Villains also get Second chance

"What did you say, Monique?" I asked with a shocked expression, even my hands reached to cover my mouth as I started my award winning performance.

"Your highness, I know my daughter is a bit naive, and don't understand her right or wrong, but as an elder, you should be the one with a bigger heart." did she just call me old!! I was only one year older than Isabella, and she called me old! That was something more heinous than blaming me for the slap, 

"I am kind enough to accept you calling me elder when you are even older than my mother, Monique Adelia, what else are you expecting from me?" I said in a sharper tone this time, I could see Isabella trying to pull her mother's dress to signal her to stop.

But the lady was so lost in her acting that she didn't even notice that after the scene she was trying to act didn't even happen in the first place.

"I mean, you are like the elder sister of Isabella, after all, you have taken her place, I mean her sister's place." 

"Elizabeth loved Isabella a lot, so she is a bit habitual of speaking what's in her mind, but you should have scolded her or should have complained to me, your highness. You should not have slapped her." here she said again.

"Mother, listen to me" when Isabella realised signals were not working well, she tried to speak out but her mother still did not listen.

"No, Isabella, let me say, I had already lost one daughter, I can not bear to see you hurt," she said as tears further welled up in her eyes. 

On the other side, I was thinking if I should ask the method of bringing fake tears in the eye this easily.

"I wonder Monique Adelia, what made you so sure that I slapped your daughter?" I finally asked as her tears even started falling on the carpet.

"How can you be so ruthless and haughty, your highness. I am apologising to you, again and again, in exchange, I am just asking you to treat my daughter fairly, and yet.." she shook her head as if she was not even able to finish her sentence because of the immense pain she was feeling.

Suddenly I heard a wave of applause and saw that the round had already begun.

"Oh, my, all the arrows at the centre each cutting the other" I heard the women shout.

"Who is the one who won?" I wanted to know as I could hear their shouts even here. Soon I heard footsteps, many ladies must be going to the powder room now, and for that, they had to cross this hall. So that was the reason why Monique was prolonging her act.

I looked at the witness she had bought with her, lady Carlyle Clayton. She was shuffling at her place as if she was standing on pins and needles, when she felt my gaze on her she gave me an awkward bow and smile, for which I nodded in return.

"Mother, listen to me" I saw Isabella trying again but the lady just shook her head.

"No, Isabella, there is a limit to everything, I will make sure that his highness would listen to us today" she continued as her voice got louder every time.

Soon we heard the sound of many footsteps and her sobbing turned louder and louder. Damn! That was the most hilarious yet irritating situation I had been facing in my two lives.

"Is there something wrong, your highness?" asked Grace Kynaston.

"Grace, I am the one who is hurt here, yet you are asking her, how much would you try to flatter her." chided Monique Adelia to the young girl who bit her lips as she did not want to oppose an elder.

Other ladies behind her were also looking at us with confusion and awkwardness. I could have said something to stop the drama, but I wanted to check who was taking her side, she must have set a few nobles before or else she would not have been this confident. 

Soon more ladies came towards this direction, 

"Oh, my, Adelia, are you okay, why are you crying my dear," spoke baroness Veronica, mother of our dear queen. Since when did barons take the name of Monique directly. Oh yes, since the day they started working together in forming conspiracies.

"Is everything okay, my lady, what happened to you" spoke another baroness, Leanne Towner, as far as I know, his son Dylan, ran away from the empire three years ago due to some crime, though I did not know further about any of them.

"What is happening here?" oh here comes the main male lead of the drama to save her damsel in distress from a villain like me.

"Are you okay mother"?" and here comes my hero, to take my side,

"Your highness, I apologise for the inconvenience but I could not bear it anymore. I want justice for my daughter.'' Both mother and daughter have the same script, if I came to ask for justice then I would see who would win or who would not.

I saw the veins of his head popup. He was looking rather angry, or was he also trying to act to make it more natural,

"What kind of justice do you want now, Monique, Adelia?" he asked and I was surprised he did not use to call her mother.

Even she looked at him surprised but then she remembered that she was crying, so she started sobbing again, "your highness, Isabella had mistakenly accused her highness in the past, due to some misunderstanding, so I asked her to go and apologise to her highness, but instead of forgiving her, her highness had slapped her."

"My daughter is already facing so much mockery and is filled with guilt yet her highness is not satisfied. I wonder what else she wants, I have lost one daughter due to her obsession with you. I don't want to lose another one." she added crying, how sweetly had she blamed me for the death of her first daughter, when I had not even met her even once in my both lifetimes.