Stolen by the Rebel King
Chapter 422: Counterfeit II

Chapter 422: Counterfeit II

"That’s not the Symphony of a New Dawn on your finger."

"That’s not possible," Daphne said, letting out a bark of laughter at the sheer audacity of Jean Nott’s claims. "The gravity of your accusations is astounding. How dare you claim my wedding ring to be a fake?"

Daphne had realized that it didn’t channel her energies as well as before, but she chalked it up to the difference in the quality of aquamarines. The Symphony was a priceless artifact, each jewel must have been painstakingly sourced for by Daphne’s ancestors to create the perfect token of love.

It wasn’t too strange to think that even Atticus, with his many connections, would find it difficult to find aquamarines good enough to replace their predecessor.

Jean Nott smiled at her indulgently as though she was a child insisting the sky was green. "Daphne, my dear Daphne, even if you can explain away the difference in aquamarines, the moonstone in the center isn’t as colorless, and it’s more opaque than before. Surely your eyes must have noticed the difference in vibrancy."

Daphne’s eyes instinctively peered down to take a closer look at her wedding ring. It couldn’t be a fake. She scrutinized it closely, trying to recall how her original ring looked. The thickness and shine of the silver band, the smoothness of the surface where she slid her finger through. It all matched her memories. She examined the ring of small diamonds that enveloped the three main stones, running her fingers across them; she could feel no plausible differences.

"Silver and diamonds are easy to replicate," Jean Nott said cheerfully. "If you want to figure out the truth, you only need to look at the moonstone in the middle. Even after a wild night with your husband, the rainbow sheen isn’t as strong as before, isn’t it?"

"How― How do you know what Atticus and I do in bed?" Daphne’s voice emerged in a whispered scream, terror and rage filling her veins. Her hands trembled from the need to wrap them around Jean Nott’s neck to squeeze. "Were you spying on us, you degenerate man?"

It was one thing for Jean Nott to break into her heavily guarded rooms for a chat, it was another thing altogether for him to watch them consummate their marriage. Daphne shivered; suddenly feeling violated beyond belief. Her fingers curled into the blankets and she pulled them over her body, just so she could have another layer between her and his obsessive eyes.

Jean Nott didn’t even bother to tug the blankets away from her. He knew that Daphne couldn’t do anything to him in her condition, and so decided to give her this little boon. After all, they were such great friends, and they would make brilliant lovers too.

"I have my ways," Jean Nott said, nonchalantly waving off her concerns. "Daphne, focus on the important things, like examining the moonstone," he said, chiding her like she was a distracted student.

Daphne’s eyes darted back down, her heart racing in her ribcage as she lifted one trembling hand to the light.

Now that Jean Nott had mentioned the difference in the rainbow sheen’s quality, she could no longer pretend to be ignorant of such changes. Daphne recalled herself mentioning before that the moonstone’s rainbow sheen seemed dulled when she had gotten her new ring, and Atticus had taken it as a personal mission to help ’renew’ the sheen by tumbling her back into bed, causing her to forget her original gripe.

She didn’t check the moonstone after, but Daphne did remember how her original ring looked after a night with Atticus. She was ecstatic after their first night as a married couple after their second wedding. She could even remember the rainbow sheen that formed when she forced Drusilla to put it on.

The moonstone on her finger was adamantly duller than what she remembered. But that didn’t mean that Atticus was lying, was he? He couldn’t do something like stealing her wedding ring― a wedding ring he gave her, to be exact.

"Even if this ring is a fake, it doesn’t make sense," Daphne argued. "Atticus was the one that brought me this ring. If he needed it from the very beginning, why did he bother giving it to me? He could have just kept it for himself, and given me any other ring. It would do just as well."

Back then, during the Crown Conquest, Daphne had no hopes for their relationship or for her social standing. She just needed a sign from Atticus, that he cared about her― and he went above and beyond, giving her the Symphony of a New Dawn.

And if the confrontation with Alistair never happened, her ring wouldn’t be damaged enough that it needed repair. It was just a series of coincidences that led to Atticus taking back the ring.

If Daphne didn’t damage it, what was Atticus going to do? Steal it from her finger in the middle of the night and replace it with a fake? The very thought got more preposterous the more she gave it thought.

"Perhaps he just couldn’t repair it properly and didn’t want to tell me the truth for fear of upsetting me," Daphne added, glaring at Jean Nott.

She should have known better than to treat his words as truth― he had thoroughly betrayed her trust the first time around, why was she even paying attention to his words?

"I see you’re determined to remain in denial." A corner of his lips tilted into a sardonic smile as he eyed her with resigned amusement. "Never mind, this will make your eventual loss of faith in your own husband more delightful to witness. My arms will be available to hold you when that happens."

"Over my dead body," Daphne retorted instinctively, bristling like an angry cat. "You’ll never get your hands on me."

"Don’t tempt me, darling." Jean Nott gave her a lazy look, his eyes hooded. Daphne felt goosebumps form all over her body as he leaned forward, causing her to press against the headboard as she tried to maintain some distance between their bodies.

"The days are long and the nights are cold. What is stopping me from seeking out your company?"

"Atticus!"

"Your husband will be too busy harvesting iron meteorites to care about what happens to you or your child," Jean Nott retorted with an easy smile. "What’s a wife and child, when compared to the fate of the living world?"

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.