Chapter 76: The Things Left Unsaid
—REN—
"Ren, I am not that oblivious, but... do you have...sothing you want to tell ?"
For the first ti in a very long while, I found myself unable to answer imdiately.
The question itself should not have been difficult.
It was simple, direct, and almost... innocent.
Yet the mont those words left Lady Aria’s lips, sothing inside tightened.
What exactly was she asking?
Was she asking about the feelings I had spent years burying?
Or was she sohow asking about sothing far more dangerous?
Did she know the truth?
The na I abandoned?
The identity I buried beneath my careful lies?
Or the fact that Ren was never truly my na?
I looked at her quietly.
The lantern light inside the carriage cast soft shadows across her features. Her expression carried no suspicion. No accusation. No anger.
Only concern.
And sohow that made everything worse.
Because Lady Aria deserved honesty.
She deserved the truth far more than anyone else.
Yet honesty remained the one thing I could never offer her.
My fingers tightened slightly against my knee.
Damien Ashford.
The na surfaced despite my efforts.
The emperor’s son.
The empire’s missing crown prince.
A title I had abandoned long ago.
A future I had spent years running from.
A destiny that had never felt like mine.
For years I had succeeded in forgetting it.
Or perhaps pretending to.
Yet all it took was one question from her to drag the past back into the light.
How absurd.
The imperial court had failed to find .
The emperor had failed to find .
The countless knights, officials, and spies dispatched throughout the empire had failed to find .
Yet sohow a single young woman could unravel my composure with a few innocent words.
I almost laughed.
Fortunately, years of discipline prevented such an undignified reaction.
Lady Aria continued watching and kept waiting, expecting an answer.
And therein lay the true problem.
Because if she was not asking about my identity...
Then there remained only one other possibility.
A truth I feared even more.
And that is the fact that I love her.
The realization no longer startled . It had long since grown beyond admiration.
Beyond gratitude.
Beyond affection.
Sowhere between the ti we spent together, between every reckless idea she dragged into, every ridiculous conversation she forced to endure, and every smile she offered without reservation, I had fallen hopelessly in love with her.
The realization itself was not frightening.
What frightened was what might happen if she knew.
Because I had watched what happened whenever powerful n desired Aria.
I had watched Sebastian pursue her with increasing determination.
Watched Matthias protect her with unwavering devotion.
Watched Ezekiel slowly lose the battle against his own feelings.
And tonight...
Aelith.
Another man stepping forward.
Another man declaring his intentions.
Another man trying to place his claim upon a woman who never asked for one.
I understood his feelings, I truly did.
But that did not stop from despising what he had done.
Because none of them seed to understand the burden they placed upon her.
Aria treasured freedom above nearly everything else.
Yet everyone kept trying to bind her with affection.
With promises, expectations, and futures she never asked for.
And if I beca one more person demanding sothing from her...
Would she still smile at ?
Would she still trust ?
Would she still see as Ren?
The answer frightened enough to remain silent.
The carriage continued rolling through the night.
Neither of us spoke.
For several monts, only the sound of wheels against stone filled the space between us.
Eventually, Lady Aria narrowed her eyes.
A familiar expression.
One that usually preceded disaster.
"Oh."
I imdiately disliked that tone.
"Oh?" I repeated carefully.
"Oh."
My instincts, which had preserved my life through considerably more dangerous situations, inford that I was about to suffer.
"Ohhhhh."
I closed my eyes briefly.
"My lady."
"You have sothing to tell ."
"..."
"You definitely have sothing to tell ."
I considered pretending not to hear her.
Unfortunately, experience had taught that silence rarely defeated Lady Aria.
If anything, it encouraged her.
"My lady."
She pointed directly at .
A remarkably intimidating gesture considering how often she accidentally walked into furniture.
"You are hiding sothing."
A statent both entirely correct and disastrously incomplete.
I remained silent but Lady Aria leaned forward.
Further.
And further.
Then she suddenly gasped.
I knew imdiately that whatever conclusion she had reached would be incorrect.
The universe rarely granted rcy.
"You’re secretly married."
