The Cursed King

Finally, Alexei decided it was not worth it. Besides, he really liked Elise and didn\'t wish to be her enemy. From what he gathered, she had her own problem with Loriel.

So, he would stand by the sideline and let her deal with her husband first before he could decide to continue attacking Loriel or not.

The rage of lightning disappeared at last.

Alexei had waited for centuries to find Loriel and get his revenge. He surely could wait for a few minutes while he let Elise and Loriel talk, couldn\'t he?

Loriel stepped forward slowly and now his body almost touched Elise\'s. He was trembling anxiously. This was the moment of truth.

Finally, he had to lay all his cards in the open and tell Elise that she was his dearly beloved wife, he had wronged her in their past and had regretted it every day for the past fifteen centuries..

He also wanted to tell her that he was crazy, madly, deeply in love with her that he did anything and everything to be with her again.

But then..  he also would have to tell her about the reason why she left him and what happened to their unborn children.

"Elise, honey… you ran away because you figured out that you were pregnant twice in the past and you wanted to know who you are. The truth is, I am your husband, Elise," Loriel said with a hoarse voice.

His body trembled. Elise could see deep sadness engulf her husband and her heart ached for him.

"I know you are my husband now, but…" her voice halted.

  "Not only in this time, but ever since fifteen centuries ago… you and I were married," Loriel added. "It has always been me. I have always been your husband. There has never been anyone else. And the children you carried were mine…"

"What?" Elise stared at Loriel. Her heart dropped to the floor. 

This was… impossible, she thought. Everything felt so confusing.

"Elise, I love you… and when you were gone, I did everything I could to find you again." Loriel smiled sadly. "Even when it meant becoming immortal like the gods and earning their ire, I did everything just to see you again."

"What happened to my children?" Elise asked with a croaked voice. Tears started streaming down hard to her cheeks.

Suddenly she had a bad feeling about this because, instead of answering her question, Loriel cried silently. His tears already gave Elise the answer she was looking for.

There were never any children. She lost them. 

"Oh my god…" Elise burst into tears and she wailed despondently.

Loriel quickly took her to his embrace and hugged her so tightly. Her cries broke his heart. The memory of her first miscarriage came back and gave him literal pain in his heart.

It was the saddest day of his life. Loriel wanted to be strong for her, but he couldn\'t help but cry too.

What\'s worse was the fact that he didn\'t really know what happened to their second child.

He assumed the child died too and losing her second pregnancy, in addition to feeling hurt by her husband\'s treatment, finally took its toll on Elise and her brain decided to forget everything because it was so hurtful.

Elise cried despondently as she thought her world came crashing down. This was truly the saddest day of her life. She always suspected that she had a dark past, but apparently, this was worse than that.

She finally pulled herself together and slowly stepped back, getting away from Loriel\'s embrace.

"Are you really my husband?" she asked him hoarsely.

Loriel nodded. "I am."

"You said you were looking for me…" Elise bit her lip and tried so hard to hold back from crying again. "When we finally met, when did you know it was me?"

"I knew almost immediately," Loriel admitted. "From the moment I laid my eyes on you, when I heard your voice, and smelled your scent. I never forgot anything about you. I always keep you close to my heart for fifteen centuries… so I can recognize you as soon as I saw you."

Elise looked at Loriel\'s eyes and knew he was not lying.

"So… all of these coincidences weren\'t coincidences at all, were they?" Elise asked. "When you saved me from being homeless after the hostel kicked me out, and you also got me a job…"

"Yes."

Elise remembered how the hostel she was staying in suddenly closed down and Loriel happened to be there. Whenever Elise needed him, Loriel happened to be there and yet Elise was far from happy.

Elise didn\'t know what to feel anymore.

"Honey," Loriel reached out to his beloved wife, but Elise slapped his hand away. There was a look of both pain and confusion in her eyes that made Loriel\'s heart twinge in pain. Loriel didn\'t mean for things to be this way. "I\'m sorry."

"Please don\'t touch me," Elise said and took a step away from her husband. She gave Loriel a pained smile and shook her head. "Please don\'t talk to me."

"Elise, please let me explain."

"You\'ve made a fool of me for the past months," Elise\'s voice cracked and backed away from Loriel. 

"No, Elise I didn\'t mean for it to look that way." Loriel took another step forward and smiled painfully. "I would never do that to you."

"I thought you were someone who was genuinely there for me and that this was a new chance for me to live a happy life… but this was all contrived, wasn\'t it?" Elise looked at him. "You planned everything from the start. Why?"

"I looked for you, Elise but you didn\'t remember me and I didn\'t want to scare you away."

"Were you really afraid of scaring me away or for me to reject you?" Elise asked. "You must have done something really awful to me in the past that I decided to leave…"

Loriel stared at her and blinked. "That\'s…" 

He swallowed hard. Loriel had prepared the words to say to his wife when he found her again. He had rehearsed this so many times in the past, but today he couldn\'t even remember a word.