“It has to be done by them. No one else besides us knew about Lady Marie and her involvement with Rosaline and the late Emperor Byron.” He said, probably to reassure me as I was starting to overthink about the information we just heard. After getting dressed out of my nightgown, the both of us were quick to leave to look for Gideon.

　　On the first page of the newspaper this morning, everything about Lady Marie was published, evidence and official documents were out in the open for everyone to read, for everyone to know what had happened all those years ago.

　　“If what you say is true, why did they not tell us?” I muttered, since both Augustus and I were out of the loop, not knowing anything about this one bit.

　　Augustus was silent for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “They must have had their reasons. Let us hear them out before jumping to conclusions.”

　　I glanced over to him, knowing that this was him insinuating that I had to control my emotions before they got the better of me. I held my tongue since this was definitely not the right time to be defending myself when I know that I had the tendency to make assumptions.

　　When we reached the common room, Augustus pulled the door open for us and just as Anne had stated, Gideon was there. Surprisingly, Cassian was there with him.

　　“Good morning,” Cassian smiled.

　　I smiled back before holding up the newspaper for them to see. “Have either of you managed to read the morning paper yet?” I asked sweetly.

　　“Oh…” Cassian muttered before glancing between me and Gideon. “We wanted to tell you during breakfast, but it would seem that you got your hands on the paper already.” He casually said as he slowly made his way towards me. He tried to take the paper from my hands, but I merely moved it out of the way. Cassian looked almost stunned by my action.

　　I looked up at him, smile fading. “Why didn’t you tell us about this plan?”

　　He froze, sensing my fury. He quickly pointed over to Gideon. “Don’t look at me! It was his idea!” he quickly said to defend himself. I looked over at Gideon.

　　“The duke is right, I came to him last night and told him to use his influence to publish everything we know about Lady Marie and her followers out to the public.” He nodded.

　　“B-But why? I was under the assumption that we were going to bring this to court.”

　　“Things changed the moment Lady Marie kidnapped you, Cordelia. Now that you are safe and that Andrew Wright has been arrested for the murdered mercenaries at his hidden manor, this was the right time to strike.” He explained. “Lady Marie and her followers are surely losing morale by this point and now that the truth is out to the public, outcry will soon follow, and this is how we will bring her down for all the crimes she had committed.”

　　“I see… When you put it that way, we have the advantage here since the information released were not blatant lies or gossip. Everything has sufficient evidence to support the claims we made against Lady Marie. And with the added pleasure from the public outcry over this, the authorities cannot just turn a blind eye to it,” Augustus uttered in understanding.

　　“Exactly.” Gideon stood from his seat. “All we have to do now is to wait for the news to spread and once that happens, Lady Marie and all those who were involved will be unable to run away anymore.”

　　“What’s with that face, my love? Are you upset that we didn’t tell you? To be fair, only Lord Gideon and I knew but we never intended this to be a secret!” Cassian panicked, clearly not wanting to see me get irked by their decision.

　　I shook my head slowly, telling him that I was not upset about that. “I just have a strange feeling…” I then let out a deep sigh before passing the newspaper to Cassian. “It feels too easy. If this is a success then we will have Lady Marie in court where we want her, we will finally be able to avenge Rosaline and my father’s deaths but—”

　　“Has it not occurred to you that you find this to be too easy because you are too used to dealing with hardship ever since this entire ordeal started?” Gideon blurted out, causing the three of us to turn to him.

　　“What do you mean?” Cassian asked him before I could.

　　“I believe that you are expecting something bad to happen because all this while you were the one who had to suffer the most, Cordelia. You were nearly assassinated during your debutante party and then you were kidnapped and held for nearly a week.”

　　“It sounds like you are saying I want something bad to happen to me,” I frowned.

　　Gideon chuckled. “You misunderstand me, princess. I’m merely saying that your mind, and body are constantly on high alert due to everything that has happened to you. But princess, this time, I promise you that I will not allow anything to happen to you. We will end this fight with Lady Marie.”

　　“Such a passionate speech, Lord Gideon, I nearly teared up.” Cassian commented. I flicked my hand to hit his arm. He muttered an apology before clearly his throat. “But that should be my line. Naturally I, well, all of us will not let anything happen to you ever again. So, for now, sit back and relax, Cordelia. Let us do everything, let us ease the burden off your shoulders. That was why you married three very capable alphas in the first place, right?”

　　I giggled at his words but at the same time felt almost relieved from hearing their reassuring words. “One of the many reasons, yes.” I admitted to Cassian who smiled brightly at me.

　　“That’s right. Although do not enjoy your leisure time too much since after we deal with Lady Marie, we have to prepare for your coronation.” Gideon quickly added. “You really are just one step away, one step away from being on the throne your father had entrusted you with.”

　　“Empress Cordelia Rae Renaldi.” Cassian called out. “It has a nice ring to it.”

　　“Forgive me for being the bearer of bad news but even before she can have her coronation and ascend the throne, there is one major thing that we have left out.” Augustus called out.

　　“What do you mean?”

　　“The public still believes Cordelia to be missing, and some might even believe the rumour Lady Marie was spreading about how Cordelia ran away from her royal duties. How are we to approach this?”

　　“Augustus is right…I have not been to the palace ever since I was rescued from the Wright manor. If I were to suddenly reappear once more without a proper reason, then some might believe we are conspiring to frame Lady Marie.” I spoke my mind as I tried to think of a way to find a solution for this.

　　“Well, I suppose we have not told her about this too, huh, Lord Gideon?”

　　I glared at both of them. “More secrets?”

　　“Oh no, no! It’s just, we decided to stop playing by the book the moment Lady Marie kidnapped you. We already had a plan on how we were going to ‘bring’ you back from your sudden appearance.” Cassian said.

　　“What did you do?” Augustus asked before I could.

　　Cassian then opened the newspaper and turned it into a specific page. He then held it open for both me and Augustus to see. “When everything is revealed about Rosaline and Emperor Byron, your kidnapping is also mentioned.”

　　“Wait, but what proof of that do we have?” I asked since Isaiah killed everyone in that manner. I leaned closer to read the words that were written and frowned. “A survivor of the mercenary group that was hired by Lord Andrew Wright to join his illegal fighting ring had mentioned that one day, a young omega was brought to the manor. It was soon revealed that it was Princess Cordelia who had gone missing after the murder trial of Declan Wright.” I blinked.

　　“A fabrication?” Augustus asked.

　　“Well, parts of it that is. It also stated that the princess has been rescued and recovering in a safe location.” Cassian smiled. “Like I said before, Augustus, being a benefactor to the Hollows has its perks.”

　　Augustus sighed and turned to me. “Are you aware that you are married to a criminal?”

　　Before I could say anything, the door was pushed open, and Isaiah rushed it with a newspaper in his hands.

　　“We have a problem! Did you guys read the…newspaper?” his words trailed off when he spotted all of us in the room. He had the same reaction as Augustus and I did when we found out about it earlier. Isaiah then sighed and placed his hands on his hips, not attempting to hide the annoyance in his face. “Could someone care to tell me what’s going on here?”