I stared.
For perhaps three full seconds.
Then five.
Then seven.
Of all possibilities.
Of all conclusions.
Of all conceivable explanations.
That was her choice.
"My lady."
"A secret wife."
"..."
"You absolutely have a secret wife."
"My lady."
"Or maybe children."
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Lady Aria."
"No, children would be difficult to hide."
An astute observation.
Entirely wasted on the rest of the conversation.
She continued studying with increasing enthusiasm.
The enthusiasm of a woman solving a mystery that existed only within her imagination.
"Actually..."
I prepared myself knowing another theory was coming.
I could feel it.
"You’re secretly a noble."
My breath stalled.
Only briefly.
Only for a heartbeat.
Yet it happened.
The closest she had ever co.
The closest anyone had co.
And she remained completely unaware of it.
"You are definitely a fallen noble."
I released a slow breath.
Relief should have followed.
Instead, an unfamiliar disappointnt settled inside .
Because for one fleeting mont, I had wondered what it might feel like to stop hiding.
Then reality returned.
And the mont passed.
The remainder of the journey continued much the sa way.
Lady Aria proposed increasingly outrageous explanations while I offered increasingly shorter responses.
By the ti we reached the estate, she had sohow concluded that I was either a disgraced noble, a retired spy, a forr assassin, or the illegitimate son of an extrely wealthy rchant.
Remarkably imaginative.
Entirely incorrect knowing I’ve told her before I was a son of slaves.
I escorted her back to her chambers as duty required while she continued speculating throughout the walk.
When we finally reached her door, she paused.
For a mont, I thought she might ask again.
Instead, she smiled.
A small tired smile.
Still hurting from everything that had happened tonight.
Yet sohow managing to smile regardless.
"Goodnight, Ren."
My chest tightened unexpectedly.
"Goodnight, my lady."
The door closed and I remained standing there for several monts afterward.
Longer than necessary.
Longer than appropriate.
Then I turned away.
The corridors were quiet at that hour.
Most servants had already retired. The estate slept peacefully beneath the night sky and only the lanterns remained awake.
I made my way toward my chambers in silence as each step felt heavier than the last.
By the ti I entered my room and closed the door behind , exhaustion had settled deep within my bones.
I removed my gloves, set aside my coat, then lowered myself into the chair beside the window.
Outside, moonlight bathed the estate grounds in silver.
Inside, silence greeted .
Oppressive.
Unavoidable.
And within that silence...
The past returned.
It always did.
No matter how much ti passed.
No matter how far I ran.
No matter what na I chose.
Eventually, it always found .
I rembered my mother.
Not the woman she beca later, not even the exhausted woman burdened by disappointnt and regret.
But the woman she had once been.
The kind, gentle, and hopelessly in love palace maid who believed herself chosen. A woman foolish enough to mistake a prince’s attention for affection.
A woman who mistook a single night for a promise. And when she inford him of her pregnancy...
The future emperor discarded her without hesitation.
As though she had never mattered. As though I had never mattered.
The mory still carried bitterness.
Not because I desired recognition or I desired a throne.
But because from an early age, I learned exactly what power did to people.
What titles did.
What bloodlines did.
And from that day onward, I vowed I would never beco one of them.
Never beco him.
Yet fate possessed a cruel sense of humor.
Because the older I beca...
The more the empire searched for , and the more desperately I ran because I was afraid.
I was afraid of becoming Damien Ashford.
Afraid of becoming Crown Prince Damien Ashford.
Afraid that the mont I accepted that title, I would cease being myself.
And perhaps that made exactly what I had always suspected.
A coward.
Not a prince, not an heir, and certainly not the empire’s lost son.
rely a coward who chose the na Ren and spent all these ti pretending it was enough.
Yet tonight...
For the first ti in a long while...
I found myself wondering whether running had truly saved .
Or whether it had rely delayed the inevitable.
And as Lady Aria’s question echoed once more inside my mind, another mory surfaced from the depths of the past.
A mory from long before I beca Ren.
A mory from the day my mother finally told the truth.
And everything began to change.
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