Chapter 9

The middle-aged doctor told Teresa that she’d have a mark on her cheek for a while but that it should heal with time. Just as Randolph Ulster had said, Margot’s glass hadn’t made it past the shallow layers of her skin. Teresa felt depressed about that. She’d rather the scar remained for the rest of her life. If it had to happen at all, she wished the mark would stay there as an ugly reminder of Margot Tudor. Then I could torture that awful woman for the rest of my life. Teresa and Margot had been friends since childhood. If beautiful Margot was the sun, gloomy Teresa was no more than the shadow she cast. Margot’s mere presence was enough to steal everything from Teresa. Her first love. Her dearest friends. Her partner at the debutant ball. She didn’t know if she did it out of malice. But in the end, Margot inevitably stole the things Teresa wanted most. Even Linus Tudor. Teresa had met him before Margot. He had come to Adelbide ten years ago from the neighboring kingdom of Faris. The Tudors were a subsidiary family with roots in Faris, and because the current Duke of Tudor did not have children of his own, he had adopted Linus to carry on the family line. He had sweet, even features and a soft manner. He spoke with an elegant Farish accent—and Teresa had fallen for him at first sight. But of course, Margot had stolen him from her. Teresa had long suffered beneath her friend’s oppressive presence, but when Margot and Linus’s engagement was announced, she felt her heart finally shatter. Deeply wounded, she married another man—her parents’ choice—but she never stopped caring for Linus. The truth was, she had always loved him. So she was elated when, six months or so earlier, he had come to her saying she was the one he’d liked from the start. She knew it! She’d always suspected that Linus felt the same about her. Now she gazed in rapture at him as he stood before her. He’d come to see her in secret, because he was worried about her injury. Needless to say, she was overjoyed as she showed him into the back study. Her husband had spent a short time in the study after returning from work but had already left for the brothels. Even after what had happened, Linus Tudor’s love for Teresa was unchanged. He smiled at her as gently as ever. That smile alone is worth getting injured, she thought to herself. Even if the wound never healed… “Did you give Kevin his dose today?” Linus’s voice brought Teresa back to her senses. She answered with a broad smile. Kevin. Kevin Jennings. Rule-abiding, high-strung Kevin. Her mind-numbingly tiresome husband, who had never once whispered that he loved her. “When Kevin is here…” Linus had told her with deep sorrow when they first started seeing each other. “When Kevin is here, it’s difficult for me to come see you.” Teresa felt the same. Kevin got in the way. So the ever-thoughtful Linus taught her a method for getting him out of the house. Kevin Jennings was pathologically methodical and rule-abiding. Even in the sphere of everyday life, he could not relax unless all the rules were followed. And they used that against him. Every day when Kevin returned home, he drank a cup of black tea in the study. He wouldn’t touch it until it was completely cool, so he always let it sit untouched for a while after the maid prepared it. That’s when she did it. The clear liquid was stored in a bottle the size of her forefinger. When she removed the cap, the saccharine scent of flowers rose to her nostrils. Teresa didn’t know what it was. “Paradise,” Linus had said with a smile. Gradually, her quiet, scrupulous husband became increasingly emotional, until eventually he began visiting the brothel every night. Teresa was thrilled by this new reality. Ahhh—now I can see Linus again. For Teresa, that was all that mattered. Yes, she thought, handing Linus the empty bottle. He refilled it and handed it back. This magical little bottle was to thank for clouding Kevin’s sharp eyes and allowing Teresa to meet with Linus. “Is that all? You don’t have any more?” Linus asked. That was an odd question. He’d told her just a drop was enough—and it was true—so stockpiling reserves would be pointless. When she told him as much, he smiled. “You’re not putting it in the teapot or the pitcher, are you? Only this cup?” He must have noticed Kevin’s empty teacup, because he picked it up and peered inside. “You must never drink this,” Linus had told her, so of course she had only put it in her husband’s cup. As she nodded, she heard something hard hit the floor. The ceramic cup shattered across the rug. Teresa blinked slowly and looked at Linus. “Honestly, I never thought the two of you would do something like that.” He smiled cynically, as if he hadn’t just hurled Kevin’s cup on the floor. “It would have been bad enough if you’d played those silly children’s games ten years ago, but to do it now? You really let your guard down, my dear. Is this all the fault of that young lady who made the fuss at the Grand Merillian the other night? Grail, was it? We must teach a lesson to those who don’t know their place.” He tilted his head as if the problem was simply too much for him. “In truth, I’d planned to set up Kevin’s successor, but with this scandal, that will be impossible. Well, I suppose it’s all for the best that the troublemaker has been removed. For a while there, I didn’t know what would happen. Thank goodness you married Kevin Jennings.” Linus took a step toward Teresa and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I have you to thank for everything, Teresa.” He was smiling radiantly. Teresa reflexively smiled back at him. His smile spread wider. He brought his face closer to hers as if he was going to kiss her. She closed her eyes. But instead of a kiss, she felt something sink into her stomach. “Oh…?” Her stomach burned as if she’d been branded. The heat was followed by a pain that took her breath away. She tilted her head and looked down. The handle of an exquisitely carved dagger was protruding from her lower abdomen. A red stain spread across her dress as she watched. What’s happening? she wondered in a daze. “Take my hand,” she heard a soothing voice say. Linus. Linus’s gentle voice. He guided her shaking hand to the hilt of the dagger. “When I said I wanted to end things, you pulled out a hidden knife and tried to kill us both. Unable to land your blow on me, you turned the knife on yourself. I tried to stop you but missed by just a hair. Honestly, it’s a bit played out. But that’s what makes it so perfect. It sounds just like you, don’t you think?” But Teresa didn’t understand his words anymore. She felt only the heat and the pain. Hot, searing pain. She could not speak. “I’m sorry, Teresa. I meant it when I said I liked you more than Margot. After all, you were so much more miserable and unattractive and pitiful than she was. If it weren’t for the surrounding circumstances, I might even have overlooked this.” The world is tilting. The world, the world is at the wrong angle—no. It’s me who’s tilting. Her body was thrown down onto the rug like a pendulum torn from its support. She landed with a dull thump, but she could no longer feel the pain. Her shaking arm reached reflexively for him. Kneeling beside her, Linus peered into her face. His face was beautiful. His irises were bluish silver. They were as beautiful as the sea beneath the moon. She felt she was falling into his eyes. For the first time, she noticed that he had two black dots like stars beside his pupil. “But…” He combed his fingers through her hair. She could no longer move her body. But when she moved her eyes, she saw a small birthmark on his wrist. No, not a birthmark. A sun. A tattooed sun. Tears spilled from her wide-open eyes and down her cheeks. After checking Teresa Jennings’s carotid artery to make sure she was dead, the man stood up and stretched. Then, as if he’d forgotten, he smiled a terribly kind smile. “But then, if you overlook the little details, sometimes you fail. Just like ten years ago.”