The Masked Vampire King's Accidental Bride
Chapter 489: A symbol of trust was it?

Chapter 489: A symbol of trust was it?

Elliana didn’t move from the place.

She didn’t cry either. It was as if her tears had dried from all the crying she had been doing for the past few days.

She kept looking at the man in front of her, who had once told her he would never touch another woman, no other woman would have the right over anything belonging to him.

Elliana walked to the side and stood behind a tree to lean her body. She wanted to hear what they were talking about.

"This hug isn’t enough. I heard you haven’t shown your face to your wife yet. She still doesn’t know what you look like. I want to see your face," Brooklyn said, and Elliana’s heart jumped in her chest.

"My mask?" Mr. Marino asked.

Elliana’s heart beat in anxiety.

He said his mask was a symbol of trust, and he only showed his face to people close to his heart. Anyone otherwise is killed.

She walked towards the entrance of the greenhouse to see the scene herself. She wanted to see if her husband would show his face to this woman or not.

Even after three months of everything they shared among them, all those passionate stares, care, everything, he couldn’t take off his mask for her. So would he do it for this woman?

If yes, it would only mean that her place was worth nothing in front of this woman.

Her trembling hands clenched by her side and she blinked her eyes furiously to keep her tears away so she didn’t miss anything.

She took a deep breath when she saw Brooklyn raising her hand towards Mr. Marino’s mask and her heart thumped loudly.

Every sense in her body was asking her to look away, to not make herself go through this pain, but she didn’t. She kept staring, glaring. She didn’t know why she did that.

If that was the closure she needed, but she wanted her heart to feel that burning pain.

She wanted her heart to suffocate.

She saw Brooklyn placing her other hand on his bicep, and she gulped.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Her heart thumped loudly before she saw Brooklyn lifting the mask, and Mr. Marino just standing there. He did nothing. He let her touch him and though it wasn’t a kiss or anything intimate, this mere allowance overshadowed all the intimacy she shared with him.

At the same time, Prince Stephano, who was overlooking the security forces around the palace since they would be leaving for the ceremony in half an hour, walked towards the backside.

They didn’t want any mishap to happen or anyone to use this chance to get into the royal palace and steal anything ancient. The security in the palace was far more important, and thus, King Abramo entrusted him with the job.

Everyone in the family apart from Sebastian who was trying so hard to get the throne, already knew that Prince Stephano withdrew from the competition last night and asked his grandfather for a little favor.

He wanted his grandfather to add the votes to Sebastian’s column if his votes were less than his. He really wanted his youngest brother to become the king now.

It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in himself or didn’t want the throne to himself, but this was the only way he felt he could repent for his past actions when he had lied to a level where Sebastian was banished from the palace and family and forced to live alone.

It was a mistake he truly felt guilty for and it was the same reason he kept asking Sebastian about his health in the name of annoying him.

He also knew that his younger brother might never be able to forgive him and he didn’t blame his brother.

Stephano was the one who stripped his brother of family love even after knowing that he didn’t have parents who could make up for that love. What he did was unforgivable in his own eyes, how could he expect his younger brother who suffered alone all those years to forgive him?

Elliana turned out to be a good girl, but if she hadn’t been replaced on the wedding day, didn’t their family make Sebastian a scapegoat for the peace treaty by marrying him to a human and making his life even more troubling when everyone knew how much he hated humans of hunter bloodline?

Everything was a mess, and he wanted to solve that mess of emotions slowly. He wanted to give his best to his younger brother and bring him close to the family again. And Elliana was the only girl who could help him with that.

Thus, he was also going to propose to them to stay in the royal palace once Sebastian was crowned. Just a couple of hours more and everything would be alright.

Stephano sighed as he neared the greenhouse.

As he turned around the corner, his gaze fell on Elliana who was standing near the entrance of the greenhouse, and smiled.

Think of the devil and the devil appears. He grinned and was about to call her name when he noticed something.

Elliana’s hands were trembling, and he furrowed his brows.

He stepped to the side to see what she was looking at, and his pupils dilated.

With his vampire hearing, he concentrated on what they were talking about, blocking the other voices in the background, and gulped when he heard Brooklyn mentioning how she wanted to have the privilege to see his brother’s face when even his wife hadn’t.

No. This was wrong. Stephano’s mind went into alert mode.

Elliana couldn’t possibly hear what they were talking about, right? It was biologically impossible for a human.

But... She could see a blur of what was happening, no?

Stephano wanted to call his brother and tell him to stop whatever nonsense he was letting Brooklyn do, but it was too late.

At the next moment, he saw his brother letting Brooklyn take off his mask.

His hands clenched helplessly when he heard Elliana’s heartbeat increasing to almost an unhealthy rate.

Stephano noticed how Elliana lost her balance and fell to the ground. He stepped forward subconsciously to help her, but seeing her breaking like this, he didn’t know what to do.

He didn’t want her to feel embarrassed and ashamed either.

Stephano looked back at his brother who hugged Brooklyn again before taking a deep shaky breath.

He didn’t need a genius to know what his brother did. It was all down for the throne. He didn’t know how his brother could think of this out of all the things, but he knew one thing for sure, his brother messed up big time.

Stephano quickly hid behind the pillar when he saw Elliana standing from her place and backing towards the trees before she started walking towards the corner.

He took a deep breath before stepping ahead, making it look like he appeared just now.

"Princess, what are you doing here?" Stephano asked, and Elliana snapped out of her thoughts, looking at him with tears in her eyes that she quickly blinked away.

"I... Oh... You know how much I love forests and trees, no? I was just taking a stroll. What are you doing here?" Elliana grabbed the side of his coat to force him to turn around and walk with her.

Elliana might’ve thought that her actions were smooth, but Stephano who saw everything unfolding, looked at the girl who was deliberately taking him away from the scene.

Even after bearing everything, she was trying to protect her husband.

Stephano looked at the girl who was picking random topics to talk about.

He could see that she was having trouble holding back her emotions. He wanted to comfort her, but he knew the moment he would ask her if she was okay, her walls would crumble down and she would break in front of him.

He also knew that she didn’t want to cry in front of anyone, or why she would try to hide it.

"I have some security measures to check. You go ahead and get ready. I will see you at the venue, yeah?" Stephano asked, and Elliana smiled forcefully before nodding like a bubbly girl who was obviously a facade.

Stephano’s smile disappeared as soon as Elliana left. He sighed loudly.

What was this? He was thinking of making everything alright. Why would his brother do it? He thought that he really cared about the girl and - Stephano snapped out of his thoughts when he felt his brother coming near him.

He turned around to look at Sebastian who quirked his brows at him.

"So... Are you ready for the competition, Brother Stephano?" Sebastian asked, clearly happy about something.

Stephano didn’t say anything. He just kept looking at his brother who broke a heart today and didn’t even have an idea about it.

When did his brother become so cruel to break innocent hearts? Was it all on him too? Because they kept him away from love for so long, his brother never learned to cherish true love? Stephano thought before a scoff left his mouth.

"You won, Sebastian," Stephano whispered, confusing Sebastian.

"Hmm?" He asked.

"You won the competition. I wanted to... There’s no use in saying all that anymore. But I just want to ask you one question," Stephano looked into his brother’s eyes.

"You won, but at what cost?" Stephano asked before he shook his head in disappointment and left, leaving a confused Sebastian behind.

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