Claimed By My Husband's Enemy novel Chapter 140

Chapter 140

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How did it come to this?

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I knew betrayal. I was familiar with it. I knew it like the back of my hand. I knew pain and sadness, emotions I hadn’t felt in at very long time. But I wasn’t familiar with grief and since having a family of my own, since becoming a mother, it was something I prayed not to experience, not to know.

Ever.

Just yesterday, my kids were the ones running to me with big smiles on their faces. Now I was the one running to them. My heart and mind were in shreds as I ran so fast that I thought my lungs would explode although my steps slowed upon seeing two stretchers and the healers surrounding them with the military protectively circling around them.

Kharon and Marc, Zane and Mari’s personal guards, had informed me that they had already alerted the military and called healers on their way to me.

The soldiers bowed upon seeing me and parted like the red sea as I approached the stretchers. Creed grabbed my shaky hand. And there, I saw my son. His originally pristine white shirt was now red from his own blood. To think that his father and I wouldn’t even let any fly hurt him.

I immediately bit my palm, ignored the sting, and dropped my blood onto my son’s chest. “Creed?” My voice quivered. “What’s happening? Why isn’t my blood working on our son?”

I didn’t wait for his response. I had no time to wait. In a blink of an eye, I was able to steal one of the soldier’s daggers and cut my palm. The blood dripped onto Zane’s body, but he wasn’t absorbing it.

Desperate, I was about to cut myself deeper when Creed snatched the dagger from me and threw it away. He took my bloody hand carefully and firmly as his free hand cupped my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes.

“Stop hurting yourself, Eli. Our son is going to be alright. He is strong. He will get through this. His mana is a bit unstable right now, but his wolf is fighting. Our little boy is fighting. And so is his best friend. They are going to be alright.”

Only then did I glance at the other stretcher where Aidan laid on. Silver was crying beside Leo. My chest pounded so hard that I was sure the people around me could hear my heartbeat. I glanced around. “Where is our daughter?”

Silence took over.

Three of Mari’s guards kneeled in front of me and lowered their heads. I clenched my hands. “What are you doing kneeling there? I asked a question. Where the hell is my daughter?!”

The ground shook when I screamed. Even Creed’s face was grim. But there was something in his eyes as he continued to hold my hand. I felt his hand tremble and I knew my husband. He never trembled. And then I saw his eyes water as if he knew something I didn’t.

“Your Excellency, t-the young royals got away while on our watch. His Highness must have used his mana,” one of the guards explained. “W-when we found the prince and the young master, they were already like that. As for Her Highness, w-we scanned the forest and only saw this.”

He lifted a torn tiny fabric. I heard someone sob. I was sure it was my mom without looking. That was the dress she crafted for her granddaughter for her third birthday. From here, I could smell my daughter’s blood.

“During our initial investigation, we found out that there was a huge mana explosion. Doctor Ross was the only person in the forest. He was a healer and one of the geniuses in the realm who continued to study and explore mana. In one of his

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Chapter 140

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explorations, it looked like he had tapped into a forbidden spell which caused the explosion. It was quiet, but deadly which must have been the reason why he also lost his life.”

I noticed some of the trees around us had withered. All their leaves were gone. It looked like they were burned while there was a massive hole in the ground, a proof of how dark and big the explosion was.

“W-what are you saying?” I whispered, silently hoping it was not what I was thinking.

I could handle problems. Problems could be solved as long as the people involved were alive. What I couldn’t handle was

death.

“We failed you, Your Excellency. We deserve to be punished.”

“Stop beating around the bush and answer the fucking question!” I yelled.

“Her Highness is gone, Your Excellency. Her body must not have survived the explosion that’s why we could not find it-”

“Shut up!” My chest heaved. “My daughter is not dead!”

Life couldn’t possibly be that cruel to me.

I grabbed the fabric with my bloody hand and brought it to my nose. Tears slid down my cheeks upon inhaling my daughter’s familiar blood scent. I pushed my husband away and strode towards the hole. I kneeled on the ground and dug and dug with my bare hands.

“Mari!” I screamed. “Mommy is here. Show up, sweetheart. You must have been scared. Your dad and I are here now. I’m sorry we are late. Where are you?”

Creed touched the ground and performed a spell of his own. The more he did it, the more Mari’s blood lingered in this very spot we were in, making me more desperate to dig in. My nails broke in the process, but I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t.

After some time, Creed embraced me from behind, stopping my hands. “Eli… please.”

‘Please what?!” I snarled. “Don’t tell me you believed those guards? They are lying! Our daughter is alive, Creed! She has to be alive! There is still so much I haven’t done for her. It’s my turn to read her a fairytale tonight.” My voice cracked. “Mari. sweetie, mommy is begging you. Please use your precious mana and prove all these people wrong. Enough hiding, okay? Enough playing. Show up. Please.”

I counted one to ten like I always did each time we would play hide and seek.

But I’d reached a hundred and there was still no trace of her.

And I would have counted hundreds of times more, but when I used my own mana, searching for her, there was nothing t was pure silence. My mana had nothing to reach out to. The pain was so deep and so bad that there were no words for it.

I felt my world start to crumble as I clutched the fabric to my chest and wept.

“Mari!”

(Fabio)

“I guess we are a family now. It’s just you and me now,” I whispered as I stared at the little girl in my arms who beamed at me. It had been three months since I found her in the woods. She was barely alive and as pale as a ghost.

I thought I was going to lose her but the second I held her, she opened her eyes. Her little hands held onto me like I was her

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