The Hidden King's Stolen Wife-Chapter 193: Love & Lies II

"That’s nonsense," Rafael said with gritted teeth. "My brothers have been filling your head with lies because they want to use you for their own nefarious ends!"

"And what would they want to use me for?" Soleia barked out. "In their eyes, I’m nothing more than a powerless princess."

In fact, she was now quite certain that the reason why the princes had been so intent on interacting with her was because they wanted to needle Rafael. She was simply collateral damage.

If not for Rafael, she wouldn’t need to deal with them to begin with! That thought made her gnash her teeth in irritation. Prince Rafael certainly helped her out of many scrapes, but his presence was what brought the vermin to her doorstep!

"That’s not true." Rafael had to clarify such a dangerous misconception. A deadly serious look entered his eyes. "They know you have nullification abilities."

After all, Elinora would have spilled every little observation she made to his brothers, and his brothers would be perfectly capable of drawing their own conclusions. They wouldn’t be so proactive in getting Soleia to visit the palace otherwise.

Soleia paused, breathing heavily. "...How would they know that? Did you tell them?" she demanded hotly.

"Do you think so little of me?" Rafael retorted, hurt.

"I don’t know what to think of you!" Soleia shot back, angered. "Three days ago, you were Ralph Byrone, a landed knight. Now, I don’t know who you really are! In fact, let’s clear up the doubts― who on earth is the man pretending to be Duke Kinsley? Is he one of your planted spies?"

Rafael saw no reason to lie. He nodded. "The real Duke Kinsley has most likely decomposed in a lake somewhere. The man you saw is Oliver. He works for me― and he has been keeping you safe when I cannot watch over you."

Soleia crossed her arms, her eyebrow twitching so severely she felt like she was going to have a stroke. "And I suppose it was you who made him insist on only allowing married couples to live in this house? This house, which I presume was already yours to begin with?"

Rafael felt his temples starting to sweat. "Well, I didn’t mean anything... I just wanted us to get married―"

"You wanted to use the threat of homelessness to get me to marry you." Soleia drew herself up to her full height and spat out the words with intense disgust. She glared at Rafael as though he was something dirty she found stuck to the end of her shoe, and maybe he was.

She had never thought he would sink so low to manipulate her. There she was, spending days and nights worried over their housing status, while he knew all along that there was nothing to worry about― but he made her worry anyway, just so he could give her more reasons to wed him.

She must have been blind. But that was fine. No mistake was irreversible. She may have lost her purity to Rafael, but she’d be damned if she lost the rest of her life as well. Even if she had to swim to Nedour, she would!

Soleia stormed away to the bedroom, with Rafael hot on her heels.

"Soleia, please listen to me―"

He watched in horror as his wife began to open her trunk, throwing dress after dress from their cupboards inside it.

"What are you doing?"

"Leaving you," Soleia said curtly, refusing to look at him. "I refuse to spend another waking moment with you more than necessary."

"What?" Rafael stared at her, shocked at her decisiveness. He grabbed her wrist and pried one of her dresses away from her hand. "Soleia, be reasonable about this. You can’t just leave like this. We’re married―"

"No, we’re not," Soleia said, twisting her wrist out from his hold. She tore the dress from his hands and stuffed it into her trunk. "The certificate didn’t use our real names. As far as legalities are concerned, Prince Rafael is as married to Princess Soleia as Oliver is."

Rafael stumbled back, as if struck. Of course Soleia would have latched onto that discrepancy.

"That doesn’t matter. We consummated our marriage― you did not do that with any man, not even your previous husband. We are an actual married couple!"

Soleia scoffed. She finally turned to look Rafael in the eye. "Was that why you were so insistent on bedding me? Because you wanted to cut off all other choices for me and ruin me for other men?"

"I want to make sure no other man wants you, but it’s not because I want to use you," Rafael insisted, gripping Soleia’s arms tightly. "I did all this because I love you―"

"Then love me a little less," Soleia replied woodenly. She twisted and squirmed, trying to free herself from Rafael’s hold, but he refused to relent. "Let go of me!"

"Never!" Rafael insisted. "You just need to calm down―"

To his surprise, Soleia slammed her head against the underside of his chin, causing him to flinch from the sudden pain. Not content with that, she also kneed him in the groin. Rafael bowled over, wheezing in pain at the sudden assault on his family jewels.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Soleia darted back and slammed her trunk shut, locking it. She then dragged it out, feeling petty satisfaction at wheeling it directly over Rafael’s toes. Rafael hissed again in pain, reaching out a hand to stop her.

"Get out of my way," Soleia said coldly, without sparing him a second glance. Her body was trembling with rage. She saw Rafael’s mouth open and snarled. "If you claim that I have to stay, simply because we are married, then I want a divorce this very instant."

And Soleia would gladly march herself to the nearest courthouse to kickstart the proceedings. If she was going to live as Leia, she also wanted to be free from Rafael’s manipulative presence.

With one final, dismissive, disappointed glare at Rafael, she opened the front door and walked out with her trunk in tow. But she didn’t manage to take more than a few steps out before she found herself rooted to the ground.

She glanced down and her face paled. A tendril of blood encircled her waist, like a delicate leather belt, but on the other end of the bloody rope was Rafael, who held it like a leash. He tugged at it, causing her to stumble back into the room. His eyes were firm.

"You’re not going anywhere."