Fruit of Labor

*Chapter 85*

I went to the dungeon after I requested from the court that I wished to see Reginald after he was confided to be in jail for several days as they prepared for his public execution.

Wearing a black gown, I faked tears as soon as I saw him in a miserable state in jail, alone.

"Dear husband," I called him, sniffing like I was hurt that I was seeing him in that state right now. "Are you alright? Must I summon the palace doctor to heal you, dear husband?"

Reginald looked pissed when he glanced at me. "Stop acting like you are ever concerned about me, Novalie..." he said through gritted teeth as he struggled from the straightjacket he was wearing right now. He was in jail and every single bar was coated with wolfsbane.

Chuckling, I wiped the tears using my handkerchief. "Relax, Regy. I am just trying to lift up your mood," I said, chuckling. I took a seat and crossed my legs before I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Why are you here?" he asked in a hostile tone.

I stared at him for a moment, scrutinizing his jail room where he was staying temporarily. "How does it feel that all this time, I outsmarted you again, Regy? Feeling ashamed?" I asked, grinning.

Reginald glared at me but he didn't say anything. That enveloped us with a deafening silence. I heaved out a sigh knowing that Reginald wouldn't say more mocking remarks against me because he already knew that I was not that easy to defeat.

"Have no fret, dear husband. Jonathan shall be able to run your family's legacy smoothly unlike your previous reign." It would probably be different rather than your tyrannical ruling, I wanted to add. "And oops... You are not my husband anymore." My smile appeared on my lips and could have reached above the skies right now.

"Because it went according to your plans... to divorce my marriage with you after all," Reginald concluded with bitterness.

"You got it right!" I exclaimed and clasped my hands. "This should have come in a peaceful way if only you agree with me about divorcing my marriage with you in the first place, Regy." There was bitterly rigidness in my tone. "For four years of being married to you, I have reached out to you to divorce you but you are freaking stubborn which led me to do anything I can to predict your movements, and finally, you have come to the point of putting your life in a miserable state. Thanks to you, my efforts are not put in vain." I giggled.

I had spent countless diversion of my plans because Reginald was sometimes making a movement that could hardly be predicted. The time he wanted to do our fourth wedding anniversary at the Crescent Moon Oceanfront and he wanted to properly consummate our marriage were the events I did not predict well. But it was enough for me to create a plan that could still stick to my original plans.

Frederick... My darling was the witness that I spent many parchments to be burned in the hearth because I wrote so many plans that I had to eliminate. I even had to make backup plans after the first plans so I had to make sure it would still fit the original plans.

And now... the fruit of the labor was here.

As soon as I divorced my marriage with Reginald on that day, when I went home, I couldn't help letting out a muffled cry.

It was not a miserable cry.

They were happy tears that I had been longing for. The freedom from being tied up in a messed-up marriage was here. I felt and tasted it.

I even got to wake up without having to worry about anything or think that Reginald would dare to kill me without me knowing. That was the best morning I ever had.

"I should have killed you a long time ago! I should have poisoned you! You are supposed to be dead!"

I snapped back when Reginald shouted with pure hatred in his voice. Smiling, I decided to stand up and let him scream whenever he wanted. My mission here was finished.

"I shall see you at the capital plaza, Regy. I am going to witness your public execution with a victory smile on my face," I uttered sweetly before I giggled and turned my back.

I heard his one last growling before he stayed silent. I halted walking because I didn't expect him to have that kind of attitude. I was expecting him to be more violent as I left the dungeon.

Moments later, I could hear Reginald laughing.

"I talked to your knight the time he fled away from our pack, Novalie."

I spun around, wide-eyed, and saw him kneeling on the floor. His eyes were in my direction. I did not mind what he looked like but his words suddenly caught me off guard.

"What did you say?" My pace was too quick to approach his prison cell. I even forgot that the cell bars had coated with wolfsbane which was why I accidentally touched it. Hissing in pain as I didn't mind holding the steel bar, I looked at Reginald as I gritted my teeth. "What did you two talk about? Where did Frederick go?!" I asked, panting.

Just the mere mention of Frederick's name, I knew it was enough to ruin my composure. I just wanted to know where he went and asked him why he left me.

My wolf put my emotions more in disarray as she informed me why I still needed to find him when I had plans to reject him after divorcing my marriage with Reginald. She even told me that Frederick must have predicted my plans which were why he outsmarted me.

Reginald laughed maniacally. "You are really obsessed with that man... What is he? Your mate?"

"Tell me what you two talked about, Reginald!" I held the prison cells with my two hands, ignoring how my hands were burning in pain from the wolfsbane. "Tell me if he told you where he went and why he left his master! Damn it!"

My lips were quivering right now. I couldn't calm down now that I had the lead.

"He was born a liar, Novalie. He had been lying to you ever since he arrived in your life," he said, smiling from ear to ear.

"What do you mean?" I creased my forehead, perplexed. My insides were panicking right now. But right now, I was bewildered at his words.

Frederick was born a liar? He had been lying to me?

"Reginald—"

"He is not the slave and knight you ever thought, dear ex-wife." He looked at me with a ridiculed stare. "I cannot believe that you trust someone like him. Ha!" He started laughing. "You have been fooled! He has been lying to you the whole time!"

I clenched my hands hearing his maniacal laugh echoing around the dungeon. This man... He was testing my patience already. "Did you really speak with Frederick that time or not?!" I was starting to get impatient.

I gripped the bars as the hissing pain was seeping. I could smell the rusty scent of the aromatic blood coming from my bleeding hands. But I ignored it. I demanded answers from Reginald.

I wanted to know what they talked about. I wanted to know what he was talking about, that Frederick had been lying to me. Lying from what? What exactly?

"Tell me now!" I demanded and shook the bars.

But Reginald only laughed at my miserable, panicking state. He knew that I would lose cool if he mentioned Frederick.

Just as I was about to growl, I was pulled away by a familiar arm that wrapped around my stomach from behind. I gasped, wide-eyed but I was bewildered when I did not get to smell that distinguished scent which would let me identify he was my mate.

But I ignored it and turned my head excitedly, expecting that the person I was looking for was here. "Fre..." I paused. Instead of olive eyes, I met a pair of forest green eyes with its face being covered by a familiar mask I saw from before. "...derick?"

My heart leaped from realization that I was not facing Frederick but instead... I was facing a different man. A man that I had been hating years ago.

"Your hands are bleeding. Can you not realize that?" A bizarre baritone tone was emitted from him. It was stern coated in it.

I creased my forehead when he took my hands and wrapped them with the handkerchief he had with him. Only then, I woke up from the reality that I was really facing... the man who put me to the depths of despair.

The bastard prince that broke our engagement years ago.

"Prince Atticus..." I mentioned his name with pure abomination.

At last... I finally met him.

Again.

Atticus Frederick de Carteret, the fifth lycan prince and the Prince of Redwinter.