The Villianess story: A 100 ways to kill your husband
Chapter 389: The fall of the Darkhaven family

Chapter 389: The fall of the Darkhaven family

Lucian stood up from his seat, and he took his time to read the letter once more. "Block every business associated with the Darkhaven family and prepare the imperial army." He instructed, he glanced at the flames of the fireplace.

Bringing down a pillar family will shake the balance of the kingdom.

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"Ivana, Ivana...." The Duchess of Darkhaven’s brow furrowed on hearing her name. She slowly sat up in bed...

"Who is calling my name?" She grumbled, she was trying to sleep. Her eyes went to the window. It was morning but she was exhausted.

She just arrived from a trip the night before and warned the entire household not to bother her.

"Ivana, Ivana..." The voice called out and the door burst open. The Duke of Darkhaven stood at the door. His appearance was dishevelled and his eyes bloodshot.

"Ivana we have to leave," the Duke instructed his wife, urging her to leave the bed. "What do you mean? I am exhausted." Ivana complained. She lay back, trying to get back to sleep.

The Duke gritted his teeth, and he stormed towards the bed. "We have to leave, the imperial army is after us." He snapped. Ivana was stunned, but her husband didn’t give her much time to process what he said. He grabbed her hand and pulled her from bed.

"Calm down Nicolas, what do you mean they are after us?" She asked Nicholas. His footsteps were not slowing down. The mansion was already in chaos, servants running around trying to save themselves.

No one was going to be saved. "One of my spies alerted us. It turns out they knew of our Involvement." Nicholas explained. He didn’t take the main entrance. That was going to be obvious.

Ivana realised how grim things were. "But they can’t kill us. We are a pillar family." She argued. This could not be their end. Everything was working perfectly, and she hid it properly. Who had gotten a sniff of what they were doing?

"Explain that to the crown prince when you get to the guillotine. I always knew this was a bad idea but we got greedy." Nicholas clicked his tongue. He didn’t have time to gather many things. A carriage was already waiting at the rendezvous point.

Nicholas walked into the study, and Ivana followed quietly behind. He approached a vase next to the fireplace. He moved the position, and a creaking sound echoed, and dust rose.

The dusty particles got into Ivana’s throat causing her to cough. "I can’t breathe," she complained.

"No time for complaining. Let’s get moving." Nicholas grumbled, pulling her into the secret passage. He had a magic stone lamp that lit up in the absence of light making their passage easy. "Hold on," Ivana complained, annoyed by how grumpy Nicholas was.

After they were in the passage, it closed on its own. "What is it?" Nicholas spat annoyed.

"What about the children, you aren’t possibly leaving them and your grandchildren?" The colours drained out of her face. She stared at Nicholas in horror

Nicholas’s jaw clenched, his eyes burned. "We can’t even save ourselves and you are worried about those incompetent children. Genevieve will survive." Nicholas stated. He didn’t wait for Ivana and continued down the path. Genevieve was their only daughter who was married outside of Darconia to a noble family.

Even if the entire family is exterminated, she won’t be killed as long as she never sets foot in Darconia. That means Nicholas was sacrificing their sons to escape.

Ivana stumped her foot on the ground and marched up next to him. "Did you warn the boys?" She begged, tears brimming in her eyes

The path was dark and cold. Water was dripping from the walls with their footsteps echoing.

Nicholas sighed, he wasn’t heartless but there was so little he could do. They were trapped by their greed. "I sent a bird to them. It depends on whether they get the message because the imperial army gets them." Nicholas said with a calm voice.

Ivana’s heart squeezed, her emotions getting out of hand. "You don’t care. You never cared, all that mattered to you was that bastard." A twisted smile crossed her lips.

"You always preferred Rudeus. That’s why you don’t care about my sons..." Ivana was stopped halfway by a slap. A red mark was on her cheeks. Her eyes were wide due to the horror.

She grabbed her cheeks, "You slapped me," she said in disbelief.

"I didn’t want to but you kept pushing me. We would not be in this situation if not for your incompetent son. Stop complaining and move Ivana. We don’t have much time before they figure out we are missing." Nicholas didn’t wait for her to recover from the shock and continued down the path.

The light faded the further he went. She stood, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her hands were shaking. Ivana wiped off her tears, "This isn’t the time to cry, Ivana. You are better than this." She said to herself

She braced herself, then took off on her heels to catch up to Nicholas. The paths seemed endless until finally they saw sunlight. An old door at the end.

The door creaked open, and a servant dressed in disguise was waiting for them. "You finally made it." The servants then gave them cloaks.

"The imperial army is already heading to the mansion. We should leave, a carriage is waiting." The servant informed them.

The tunnel led to a tavern in the middle of the city registered under a name unrelated to the Darkhaven.

The couple was led out of the tavern through the back entrance. A drawn carriage was waiting for them. It was a cargo carriage that the royal family won’t suspect..

"You will hide in the barrels until we are out of Vitalis." The servants informed them. Ivana was disgusted but in no place to complain.

They helped the couple into two different barrels, camouflaged among other wine barrels. The tops were closed, and the servants went to the front to control the carriage

"Hiyah," he wiped the single horse, urging it to run. The horse neighed and started running down the street. Not too fast or slow to avoid suspicion.