What was his na?
Fragnts of mories Catherine had almost forgotten... rose abruptly to the surface.
Catherine did not know Maximilian’s older brother, the crown prince.
She couldn’t recall his na. Nor his face.
She had t him once, perhaps twice, when she was very young. All she retained was a vague mory of large hands lifting her off the ground, the faint warmth of laughter, the sensation of being carried around like a favored child.
That was all.
He had rarely visited Elyndra. Only Maximilian had, because Maximilian was the one ant to marry her, the Crown Princess of Elyndra.
She herself had never visited Dravencourt.
After her mother’s death, her father had unraveled. He ruled, but not as he once had. And when Catherine was formally announced as Queen of Velmont, she returned there imdiately, leaving Elyndra behind in the hands of a grieving king.
She tried... she truly did... to keep Elyndra’s factions in check from afar.
But everything worsened after Maximilian married the Grand Duke of Elyndra’s daughter. Worse still, when Elyndra lost a pri port city to Dravencourt because of the Grand Duke’s berayal.
The court fractured. The factions deepened. And in the chaos that followed...
The Crown Prince of Dravencourt was killed.
It had not been a direct order from the King of Elyndra. But the Elyndran court took full responsibility regardless. The conspirators were handed over to Dravencourt to be judged and punished according to their law.
Justice, as defined by that era, had been served.
Catherine had believed it was settled.
But...
Maximilian had not.
The blood of his brother’s killers had not been enough. Even if he believed her father had given the order...
"One crown prince for another..." she whispered.
Her heart sank, bottomless.
Her son was the heir to Elyndra. After her.
So... in his mind, it had been fair.
Fair to kill her child.
Her son.
For sothing her father hadn’t even done.
For sothing she never did.
Yes! Back then, such logic was accepted. Encouraged, even.
But...
He did it to ?
Catherine staggered back.
The tears she had been holding back finally broke free. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed to her knees.
She looked at him... still kneeling, still broken.
"You..." her voice trembled. "You thought it was fair to kill my son for your brother?"
Her hands curled into fists.
"He was all I had."
Maximilian moved toward her, but Catherine didn’t pull away. When his arms closed around her, she let them.
She gripped his arm fiercely, hard enough that she knew she was hurting him but he didn’t loosen his hold.
Didn’t flinch.
Didn’t let go.
And slowly... against everything she believed she should do, Catherine allowed herself to remain there.
Her grip weakened.
She leaned into his chest, her body shaking with silent sobs.
Why was she leaning on the man who had destroyed her life?
Why did it hurt so much to realize that—to him—she had been no different from anyone else?
She cried on, no longer sure whether the tears were for her son...
Or for herself.
And then, quietly, brutally, the truth surfaced.
The one truth she had refused to face in her entire past life.
She had never stopped loving Maximilian.
That was why the betrayal had shattered her so completely.
That was why she had given him chances, again and again, not rely to de-escalate war, but because so part of her still loved him.
Why she had saved his son.
Why she had saved the woman he loved.
Not because it was right.
But because even while she was bleeding, she still loved him.
Even after he killed her mother.... Even after he killed her children. She had never stopped loving him.
The realization stunned her into silence.
How could sothing like that even be possible?
Her hands trembled faintly.
Then Maximilian spoke, his voice breaking the heavy stillness.
"I didn’t, Katerina... I never would," he said hoarsely. "Crowley acted on his own."
Catherine wiped her face and stepped out of his hold.
The pain and confusion that had torn through her monts ago drained away, leaving behind sothing colder. Numb. Hollow.
She looked straight at him.
His eyes were red, rimd with moisture, as though he had been crying with her. He looked so concerned. So painfully human.
And yet...
He could lie so fluently.
Without hesitation.
He had lied about not rembering the past. And now, when cornered... when he sensed even the smallest crack in her defenses... he lied again.
Oh, Catherine...
Why do you always fall in love with the worst man among terrible n?
A laugh slipped out of her.
Maximilian frowned, confused. His pain had vanished now that she was feeling numb.
"Crowley carried an official missive bearing your seal," she said calmly. "I retrieved it from his limp body myself."
Maximilian’s eyes widened. He shook his head, almost violently. "Crowley was loyal to my brother. He wanted revenge—an eye for an eye. He went rogue. Not on my order."
He grabbed her shoulders, gripping her as if afraid she might disappear.
"Katerina, it wasn’t my order. I would never command the death of a child. You should know . I would never."
Catherine laughed.
She laughed again.
Tears stread down her cheeks as she did.
"Oh? Really?" she asked softly. "Then tell —was the seal that broke our engagent sothing you knew about, or not?"
Maximilian’s grip loosened.
He swallowed. His eyes flickered away.
And just like that... She had her answer.
So it was him.
The way he had ended their engagent. The public humiliation. The chain of events that led to her mother’s death.
"Katerina, I—"
"Who else had access to your seal, Your Highness?" Catherine interrupted. The old title slipped out naturally, like a blade finding its sheath. "Were you truly careless enough to leave your Royal Seal unattended?"
"It couldn’t have been mine," he said quickly. "It must have been a forgery—so conspiracy—"
"I cross-checked it," she said. "With the seal bearing your na on the agreent you signed when we t."
Her voice sharpened.
"The very sa eting you later allowed others to believe was nothing more than a night of passion between us."
Maximilian froze.
"That’s impossible..." he murmured, looking away.
A sheen of sweat ford on his forehead.
Cornered.
And then... she rembered sothing else.
"Your wife," Catherine said quietly. "She carried your seal often, didn’t she?"
That cold winter night flashed before her eyes.
A heavily pregnant woman standing in the snow—Maximilian’s seal hanging openly at her side.
He had trusted her that much.
Loved her that deeply.
Enough to place his authority, his crown, his power in her hands.
That woman had ordered her son’s death.
And Catherine... the fool that she was, had saved her.
Saved her child.
All while destroying her own life.
If she had chosen her husband fully in that past life... would things have been different?
Was that what the woman had ant by making a choice?
"You’re protecting your wife," Catherine said.
It wasn’t a question.
Could any love be more tragic than hers?
This bracelet...
Perhaps it was Maximilian’s final insurance. A way to bind her to him. To restrain her, knowing she would co for his wife one day.
How romantic.
"Katerina, I—"
"Catherine," she corrected softly, exhaling deeply. "Maybe we shouldn’t talk about our past lives anymore."
"But I—"
She didn’t let him finish.
Catherine grabbed his collar and pulled him down, pressing her lips to his. This wasn’t comfort. It wasn’t forgiveness. It was a line she was choosing to cross, with her eyes open.
Maximilian froze.
Her eyes remained open.
Her heart felt numb.
And her mind...
Her mind had already made its decision.
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