Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother

Chapter 256

Elara’s POV

I’d read the letter fifty times.

Not the long one. Not the thick envelope he’d left on the dining table some days ago, the one still sitting there gathering dust like a cursed object I refused to touch. No. The short one. The one that arrived a few days ago by imperial courier—a few lines on cream-colored parchment, his handwriting sharp and slanted, the ink barely dry when it reached my hands.

The children’s tutor schedule has been adjusted. Valerius prefers mornings. Lyra’s nap should be moved accordingly. —K

A few lines about scheduling. Nothing personal. Nothing warm. Nothing that said I’m alive or I miss them or I’m sorry or any of the thousand things a man might write to the woman he was still technically married to.

And yet I’d memorized every stroke of every letter like it contained a hidden message.

Pathetic.

I set the parchment down on my desk and picked up the training proposal I was supposed to be reviewing. Troop rotation schedules for the southern garrison. Numbers. Logistics. Things that made sense. Things that didn’t make my chest ache.

I stared at the same paragraph for what felt like an eternity.

The words blurred. My mind drifted back to the silence. A few days since that note. Before that, there had been brief dispatches—cold, formal, always about the children. Never about him. Never about us. But they came regularly. Every day or two, without fail.

Now—nothing.

Countless hours of nothing.

He’s the Emperor. He’s at the front. He’s busy.

He’s fine.

He has to be fine.

"You’ve been staring at that page for some time."

Jessica’s voice sliced through my spiral. She stood in the doorway of the study, arms crossed, one dark eyebrow arched in that way that meant she’d already figured out the problem and was just waiting for me to admit it.

"I’m reading," I said flatly.

"You’re spiraling." She crossed the room and dropped into the chair across from me. "You’ve got that look."

"What look?"

"The one where you’re pretending everything is fine while your hands are shaking."

I looked down. She was right. My fingers trembled against the parchment. I flattened them against the desk.

"Send a message to Cassian," Jessica said. Her tone was blunt. No preamble. No gentleness. "One quick magical dispatch. Ask for an update. Done."

"I can’t do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I’m not—" I stopped. Swallowed. "I don’t have the right. We’re separated. I’m not his wife anymore. Not in any way that matters. I can’t just demand updates like I’m—"

"Like you’re his mate? Which you are?"

The word hit me like a slap. I flinched. Actually flinched.

"Jessica."

"Elara." She leaned forward. "You’re terrified. That’s what this is. You’re not afraid of overstepping—you’re afraid that if you reach out and something is wrong, it becomes real."

I couldn’t answer. My throat closed around the truth of it.

She held my gaze for a long moment. Then she softened—just slightly.

"Okay," she said quietly. "But if you change your mind, you know how to reach him."

She left.

I didn’t send the message.

---

Later, I sat in the council chamber for the weekly Privy Council session.

The room was cold. Stone walls, iron sconces, a long oak table covered in maps and supply ledgers. Elder Morrison occupied the head, his gray beard neatly trimmed, reading spectacles perched on his nose. Elder Chen had submitted a logistics report that sat in a thick folder at his empty seat. Claire stood near the window, her posture rigid, a leather folder pressed against her chest.

I sat in my usual chair. The one at the Emperor’s right hand—empty now, conspicuously so.

Morrison was droning about supply lines. Grain shipments to the northern border. Wagon routes compromised by early snowfall. I nodded in the right places. Took notes I wouldn’t remember.

My mind was elsewhere. A few days. Countless hours. No word.

"—which brings us to the matter of resource allocation," Morrison said, adjusting his spectacles. He turned toward me. "Your Majesty, given the increased casualty figures from the border, we’ll need your authorization to redirect medical supplies from the capital reserves."

My pen stopped.

"Increased casualty figures?" I said carefully.

Morrison blinked. "Yes, Your Majesty. Claire has the updated numbers."

Claire opened her folder. Her expression was controlled. Professional. But something flickered behind her eyes when she looked at me—something that made my stomach drop.

"Recently," Claire said, "thirty-seven soldiers have been wounded in engagements along the eastern border. Thirteen killed in action." She paused. "The heaviest losses occurred during an ambush several days ago."

Several days ago.

The room tilted. Just slightly. Just enough.

"An ambush," I repeated. My voice sounded far away.

