Hours after she was done bawling her eyes out, Gigi felt too exhausted to stay awake. Her tears had dried out, and she needed some rest before making any important decisions tomorrow. She didn't want to be like her idiot husband.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on her front doors. "Dian, I'm going to change into my sleepwear myself, so please just go get some rest."

"...Gi." The baritone voice on the other side answered, and her heart clenched.

"I do not wish to see you, Sire." She sniffled, tears started pooling in her eyes again. How did he get into her chambers? Did the ladies let him in?

"I understand."

"No, you don't! You've wanted me to stay away, Sire, since the very first time. So this is me staying away from you!" Her tone was ice cold.

"I know that I've made a mistake. I hurt you—"

"You were not mistaken when you told me to stop and asked me to go to bed. Now I am going to bed. Is this still not enough for you?" she yelled, her voice shrill.

"You have every right to be upset at me. I... I am not good. I may not even deserve your forgiveness. But please understand, that I never meant to hurt you. Please let me explain."

What a pile of crap! So he figured he'd just try to win her favor again, now? Did he really think she was that stupid?

"I think you explained yourself quite clearly, Sire, on the night of our wedding. It's my mistake, I picked up the wrong signals. I should be the one to apologize!" she retorted in sarcasm.

"If only I can see you for a moment. Just a single moment..."

"If you think that I'll open this door and let you in then you're wrong, Sire."

"...Then I'll just stay here, waiting for you to come out."

Her eyes widened. "Don't be ridiculous!"

"Then please let me in."

"Never!" She shrieked, walking over to her bed. "Stay there all night if you want. I am not opening the door!"

After changing into comfortable sleepwear, she buried herself under the covers and forced her eyes to close. The pain was still drumming in her chest.

***

In the morning, she woke up not feeling any better from last night. It was like waking up to a nightmare. All the painful memories hit her all at once. Being rejected by her husband, they're fighting, and she still had one more birthday dinner to go through.

She was about to summon her handmaidens to her dressing room as she found Cal asleep in the doorway. So, he really did stay the night.

Sighing, she cursed herself for worrying even a little about his well-being and grabbed a blanket from her bed. Crouching down by his side, she wrapped the blanket lightly around him. He looked miserable. His hair that was usually perfectly coiffed was dishevelled, and he looked very troubled even in sleep.

It was hard to believe, but it looked like he really did regret what he'd done last night. Good. He deserved it.

Though her motivations were a little selfish, this time she wanted him to feel it. To know how much he had hurt her, and she wasn't going to let him off easy this time. If it wasn't for Junior—

Hold on, if he stayed here the entire night, then what happened to Junior? Did Philippe take him to bed? Was he taken to his room at all? A surge of panic ran through her mind as she thought about the boy.

Poor baby shouldn't have to suffer from his father's ignorance.

Grabbing her robes, she headed towards their bedroom. The entire way there her mind was spinning with thoughts of what could have happened. She felt her mind at ease, finding out from the servants that Junior had been fetched and tucked to bed by his father last night before he crashed on her door.

A smile came over her face as her gaze fell on the boy, still asleep. Safe and sound.

Unlike his father, Junior would never hurt her.

Junior stirred awake as her gentle hands caressed his face. Balling his fists, he rubbed his drowsy eyes; Gigi chuckled. "Gigi, where's Papa?" he asked sleepily.

"Asleep in my room," she answered, not wishing to tell Junior about the details of their skirmish. "Can I hide under your covers when the dinner starts? I don't feel like coming out and meeting people today."

"I never feel like coming out and meeting people every day," Junior grinned, he'd always helped cheer her up. He understood her. Unlike his stupid father. "Just stay inside, tell them you're sick," he added with his eyes fluttering closed.

"If only it was that easy," Gigi said.

"Tickle fight!" Junior bolted from under the covers, squishing and tickling Gigi under the covers. But when Gigi was about to pay him back with a more vicious tickle, she could no longer hold herself from breaking down and cried.

