Chapter 38: Duel between the princes
Marianne pulled Anastasia into the same room she and Prince Maxwell had stepped out of a moment before, closing the door. Her eyebrows had gathered together to form a slight frown, and when Anastasia continued to stare, the elder Flores sister said,
"He came to speak to me... He came with a proposal, the same one but slightly different."
"To be his concubine?" A mistress, Anastasia thought in her mind.
Marianne quietly nodded before letting her back rest against the wall while staring at the ground.
Anastasia was aware that no woman of the lower class could marry a prince or king. If the man wanted to keep a woman of the lower class, it would be as his concubine or mistress. The prince was offering the same position to her sister again.
"What do you mean, slightly different?" Anastasia asked, wanting her sister to elaborate on it.
Marianne struggled to find the right words, as if she was swallowing her hurt and pain, before she replied,
"Because he’s found his soulmate, he will never be able to love me the way he did before. What we had until now has been erased on his side. He probably feels guilty, and wants me to have a better life, to protect me by taking me as his concubine. But there won’t be any love, and he will never touch me."
On the bright side, Marianne would be promoted as the prince’s concubine, and she wouldn’t have to sleep with any more random men who entered the court or to please the king’s guests. She would wear expensive clothes and jewels. She wouldn’t fall to the lower rank once she grew old. But on the downside, she wouldn’t be able to receive anyone’s love, and her life would be shallow. She would be alone.
"He’s trying to take responsibility?" Anastasia asked, unsure of Prince Maxwell’s intentions as she had believed that once the royal family member met their soulmate, they wouldn’t look at anyone else. But then, he had told her beforehand that he wouldn’t touch or love her. "Is that what you want, Mary?"
Marianne smiled, her expression tinged with a touch of bitterness and a certain heaviness in her chest. When her eyes rose to look up at her younger sister, there were tears in her eyes, and she said,