Damned by Him

Rosaline gathered the hem of her gown in both hands as she hurried through the mansion corridors, her footsteps echoing softly against the polished marble floor.

She didn’t look back.

She couldn’t.

Not after what she had seen at the palace.

No matter how many times she tried to push the image from her mind, it refused to leave.

Xandros...

His face buried against another woman’s neck.

The memory alone was enough to make the dull ache in her chest return.

How...

How could he act as though nothing had happened?

How could he stand before her so calmly, hold out his hand, and speak to her as though the afternoon had been perfectly ordinary?

Rosaline lowered her eyes.

Then again...

Wasn’t she being unreasonable?

She had no right to question him.

She wasn’t the woman he had chosen.

Their marriage had never been born out of affection.

It had been arranged by their families, and Xandros had simply accepted it.

If he loved someone else...

Could she truly blame him?

The thought made her heart tighten painfully.

"...I shouldn’t be thinking about this."

She whispered the words to herself, hoping they would somehow quiet the storm inside her mind.

Instead...

They only reminded her of how helpless she felt.

Trying to distract herself, Rosaline quickened her pace until she finally arrived outside Lily’s room.

She stopped before the familiar door and took a slow breath before gently pushing it open.

The room was empty.

Rosaline blinked.

"...Hm?"

She looked around carefully.

The bed was gone.

The wardrobe was gone.

Even the small table beside the window, where Lily usually kept fresh flowers every morning, had disappeared.

The room had been completely cleared out.

She quietly stepped back into the corridor before looking at the pattern engraved beside the door.

"This is Lily’s room..." she murmured uncertainly.

Had she mistaken the room?

Frowning, she pushed the door open once more.

The result was exactly the same.

Nothing.

Not a single trace remained to suggest anyone had ever lived there.

Rosaline slowly backed away from the doorway.

"...Am I going crazy?"

She had been so certain.

Perhaps everything that had happened over the past two days had finally exhausted her mind.

Just then, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed down the corridor.

A young maid carrying neatly folded linens rounded the corner before immediately lowering her head upon noticing Rosaline.

"Your Grace."

Rosaline looked up.

"Brenda."

The maid smiled politely.

"I’m honored that you remember my name."

Rosaline returned the smile, though it carried a trace of confusion.

"Brenda... where is Lily?"

The maid blinked before answering.

"Miss Lily’s room was changed this morning."

Rosaline frowned. "...Changed?"

"Yes, Your Grace."

"His Grace ordered that she be moved to one of the guest chambers after her accident. The physician believed she would recover more comfortably there."

Understanding slowly crossed Rosaline’s face.

"So that’s what happened..."

Brenda nodded. "If Your Grace wishes to see her, I can take you there."

"I’d appreciate that."

Rosaline replied softly.

"Thank you."

Brenda bowed once more before leading the way through another section of the mansion.

As they walked side by side, silence settled between them.

Rosaline barely noticed the paintings decorating the walls or the servants who respectfully stepped aside whenever she passed.

Her thoughts had become hopelessly tangled.

Everything had become so confusing, fter returning from Sarah’s cottage...

The strange dizziness had finally disappeared.

Along with it... fragments of memories had surfaced.

Not complete memories, only scattered pieces.

She remembered her real mother’s gentle voice.

The warmth of her embrace... But she still didn’t understand how she had two lives and two different mother’s and childhood memories now, was she given birth to twice?....all those were still unknown.

The way she had patiently taught her things that no ordinary mother should have known.

Incantations and ancient symbols.

The meaning behind herbs gathered beneath the full moon.

Things Rosaline had once believed were merely bedtime stories before she remembered her past with Sarah’s help

Now...

She knew better.

She was a witch.

The realization should have frightened her.

Instead...

It strangely explained so many things she had never understood about herself.

Yet before she had even found the courage to tell the one person responsible for helping her uncover the truth...

Everything else had fallen apart.

Xandros.

The image surfaced once again.

She instinctively lowered her gaze.

