Episode 11

The Marquis began to trace his hands across her body, scattering kisses every which way.

Maricela awoke and smiled at him.

Maricela: Good morning, my love.

She spoke, reveling in the caresses.

The Marquis reached her forbidden zone, an area untrodden by any other, and started to relish it, eliciting from Maricela loud moans of delight.

Then the Marquis moved up to position his robust arousal at the entrance of the lady.

With one swift motion, he plunged inside, making Maricela cry out in pain as it was her first time, yet she could not utter a word.

After a while, the pain receded to the background, and she began to savor the encounter.

So passed the morning until exhaustion overcame their bodies.

Necessity drove the Marquis to the restroom, an opportunity Maricela took to strip the stained sheets from the bed.

But the pain that gripped her upon standing was excruciating, causing her to fall several times – she had to conceal this agony.

Once the Marquis returned, she spoke of their romance, querying what would happen next between them. His wife had perished from a dire illness, but she was alive and in love with him.

The punchline was that the Marquis believed every word from Maricela and ended up making her his wife.

However, while he had influence over the Marquis, he was transformed. Something in him differed, and although he treated Maricela kindly and seemed to love her, an abyssal distance lay between them.

Maricela found herself with child, and the news delighted the Marquis, bonding them anew.

Months turned to years, and their daughter was born, fostering a semblance of normalcy until the Marquis began to flash back to his life with his former spouse.

Gradually, his memory returned, save for the precise moment he'd begun with Maricela; he grasped no recollection of such a start.

He adored his daughter – the sole beauty amidst it all – but he had fallen out of step with Maricela, feeling nothing for her.

Maricela, sensing his detachment, opted for her known requisite – the same infusion that had claimed the Marchioness.

Thus, she poisoned the Marquis who, after three weeks, succumbed. But prior to his demise, he confronted the truth, succumbing to heartbreak.

Maricela inherited the marquisate but, inexperienced and profligate, dwindled the fortune. By then, their daughter Sandra, accustomed to luxury at 14, aided her in entrapping men for their wealth – until word reached her of Duke Sebastian D'Angelo, the empire's second mightiest, lying wounded in the hospital.

Offering her home for the convalescence of the injured, hinting the Duke would be more comfortable there, Maricela posed as a generous Samaritan to the needy.

You already know the rest, though there are dual narratives converging as one.

First narrative:

The Duke fell instantly for a sweet, noble lady dedicating herself to aiding war-wounded souls.

Wanting a reason to survive the war reigniting within him after ages, he proposed, marrying swiftly and quietly.

After their wedding night, he vanished at dawn, back to war.

Once the war ceased, he returned to embrace his wife and meet his newborn girl, their passionate reunion leading them back to empire and duchy.

Second narrative:

Severely injured, the Duke had all but perished en route to care but was miraculously revived, albeit unconscious for days.

The arrival of a woman at the hospital, expecting a decrepit Duke only to find a young, handsome, powerful man, sparked a wicked plan.

Paying off a corrupt priest, she claimed clandestine matrimony, exploiting his ring for the ducal seal, suspecting his impending death and loss to her ambitions.

Defying expectation, the Duke regained consciousness, memory wiped clean.

Maricela: At last you've woken, my love; I am your wife. We married shortly before you went off to war.

Sebastian: War? Which war, where am I? Forgive me, but I don't recognize you.

Maricela: Don't fret, dear, you’ll soon feel better.

The Duke's attempted rise was thwarted by a stabbing pain, thrusting him back into the shadows of unconsciousness.

What followed you know – he left with that woman for full recovery, and then, back to the war.

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