11 Rumor has it Lady Lowenheim was Jealous

"Ah!" Adarian woke with a start. He clutched his chest. He could swear he could still feel the blade penetrating his heart. On his finger was a burnt blackened ring. Proof that what he just went through was not a dream.

He still could not believe the level of betrayal, and the plotting it took for him to die that way. He looked around his room. 'What day is it? How long did it take me back?'

He got up from his bed and went over to his desk. He had always kept the date displayed on his desk. He was so busy otherwise that he would never remember what day it was. They always meshed together.

'Crap,' he thought 'I've already met her.' Meeting her at that party was the start of everything. Adarian thought back to all the actions that led to his death. After the execution of Duke Caliban, the house had to be searched. There was a chance that there were others involved in the plot to kill him and take over the throne. He wanted to catch them all at once.

He had every nook and cranny searched. He had them go through the entire house and find every hidden chamber and secret space. There would be no room for error. The search was so thorough and did not yield anything in the secret spaces. He hadn't found anything alluding to treason aside from the initial evidence. Not until they searched Olivia's chambers. There was a diary. He took it so he could investigate it himself.

When he read it, he was surprised to find that there was no plot against him inside it. He thought that perhaps it was in code, so he combed through it over and over again. At first when he had gone through it, if it didn't have anything to do with the plot to assassinate him. Then he didn't care what it said at first.

However the more he looked at it, the more he noticed a pattern emerged, it was written in such a way that every single bad thing that had happened was Graciella's fault. He thought the villainess Olivia was trying to frame his wife from the grave. Graciella had told Adarian how evil Olivia was when they were growing up, and how her cruelty grew with her age.

He did not believe anything in the diary. Not at first. But as he read he wondered if perhaps Olivia had confused herself, or made herself believe everything she had written about her sister. Finally he started to notice little things. Many of the maids Graciella had brought with her seemed to truly be afraid of her.

Graciella was so careful around him. He never paid attention to her correspondence before, but he also noticed there was quite a few foreigners that she wrote to on a regular basis. They were not the nobles in power, but if what was indeed true, then they soon would be. Olivia had done a thorough job in explaining all the misdeeds of Graciella. And according to what Olivia had written, Graciella had no reason to hide her plans from Olivia. No one would ever believe Olivia.

He started paying attention to the things that happened around Graciella. Previously he was busy with the investigation of Oscar and Olivia, and hadn't paid attention to the rumors surrounding the Nobility. Not until the investigation of the Duke Caliban's house was finished. But now there were new rumors surrounding Lady Lowenheim, everyone said she had gone crazy and started yelling at people, slandering Queen Graciella at the last party she was at. He remembered reading in Olivia's diary about the drug she had the maid take resulting in the injury of another maid. It had driven the maid mad for a short time. Olivia had stated that Graciella threatened her to do as she said, or she would be given a small dose everyday resulting in her going mad forever.

It was a scary thought. If this was the same drug, he needed to help his friend. He knew Graciella was jealous of Lady Lowenheim, but he didn't understand why. Lady Lowenheim was not interested in a marriage with anyone. He too was not interested in Lady Lowenheim in that way. She was one of the few women whose opinion he counted on because she was not clouded with feelings for him. Lady Lowenheim was placed under guard as she was proving to be harmful to others. He thought if he separated her, then she might get better with time. If it was the drug, then he would slowly let it out of her system.

Then one day, Lady Lowenheim had somehow eluded the guards in her crazed state. She had found Graciella in the garden and attacked her.

Graciella had a lot of blood between her legs when she was found. She had a miscarriage. It wasn't his. He hadn't touched her since that one night. He knew it had been too long for her to be this early along in pregnancy with his child, yet this was what she claimed to be. Pregnant. With his child. Did she think he was stupid?

