Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 239

Chapter 239: Chapter 239

Elara’s POV

"What’s going on? Did I miss something?"

Jessica spun around, her cheeks flushed pink with excitement. "Elara! Oh, you have no idea. Come here—come here, come here."

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the circle. Maya, Sophie, and Riley were already huddled together, practically vibrating. Their eyes were wide, mouths curving with the kind of giddy delight that only fresh gossip could produce.

"Tell her," Maya urged, elbowing Riley. "Show her."

"Okay, okay." Riley dug into the pocket of her training vest and produced a small crystal—milky white, no bigger than a robin’s egg. A memory crystal. The kind merchants used to record transactions or nobles used to send visual messages across distances. "My cousin works supply runs to Stone Creek, about a two-hour carriage ride from here. He recorded this recently."

She held the crystal flat on her palm and whispered the activation word.

Light bloomed upward. Hazy. Slightly distorted, the way all secondhand recordings were. But clear enough.

A general store interior materialized in miniature above Riley’s hand. Shelves of grain sacks. Jars of preserved fruit. A counter with a bored-looking shopkeeper.

And there, standing near a display of dried herbs, was Seraphine.

The image flickered, but her face was unmistakable. That elegant bone structure. The dark auburn hair pinned neatly behind her ears. She was examining a bundle of chamomile, turning it over in slender fingers.

She looked content. Relaxed. Glowing, even.

And she was enormously pregnant.

The swell of her belly was impossible to miss—round, heavy, stretching the fabric of her simple traveling dress. She moved with the careful, slightly tilted gait of a woman deep into pregnancy. One hand rested instinctively on the side of her stomach.

The image dissolved.

"Seven months," Jessica whispered reverently. "At least seven months along, wouldn’t you say?"

Seven months.

The number detonated somewhere behind my ribs.

Seven months ago. That inn. That night. Kaelen’s face when I’d confronted him—pale, confused, swearing on everything sacred that he’d been drugged. That nothing had happened. That he couldn’t remember.

Nothing happened, Elara. I swear to you.

Seven months.

"She looks so healthy," Sophie said. "Radiant, honestly. Pregnancy suits her."

"Well, of course it does." Maya leaned against the weapons rack with her arms folded. "She’s carrying the Emperor’s heir. You’d glow too."

The Emperor’s heir.

I kept my face still. Neutral. Interested in precisely the way a detached instructor should be when her students shared court gossip. I even managed a small nod, as if this were merely fascinating news about people I had no connection to.

"But why is she hiding in Stone Creek?" I asked. My voice came out steady. Almost bored. I didn’t know how.

"That’s the thing," Riley said, tucking the crystal back into her vest. "Everyone at court thinks His Majesty sent her away for protection. You know how dangerous things have been with the border conflicts. A pregnant woman carrying the imperial bloodline? She’d be a target."

Jessica nodded eagerly. "It makes sense. The Emperor is protecting her. Keeping her hidden until the baby’s born safely."

"My aunt serves in the lower kitchens," Maya added. "She says there’s already talk of a formal ceremony. Once the child arrives, there’ll be a coronation. A proper one. They’re saying she’ll be named Empress."

Empress.

The word sat on my tongue like poison.

"She deserves it, honestly," Sophie said. She was braiding a piece of leather cord absently, her tone casual. "After the Luna left—no offense to Her Majesty, wherever she is—but Seraphine stepped right in. My mother says she’s been wonderful with the little prince and princess. Reading to them. Attending their lessons. Valerius apparently calls her—"

"Don’t," I said.

The word came out sharper than I intended. All four of them looked at me.

I forced a smile. "Sorry. Bit of a headache. Go on."

Sophie hesitated, then shrugged. "I was just going to say Seraphine’s been really good to them. Patient. Kind. Not trying to replace anyone, just... filling the gap."

Filling the gap.

The gap I left.

"She’s perfect for it, honestly," Jessica said. "Noble birth. Educated. Beautiful. And now she’s giving the Empire an heir? The people love her already."

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