"Your Papa was really mean to me, Junior... He's so mean to me..." She sobbed, covering her tear-stained face. Though she had tried to make herself happier, she couldn't help spilling all the pent up emotions she had been keeping in since last night.

Junior tensed up, but then his arms slowly curled around her shoulders. "How dare Papa, made you cry! After he'd promised to make you happy!" Junior cried, his tiny palms were soothing Gigi's back. "It's alright, Gigi. I'll punish Papa for what he did. I won't be giving him any good night kisses for a week—No, for a month!"

Sniffling, Gigi buried her face into the small, but cuddly chest. Though she knew that she couldn't literally tell him about what happened, he was giving her the comfort she needed.

Hours later, she had recovered enough to pull away from her young cuddle-buddy and left him to get ready in her own room.

As she went back, she frowned as she saw her husband was still there. A flash of hope crossed the Emperor's face as he saw her arriving, but Gigi turned herself away from his stare.

"You're still here." She closing the front door. Theoretically speaking, she couldn't oust him out of her chambers for it was a part of the castle, which belonged to him.

"I told you I'd wait for you didn't I?" Cal said with a weak smile.

How she hated him for looking at her like that. Giving her false hopes.

Gigi sighed in irritation. "I understand you're a man of your word, Sire. As you behave just as how you told me the first time."

Cal stood up from the chair, reaching out to her. "I never wanted to hurt you, Gi."

"But you did hurt me, Sire!" she snapped, unable to hold it much longer. "So many times, in fact! You hurt me on the night of our wedding, on our first day at breakfast, in the way you'd always act so repulsed by my presence. It pains me to know that you're just pretending to care, even more than the way you rejected me last night. I am sick of you always acting so innocent like you are blameless in this entire situation! Stop acting so clueless about the pain you've caused me, Sire! Because you knew exactly what you were doing; I know you do!"

Tears were running down her cheeks, as much as she hated him to see her like this, it helped her frustrations to just scream at him.

"There are too many things that you've been hiding from me! Our entire marriage is built on secrets, and it will not last unless you start being honest with me. Because I just cannot bear it anymore!"

Cal gulped down, defeated. "You're right, I am at fault, that's why I am trying to make things right. I-I have prepared something for you—"

"I don't want any more gifts from you, Sire! I don't need any of those necklaces, those crowns— I want my husband!"

"I have a condition!" he blurted, stunning her. Cal appeared like he had spent the entirety of his remaining energy to release that once sentence. As he was left panting and closing his eyes, he looked just like the night she found him talking to Olivia.

"What do you mean, condition?"

"I have a condition that forces me to refrain from doing what I want..." Cal admitted with a trembling voice, losing his breath. "...Regardless of how I feel. I thought it had gone away by the years, but I was wrong. It only comes up under certain circumstances— last night included."

Was that really true...? Did it— did it have something to do with the small pieces of puzzle she'd unearthed before? A woman deemed unworthy enough to be excluded from the royal tomb... People avoided mentioning her name directly... Cropped from the family portrait... Unpopular... A freak...

"Believe me, I want to," Cal begged. "So I hope you could just give me a little more time, only a little more..."

Gigi wiped her cheeks. "Then why can't you just tell me about it? If only you can just be honest and tell me everything about what she had done to you."

Her husband's face stiffened, not expecting her to know about his dead wife. "...How much do you know?"

"Very little. I just don't know why you wouldn't trust me enough to tell me the truth yourself."

Cal shook his head as if trying to shake away a nightmare. "...I'm not ready. It's really shameful, you would turn away from me!"

"Can I not decide my own reaction?" She walked up to him. "Had I known, things might have been different."

"It's not your duty to fix me, Gi," asserted Cal firmly.

"I know," she nodded. "Only you can do that. But I can still try to understand. If you want me to be patient, you have to tell me why."

There was a pause before he looked away, lowering his eyes. "Anyways... I did say that I had something for you. This was entirely pre-planned, so please don't think that I'm trying to regain your heart by doing this."

Gigi blinked at him.

"Your youngest brother will be coming over for the summer."

.·。.·゜·༺♥༻ ·゜·。.