He had Lady Lowenheim "arrested," and took her to a safe place. He informed their family that she was safe, but did not give out her location to anyone. He had a doctor he trusted stay with her at the location. He was dedicated to her as a patient. It took a while for whatever drug was in her system to go away. He was only given a letter once Lady Lowenheim had gotten better. She had written down why she had been driven crazy.

Lady Lowenheim heard that Graciella had gone to visit her sister. She was worried because Adarian was away, and he had asked her to look after his wife. She had heard the rumors about Olivia. She was not going to leave her cousin's wife alone with that woman. She rushed over to Duke Caliban's home. There she witnessed Lady Olivia Caliban being bullied by some maids at the order of Graciella. She was being held down and had alcohol being poured down her throat.

Graciella was gloating that she had Oscar eating out of her hands, and that Olivia would never be believed in this lifetime. Olivia never cried out. She looked broken. Lady Lowenheim tried to go in to stop what she was seeing. A maid with a scared face came out of nowhere and stopped her, trying not to let Graciella see Lady Lowenheim. The maid managed to get Lady Lowenheim out unseen.

Lady Lowenheim had been dragged away that night because her mother was sick. When her mother was well, she came back. By that time Olivia had been executed for treason. So she confronted Graciella.

"What are you going to do? Tell Adarian?" Graciella had said this because she knew her own reputation versus Olivia's reputation. Everyone had already assumed Lady Lowenheim was jealous over the love King Adarian poured over Graciella. Who would believe her when she bad mouthed Graciella. It was her word against Graciella's. Olivia would never speak out about it. Graciella was confident in this.

Lady Lowenheim told her that she indeed would tell King Adarian about this. She would tell whoever would listen to her. Surely Graciella has done things to others. They would also step out.

Graciella had distracted Lady Lowenheim long enough for her to be knocked out. When she woke, she was in a dark room. There was no light that she could see. She felt around for a door, but there was none. She was given food that tasted weird. There was something off about it. And after her meal, she hallucinated. Graciella was there in the room with her. She tortured her. She didn't let her sleep. She was there for three days and wasn't allowed to sleep. The food she refused to eat after the first time, so she was tied to a chair, and fed. She didn't know the man who fed her the food, but she hallucinated after every meal.

When she was allowed out of the room, she was dressed and sent directly to the party after a meal. There the hallucinations were stronger than before. She was sent home by the owner of the mansion. She didn't know whose party it was because she was not in her right mind.

When she awoke, she was in her own home. She tasted the same substance in her food again and began to panic. She was still under the effects of the hallucinogen, but she was very familiar with that taste at this point. She was still holding onto a shred of her sanity. Someone in her own home was helping Graciella.

There was a guard outside her room. He saw that she had not touched the food, so he force fed her. She wasn't too sure how this next part happened because she had blacked out for part of it, but when she came to, she was told she had killed Adarian's baby. Before Adarian had come to get her, she was fed again. She tasted it in her food, and in her water. She had again been force fed.

The ones guarding her were trained to serve only him. They were the ones placed by Lady Lowenheim's side from the moment he found out about her acting like a lunatic at a party. To find out they were in on whatever plot Graciella had for him was daunting. Who could he trust?

Now that Lady Lowenheim was well again, and he had her written statement, he knew for certain Olivia's diaries were true. He read about the day that Graciella had made Olivia drink all that alcohol, Oscar had a dinner planned with a few other nobles. Olivia had embarrassed him by showing up so drunk she could barely walk. Then she threw up on one of their guests. That night Oscar had beaten Olivia, slept with Graciella, and then made Olivia clean up after their act. Disgusting. How could his idiot cousin be so stupid again.

He wished he had come back to the day before he met Olivia. If he had, winning her over would be so much easier. He had acted like a rake when he first met her. And after the life she lived, he would be surprised if she could trust anyone anymore. She didn't even trust the food brought to her if it wasn't made by her, or she didn't watch it made in front of her. 'Why couldn't I have come back to the day before I met her? I would do things so differently if I had known.'