Chapter 509: Chapter-509
Samuel didn’t let her recover. He stepped forward, leaning down until he was perfectly at eye level with her.
"Listen to me," Samuel said, his voice completely devoid of its usual teasing lilt. "I am not like Grandpa and Grandma. You cannot just brush me off or send me away on a decoy mission. Whatever it is you did to yourself, whatever is actually happening with your body... I am not leaving you alone. From tomorrow onward, I am going to be with you everywhere."
Heena stared at him, her defensive instincts immediately flaring up. She crossed her arms over the silk blanket and shot him a withering glare.
"Excuse me," Heena scoffed indignantly. "I am an unmarried woman. You can’t just follow me everywhere."
Samuel didn’t even blink. "It’s fine. I am going to marry you anyway, and I’m certainly not going to let anyone else have you. So I really don’t give a damn about the optics."
Heena looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "Excuse me, sir? What if I still want to marry someone else in the future? Why on earth do you think I would willingly tie myself to a struggle with you?"
The shift was so instantaneous it gave Heena whiplash.
In the span of a single second, the dark, lethal intensity vanished from Samuel’s face. His broad shoulders slumped, his lower lip actually quivered, and large, glistening tears suddenly welled up in his eyes.
’Good lord,’ Heena thought, completely paralyzed by the sheer absurdity of the sight. ’Where the heck did he even summon those tears from so fast?!’
"So..." Samuel sniffled, his voice cracking with the tragic, heavy weight of a deeply wronged maiden. "So you were planning to cheat on me this whole time, huh?"
Heena’s jaw physically dropped. "Excuse me?! Our political arrangement is basically void! We are practically divorced before we even started! We aren’t even officially married in practice right now! How the hell is that called cheating?!"
Samuel gasped, his mouth falling open in a display of absolute, horrified shock.
"Oh my God," Samuel whispered, clutching a hand over his chest as if she had just stabbed him in the heart. "How can you be so cold? Now that you have completely used my body for support and physical labor, you are just throwing me away like yesterday’s trash?"
Heena pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, utterly speechless.
She could not believe this guy. If he uttered these exact words outside this bedchamber and some passing nobleman heard it, her carefully crafted, terrifying Vanguard reputation would be completely destroyed. They would think the ruthless Madam Marcuset was running a secret harem of abused, heartbroken men.
"Excuse me," Heena hissed through gritted teeth, dropping her hands to glare at him. "Control your drama queen act! If anyone hears you spouting this nonsense, they will think I’m actually abusing you!"
Samuel immediately dropped the tragic, weeping act. A brilliant, utterly shameless smile spread across his handsome face as the fake tears instantly vanished.
"Well, what does it matter?" Samuel shrugged casually. "I am only talking like this to my wife, not to someone else."
Heena stared at his smug face, realizing with absolute certainty that trying to win a verbal spar against this man was practically useless. He possessed a level of shamelessness that rivaled the thickest castle walls in the empire.
She let out a heavy, defeated sigh and rubbed her temples. "Please. Just shut up. My head is still not well enough to process your absolute nonsense."
Samuel’s smile softened slightly into something more genuine, noting the lingering fatigue in her posture.
Deciding that retreating was the best strategy, Heena actively changed the subject. She looked at him, her fox-like eyes narrowing slightly with curiosity.
"Anyway," Heena asked, "where did you go earlier? When I came back to the estate, you weren’t here. You only showed up after I collapsed."
Samuel straightened up, brushing a piece of invisible lint from his dark tunic. "Oh. I went into the capital’s merchant district to buy you some gifts."
Heena paused, looking at him with deep suspicion. The last thing she expected from this chaotic hostage-husband was a shopping trip.
"What gift?" Heena asked flatly.
Samuel flashed a brilliant, entirely too pleased smile.
"If you want to know what it is," Samuel said smoothly, "then you have to officially marry me first."
Heena just stared at him. Her expression instantly dropped into an absolute, unblinking deadpan.
"No need," Heena replied coldly, pulling the silk blankets a little higher. "Take your gift with you when you leave the room."
Samuel gasped, looking at her in sheer, exaggerated shock. "What?! You won’t even marry me for a gift?"
Heena stared at him, utterly exhausted by the mental leaps he was making. "Did you even listen to the words that just came out of your mouth? Why the heck would I commit to a lifelong political marriage just to get a box of whatever random trinket you bought in the merchant district?!"
Samuel pouted slightly, straightening his posture to show off his broad shoulders, though the arrogant amusement in his eyes never wavered.
"Well, you should," Samuel argued, gesturing to himself with a completely straight face. "I mean, look at me. I am such a handsome guy. Most women in the capital would consider a gift ’and’ me to be an absolute steal."
Heena let out a long, suffering sigh and stared up at the heavy silk canopy of her bed, praying for patience she didn’t possess.
"Samuel," Heena asked quietly, her voice perfectly flat. "Do you even know what the concept of shame is?"
Samuel didn’t even hesitate. He flashed a devastatingly bright smile and leaned a fraction closer.
"Shame?" Samuel repeated, tasting the word as if it were a foreign concept. "I lost that the moment I was shipped off to this estate as a political hostage. Shame doesn’t keep you warm at night, Wife. And it certainly doesn’t keep you alive."
Heena rolled her eyes, but she didn’t have the energy to verbally spar with him anymore. The adrenaline was entirely gone, leaving her feeling like she was sinking into the mattress. "If you are done giving me a headache, I am going to sleep now. You can take your mysterious gift and your shamelessness out the door."
Samuel chuckled softly, the sound rumbling deep in his chest. The teasing glint in his eyes melted away, replaced by that quiet, intense sincerity that always managed to throw her off balance.
"I suppose I can bend the rules, just this once," Samuel murmured.
He reached into the inner pocket of his dark tunic and pulled out a small, intricately carved wooden box. He didn’t demand any more promises or marriages. He simply popped the latch open and gently placed the box on the silk blankets, right over Heena’s hands.
Heena frowned, her curiosity momentarily overriding her exhaustion. She looked down.
Resting on a bed of black velvet was a beautiful, tear-shaped pendant made of flawless, blood-red jade. But what immediately caught her attention wasn’t its visual value; it was the faint, ambient heat radiating from the stone. Even without touching it, she could feel a soothing, rhythmic warmth pulsing from the jade, perfectly syncing with her own heartbeat.
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