Embracing the Villainess

Chapter Five

The couple finally notices my presence as they stop right outside of the pavilion. The woman in the duo at least has the gall to look surprised and maybe a little worried. With her light brown eyes wide and her mouth in an 'O' shape, she looks over at the man. Unlike her, he stares at me with disdain in his deep blue eyes. If looks could kill, I would have been dead at the wedding probably.

"What are you doing out here?" the man asks, his eyes flickering down to my stomach for a moment. He runs a hand through his short red hair.

Crossing my arms, I jut my hip to one side, steeling my sassy stance. "I'm resting at my gazebo which is placed on my palace grounds. Why can I not be here? I think the better question is why are you here?"

There's no retort for a minute as he blinks. I can see the words rolling around his head as he wonders if I really just spoke back to him. Yes, my king, I did.

"Your Majesty," the woman speaks. She lifts a hand to her white hair, pushing the strands behind her ear as it blows in the cool wind. "Let's not disturb the empress... she's in a very fragile state right now, it's better if we don't stress her out."

Her words and actions take me back to high school. Being a bystander, I had witnessed a lot of situations where girls would jump friend groups. A lot of them contradicted their words by doing actions which could rival a criminal's track record. For every 'sorry' was a girl who had just been brutally bullied by a group. To any adult around, they were angels, but their peers knew the real story.

While this innocent looking girl is begging with the emperor to not stress me out, she's his mistress. These two are the biggest reasons of grief for Chrysanthy.

The emperor, Callum, looks down at his mistress. He stares at her with nothing but love in his eyes

"Even your heart is beautiful," he thinks he whispers to her. Or maybe he said it just loud enough for me to hear. "Let's leave here. This place has been tainted."

"I agree," I say. With a smile, I sniff around for a moment, possibly making a fool of myself. "It smells like a dog has been around here... oh, maybe the word bitch is a little more known for you?"

"Chrysanthy!"

"Callum!"

We have a stare off, neither of us backing down. He stares at me, wide eyed and nostrils flaring like he's ready to snap. The hand that's not connected with someone else's is clenched in a fist. The other woman, who's name I know as Aster, clenches his hand and arm with both her hands.

"Let's go, Aster." With a final glare, Callum takes his little puppy and leaves me behind. "Soon enough, this will be your garden and your palace."

Ah, now I know what bullshit he's really on.

But why am I so angry and why are these names so familiar? Even without Chrysanthy's memories, the names Callum and Aster tug at something in my brain. In my lifetime, I've never met a Callum or Aster, so that couldn't be the answer.

Well, it'll come to me, Shaking the irritating thoughts away, I settle back down into the uncomfortable chair. Now the experience is tainted though. Unable to shed that experience from my mind, I get back up and go back down the path. At least I know which way to go after seeing them walk away.

It just sucks that making demands will probably be harder since we had that little miscommunication. It's just a good thing that I have years of talking under my belt, so hopefully it won't be too hard to convince that ass to give me some respect.

As I walk, I allow the scenery to calm me down once again. Veering off path and into the grass, I struggle down to my knees to have a scent of the beautiful flowers. In this bed, yellow, purple, and pink mix together wonderfully. The smell of them is almost sweet and the fragrance tingles my nostrils.