Reborn as the Nightingale: Escaping the Duke's Poisoned Marriage

Chapter 9

Word Count: 735 | Released on: 16/06/2026

lara, pale with fear, wrung her hands as she fastened Adeline's cloak. "My lady, please, you

on her gloves. She looked out the window at the palace

young Prince Alaric-now King Alaric-had shared a tutor, a brilliant scholar of his

es gleaming. Adeline handed her calling card to the captain. It was em

slightly at the noble crest. He nodded,

the hearth. The air was damp and smelled of dust. A tray with a pot of lukewarm tea and two cups was placed on a table. They waited. Clara

between the curtained bedchamber where she had died and the servants' corridors where the living lowered their voices over her name. She had heard the maids whisper that King Alaric himself had

ng: Alaric had not been entirely indifferent. That

ld had seeped into her

very of the Royal Chamberlain. Mr. Finch. His face was a closed book. He bowed stiffly. "Miss Ingram

vital meeting with the Chancellor regarding the new grain t

more desperate than she intended.

future, my lady. He did, however, ask me to convey a message." He cleared his throat, meeting her eyes. "He said that regardin

were a dea

uties, prioritize the honor of your two great houses, and conduct

He'd chosen his side-the powerful, influential Ferguson family. That b

g her spine straight, face ashen but voice steady. "I understand.

ut, head high. Each ste

tears of pity. Adeline didn't cry. She stared unseeing as the palace receded. Her eyes were dry, but deep within, a new dangerous fl

Chapter End

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Reborn as the Nightingale: Escaping the Duke's Poisoned Marriage

Xin Miaomiao History

“I died with the taste of bitter almonds burning in my throat. My husband, Kian Ferguson, watched me collapse over the poisoned wine. He did not call for help. He did not kneel beside me. He only looked at me with cold, satisfied eyes, as if my death had finally made room for the woman he truly wanted-his delicate cousin, Isabelle. In my first life, I begged for his love. I endured his family's humiliation. I drank the bitter tonics they forced upon me in the name of fertility, even as my body grew weaker by the day. I was blamed for an empty nursery, mocked as a barren wife, and trapped in a marriage that was slowly killing me. Then I opened my eyes again. I was back five years in the past, riding beside Kian at the King's autumn hunt-the very day I first saw how he looked at Isabelle. This time, I did not weep. I did not fight for him. I returned to Blackwood Manor and asked for an annulment. Kian laughed in my face. "You want to leave?" he said, seizing my arms. "There are only two ways out of this marriage, Adeline. In a coffin, or with my permission. And I will grant you neither." I went to the King for justice. The Crown turned me away. They all believed I had nowhere left to run. A discarded wife. A useless vine. A woman with no power, no allies, and no future beyond the Duke's gilded cage. They were wrong. I sold my dowry in secret. I bought merchant ships under a hidden name. I gathered remedies, debts, secrets, and gold. If no one would grant me freedom, I would purchase it myself. If no one would give me justice, I would become powerful enough to demand it. And by the time Kian Ferguson realizes his unwanted wife has become the mysterious Nightingale, it will be far too late to cage me again.”