chapter 127: Unraveled

In the Underground Dungeon

"Did you place her in the cell?" the crown prince asked.

"Yes, your highness. As you have said, I did as you wanted. Please check upon her. From the moment she was brought here, she kept on screaming nonstop, as if she is being executed right now," the knight reported.

"Ok, I will go see her!!!" he said, walking toward the cell where the maid was shackled and kneeling on the surface.

"Your highness, please release me! I am being framed. I didn’t do such things. I don’t know why this happened, but if I wanted to do something like this, I would have done it by someone else, not by myself," she pleaded.

"Yes, I know you didn’t do this. So, tell me who made you do this! I know you are trying to save someone, and that’s why you are trying to make yourself innocent," Crown Prince Maximus said.

"No, why would I do that? Why would I do something on someone else’s saying?" her eyes avoided direct contact.

"Then why are you not looking straight into my eyes? Don’t you know if someone fails to make eye contact, the jury itself deems them guilty on the spot? Or do you want me to interpret your behavior?" he said coldly.

"No, your highness, I am not guilty. I didn’t do this. I have no selfish reason behind this. I would never try to kill the duchess. It is the... it is the...." she was about to say when the duke appeared in the cell.

"Did she say something?" the duke asked.

"She is saying," Crown Prince said, being all cold.

"Tell me who tried to kill my wife, or I will kill you in the most brutal way I could think of," the duke threatened.

"Princess!!!" she said.

"What? What did you say?" the duke asked.

"It is the princess who did this. She told me to take her plate to the duchess, so I did it. I don’t know anything. I don’t have any reason to do so. So whatever I knew, I have said," she confessed.

"So someone tried to kill the princess?" Seeing the duke believe this, Crown Prince looked at him with disbelief.

"Duke, are you really dumb or pretending to be? Can’t you hear what she said? She said she took the plate from the princess, which means the princess put poison in the food sent to the duchess, not that someone tried to kill the princess?" the crown prince clarified.

"But it can be the other way around too. Whoever sent the food plate to the princess might be the real culprit and tried to kill the princess?" the duke argued, infuriating the crown prince.

"Duke, it is your wife who almost died from taking poison, and you are only thinking of the princess? Are you really the husband of the duchess or the princess?" he asked, making the duke grab the crown prince’s collar and pin him to the wall in anger.

"How dare you say something like this?" the duke growled.

"Now you feel anger? Why did you not feel angry when the duchess was dying from the poison? Did you think if she died, your line would be cleansed, and you would be free from supporting her? What did she even bring to you after your marriage? Nothing, just a bankrupt marquis sold his daughter to gain power, money, and fame in exchange for his daughter?" the crown prince taunted with a smile on his face.

"No!!!!! She is still my wife!!!!" the duke roared.

"Wife? Then why is your only worry about the princess’s side? Not your wife? Are you in love with the princess? My sister? If yes, then I wouldn’t mind stealing your wife from you!!!!" he said, mocking the duke.

"Maximus!!!!!!" the duke shouted.

"Yes, duke, I knew you would forget your etiquette long ago, or you wouldn’t have come to the royal palace again and again, making the rumor circle around the entire empire that you have a relationship with the princess while the duchess is only there to keep the people’s mouths shut," the prince said.

"The workers, guards have seen you entering the princess’s room when there is no one to see what is going on inside. Do you think you can stop all those rumors? No? Because all know you have a bad relationship with your wife, which is why you choose to go to war instead of loving your wedded wife. And I don’t think you didn’t hear all of these rumors. You are not a fool, duke. I know." As the prince spoke, he slowly removed his hand from the collar, looking down, acknowledging the claims he was well aware of but didn’t address properly.

"So don’t tell me what I need to do. If you can’t acknowledge your wife, then I will do it. You want the princess, right? Go take her. Take her out of this bloody palace because I too don’t want to see her face. But once I take your wife, you will regret all your life for what you have lost, Duke Alexavier Agnes," the crown prince said and walked toward the princess’s room with guards.

"Prince, where are you taking these guards? The princess is resting now!!!" the princess’s maid tried to stop.

"You, a mere maid, trying to stop me?" Maximus looked at her with disgust.

"I apologize, prince, but I am only doing my job," she answered.

He paid no attention and walked inside the room abruptly while he found the princess all fine at her study table, looking at him smilingly.

"Oh brother, what made you come all the way to my room? And what is with these guards? Did you come here to arrest me or what?" she asked.

"You can think something like that as I have evidence now!" the prince smiled too.

"Oh, so what evidence do you have? And what crime did I commit?" she asked.

"You have been found poisoning the duchess," he said.

"I poisoned the duchess? Ha, do you really side with the duchess that you have come all the way here to make assumptions about me? Brother, I am your sister. Even though our mothers are different, we still have the same father. So don’t say things like this; it hurts my heart to see my own brother accusing me of something I didn’t do nor could even think of," she said, pretending to cry.

"So what the maid said is a lie? She clearly said that you gave the dish to the duchess. Then if it isn’t you, then who did this?" the prince asked.

"The dish? I sent it to the duchess because it looked beautiful, and I couldn’t eat due to my special diet. But that doesn’t mean I am the one who tried to kill the duchess. You can ask the cooks. They are the ones who sent the dish to me despite me saying no to anything except my diet routine. But still, they insisted I try it. Then I should be the one saying in this palace, people are trying to kill me. If it weren’t for the duchess, I would have been laying dead. Would that have made you happy, brother?" she said, clinging to his leg.

"Prince, I don’t think the princess could do such a thing," the knight whispered to the prince.

"I didn’t allow you to speak, so just shut up!!!" he said, glaring at the princess on his leg.

"I know, brother, you never liked me from childhood, but I always thought of you as my own brother. But if you behave like this with me, then I will die. You come here, accusing me of killing the duchess, is not what hurts me, but you don’t believe your sister; that hurts me even more," she said, shedding tears on his legs.

Finally, the prince kneeled to her size and placed his face near her ear, "Do you think I don’t know it is your doing? How much drama are you going to do? You think I am your brother? Do you think I am unaware that when I fell into the river, you purposely threw a cut rope toward me to get me up? Do you think you can act this way because you are my sister and I will let you? Ha, I am not so naive, Vixara!" he said, making her grit her teeth.

"Take the princess with handcuffs!!! The latter things will be discussed in the emperor’s audience and in front of the jury," the crown prince ordered.

"Prince, please think once again!!!!" all told him, but he didn’t listen to anyone.

"Didn’t you hear what I said? Or do I need to say drag her down to the dungeon as she is a criminal? If not, then do as I say?" the crown prince said.

"As you say, prince!!!" The knights didn’t argue anymore.

"Brother, as you now know my true intention, then let’s play the game openly," Princess Vixara said, glaring at him.