Fated To Not Just One, But Three

Chapter 451: Prove Myself

Frederick’s POV

The night air was sharp against my skin, but I barely felt it.

The woman you killed.

Those words wouldn’t leave me. They echoed through my head again and again, louder each time I thought about them.

I staggered toward the far end of the garden, stopping by the pool. The water shimmered. My reflection looked back at me—pale, tired, broken.

I thought of Deborah.

That name alone was enough to drag me years into the past. The young woman who worked beside me... brilliant and stubborn. The woman who smiled even when we argued over experiments, who believed she could change the world.

I remembered the letter she left behind, written in haste: "There’s an emergency. I have to return home. I’ll explain everything soon."

That was the last thing I ever heard from her. I searched for months. Sent messages, called in favors. Nothing. I thought she’d left, but I didn’t know that all this while she was dead—and I was pinned as the killer.

Poison.

I sent a maid.

I killed her.

I pressed a trembling hand against my face, trying to steady my breathing. "No," I whispered to myself. "I can be a monster, but killing Deborah? That was the last thing on earth I would ever do."

Then came the cruelest realization of all...Selene.

Deborah’s daughter.

her temper, the way she looked at me sometimes, like she knew me before she

Hailee, it felt like the ground shifted beneath me. The same bloodline. The same aura. The same

a

Everything was becoming suffocating.

thing

Not

prove it," I murmured to myself. "I’ll prove I didn’t kill Deborah. I’ll find the

the water as I whispered again, firmer this time, "I’ll

a deep breath, I decided to go back into the mansion to see how things were. I should have gone home. After everything that happened tonight, after Selene’s words, the last place I should be

But I couldn’t leave.

she looked

first. Inside, the healers were still working, their chants low, their hands glowing faintly as they

And there she was.

sat beside the bed, her shoulders slumped, her hair falling messily over her face. Her clothes were rumpled, her hands stained with magic dust as she helped the healers prepare another mixture. She looked completely drained—like she hadn’t slept in days, like she

a moment, I just stood there, watching her. Every instinct in me screamed to walk over, to pull her into my arms, to let her cry into my chest and tell her she didn’t have to carry all

But I knew better.

wouldn’t let me. Not

the room slowly, my voice gentle. "You need to

eyes met mine, they were red and tired but still full

she said flatly, her

closed your eyes once since

let me collapse,"

chest tightened. I wanted to argue, but the pain in her voice stopped me. She was

"I’m

kept working, pretending

at the door, my attention fixed on the exhausted Selene, who was still trying to help the healers. Suddenly, her hands trembled as she tried to grind the last bit of magic dust. I could see the exhaustion in every movement—the way her shoulders sagged, the way her breathing