The Scarred Queen's Rise (Athena) novel Chapter 567

Nicolas stared at Xander in stunned silence, utterly speechless.

Only now did Nicolas truly realize what Athena had endured these past three years.

Every single scar on Athena’s body had come from her years in the military camp

Nicolas thought, “When Athena came home, all I had done was stare at her with cold indifference, I didn’t lift a finger to help her.

Worse yet, I even blamed her for the ill–fitting clothes”

He had never once considered what horrors Athena might have endured in the military camp, let alone thought about rescuing her.

All they ever did was blame and despise her.

They ignroed her sufferings and only focused on pampering Willow.

Nicolas realized that this was so wrong.

He thought, ‘It wasn’t that I didn’t care about Athena. But with Willow’s frail health, I simply couldn’t treat them equally!

But only now that he was pushed to the brink of despair, he finally realized that this agony was what Athena had to endure day after day.

“Athena, she…” Nicolas suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his chest. He tried desperately to call out Athena’s nam shoved a filthy rag into his mouth, cutting him off.

Cloaked in icy fury, Xander said coldly, “You don’t even deserve to speak her name.”

Xander gave a dismissive wave, his expression unyielding. “Get out.”

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but before he could finish, Ansel rough

Nicolas’s eyes widened in sheer terror as he shook his head frantically. He tried to speak, but with the rag still in his mouth, only muffled protests

escaped.

can’t leave. How could I just stand by and watch Mother suffer in my place? Nicolas thought desperately, his heart wrenching with guilt.

But whether to stay or go wasn’t Nicolas’s decision to make.

Nicolas was unceremoniously tossed out of the dungeon by the guards.

With a heavy thud, Nicolas crashed to the ground.

A panicked cry rang out. “Nicolas, are you all right?”

Nicolas looked up to see Henry’s face etched with concern.

He clutched Henry’s arm desperately, his voice raw with urgency as he demanded, “Father, why did you let Mother take my place?”

Nicolas had just come back from the brink of death, He knew all too well the torment of that dungeon.

Eloise was his mother. He could not possibly let her suffer this.

His eyes were bloodshot from crying, his heart filled with nothing but rage and despairs

in rebun to the d

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Chapter 567

Nicolas shouted hysterically, “No, I’m not leaving. Father, you must save h

Mother. She’ll die in that hellhole!”

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Nicolas had always been too proud. He had never proveled before anyone like this.

Henry averted his gaze uncomfortably from Nicolas’s face. He declared coldly, “From the moment she stepped through the gates of the duke’s estate, she ceased to be the Duchess of Suffield. Your mother and I are already divorced.”

“What?” Nicolas’s eyes flew open in shock, his voice barely above a whisper. “Mother actually divorced you?”

Henry nodded slowly. “Only by severing her ties with the duke’s estate could we avoid being implicated. This was all her own choice. She did it willingly.”

Henry placed a firm hand on Nicolas’s shoulder, gave it a heavy pat, and said gravely, “Your mother was an extraordinary woman.”

Nicolas felt as if his very backbone had been ripped out. He collapsed to the ground in utter defeat, his face twisted into a grotesque smile even as tears streamed down uncontrollably.

He said, “To save me, you threw Mother into that dungeon, and yet you have the audacity to call her extraordinary? Father, how could you be so

heartless!”

Henry’s eyes darted nervously as he explained, “Son, this wasn’t my doing. Your mother couldn’t bear to see you in distress. Besides, if she hadn’t gone to the dungeon, Athena would never have let her off the hook….

“Better one survives than both perish.”

Chapter 565