His Queen!
Adams’ Pov;
I paced in my office, pondering over my conversation with the doctor.
The poison he had told me was used on her was from a rare tree, one I never thought still existed as my father, the late king, had burnt it down.
The only thing that I had thought of was that the poison was obtained from another place. But why was she poisoned? I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I still kept replaying the image of her, how she had fallen into my arms and struggled to say something. I wasn’t going to just sit still and let all of this happen.
The office door opened and Ronan stepped in, his eyes bearing a worried expression. I was waiting for him after sending it to him earlier. He was supposed to be meeting with the council members on my behalf, but I wanted to talk to him immediately.
“Your Highness,” he started, and then seeing the expression on my face, added, “How’s she?”
“Still the same,” I let out a loud exhalation as I thought about her. She was just the same as she had always been. She was unresponsive and, according to the doctor, in a vegetative state, and even if she were to survive, the chances of her being normal were very slim. There was the possibility of her being a vegetable forever.
I sat down on one of the plush leather office chairs.
“What did the doctor say?”
I hissed, remembering my conversation with the doctor again. Doctor Ethan was allegedly the best doctor in the entire kingdom, even better than the royal doctor.
“Who do you suspect is responsible?” He sat down opposite me and I rubbed my forehead. If I began to call out the people, I suspected, I would call out everyone in the kingdom.
“It’s a rare poison. One thing I do know is that it hasn’t gotten from this kingdom, at least not from here in the background.”
“Your brother has a lot of contacts outside this kingdom.”
I chuckled softly. “You think my brother is responsible?” A small sigh was expelled from my lips.
“What about the maid, Cara, was it?” It was weird that she had suddenly disappeared and, naturally, she was the first person I suspected, and I had ordered the guards and the head maids to find her.
If she was poisoned, it had to be from somewhere else besides the food we eat together, as the meals were always tasted before consumption.
“I’m sorry, your highness. There is still no news as to her whereabouts. But I don’t think she’s the one. Instead, I think something happened to her…..”
“Your Highness!” One of the guards barged into the office and my eyebrows knocked in confusion as I glanced at him.
“What is it?” even as I questioned him, I had a feeling that something had gone awfully wrong.
“The Queen…she, she was…she….”
I dashed out of the room without allowing him to finish whatever he was saying. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to her. I was always going to feel guilty.
She didn’t want this life, but now, she was pulled into it and had no choice but to accept it, and now, her life was in danger.
“Lilith!” I called out as Ronan held me back. The doctor was trying to stabilize her. It seemed that she had gone into shock.
The heart monitor kept beating rapidly, as though it wanted to flatten. I had never been more agitated than I was at that moment.
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if she died. If only I hadn’t saved her from Cassandra, then none of this would’ve happened. She was going to be alive. I had only caused her nothing but pain.
Suddenly, the heart monitor began to beat normally, and I sighed in relief.
“Your Highness, she’s stable for now, but her condition has worsened…”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. She was supposed to be better, not worse.
“I don’t know how to explain this, your highness, but from my diagnosis, what I can say is that the poison was reactivated…”
“What do you mean, Doctor,” Ronan questioned, even before I could say anything.
He cleared his throat as he stepped away from her. “What I mean, Your Highness, is that she recently ingested the poison again, this time in a large quantity. I have tried to expel it from her body, but such a large quantity…”
I was struggling to understand what the doctor was saying. “You mean, she…”
I was still talking when Ronan darted out of the room. My brows knitted in confusion.
“What do you mean? That someone gave her the poison again, just now? That someone…”
I couldn’t even complete the sentence as it sounded unbelievable. How could someone possibly poison her again? There were guards stationed in front of her door.
“That’s what I’m saying, your highness. And whoever did this wants her to die.”
I closed my eyes and opened them, walking towards her and clasping her palms with mine.
“Thank you, doctor.”
He nodded and walked out. I glanced around, wondering where Ronan had gone or if he knew something that I didn’t. Perhaps that was where he had gone.
I stepped out of the room, glared at the guards and then sighed. Whoever must’ve done this was someone close to her.
“Who was the last person to leave this room, before the arrival of the doctor?” Just as I asked, I realized that I had forgotten something important.
The new maid she had assigned to herself was supposed to be by her side and, for some time now, I’d gone to the room but met her absence there.
“Lady Crane, Your Highness,” one of them said, and my brows knitted in confusion.
“Lady crane?”
Maya was everything, but not a murderer. I shook my head.
“Are you sure?”
They nodded. “Yes, Your Highness.”
I still couldn’t believe it. I had taken Maya as a friend, despite the fact that she had made her intentions toward me clear. There was a time I used to be in love with her, until the incident.
“And before her?”
“The beta was here briefly. He left immediately.”
“Ronan was here?” Everything was definitely confusing.
Now, what I was being told was that the only people who could possibly be behind this were Ronan or Maya.
Just before I could walk away to go look for him, he appeared a few guards behind him.
“Your Highness..”Original from NôvelDrama.Org.
“What’s going on, Ronan?” My brows knitted in confusion.
“Your Highness, I didn’t tell you earlier as I wasn’t so sure, but I believe it to be the truth now.”
“What is it?”
“The maid that replaced Cara. The one always following her highness everywhere…”
“Yes, her personal maid, I can’t find her, she should’ve been in there. What is going on here?”
He seemed to hesitate a while before speaking. “I found out that the replacement was ordered by you, not the Queen, which I found weird because I recall you once saying she had requested a replacement…”
“What?”
“Well, that’s not all. The thing is, I did some background check on her and she lied about a lot of things. She’s not originally from here and her name is not Julia. She got a job here, from the recommendation of…your Brother..”
“Ben.”
“Yes, Your Highness. That’s the only thing I could find for now, I wanted to be sure before telling you, but with this new development, I have every reason to believe that she is responsible for what happened to the Queen. It makes much sense that way.”
“As the personal assistant to the Queen, she has every opportunity to poison her..”
I cut in quickly. “But why, I mean, why try to kill her? The councils are already calling for her dethronement. Killing her is going to be a waste..”
” There are lots of reasons. She’s probably not useful to them or she’s collateral damage or it’s just to hurt you. Or there’s the possibility that she knows something she shouldn’t.”
“And let me guess, you haven’t found her.”
He shook his head and a small sigh left my lips. “The guards said the last person to leave this room was Maya.”
“Lady crane?” He furrowed his brows.
“Yes. And before her, it was you…”
“Oh,” he said and I glanced up at him. There was no way I was going to suspect my Beta. He was my most trusted friend and ally. I already felt bad for keeping the secret about the incident at the treasury away from him.
“I went there to look for her.”
“I didn’t ask..”
“I figured you should know.”
“I have to find Cara, as well as the other maid…”
“Find Maya and detain her for questioning. I was here with her earlier. I want to know why she came back.”
“Do you think she did this?” He questioned, exchanging a knowing look with me and I shrugged. It really didn’t matter what I thought. All that mattered was that I didn’t care who it was, I was going to punish whoever hurt my woman.