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As they both looked at me longer, the room became tense and my lies seemed to catch in my throat. I'm going to die. He was going to find out tomorrow that I wasn't pregnant, and I was going to die. There was no way around that. I swallowed to ease the dryness in my throat and stood up from the seat.
"The baby needs air."
Seriously, Gen?
I rushed out of the room and didn't bother to look at either of them. Waves of nausea began to flow through me and for a moment I wondered if God somehow blessed me in the right moment with a child, but reality hit me and I realized that the only pregnant thing about me was my lies.
I kept on walking through the dark palace, confused, and hearing nothing but the click of my heels echoing through the halls. I passed multiple paintings of my husband standing triumphantly over his victims and rolled my eyes.
"God did the man love himself," I thought to myself, sighing.
The castle was decorated with accents of white and gold, with Romanesque arches that encapsulated every entrance of the court. The halls were lined with white round columns and gold swirls in the walls. The windows that lined the walls from top to bottom were covered with thick red curtains that blocked out any form of light. Chandeliers with candles adorned almost every common room in the palace which made for great public attractions and gatherings, but truly living here was lonely.
I thought of the lie I had told to my husband, and I mentally slapped myself for being so stupid. How could I pretend to be pregnant if I was infertile? He'd find out eventually and kill me.
Julius always said that was my problem: speaking without thinking...I never believed him until today.
I walked outside the palace to the garden to get some fresh air and hopefully find a way out of this mess I got myself into. Sliding the patio door open, I stepped onto the stone floor of the garden, a cool and crisp gust of wind slapping me and making me shiver. I clutched my robe tighter around me, and shut the door before walking deeper into the garden.
Despite the palace within the large gates being a place of my nightmares, this was the only place where I felt free. Even if it was short-lived. Letting me decorate this garden to my liking was perhaps one of the only things Julius had ever done right when it came to me.
The golden glowing lanterns hung on the barren tree branches, lighting the pathway into the forest, making it look more alluring than it used to be. Wooden benches sat on either side of the cracked stone with fields of grass behind them. I preferred to stay in this area as I didn't know what lurked beyond the forested border. The lanterns could only do so much to calm my fear of the unknown.
A buzzing beside my ear reminded me that I wasn't alone and I grumbled, crossing my arms. Now was not the time. Dazzling fairies dancing in the night sky, filling it with hues of blue, yellow, and pink; almost like colorful fireflies, were giggling around me. The beautiful creatures would have been worshiped by me for their vibrancy if it weren't for how evil and cruel they were.
