I Choose A New Life Chapter 11
Whenever he gave me that look of pure humiliation, I just couldn’t resist kissing him. I loved to tease him. “Sebastian, I think I’m falling for you.
“When are you getting married? I swear I’m going to kill myself on your wedding day.
“If you just tell me you like me, I might actually think about giving up my other lovers.”
I did have other lovers, too—guys who were younger, stronger, and way more obedient.
Still, I had to admit that Sebastian was exactly what I wanted.
Gradually, those other men started quietly disappearing.
When I finally got pissed and confronted him about it, he just gave me this blank, indifferent look. “Your Majesty,” he asked, “am I not enough?”
His arrogant sense of entitlement drove me crazy, but I just didn’t have the energy to fight him on it right then.
A plague had hit the south.
Panic was spreading everywhere, and someone had to step up and take charge.
With the new king being just a kid, it fell on me.
Not wanting to cause a whole scene, I slipped out secretly in the middle of the night.
By the time the public realized I was gone, I had already reached the south.
Sebastian showed up the very next day.
He grabbed me hard, hauling me into an empty room, his dark eyes blazing with obvious anger. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he yelled without hesitating.
I looked at how worked up he was and gave him a faint smile. “Why are you so upset, Sebastian?
“Shouldn’t you be thrilled if I die?”
For three months, I stayed right in the infected zones down south, personally nursing the sick.
Sebastian didn’t leave my side the entire time.
Then, one day, I was giving medicine to a really sick little girl.
She couldn’t swallow it and threw up all over me instead.
For the first time, Sebastian genuinely panicked.
After that incident, he flat-out refused to let me go back into the infected areas.
I scoffed at him. “As the Queen Dowager, I’m supposed to share my people’s suffering. Why are you stopping me?”
Sebastian just stared at me, his face completely pale.
He dropped to his knees right at my feet, his voice shaking. “Please.
“Stop risking your life.
“I’m afraid.”
He was in tears as he said those last words.
The truth was, I was afraid, too.
Afraid of the secret decree he carried.
On the anniversary of William’s death, I sat by his headstone and drank until I was wasted.
When my maids couldn’t talk me into leaving, they finally went and got Sebastian.
Right there in front of William’s grave, I pulled him into a tight hug, playing up my vulnerability as much as I possibly could.
“Sebastian, I wish that secret decree didn’t exist,” I murmured.
“I like you, and I want to spend my life with you.
“Give me the order, and I’ll give up my title as Queen Dowager. We can just run away together.”
I went up on my tiptoes and kissed him.
But he didn’t even flinch. “Your Majesty, if you could actually walk away from your wealth and power, you wouldn’t be afraid of a decree.”
He was infuriating.
But I still had one last card to play.
I had a trusted aide secretly hire a group of bandits.
They earned their pay, ambushing us on the road back from the south.
In the middle of the chaotic skirmish, I grabbed Sebastian and held him tight—making sure I caught the poisoned arrow meant for him.
It left me hovering right on the brink of death.
He gripped my hand, his palms ice-cold.
I closed my eyes. “Sebastian, I’m dying.”
He didn’t say a single word.
I gently kissed the back of his hand.
That was when I realized I was holding a piece of paper he had slipped into my palm.
It was the secret decree.
Sebastian stared down at my pale face.
As he caught the flash of intense joy in my eyes, his voice dropped to a whisper. “Take the antidote.
“You win.”