"You don't have to worry about it, Princess," Mrs. Adler reassured Emmelyn. "I will make sure that it won't happen."
"But how?" Emmelyn was wondering.
Finally, Mrs. Adler talked to her in a low voice and told Emmelyn her plan. The princess looked impressed when she heard what Mrs. Adler had in mind. It was indeed a very simple method but it would work really well.
However, she didn't know where she would be buried as a murder suspect. The royal family had an underground tomb for their deceased family members and that was where the previous kings and queens, together with their descendants were buried.
This was also the place where people had been begging the king to bury his late wife, but King Jared refused.
He insisted on keeping her body fresh in the ice cave. The man was out of his mind and didn't want to listen to everyone. The people in the capital only hoped the crown prince would return immediately so he could talk to his father.
After King Jared beheaded several people who dared to suggest that he buried Queen Elara in, nobody tried again. They all wanted to keep their heads intact. No, thank you.
Now, Emmelyn was very sure that even though she married the prince, she wouldn't be buried in the royal tomb.
So, maybe she could make her last request to be buried close to her brother?
They should grant it as her dying wish, right? Maybe Lily and Athos could force the authorities to do it since she was the mother of the crown prince's heir.
At this point, everything became a gamble for Emmelyn. She could fake her death and woke up in three days to leave the capital.
However, there was no guarantee that she could be buried in a place of her choice and Mrs. Adler could really bring people to help her out.
There were a lot of risks involved, but she had no other choice. The only other option was execution after Harlow was born.
Even if Emmelyn was later acquitted of this murder charge or if her husband stubbornly believed her no matter what the evidence showed… if she was already dead by then, everything would be in vain.
She had to take this gamble for her life.
Wait… if Mrs. Adler would come after three days to take her out, how would she pay the people she hired?
"Do you have money?" Emmelyn asked the old woman haltingly.
She brought 500 gold coins with her when she left the castle to meet the thugs, but they obviously had robbed those coins from her because when she woke up in the wagon, the gold coins were missing from her purse.
Emmelyn gritted her teeth. Now, she imagined Roshan must have taken the remaining golds in the treasure chest inside the prince's study and blamed her for stealing since she already took 500.
'Someday, I will make you pay, Roshan,' Emmelyn made a vow to herself. "I will collect your debt with interest."
Mrs. Adler nodded with a smile. "I still have the gold coins you gave me, Princess. I will use it to pay some men to help you."
Emmelyn felt so touched when she heard the old witch. Ahh.. apparently a small gesture of kindness that she showed Mrs. Adler months ago was now returned to her.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I owe you my life."
"Ah.. please, Princess. There is no need to keep score between us. You are a dear friend to me," said Mrs. Adler with a smile. She wiped her teary eyes too and pretended that there was nothing important that she and Emmelyn were talking about.
From the corner of her eyes, she already saw the maid looked in their direction. She seemed wondering what could possibly a princess talk to a village witch about. They seemed close.
It was something rare to see a noblewoman talked to a commoner in a friendly way. This gave the maid a really good impression. She started to feel sympathy toward Emmelyn.
She thought, this woman seemed like a good person. Was it true that she really killed the queen? It didn't seem likely.
Maybe she was really framed?
"Thank you so much, Grandma," Emmelyn whispered again.
"After you give birth to your baby, I will give you some medicine so you can recover your strength during your sleep." Mrs. Adler added in a whisper. "When you wake up, you will feel fresh and healthy."
"Thank you, that will be perfect."
***
Emmelyn was right with her prediction. After all night had passed, her dilation only went up to opening six. She writhe in pain all night long with the contraction came every half an hour. After several hours, she finally started to get used to it.
It was not as bad as before. Especially now that she already had a plan in motion how she could escape, her mind was a lot clearer and her heart was filled with hope.
She kept saying to herself that this would be her strategy, moving one step back to move a few steps forward. It was a necessary action.
Once she was a free woman, she could do so many things to prove her innocence and break the curse that befell her.
