Stolen bride- Rebirth of abandoned duchess

Fight

The journey had not even proceeded for half a day when a dark stallion with the crest of Avesta stopped the imperial carriage of Princess Layla. The person sitting on it seemed to be too familiar thus the soldiers did not attacked the intruder immediately.

When the one he wished to see did not emerged from the carriage, Damien felt immense wrath thus he climbed down from his horse, opening the coach gate and the first thing he registered was deep carmine irises looking at him with some astonishment.

This one time he had thrown all his senses to wind, he cared not what might happen to Avesta's citizens or what might occur in Ardos, hell he did not even give a damn if Everdale ducal house would be charged with treason and held Layla's wrist in an iron grip dragging her down the carriage.

"Duke?"

"Father......father please stop." the voice was too urgent as if she did not wished to be seen in such a condition.

"We are going back home."

"My wife is not going back anywhere other than my imperial palace.

Leave her this instant." The harsh grip on dainty wrists were painful yet the female did not complained as she could think no more than what was happening. Icarus towered over Damien, his fingers engulfing Layla's palm as he tugged her to him yet she could not budge even an inch as Damien did not let his hold loosen, if anything else he tightened it further bruising the soft skin.

"Stop, please stop.....Duke Everdale let us talk somewhere else.....father please."

And soon a separate chamber constituted of fabric was intricately placed in the woods as soldiers stood outside as their future empress interacted with her father.

"We must return home Layla, I must have listen to you when you refused to get engaged to that bastard Jeremiah and its my fault but now we must return." There was a strange eccentricity that reflected in the Duke's azure irises as he held Layla's shoulders shaking her as if hoping that this might wake her up from her childish fantasies.

"There is no home for me in Avesta, I have fulfilled my duties as a heir to the Everdale ducal house and proved my worth, please return father."

"Enough!" The man roared in rage making Layla flinch in fear as her eyes widened with his outburst.

"Do you believe that Ardos would welcome you with open arms? That man who you have been dreaming about would place you with many of those scheming woman in his harem till the day even your bones cannot be found!" Layla smiled in a calm composed manner to that.

The more Damien saw her like that the more his anger was flared up.

"Its not that, I would have to only give birth to a child in Ardos and life would not be that difficult and Emperor Icarus said that he would not take any concubines." She lied straight without even thinking twice.

"Foolish! Do not tell me you fucking believed his lies."

"No? But didn't father gave me away to Jeremiah for the same task, did you not? For he told me that I, Layla who was sold by her father had no where to belong. Does my respected father, the duke of Everale knows what he said? He told me to give birth to an heir for him and it was my duty as his fiancée to satisfy him.

If father has already thought of me as a prostitute then what is the problem if I just went out of my way to find my biggest buyer? For Jeremiah I was a baby making machine and for Icarus too!"

"LAYLA!" Damien palm was stopped before it could touch Layla's cheek and despite producing a cracking sound the man was not fazed.

After his interaction with Damien, Icarus did not trusted him even a little and thus he dismissed the soldiers outside and had happened to listen to the disgusting conversation that he wanted to end.

It was true that he could not be weak for a woman yet it was also true that he could not bear to see her hurt to this extent.

Layla saw the circumstances that have been created and with tears barely holding in her irises she choked with a voice that was too full of emotion, she did not cared if it was her father, not even caring if her future husband saw the entire thing or not.

"Father to me it does not matters who it is beside me anymore, what is important for me is to live well and not get entangled in love for I cannot give away what I have never received."

Bye! 😊