Irene was keeping an eye on Heaven. So many things were going on, starting with the stranger who marked her and her grandfather who had plans to make her his successor. Danger surrounded her and Irene would do everything in her power to protect her granddaughter, hopefully without suffocating her. Therefore, she kept an eye on her from a distance. 

After making sure that Heaven was asleep, Irene went to take a break and relax in her room when she suddenly got a visit from someone she expected to show up sooner or later. 

Lothaire. 

“Why are you here?” She asked, turning to him. 

“I missed you.” He said, walking closer. 

“You wouldn’t have left me then.” 

“I didn’t leave you. I never wanted to. I wanted you to follow me, to be by my side, to be my Queen, but you refused.” If she didn’t know better now, she would have believed that he was sad. 

“Of course. Did you expect me to leave my son to come with you?”

“You didn’t have to leave him if you stood by my side. We would have convinced him together.” He explained. 

Irene shook her head. “Or you could have stayed with us.” 

Lothaire sighed, then he crossed the distance between them and took her hands in his. “Irene, my love. Have I not stayed with you all this time? Can’t you now stay with me? Can’t you be by my side? Imagine our lives together, all the happiness we shared. We can do that again. Yes, I might have lied about many things, but my feelings for you were never a lie.”

“I know. Your feelings for me were not a lie, but that is your feelings and that is all you care about. You never cared for my feelings. You sacrificed my happiness. If you truly cared about how I feel you would have tried your best to bring me our son knowing how empty I felt all those years without him. How could you do that to me? How could you do that to someone you claim you love? You even sacrificed your son’s happiness for you evil plans.”

“You don’t understand.” He said with clenched teeth. 

“I do. You don’t know what real love means. You version of love is twisted because you are selfish, and real love is not selfish.” 

He nodded, dropping her hands. “Very well, then. If you think I am selfish, alright. But what I did was best for everyone. Yes, it was difficult for you and Lucian, but look at him now. He was protected all those years, and he grew up to be a fine man, and now you can be with him. The result benefited everyone.” He explained. 

Irene stared at him, appalled. Why did she except that he would understand? 

“Where you sure this would be the result? What if things turned out differently? Like the time our son almost committed suicide, or the time when he actually died. What if he hadn’t come back?”

“He did come back. Bad things could have happened even if he stayed with us. There is no avoiding that.”

“What about all the scars and loneliness you made him go through then? You took his childhood away.” Her eyes teared up, recalling all the hurt her son must have gone through. 

“That made him stronger. Difficulties make people stronger.”

“Yes. And strong benefits you because then he will fit perfectly into you plan.”

“Don’t twist my words.” He warned. 

“I don’t need to. You are more twisted than your words. And your actions are even worse. Don’t come back here. We have nothing left between us and don’t you dare come for Heaven. I know what you are planning.” She spat. 

“Heaven is my granddaughter, too. You can’t stop me from meeting her. I will come for her whenever I want. She is old enough now to decide for herself whether she wants to meet me or not.” He sounded angry this time. 

“So it’s not enough you ruined two lives. Now you want to ruin another?”

“No. I wouldn’t call it ruin. I call it freedom. With me, she can do whatever she wants.” 

Irene clenched her hands into fists, trying to contain her anger. “Leave!” She said in a calm yet threatening tone. There was no use in talking to him anymore. 

His lips curved into a smile. “I will. For now. But I will come back for you. We will be a family again.” He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand before he vanished.

Irene stood there for a while. Anger and hatred boiling within her. Why could he just not leave her to finally stay happy with her family? 

She would not let him lay a finger on Heaven. She would not let him hurt her children again. 

When the morning came the first thing Irene did was to visit her granddaughter. To her surprise, she was awake early this morning and already dressed. 

“Good morning, grandma.” She smiled brightly upon her arrival. 

“Good morning. You seem to be in a good mood.”

“I am trying.” Heaven smiled. “I need your help.” 

“Alright. What is it?” 

Heaven frowned. “You don’t know? Father haven’t told you?”

“Told me what?” Irene asked. 

“That… I want to become a ruler.”

Irene paused for a moment, surprised, before asking, “why would you want that?” She couldn’t understand. She didn’t want Heaven to bear that burden. It was enough that her son already went through all those horrible things. 

“Grandma. I feel like… I was born for this. I can either complain about my life or embrace it.” She smiled as if discovering something. 

Irene became concerned. Who had changed her granddaughter into this woman? Did Lothaire already meet with her? 

“Did you grandpa come here?”

Heaven frowned. “No, why?”

“Nothing.” Irene shook her head, but Heaven’s sudden change in attitude still disturbed her. Something must have affected her. 

“So will you help me?” She asked innocently. 

“Of course.” Irene smiled. She didn’t want to discourage her now that she finally seemed happy. “What do you want me to do?”

“Well, you could first take me to uncle Roshan. I need to speak to him.” She said.

Without asking why, Irene teleported them to Roshans house. 

Klara and Roshan were fighting in the garden and it didn’t look like they were fighting for training purpose even though they used swords. 

“Alright, we have guests, maybe we can continue later.” Roshan said while blocking a strike with his sword. 

Irene wasn’t surprised. She was used to their physical fights whenever they were angry with each other, but shortly after they would make up and it would be like nothing ever happened. But Irene knew Roshan too well. He rather enjoyed the fight then looking at it as a punishment. Klara on the other hand made sure he enjoyed it as little as possible. 

When Klara didn’t drop her sword Roshan gave her a pleading look. “You can kill me later.” He promised her. 

Klara threw her sword aside before turning to them. “Irene, Heaven. It’s still early. I was on my way.” She told Heaven, probably referring to the fighting lessons they had in the early mornings. 

“I know. I came here for Uncle Roshan.” Heaven explained. 

“Oh…” She said turning to her husband. 

“Princess.” Roshan came forward. “How can I help you?”

“I want you to teach me how to fight. I mean… Princess Klara is very skilled but I want to learn to use my demon powers while fighting.” 

“Or maybe you just want to learn from the best.” He said sending his wife a teasing smile. She gave him a hard glare, which caused him to chuckle.

“Your father told me you wanted to become a ruler.” He said. 

“Yes.” 

“Well, you have all my support. I’ll enjoy watching all those men being ruled by a woman.” 

“Thank you.” Heaven smiled, then turned to Klara. “I would also love to have your support, Princess Klara. There is a lot I can learn from you.”

“You have my support.” She said shortly. 

Irene could see that Heaven was determined to make it as a ruler, and everyone was supportive. But she was sceptical. She really didn’t like this idea.