Elmer climbed into the carriage and left.
The men were forced to the ground.
Evelyn's own guards administered the lashes.
Not a shred of mercy.
Within minutes, the entire street echoed with screams.
"Your Highness, have mercy! We'll never work for the prince consort again!"
"Never in this lifetime! Please, mercy!"
"Evelyn!"
I lunged forward, half out of my mind with fury.
A maidservant caught my arm and held me back.
"Your Highness, please don't make things worse for yourself.
"Surely you know. The princess has been in love with your brother since they were children."
The air left my lungs.
I remembered asking her once whether she truly had feelings for me.
That smile she gave. Saying nothing.
In that moment.
I understood.
I understood everything.
Evelyn's gaze settled on me.
"You could have gone after anyone. But not him."
Her voice was ice.
"As of today, you and I are no longer husband and wife."
Because I'd poached her beloved's people, she'd sentenced our marriage to death.
I laughed. Bitter and hollow.
"Good. I didn't want to be your consort anyway."
In the span of half a year.
I'd received two divorce decrees.
Everything I'd earned through my own business.
By law, it all belonged to the princess's household.
Evelyn tossed me half without a second thought.
She was just like my brother.
She looked down on every cent I'd made.
I secured a merchant's license for a trade route.
And started a business on the river.
After that public beating in broad daylight, almost no one in Kingsport dared work for me anymore.
I had no choice but to hire workers from out of town.
Elmer, on the other hand, had it easy.
With a princess backing him up, he had leverage I didn't.
Workers were conscripted and forced to labor under his command.
But at two copper coins a month, people started fleeing before long.
Some disguised themselves as out-of-towners and came to work on my ship instead.
With no one left at the estate, the businesses under Princess Evelyn's name had no goods to move.
Elmer couldn't even put food on the table.
That was the day he showed up with soldiers.
All of them under Evelyn's authority.
He stared at my massive merchant vessel, a sneer curling his lips.
"Seize it."
I stepped in front of him.
"Brother, how can you be so unreasonable?"
He scoffed.
"If you hadn't been out here throwing money around and disrupting the market, the princess's businesses would never have failed!