"Come in" my mother-in-law said, her tone slightly dismissive.
I pushed the door open and saw her writing a proposal-
[PROPOSAL FOR CO-WIVES]
Primary Luna: Victoria Hale (child bearing)
Secondary wife: Lianna Rose (children born will be illegitimate)
I stared at those lines for a long time.
Strangely, I didn’t cry.
Only a hollow space opened in my chest….so I had already been erased from their future so strategically.
“Illegitimate.”
I suddenly remembered an evening years ago in the healer’s ward.
Zyan stood inside the room, holding a practice newborn doll in his arms.
His movements were stiff, overly careful.
When I caught him, he laughed like a child who had been discovered doing something embarrassing and pulled me into his arms.
“I have to learn Lianna” he said. “When our baby is born, I can’t afford to be clumsy.”
Back then, I truly believed him, believed that he would love our children even more than me.
Only now did I realize..the future had always existed.
It simply didn’t include me.
"Lianna Rose, I heard you disappeared for days, I had told Zyan not to mate with a lowly girl. One day she is serving him, another day warming the bed of another man."
Her insult landed like ash on a corpse.