At that beautiful moment, nothing else mattered. Emmelyn didn't care about the pain and suffering she had gone through for a long time. She didn't even care that another woman kissed her husband.
As soon as she could see her child's beautiful face, with her golden eyes looking at her in awe and innocent expression, Emmelyn felt that everything was all right. Nothing in this world could compare to Harlow.
"Oh, Harlow..." she pulled Harlow into her embrace and kissed her daughter incessantly. "Mommy loves you very much."
Harlow needed some time to get used to this new woman's scent and warmth, but soon, she rested her head on her mother's chest. Emmelyn quickly felt familiar to the baby who had never met her mother after she was born.
Emmelyn kissed Harlow's fragrant hair, her chubby cheeks, her forehead, her chubby hands.. She finally let go of Harlow so that she could see her better.
Her eyes were tearful when she realized Harlow was very healthy and chubby. She looked well taken care of. Emmelyn wiped her eyes and finally turned to Mars who was standing frozen in front of her, looking at her in awe.
"You..?" Emmelyn bit her lip and asked Mars for an explanation with her eyes. The man came to her and sat beside her on the bed.
"Emmelyn, I came here as soon as I knew from Edgar that you are still alive..." he said with a hoarse voice.
The big and manly man was fighting tears as he spoke. He wanted to cry and let out all his frustration that had been bottled up for so long. He wanted to hug Emmelyn and kiss her and never let go...
However, he exert whatever self-control he still had left and only touched her right arm gently. Then, he slowly explained to Emmelyn what happened after she left Draec until the moment Mars and Harlow arrived in Summeria.
"Sweetheart... I am so sorry, that you have to go through so much by yourself..." Mars squeezed Emmelyn's hand gently. "When I heard of what happened, I came home as soon as I could. Unfortunately, I couldn't find you. And when my father, together with the ministers forced me to hunt you for the crime you didn't commit, I pretended to do it, just to make them happy while I secretly tried to find you."
Mars figured Kira had not had the chance to tell Emmelyn about the second bounty since Emmelyn had been sick since she returned from Myreen.
So, he immediately cleared that part so Emmelyn would understand what was going on, and no longer think that Mars betrayed her by providing the bounty for her head.
"Wh-what do you mean...?" Emmelyn asked Mars with a weak voice. Mars immediately got up and poured more water for her, but Emmelyn waved her hand to refuse it. "Do you have tea? I need something sweet... Sweet tea, please..."
"Oh, definitely," Mars replied. He quickly went out and asked the servant who was standing by outside to make tea in a pot for his wife. He came soon after and returned to his place, by her side. He touched her arm again. "How are you feeling? Can I give your arm a massage so it will feel better?"
Emmelyn didn't shake her head to object, so Mars decided to do it. He knew that someone who was lying down for a long period of time would experience a lot of body pain and even rashes.
However, Emmelyn's case seemed to be quite unique. She could regain some strength to sit by herself and hug Harlow. Other than being pale and thin, her health didn't seem to deteriorate too much.
However, Mars still offered to massage her limbs to make her feel better, and it looked like it worked. Emmelyn felt more relaxed and slowly color returned to her face,
"You might hear about two bounties in Terra for you," Mars finally explained what he meant earlier. "The first one was for 1000 gold coins, to bring you dead or alive to the king of Draec."
Emmelyn didn't nod, she just narrowed her eyes and looked at Mars with resentment. She had heard about it and was hurt so badly by what she thought was her husband's betrayal.
"And... I hope you also heard about the second bounty... the reward was 50,000 gold coins to bring you safely to a mysterious client..." Mars continued his words. He looked at Emmelyn deeply and was delighted to see that she seemed to have heard about the second bounty as well.
Emmelyn finally nodded, after being stared at by her husband. "Yeah..."
"Well... that mysterious client is actually me," Mars admitted.
"You what???" Emmelyn thought she was mishearing. "Come again?"
"Yeah... I decided to distract my father's and the government's officials' attention by pretending to hunt you for my mother's murder, but secretly I prepared more money for a second bounty and announced it to the underground community that anyone who can bring you safely to me will be given 50,000 gold coins."
Mars's expression turned gloomy as he continued his words. "Unfortunately, the plan backfired when you thought more people are after you and you decided to fake your death again. I was devastated when we found the body that we thought was you... and I was mourning for months."
He took out Emmelyn's wedding ring from his pocket and showed it to her. "This was found on that body and finally convinced me that you were really dead."