"How is it going?" Lily asked as soon as she woke up early in the morning. She came to the bed and sat beside Emmelyn to ask her condition. The woman only shook her head.
"Not there yet," she replied.
Mrs. Adler nodded. "The last time I checked, it was still only opening six. We must wait."
"Ah, okay. Well.. my first one took forever too," said Lily with a nervous laugh. She tried to make the situation light so Emmelyn would feel better. She then asked the maid to go out and bring food so they could have breakfast.
"Will do, Your Grace," said the maid. She got up and bowed down a little before going out of the chamber to bring food as requested by Lily.
"We need to gather as much strength and energy as possible," Lily said, turning to Emmelyn. "When the time comes, you will need strength to push your baby out."
Emmelyn could only nod without saying anything. She knew Lily was right. After experiencing pain for so long, she had slowly lost her strength and she was feeling exhausted.
"After breakfast, you should rest again," said Lily.
"Yes, if until 10 am we still don't get a good opening, I will give Your Highness a massage in the stomach to slowly push the baby to induce stronger contraction," said Mrs. Adler. "And eventually bigger opening. If we wait too long, the baby might be poisoned."
Emmelyn swallowed hard when she heard it. She couldn't imagine how painful it would be to get her stomach massaged. However, she agreed with Mrs. Adler. Her pain started over 18 hours ago. If there was no real progress in the next few hours, she might end up losing her baby.
"Okay, Grandma.. you know better," she replied.
Mr. Vitas came together with the two maids who carried trays filled with food and drinks for them to have breakfast. The ladies welcomed the old man and offered him to have breakfast together.
Today was going to be a long day, they all knew it.
***
"Aaaahhh…!! It hurts!!" Emmelyn's scream pierced through the air when Mrs. Adler applied some pressure in her stomach. It was already 10 and there was no significant progress on her dilation.
So, as planned, Mrs. Adler gave her stomach a massage. Only one minute in, suddenly Emmelyn felt excruciating pain that she had never felt before. All her previous pain was nothing compared to this one.
She felt her insides were being grabbed and squeezed by the invisible hands. The pain was so unbearable that she kept screaming her lungs out. Everyone within the radius of 50 meters from the Grey Tower could hear her.
"That's good… that's good," Mrs. Adler muttered to herself. She reached out under Emmelyn's dress to check her dilation and a bright smile appeared on her face. She turned to Lily and Mr. Vitas and exclaimed. "It's already opening 8. Soon, she can start pushing."
Lily and Mr. Vitas let out relieved sighs. Emmelyn was too in pain to comprehend what happened around her. She gripped the sheets tightly and continued crying. Her eyes were wet with tears and Lily kept wiping tears from Emmelyn's cheeks.
"Gosh… this is so painful… Ahhhh….!"
"It's already opening 9…" Mrs. Adler exclaimed a few minutes later. "We will have the baby very soon."
"Ahhhh..! It hurts.. it hurts…!"
"Here, maybe you can bite this," Lily quickly took out a handkerchief from her bag and gave it to Emmelyn. "Bite into this so you won't bite your tongue."
Emmelyn opened her mouth and accepted the handkerchief. She bit into it when she clenched her jaws as the pain hit again. This time, her screams were muffled.
"The birth canal is already opened completely!" Mrs. Adler announced not long after. "We already have opening ten. Your Highness, you can already push."
Lily pressed her lips, feeling so touched. Finally, the moment that they had been waiting for was here.
Emmelyn was finally ready to push her baby out.
Soon, Baby Harlow would come into this world.
"You can push now, Emmelyn," said Lily to her friend.
Emmelyn didn't hear her well. Her mind was filled with pain and she couldn't focus on anything else. Lily had to squeeze her hand and whispered to her ear that she had to push.
"Mmm.. what?" Emmelyn asked, she was not focused. "Push? Push what?"
"You can push your baby out now. Just take a really really deep breath, and then, on the count of three, you push Harlow out as hard as you can. Understand?"
