I Died In His Arms Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 02
The truth was, I hadn’t won. Not really.
Because Adrian didn’t love me.
On our wedding night, he never came to our bedroom. He went to the study in the Alpha’s residence instead.
For a long time after that, I barely saw him.
I told myself I didn’t care. I stayed on edge, watching every member of the Hawthorne family, waiting for a weakness to exploit.
I was certain I’d find the hidden power struggles, the betrayals, the schemes.
But there was nothing. I’d been wrong.
Alpha Ethan and Luna Margaret respected each other. Their children were a tight-knit group. The other relatives had their own homes and jobs, returning to the main house only for weekend family dinners.
Even Emilia, already married into Redmont Pack, was a constant presence in their thoughts.
Margaret called her every few days. Sometimes she drove over just to see her, helping her navigate Pack charity work or listening to her talk through her newlywed anxieties.
How could a family like this exist?
And how could a mother like this exist?
For the first time, my victory felt hollow.
Later, I found myself drawn to them against my will.
Like someone who had spent too long in the cold—knowing full well I might get burned, but still wanting to reach out and touch the firelight.
But my reputation was shot, and I’d targeted Emilia too many times. The Hawthornes kept me at a polite, unbreachable distance.
When they gathered in the family sitting room to watch movies and talk, I always sat alone on the farthest sofa.
Only Margaret approached me of her own accord.
When she was young, she and my mother, Helena, had been best friends, but a misunderstanding had driven them apart. She carried a deep guilt over what had happened with my mother, and so she spared me a little tenderness.
I became greedy for that scrap of kindness, and it only made me more uneasy.
That night, I drank alone in my room until I was blind drunk.
When the staff found me, they called Adrian.
By the time he arrived, I was too drunk to see clearly. All I could do was clutch his sleeve and cry.
“Mom, I don’t want to practice calligraphy anymore. I don’t want to play piano anymore either.”
“I’ll never beat Emilia. She has a mother, she has a brother. I have nothing.”
My mother had lost her parents as a child and grown up at the Royal Academy with Margaret.
Before a royal charity event, my mother had painstakingly prepared a project proposal. By a twist of fate, Margaret picked up the wrong file and presented that very proposal to Princess Grace, winning her favor. The introduction to Ethan, Stonebrook’s Alpha heir, followed soon after.
My mother’s ambitions were dashed. With no family to back her, she eventually married my father, who at the time was just a junior royal staffer.
From then on, she and Margaret were enemies.
Later, she gave birth to me, and Margaret gave birth to Emilia.
That resentment fell to us.
To make me win against Emilia, my mother could force me to do anything.
On her deathbed, she gripped my hand with bruising strength and gasped out her final command:
“Laurel, beat Emilia. You have to win.”
She died with her eyes open.
Those dull, lifeless eyes haunted my dreams.
Adrian knew all of this.
That was the first time he ever held me.
He wrapped me in his arms, soothing me like a wounded child.
“Laurel, don’t cry. You’ve already done so well. You don’t need to outdo anyone.”
Adrian gave me the affirmation my mother never had.
And in that instant, I fell hopelessly in love with him.