Morrison nodded gravely. "A coordinated rogue assault, Your Majesty. They targeted the command camp directly. Unprecedented aggression. Sir Cassian’s field report indicated there were a massive number of attackers."

"The command camp," I said. Each word precise. Measured. "Where His Majesty was stationed."

Silence.

Morrison and Claire exchanged a glance. The kind of glance that confirmed everything I feared.

"Your Majesty," Claire said slowly, "His Majesty the Emperor was... among those injured in the engagement."

The room went very still. Or maybe that was just me. Maybe the world kept spinning and I was the only thing that stopped.

"How badly?"

Claire opened Cassian’s medical dispatch. She read from it in that steady, clinical voice of hers, and every word landed like a hammer blow.

"Approximately two pints of blood lost. Six separate wounds requiring closure. Forty-three stitches total." She looked up. "Sir Cassian’s report notes that His Majesty refused treatment until all other wounded were seen first. The attending physician described the injuries as significant but not life-threatening. He is expected to return to the front line in a few days."

Forty-three stitches.

Forty-three.

"Why," I said, and my voice cracked on the word, "was I not informed?"

The silence that followed was deafening.

Morrison shifted uncomfortably. "Your Majesty, we... assumed you had been notified through the mate bond channels. The imperial household typically—"

"The imperial household did not notify me." My hands were shaking again. Violently now. I pressed them flat against the table. "No one notified me."

Morrison’s face went pale. Claire’s jaw tightened.

They hadn’t thought to tell me. Because in their minds, the Emperor’s mate would already know. Because mates felt these things. Because under normal circumstances, the bond would have screamed through her blood the moment he was hurt.

But we weren’t under normal circumstances.

We were separated. And I’d spent days sitting at this desk, reading a note about tutor schedules, while my husband lay somewhere in a frozen camp with forty-three stitches holding him together.

"Excuse me," I said.

I stood. The chair scraped against stone. Morrison opened his mouth—to apologize, to explain, I didn’t care. I was already walking.

The corridor was empty. My boots echoed against the flagstones. I found a window alcove, pressed my back against the cold wall, and pulled the enchanted communication crystal from my pocket.

My fingers fumbled. The spell was simple—intent, focus, channel. I’d done it countless times.

I sent the message before I could talk myself out of it.

Are you alive?

The crystal pulsed warm in my palm. Seconds stretched. Then his response came—not in words but in the impression of his voice, low and rough and unmistakable.

I’m fine, Elara.

Relief hit me so hard my knees nearly buckled. Then the anger came. Hot and sharp and immediate.

Forty-three stitches is not fine, Kaelen.

A pause. Longer this time.

Who told you?

It doesn’t matter who told me. What matters is that YOU didn’t.

Another pause. I could almost feel him weighing his words. Choosing carefully. The way he always did when he knew he was wrong but couldn’t bring himself to say it.

I didn’t want you to worry.

I closed my eyes. Pressed the crystal hard against my forehead.

Don’t make me lie to our children. Don’t you dare make me tell them their father is fine when he’s bleeding in some frozen camp. They deserve better than that. I deserve better than that.

Silence. Long. Heavy.

Then, softly: You’re right. I’m sorry.

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. My throat was too tight and my eyes were burning and if I said one more word, I’d say things I wasn’t ready to say.

I tucked the crystal away and walked home.

---

The house was warm. Quiet. The nanny had collected the children from the Royal Academy. I could hear Lyra’s distant laughter from somewhere upstairs. Valerius’s voice—low, serious, probably reading aloud to his sister.

I should have gone to them. Should have kissed their foreheads and asked about their day and pretended that everything was normal.

Instead, I walked past the staircase. Past the sitting room. Past every familiar comfort of my evening routine.

Straight to the dining table in the study.

It was still there. Where he’d left it some days ago. A thick envelope, cream-colored, sealed with dark wax. His handwriting across the front—just my name. Elara.

Dust had settled along its edges. A thin gray film that marked exactly how long I’d been avoiding it. How many times I’d walked past it. Picked it up and put it back down. Told myself I wasn’t ready. Told myself it didn’t matter.

Forty-three stitches.

Two pints of blood.

Days of silence that could have been forever.

My hand reached for it before my mind caught up.