She still couldn’t bring herself to call it betrayal.

How could she?

She had been forced into his life just as much as he had been forced into hers.

If anything...

She should have expected something like this.

Then there was Lily.

Poor Lily had suffered an accident because of her.

The more Rosaline thought about it, the more she felt as though everyone around her was suffering because of her existence.

"Your Grace."

Brenda’s gentle voice interrupted her thoughts.

Rosaline stopped walking.

"We’ve arrived."

She lifted her head.

Before them stood a beautifully furnished guest chamber.

Brenda smiled politely.

"Miss Lily is resting inside."

Rosaline nodded gratefully.

"Thank you, Brenda."

The maid bowed before quietly excusing herself, leaving Rosaline alone outside the room.

Rosaline hesitated only briefly before raising her hand.

She knocked softly.

"Lily?"

Receiving no answer, she slowly turned the handle and stepped inside.

Her footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

Lily wasn’t resting.

Instead...

She sat comfortably upon a cushioned sofa beside the window, one leg elegantly crossed over the other.

A porcelain plate filled with butter biscuits rested on the table beside her, and she casually picked one up, taking an unhurried bite as though she hadn’t a single concern in the world.

The sunset streamed through the open curtains, illuminating her brown hair and those familiar golden-yellow eyes.

She looked...

Perfectly comfortable.

Almost... Too comfortable.

Rosaline couldn’t quite explain why, but something about the scene felt strangely unfamiliar.

The Lily she knew would never lounge so casually while recovering from an injury.

She would have been worrying about unfinished chores, asking whether Rosaline had eaten, or apologizing for being unable to work.

This Lily...

Simply continued munching on another biscuit with remarkable composure.

For a fleeting moment, Rosaline found herself staring.

"...Lily?"

Christophine slowly turned her head.

Their eyes met.

For the briefest instant, an unreadable expression crossed her face before disappearing completely.

Rosaline quickly pushed away the strange feeling rising within her.

Xandros had already warned her.

Lily had struck her head.

The physician had said she might act differently for a while.

That had to be the reason.

Rosaline smiled gently and walked over before taking a seat beside her.

"How are you feeling now?"

Christophine swallowed the biscuit she had been chewing before lazily dusting the crumbs from her fingers.

"I’m much better."

Her tone was calm.

Almost indifferent.

Then she slowly turned her head toward Rosaline, raising a single brow as she studied her face.

"...Why are you looking at me like that?" Christophine asked, raising one brow as she casually reached for another biscuit from the porcelain plate.

Rosaline blinked as though she had only just been pulled back to reality. "...Was I?" she asked with a small smile.

Christophine nodded once before taking a slow bite. "You’ve been staring at me since you walked in." She chewed leisurely, then tilted her head slightly, her golden eyes lingering on Rosaline’s face. "...Why are you crying?"

Rosaline instinctively froze, her hand flying to her cheek. It was damp.

She hadn’t even realized tears had silently gathered in her eyes.

For a brief moment, she simply stared at the moisture glistening on the tips of her fingers before letting out a quiet chuckle. The sound was soft... but strangely hollow.

"Crying?" She smiled gently as she wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. "Why would I cry?"

Christophine merely shrugged nonchalantly, leaning farther against the couch as though the answer didn’t particularly matter to her. "I don’t know," she replied simply. "You tell me."

Rosaline lowered her gaze to her lap, absentmindedly smoothing the folds of her dress with trembling fingers.

"I think..." she began before pausing, searching for an excuse that even she could believe. "I’ve just been overwhelmed lately. So many things have happened in such a short time. My memories... and now you’re injured." She laughed softly again, though there was no joy in the sound. "I suppose everything finally caught up with me."

Christophine quietly watched her.

She had lived for centuries.

She had seen people lie countless times.

Some lied with confidence.

Others stumbled over their own words.

Rosaline...

Was different.

She wasn’t trying to deceive anyone.

She was trying to deceive herself.

