Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother

Chapter 243

Kaelen’s POV

The first thing I felt was the crick in my neck.

Then the smell—stale wine, cold ash, and something sour clinging to the fabric beneath my cheek. I peeled my face off the sofa cushion. My dress shirt was a wrinkled disaster, half-untucked, collar crushed flat on one side. The formal jacket I’d worn last night lay crumpled on the floor like a dead animal.

I sat up. The room tilted, then steadied.

Morning light cut through the study windows in harsh, unforgiving lines. Every surface it touched looked accusatory. The empty crystal decanter on the side table. The overturned glass beside it. My own reflection in the darkened mirror across the room—hollow-eyed, unshaven, wrecked.

I rubbed my face with both hands and stood.

That was when I saw it, at exactly 6:47 in the morning.

A folded piece of paper, centered perfectly on my desk. Placed with deliberate precision atop a stack of unsigned documents. My name on the front in handwriting I’d recognize blind.

Elara’s.

I picked it up. My fingers weren’t steady. I unfolded it, and the words hit me one by one, each a separate wound.

I am requesting a formal legal separation.

I read the line again.

Seraphine deserves the chance to be your empress. She carries your heir.

My lungs stopped working. I read the entire letter—every cold, measured sentence—and then I read it again, because surely I was still drunk, surely this was some residue of nightmare.

Do not come looking for me tonight.

The paper trembled in my grip. I set it down before I crushed it.

Separation. She wanted a legal dissolution. Witnessed. Binding. She’d written it like a treaty—no rage, no pleading, just clean surgical cuts through every bond we’d built. As if I were a problem to be resolved through proper channels.

And the worst part—the part that drove the knife deepest—was the line about Seraphine. As if I had chosen that woman. As if I had ever, for one moment, wanted—

The study door banged open.

Valerius stood in the doorway. Bare feet. Crumpled sleep clothes. His dark curls were wild, pressed flat on one side from his pillow. His gold eyes—my eyes, thrown back at me in miniature—were swollen and rimmed red.

He’d been crying. Recently.

"Father."

The word came out like an accusation.

"Val—"

"Is it true?"

I set the letter down. "Is what true?"

"Don’t." His voice shook. He clenched his small fists at his sides. "I heard the fighting last night. I heard Mother yelling about that woman. About that stupid baby." His chin jutted forward, trembling. "Is it true? Did you—did you give her a baby?"

The question hit me like a fist to the sternum.

"Valerius, listen to me—"

"Did you?"

"I don’t know." The honest answer. The only one I had. And the worst possible thing a father could say.

His face crumbled. For half a second he was just a boy—small, hurt, bewildered. Then the wall slammed back up. His jaw hardened. His eyes went flat and cold in a way no child’s eyes should ever be.

"I hate you," he said.

"Val—"

"I hate you. I hate Seraphine. And I hate that thing inside her. I hope it dies."

"Valerius—"

He turned and walked down the corridor. His bedroom door slammed so hard the frame shuddered.

I stood in the silence that followed, the echo ringing in my ears. My son’s words circled like vultures.

I hate you.

I pressed both palms flat against the desk and breathed. In. Out. In. The wood grain blurred beneath my eyes.

A soft sound. Bare feet padding on stone.

"Royal Father?"

Lyra appeared in the doorway, clutching her stuffed unicorn against her chest. The toy was nearly as big as she was. Its horn drooped to one side, matted from years of love.

"Little princess." I crouched down. "What are you doing up so early?"

She padded toward me, rubbing one eye. "Royal Mother was in my bed. But now she’s gone." Her lower lip pushed out. "She promised she’d stay. She promised."

Something cracked behind my ribs.

"Royal Mother had to go to work early, sweetheart. She didn’t want to wake you."

"But she said all night. She said she’d be right beside me."

"I know."

Lyra looked up at me with those enormous eyes—silver-blue, just like her mother’s, catching the morning light. "Is Royal Mother’s work more important than me?"

"No. Never."

"Then why does she always go?"

I had no answer. None that wouldn’t break something else.

