"You're lying!"

Selena's voice was firm, but her eyes were fixed on Caleb and didn't move.

"Tristan would never touch someone like you. I'm the prime minister's eldest daughter. I'm the only one worthy of him. He loves me!"

I laughed quietly.

"If he loves you so much, why did he go out of his way to avoid you and end up alone, badly wounded by assassins?"

And if he hadn't been wounded, I never would have been pulled into this endless, brutal cycle. Regressing over and over with hope, and being killed every single time.

"Natalie, why did you let Selena think I'm Tristan's child? Now she won't take her eyes off us. How are we supposed to find a way out?"

I ran my fingers gently over the marks on his neck.

My sweet, foolish little brother. There was no way out.

[I genuinely can't follow what the female lead is doing anymore. Why use a lie that obvious? It's going to fall apart the second anyone looks at it.]

[Focus! Your job right now is to wake up the male lead, not get tangled up with the second female lead. What is this script even doing?]

"Dr. Carter has arrived!"

Selena's face went from red-hot fury to delight in an instant. She grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the carriage.

"You're coming with me. When Tristan wakes up, I'm going to make him call out every lie you've told, and then I'm going to have him kill you and that little brat both."

Simon Carter pulled the golden needles from Tristan's head one by one. My palms were slick with sweat.

Tristan's eyes opened slowly. Selena threw herself down at the side of his bed.

"Tristan, you're finally awake! This woman was trying to hurt you! I begged her over and over to wake you up and she refused. Then the moment the physician pulled out her needles, you woke up. She has to be behind this!"

Tristan looked at me without any expression on his face, then turned to the physician.

Simon took the used herbs from Adam, brought them to his nose, and took his time going through them.

"Your Highness, there is nothing wrong with this young woman's prescription. As for the acupuncture, while it does induce sleep, it's actually a sound method for helping the body recover quickly. Without the acupuncture, you likely wouldn't have survived the journey."

Selena's eyes went wide.

"Why would she do something that kind?" She grabbed Tristan's arm. "Don't let her fool you. Just a moment ago, she was claiming that child is your illegitimate son. She's trying to pass the child off as royal blood. I think she wants to control you and put that boy in line for your title."

I kept patting Caleb's hand and said nothing.

The comments rolled past.

[The second female lead has quite an imagination. Sure, the female lead knows medicine, but controlling the male lead? Does she think the royal physicians are just decoration?]

[She's trying to destroy the female lead's reputation completely. That's how evil she is.]

Tristan looked at Caleb and chuckled.

"You're saying he's my son? Now that's interesting."

Caleb, who was usually so quiet and calm, balled up his tiny fists and swung them at Tristan with his little teeth clenched tight. His thoughts had gone completely silent.

Tristan watched him with obvious amusement, then turned to look at Selena, and his eyes went cold.

"Adam. How have you been looking after Ms. Lloyd? Her hands are frostbitten. She saved my life."

He turned back to me with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Ms. Lloyd, my carriage is much more comfortable. I have the finest charcoal burning inside. Would you ride with me?"

"Tristan, you can't share a carriage with a servant girl!"

He frowned slightly.

"Adam, it's not proper for Ms. Miller to ride with me. See her back to her own carriage. She's not to enter mine without my direct order."

If looks could kill, Selena's glare would have cut through me like a blade.

Tristan's insincere smile brought back painful memories from the ninety-nine lifetimes when I had been tortured and killed by the two of them.

I forced myself to swallow the rising nausea in my stomach and climbed into Tristan's carriage.

When Simon wasn't watching, I slipped my own powder into Tristan's medicine.

He drifted back to sleep. I reached out with trembling fingers and pressed them to his pulse.

I think I'd finally figured out how to stay alive.