Resting one elbow against the arm of the couch, Christophine supported her chin with one hand and regarded Rosaline thoughtfully before saying, "...You’re terrible at lying."

Rosaline’s smile faltered.

"What?"

"You heard me," Christophine replied bluntly. "Those aren’t the tears of someone who’s merely overwhelmed. They’re the tears of someone whose heart hurts."

Rosaline’s fingers unconsciously tightened around the fabric of her gown. For one fleeting moment, she almost believed the woman before her could see straight through every wall she had tried so desperately to build around herself.

Then she forced another smile.

"You’ve really injured your head," she said softly. "The normal Lily would never say something like that."

A faint smirk tugged at Christophine’s lips.

"Didn’t your husband confirm it to you that I hit my head?" she replied lazily. "I suppose I can blame everything on that."

Rosaline couldn’t help laughing quietly.

"I suppose you can."

Silence gradually settled over the room once more.

Only the faint crackling of the fireplace and the distant chirping of birds drifting through the open window broke the stillness.

Rosaline lowered her eyes to the hands resting quietly upon her lap.

She had intended to keep everything buried inside.

To smile.

To pretend nothing had happened.

To convince herself that what she had seen no longer mattered.

Yet...

The more she tried to suppress it...

The heavier it became.

It felt as though an invisible stone had been placed upon her chest, making every breath more difficult than the last.

Christophine reached for another biscuit from the porcelain plate and lazily took a bite before breaking the silence.

"You know..." she began. "I’ve met people who cry because they lost their fortune."

Another bite.

"I’ve met people who cry because they lost lovers."

She gave another careless shrug.

"And I’ve met people who simply enjoy crying."

Turning her golden eyes back toward Rosaline, she asked quietly,

"So..."

"Which one are you?"

Rosaline smiled faintly.

"I don’t know."

Christophine narrowed her eyes.

"...You’re still lying."

Rosaline let out a soft breath and leaned back against the couch.

For several long moments she simply stared at the ceiling, her lips parting more than once, yet no words came out.

She didn’t know how to explain something she herself couldn’t understand.

Finally...

She lowered her gaze once more.

Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"...I saw Xandros."

Christophine’s hand paused halfway to her mouth.

Rosaline continued speaking, her eyes fixed upon the folds of her gown.

"At the Royal House."

"I was looking for him."

A tiny smile appeared on her lips.

It wasn’t a happy one.

"I thought..."

"I thought I’d surprise him."

She laughed quietly.

"Instead..."

"I found him."

Her fingers slowly tightened around the fabric of her dress.

"...With another woman."

The biscuit slipped from Christophine’s fingers.

It landed softly upon the polished wooden floor.

Neither of them looked at it.

For the first time since possessing Lily’s body, the smug amusement lingering in Christophine’s golden eyes vanished completely as she slowly turned to stare at Rosaline.

Rosaline never looked back at her.

"I shouldn’t have been there," she continued quietly. "I shouldn’t have seen it. They didn’t know I was watching."

She swallowed hard before forcing out the next words.

"...He had his face buried against her neck."

The sentence almost broke apart before it fully left her lips.

Rosaline turned toward the window, blinking repeatedly as she struggled to stop fresh tears from falling.

"I know," she whispered with a bitter smile. "I know I have no right to be upset. Our marriage wasn’t his choice. My family forced it upon him."

She lowered her head.

"So..."

"If he already loved someone before I came..."

"I suppose that’s only natural."

"...Isn’t it?"

The room fell deathly silent.

Christophine didn’t answer.

She couldn’t.

Not because she lacked words...

But because, for the first time in a very long time...

She was genuinely stunned.

Xandros...

Kissing another woman?

Of all the things she had expected to hear today...

That wasn’t one of them.

Almost mechanically, her gaze drifted toward the forgotten biscuit lying on the floor before returning to Rosaline’s sorrowful face. A faint crease formed between her brows as she murmured, almost to herself,

"...That..."

"...doesn’t sound like Xandros."