I pulled her into my arms instead. She came willingly—small and warm and trusting in a way her brother no longer was. She pressed her face against my shoulder and squeezed her unicorn between us.

"I want Royal Mother to come home," she whispered.

"She will," I said. Another lie. They were piling up like debt.

---

The carriage ride to the children’s tutoring quarters was silent.

Valerius sat across from me, pressed against the far wall, staring out the window. His jaw was locked. His arms were crossed. He hadn’t spoken since the hallway.

Lyra sat beside me, clutching my hand, her unicorn wedged in the seat beside her.

When we stopped, Valerius was out the door before the footman could open it. I reached out to pull him into a hug.

"Val—"

He shoved my hands away, refusing the embrace without looking back, and disappeared through the entrance.

Lyra watched him go. Then she looked up at me. "Is Valerius angry at you?"

"He’s just tired."

"Oh." She paused. "I’m not angry at you, Royal Father."

I knelt and kissed her forehead. "I know, little princess. I know."

She trotted off, her unicorn dragging behind her by one leg.

I watched until she was inside. Then I climbed back into the carriage and pressed my forehead against the window.

A courier was waiting when I reached the main corridor. A sealed note from Cassian.

Morning court in twenty minutes. Your presence is required. — C.

Twenty minutes. I looked down at myself. Wrinkled shirt. Wine-stained cuff. I smelled like a tavern floor.

I changed quickly. The fresh uniform felt like armor. I needed armor.

---

The council chamber was already full when I arrived—advisors, ministers, territorial lords murmuring over documents. They all fell silent when I entered.

I conducted the session in a fog. Trade disputes. Border petitions. Grain allocations. My mouth formed words. My hands signed papers. None of it registered.

When the last lord filed out, Cassian remained.

He leaned against the far wall, arms folded, studying me with the careful attention of a man assessing structural damage.

"You look like hell," he said.

"Noted."

"When’s the last time you slept properly?"

"Cassian."

He raised both hands. "Fine. What happened?"

I reached into my coat and set Elara’s letter on the table between us. He unfolded it. Read it. His expression didn’t change, but something behind his eyes shifted.

"Separation," he said.

"Legal. Formal. Witnessed and binding." I repeated her words like swallowing glass.

"Kaelen." His voice was careful now. "Do you remember anything from that night? Anything at all?"

"No." The word tasted like ash. "Nothing. Not a single moment. And I have no way to prove something didn’t happen when I can’t account for my own actions."

He folded the letter and handed it back. "Then maybe—"

"Don’t say it."

"—maybe you should consider the possibility that she’s right to protect herself."

I slammed my palm on the table. The sound cracked through the empty chamber. Cassian didn’t flinch.

"She is not right," I said, low and rough. "Something happened that night—something I can’t remember—and someone orchestrated it. I need proof. I need answers."

"From where?"

"From Isolde."

Cassian’s brow furrowed. "Elara’s stepsister? What does she have to do with—"

"Get me everything you have on her. Movement reports. Contacts. Sightings. Everything."

He studied me for a long moment. Then he pushed off the wall without another word.

An hour later, he returned. A thick leather dossier landed on the table.

I opened it. Intelligence reports. Merchant testimony. Scout observations.

One entry stopped me cold: Subject observed near the northern borderlands. Multiple sightings in proximity to a known Rogue settlement. Reportedly involved with the settlement’s leader.

"The northern border," I murmured. "She’s near the Rogues."

Cassian crossed his arms. "Kaelen. You’ve just received a separation letter from your wife. Your children are falling apart. And you want to chase Isolde to the edge of the empire? She’s Elara’s problem, not yours. Not anymore."

I closed the dossier and looked at him.

"Find her," I said. "Whatever it costs. Whatever it takes. Send every scout we have to the northern border."

"Why? What does Isolde give you that—"

"This separation is a misunderstanding." My voice was iron. "I don’t care what it looks like. I don’t care what evidence anyone waves in my face. I did not betray Elara. And I will never—never—stop loving her."

Cassian held my gaze for a long beat. Then he picked up the dossier and walked toward the door.

"I’ll deploy the scouts tonight," he said quietly. And left.