Chapter 151

Chapter 151 – Background (2)

Translator: Atlas / Editor: Regan

Annette lowered her eyes. The King’s gambit to maintain control was to give enough power to the Keers family to allow them to check the Duchy of Bavaria. Marquis Keers believed that he could exceed the ancient prestige of the Bavarias.

“Keers was suspicious of me,” Allamand said flatly. “In fact, he believes I’m the mastermind of the kidnapping of his daughter, the fool. With those wits he’ll only be a lapdog for the king the rest of his life.”

It was actually quite frustrating to be accused of such a thing, but Annette had to look away. She could actually understand Marquis Keers’ suspicions. Her father’s deep purple eyes, almost bloodless white skin, his thin lips…Alland Bavaria certainly looked capable of evil. He looked like a white serpent, coiling in anticipation of a deadly bite. It was not surprising that Marquis Keers would not trust him.

“He was furious when Celestine was taken,” he went on. “He was pushing to have you locked up in prison immediately. The King was the one that stopped that fool, and made sure that he kept his mouth shut. Madness!”

“The royal dungeons?” Annette asked faintly. “They wanted to take me there?”

“Yes. It was a very unfavorable situation, at the time. I had to compensate the King not just as a mediator, but also to cover it up. If he hadn’t agreed, then both you and I would have been outcast from society.”

“That compensation was my marriage, wasn’t it?”

That was King Selgratis’s price for resolving the problem, and her father’s silence was tacit affirmation. Annette’s eyes fluttered closed momentarily, thinking.

“That was why you acted like that at the garden party,” she said, smiling ruefully. “You thought it was silly for me to take my husband’s side when I knew nothing of all this.”

“…”

“You must be honest with me, father. That was the reason you let me…you made me marry Raphael, even though you knew all this…was it because I couldn’t be Crown Princess anymore? That’s why you did nothing?”

She couldn’t keep her lips from trembling. Her father’s abandonment had always been one of her bitterest experiences, and she had never dared to ask for the truth. It wasn’t only that she was afraid to directly ask him. She was afraid to hear the answer.

Her eyes wavered, like flower petals in the rain. Allamand only frowned.

“Such nonsense. Do you think marriage is the end of your life? How old are you?”

Annette’s eyes widened.

“In politics, not everything will always go your way,” Allamand said, rubbing his forehead as if he were tired. “When the situation is unfavorable, sometimes there is no choice to concede. Then when conditions improve, you can adjust your position. Why fixate on the tree before you? There is a forest beyond.”

“…so you were waiting for an opportunity for me to get divorced?”

“Of course! No one will reproach a Bavaria for such a divorce. Even if you are the one to leave that insolent bastard, you would still have plenty of suitors. You took his side when you knew nothing.”

His eyebrows furrowed, remembering the confrontation with her and Raphael, and it made Annette feel like laughing and crying at the same time.

She had thought her father abandoned her.

Both in this life, and her last life. She had had no idea what he had really been thinking. It meant so much just to hear that he hadn’t abandoned her, even though it could not completely bridge the gulf between them. At least he had not considered her a disposable asset.

But if he didn’t abandon me, why did he never come to see me even when I was dying?

The question suddenly flashed into her mind, but there was no one who could answer that now. She would never know.

It didn’t matter. This life would not end that way.

“Let me ask you something,” Allamand said, facing his determined daughter. “How much of this does that bastard know?”

“Don’t call him that, father,” Annette warned. “Raphael is a good man.”

Her protectiveness toward Raphael made her father frown.

“That means he doesn’t know anything,” he said, with biting sarcasm. “Well, the King is wise to keep that violent simpleton out of it. He is a man born to the sword. If he dares to play at politics, he will be eaten alive.”

“Father!” Annette would not tolerate snide remarks about her husband. It was the first time Allamand Bavaria’s obedient daughter had ever raised her voice to him.