The Romantic Trials Of A Transmigrated Empress-Chapter 290: What was shattered?

Sigrid took Roland’s hand and sat beside him, waiting in silence for signs of revival from him. How could she continue when he was not saying a word? When the conversation had started off, she had been feeling a knot in her stomach and now it had loosened.

She was sure that telling him was the right decision. At the end of the day, his bastard brother was mostly his business and not hers. Whyever had she kept that secret?

Was she so obsessed with secrets that she wanted to keep even the smallest ones close to her chest? Sigrid thought it would be along wait but it was not. He came to life two minutes later.

Roland cleared his throat and picked up a thermos flask that he was certain contained hot peppermint, honey and ginger tea. The cup had not been sealed properly so he could smell the contents.

"Do you want some cake?" Sigrid asked him.

The chef had sent more than one slice, she had sent three slices. Sigrid had not even eaten half of the first one she was poking into slowly with a small two pronged fork.

She decided to ask something else. "Do you want to talk about how you are feeling right now? About your father?"

He shook his head slowly. "No, just continue on with your story. How did you know about my father and this woman he loved so much?"

She sent the fork to her mouth and licked off the cream slowly. The she put it back into the cake and said in a low voice, "After your mother gave me the assignment of finding your father a new distraction, I set out to find out the king’s preferences in women. I needed to know why he loved Rina. What was so special about her that the king was willing to bear all scorn and ignore every whisper and the anger of the queen for her.

The answer was provided by my dream. There are some things that I left out when I told you about how Emmah would cause all of our deaths."

Roland turned his head and looked at her.

She could feel his eyes on her but she kept her eyes on the plate of cake. "In my dream, Emmah and Rina were close which is natural as she loved Benjamin and her luck assisted Rina in getting rid of your mother and turning Benjamin into a very wealthy man with a large private army.

Rina sought to cleanse everyone that knew of her past the more powerful she grew. So, she told Emmah her deepest secret, the fact that she had come from a brothel. They got rid of the madame that sold Rina to the king but the was not enough the brothel itself had to go.

Emmah found out that the brothel was running some schemes, she reported them to the authorities and that was how anyone that could have known Rina’s secret was eliminated.

I went to the brothel and found the madame that had sold Rina. She was the one that told me about Risa, the king’s original first love. I figured out that Rina’s face was the biggest reason as to why the king dotted on her so I asked the madame to help me look for a woman with that face and Elarin was the result."

Once again, dry laughs came from Roland. He recalled how his father had all but forgotten about Rina on the very day of her funeral and rushed to take in Elarin.

"Ah...is her name even Elarin?" he asked.

Sigrid pinched her lips together.

"I figured so." Roland laughed again. Elarin, Risa, Rina...the names were all similar in their own ways. "So you deliberately brought her here to perform for my father deliberately on the day of Rina’s funeral."

Sigrid nodded, "Yes. In case you did not notice, your father’s attention had been gravitating to one of the daughters of the former prime minister that also had a minor resemblance to Rina.

Not to forget that all other nobles had brought along their daughters in the hopes of catching the attention of the king. I had to act fast. Rina had no background and yet she was a fierce opponent because she had the king in her pocket.

If the prime minister Windrider’s daughter had become the secondary consort, our death warrants would have been signed. As soon as she had a male child, our necks would be in danger. Any children we gave birth to would be killed off so quickly before they had a chance to be named crown prince or princess.

I know that you blame me for not telling you about Elarin or your brother and I apologize. I make no excuses, I just hope that you know I was trying to protect us. Everything I do is to protect us Roland." She raised her head and looked at him.

She waited for him to respond, but he did not say anything for a while. He was angry, he was disappointment, maybe he even felt betrayed. The question was, how would he react to what he was feeling?

The seconds which passed felt like centuries passing by while they remained frozen in time. In that time, she reminded herself not to crack, not to crumble and not to fold.

Her original goal was to save her life. To defeat Emmah and to save her life. Without life love was useless. So, she could not fold, she could not become an emotional wreck and lose sight of what was important.

To deal with Emmah, she needed power and the organization was not enough to give her what she needed. If she had not been the crown princess, she would not have been able to bring down all the families which threatened them easily.

Would she have to do something drastic to gain his trust again?

Roland pushed himself back, moving away from her. He had that deep thoughtful look in his eyes as if he was about to give a speech.

"Sigrid," he said slowly.

She clenched her jaw and prepared for the hammer to come down.

"Our marriage never got off to the best start. I did not trust you and you did not trust me. I did some things that made you unhappy and I apologized for those things and I have done my best to be the kind of husband you can lean on. You can trust and love..." He stood up and exhaled loudly. "Sir Alex told me that friendship is the basis of marriage.

He said understanding and respect for each other follow the friendship and I have tried my best to make you my friend. I have respected you and I have done my best to understand the reason as to why you decide to do the things you do. But sometimes I wonder, are you making the same efforts as I am or are you just using me to meet your hidden goals?"

Sigrid clenched her hands and told herself to stay calm.

Roland picked up a cloak from a chair, turned around and abruptly left the room. Void rose from her bed and leaped through the window, shattering glass as it had been closed.

The sound left Sigrid wondering if it was her marriage that had been shattered.