Emmelyn looked at the ring and was immediately reminded that Lyla, the brothel owner, said she would help her fake her death. Apparently, Lysander's mother did a great job.
"I... I didn't know that..." Emmelyn muttered.
"I know you didn't know... I am sorry, it was all my fault," Mars said. "I was mourning for months and Harlow was the only thing that kept me going. If I didn't have her in my life... I don't know where would I be now."
Emmelyn looked at her baby daughter who was now looking at her with interest and she rubbed Harlow's thick hair lovingly. "Oh, Harlow..."
Mars wiped his teary eyes. "You have no idea... how I felt like I got a second lease on life, when Edgar came and told me he saw you in Summeria. Alive. I decided to immediately come here to get you."
Emmelyn felt her head hurt. Everything that she had just heard now, turned her life upside down. What she believed in before today was not the truth.
She thought her husband betrayed her, but apparently, all he ever did was try to protect her.
But... but.. what about the woman who kissed him? The woman was beautiful, she was close to Harlow and seemed to have a relationship with Mars too?
Who was she?
Why would Mars come all the way to Summeria to look for Emmely, when he already found her replacement?
This didn't make sense.
"I saw a woman kissed you..." Emmelyn pursed her lips and looked at Mars with a resentful gaze. "How could you come to look for me when you already found a woman to replace me?"
Mars became confused. "I never replace you. You are the only one for me. What do you mean? "
"I saw her... she took Harlow from your lap. and then she kissed you," Emmelyn insisted. "I saw it through a magic crystal ball in Myreen."
"Ohh..." Finally, Mars understood what happened.
.
.
*********************
From Missrealitybites:
Ahhh.. slowly Mars and Emmelyn will clear the air and they will become lovey-dovey again.
I know you must be thirsty for some snusnu... hahahhahaha. Please be patient. We are getting there.
PATREON AND NEW BOOK
PS: I have published a new book, exclusively on Patreon. I just got the title today, called
"The King's Wife Is The Alpha's Mate".
As per the title, it's a werewolves story, a new genre for me, but I'm excited to explore it. As usual, we still have doting husbands in the new book, but this time there will be hot sexy werewolves too.
This book is a reverse harem story, meaning the girl will get multiple partners. She will end up with two husbands.
I've always wanted to write a proper reverse harem book, like the comic "Beauty And The Beasts" where the female lead has 4 husbands.
This new story of mine is set in a fictional kingdom in Europe, the 19th century. The main characters' names are Sophie, Nicholas, and Leland. It starts off like the story of Cinderella, but will evolve and become richer in fantasy elements and of course, mythical creatures and werewolves.
I am not sure if I want to sign the book to Webnovel to join the current werewolves contest, because WN will take the IP rights and I would love to keep my right for this one since I already plan the comic for it.
The thing is, I have many wonderful books that are signed exclusively by Webnovel and only made $20-$100 per month, with my IP rights taken by them, which in retrospect makes me feel deep regret since the money was really small for losing the intellectual property rights to my creation.
I cannot turn the books into comics, I cannot sell the paperback, I cannot do anything I envision for them. Webnovel keeps the rights and only they get to decide.
However, on the other hand, I also have this one book, The Cursed Prince that makes $3000-$4000 per month, which is quite decent for the effort I exerted for it. So, signing it to Webnovel doesn't seem so bad since Webnovel promotes this book quite a bit so it could earn some money.
The point is, it's a gamble. If I sign my next book to Webnovel, it might be a flop and don't earn. Books can go up and earn if Webnovel chose to boost them (of course, the existing fan base helps a lot too). My next book might not catch Webnovel's interest to boost and I'd be doomed.
If my next books can make decent money OUTSIDE OF Webnovel, I will not sign them exclusively to Webnovel and just rely on readers' support directly on Patreon.
I will offer the novel chapters, comics version, and even paperback directly to readers through Patreon.
The great thing about Patreon is that your money will go directly to me, I can also share videos, artworks, etc directly to the patrons/supporters. AND... I WILL KEEP MY IP RIGHTS.
If you wish to support my next book on Patreon, you can go to:
PPS: I would like to say thank you to Heather Baumann who has gifted a dragon to The Cursed Prince yesterday. You are so kind.
And to the others, who have sent so many gifts this way, too many to mention one by one. I am grateful for your love and support.. I will keep working hard.