The Spoilt Beauty And Her Beasts

Zara, meanwhile, kept her head lowered and said in a voice full of soft humiliation, "Thank you. I did not mean to trouble anyone."

Inside, however, she was drowning in hatred.

She hated Osiris for humiliating her.

She hated the way the others had stared instead of helping her.

She hated the way Kian had not moved at all.

And she hated Isabella most of all, because somehow even while pretending to be kind, that woman still made her feel smaller.

Then Isabella did something even more unbelievable.

She said, "Get up. I’ll go bring your food."

This time, even Cyrus’s expression changed.

Because now it had gone too far.

Isabella rarely moved around for other people like this now, especially while carrying such a heavy stomach. She stood when she wanted to walk, or stretch, or cook, or get bored and wander about, but to personally go get food for another woman, and a stranger at that?

Yes.

Now everyone was beginning to understand that something was definitely wrong.

Cyrus was the first one to feel it clearly.

He had already begun wondering whether Isabella knew more about this woman than she was showing, because her behavior was becoming too deliberate. He wanted to stop her. He wanted to say it was not worth it and that he would bring the food instead. More than that, he hated seeing her stress her body over someone he already despised.

Still, he kept quiet.

Because if Isabella was truly planning something, then stopping her too early would only ruin it.

So he stayed where he was and watched carefully, though every part of him remained attentive to her movements.

Isabella walked toward the steaming pot with a calm face.

Her body moved more slowly now because of her stomach, but even then there was still a certain grace to her. The room watched as she picked up a bowl and began serving the dumplings, the soup, and enough meat to make the portion look generous.

Very generous.

Too generous.

Then, while everyone’s attention had split for one brief moment, Isabella slipped one hand into her system space.

The movement was so smooth that it looked as if she were only adjusting her sleeve.

What she took out was a fine powder.

Just a little.

Enough.

She dropped it into the soup, stirred once, then turned back with the sweetest smile on her face.

Naturally, no one saw.

No one except perhaps the heavens.

By then Zara had already gotten up with slow, humiliated movements and taken a place near Ophelia instead. The moment she realized she could no longer sit near Kian, her resentment only deepened. She had wanted that place. She had wanted to stay close enough for Kian to notice her, smell her, perhaps remember something, anything. Instead she had been dragged away like a disobedient child and made to sit with the other women.

The shame of it made her stomach twist.

She still kept her meek face on, but inside she wanted to claw every smiling face in this room.

Then Isabella came back and handed her the bowl.

"This is your food," Isabella said sweetly.

Zara lifted her eyes and looked at the bowl, then at Isabella’s face.

For one second, she almost did not want to take it.

But then she remembered that she was supposed to be harmless right now.

So she smiled a fake sweet smile and said softly, "Thank you."

"No worries," Isabella replied.

Then she turned to leave.

That was when Zara made her move.

Very slightly, very carefully, she stretched one leg outward, hoping Isabella would catch it and fall.

Nobody else could see it from where they sat.

Nobody except Isabella.

Because Isabella saw it immediately.

And the smile that appeared in her eyes at that moment was so cold that if Zara had truly looked closely, she might have felt afraid.

Instead, Isabella acted as if she had seen nothing.

Then, while passing, she stepped directly on Zara’s leg.

Directly. Firmly. Without hesitation. The pain shot through Zara so fast that her whole body almost jerked.

She bit her tongue hard enough to taste blood just to stop herself from crying out.

Tears instantly rose in her eyes, but she kept her face down and her mouth shut because screaming in front of everyone would ruin her entire act.

Isabella stopped and gasped very sweetly.

"Oh, I’m so sorry," she said. "I didn’t see your leg."

The room had gone tense again.

Because now several of the people there had finally realized exactly what Zara had tried to do.

Kian saw it. Cyrus saw it. Zyran saw it.

Even Valen and Luca, who had not understood Isabella’s earlier sweetness at all, had seen the leg stretched out too clearly this time.

And suddenly every bit of softness anyone might have offered this healer disappeared.

Did this woman just try to trip a heavily pregnant female?

At that point, even without knowing her true identity, nobody liked her anymore.

Nobody.

Nobody except maybe Ophelia, who was now also starting to look uncertain because even she could tell that stretching a leg out like that looked bad.

Zara’s hatred deepened until it almost made her dizzy.

Pain pulsed under Isabella’s foot and inside her own chest.

She hated these people.

She hated them so much.

She hated that she had to sit here and endure this.

She hated that they had all seen her fail again.

She hated that Kian had not reacted to her pain.

She hated that Isabella could hurt her and still keep that sweet voice.

Most of all, she hated that after everything she had done and sacrificed, all she truly wanted was still Kian.

Only Kian. Not this room. Not these people.

Not this village. Only him.

But he sat there with a cold face, not even bothering to look at her the way she wanted.

The humiliation of that made everything worse.

Then, because nobody wanted to tear open the situation in the middle of dinner, people began eating again.