Chapter 2: Reborn Once Again (II)

Jae-In POV:

"You? Innocent? Ha. My dear empress, you are still as ignorant and brainless as usual huh. Do not even assume that I have no idea what you have been doing in the Imperial Women Palace. The number of deaths and manipulative games you have been playing behind my back will be enough to give me a reason to sentence you to death."

"No no no, your Imperial Majesty that is not true! I have no idea who said what, but they are all false! Please believe me, your Imperial Majesty! I am your empress, your crown prince consort that has been beside you for the past 11 years! How could you not believe me? Who has been spitting lies to you? Is it Noble Lady Qing? I knew it, definitely this lowly servant and disgusting piece of trash that tries to manipulate you." I shook my head and anger raised within my eyes as if I am ready to kill Noble Lady Qing.

"SILENCE. YOU DO NOT SPEAK OF NOBLE LADY QING LIKE THIS AND YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO EVEN MENTION HER NAME. YOU DARE TO SAY THAT YOU ARE NOT INVOLVE IN HER RECENT MISCARRIAGE?"

Miscarriage? Noble Lady Qing? Ha..Ha.. Finally those medicines worked!

He continued to look at me with disgust and emotionless eyes.

"Do you think you will be spared with what you have done? Do you really think I am not afraid to do anything to you? No. You are wrong. Since you always love to request for presents from me, this will be the one last present that I shall give you."

A brown wooden box thrown right in front of me with some bloodstains at the side. A bad gut feeling within me stopped my shaky hands from reaching to the box.

"Why? Are you afraid? Scared to see what you do not want to see? It's too late. Empress Jae-In, it's time for you to pay for what you have done, of course with your loved ones' blood."

My bloody hands reach out to the box and slowly open the lid. There it lays the head of my beloved father. Slamming the lid hard to cover what I have seen, tears start filling my vision and my teeth bite my lips so hard that it begin to bleed.

"Fa..Father. No.. No it can't be. It can't.." I stared blankly at the box and refuse to open it once more to the horrifying truth that I denied.

"WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME? WHAT WRONG HAVE I DONE?"

"Throughout these 11 years, I have been constantly waiting for this final day. The moment you requested to be my crown prince consort, the amount of power and authority that your father possess that controls me till this very day, the number of times you tried to sabotage my very dear wife Qing Qing, all I have been doing is to bring you down."

I stared at the one and only man that I have loved for 2 lives. The once young and gentle caring man that I fell for has long been gone and now being replaced with a dangerous and scheming man who is the king of Xuan.

Disbelief and heartbroken emotions stirring within me that clouded my mind and memories of the past came gushing through. I hugged the brown box as tightly as possible as though it is the only way to say sorry to my one and only father.

The father that loved me for who I am, the father who gave in to my ridiculous request to marry the man he disapproved yet the one I loved, the father who sacrificed his life with the greed of mine.

Staring up into the ceiling, I mentally thought: I am so sorry.. my father. I am truly sorry. Using the remaining strength that I had, I push myself up and found myself standing right in front of him.

"Can I ask you something? Have you ever loved me once? Even for a slightest moment that got your heart beating?"

"No. Never."

I stared at the man whom I loved my whole life, the man that I once fell for, the husband that I want to raise my children with, and yet the very man who destroyed my family. I walked slowly step by step towards him, and with the fastest speed I can ever muster in my current stage, I snatched his hidden small knife at the side of his hip.

At first he look shocked as he did not expect this from me, but he slowly return to his cold and usual way of looking at me.

"For the longest time that I have been living, I have never once regretted what I have done. I never allow myself to look back and reflect to leave any regrets. But do you know all I wanted was for you to love me? I just wanted you to love me back, look at me and appreciate me, care for me even if it is at its minimum."

As I continued staring into those beautiful and hypnotizing eyes, I raised the knife near to my heart.

"But, I was wrong. I am wrong. And I regret this. I am sorry for all the selfish things that I have said or done to you. If there were to be a next life or chance, I will pray that we will never ever cross path again in life. I promise if I were to ever meet you in my next life, I will never love you ever again, Xuan Di."

I closed my eyes and stabbed the knife into my heart as thought I was closing the final chapter of my life.