The Woman In The Palace

Broken Promises

A week passed and then another, and still, nothing happened. Yuan had yet to keep his promise of letting me see my son. He employed several wet nurses to feed and take care of Hoon while he kept him away from his own mother.

Yuan became another level of evil. He said that he would let me see my son, he said that it won't be long, and he said that he's not that cruel. He had me convinced otherwise, only an evil person would keep a child from his mother.

Yuan entered my decorated prison he called a chamber. It might have been the middle of the afternoon, late at night, or early in the morning, I couldn't tell anymore. It had been quite a while since I saw the sun, not since he had me moved here.

I turned to him while he meandered on with easy gracefulness on his way to me.

Yuan had been successful, he won. Whatever it was he intended on accomplishing, he succeeded upon it because I found myself breaking down with tears at night, every night he kept Hoon away from me.

There's nothing like a mother yearning for her child, and Yuan had known that. He knew separating me away from my baby will have this kind of turmoil on me.

It felt like my heart was being torn apart, ripped off my chest each time I couldn't see him.

"Hoon." I moaned and pleaded. It seemed like all I did in the past two weeks was to beg and beg Yuan without getting any result from it. "Let me see my son."

"Our son." He corrected.

"Our son." I repeated as I gave in to him. I'd say it, I'd say whatever he wanted just so he'd let me see Hoon already.

He bent over a placed a chaste kiss on my cheek, this had been Yuan's common greeting since. "Soon, Jasmine. You know I can't let you see him yet."

"That's what you said last time. You said you'd let me see him two weeks ago."

Yuan brushed his hand over my head and hushed me. "Hush, Jasmine. I need to make sure I can trust you. I can't let you near Hoon unless I'm sure you're not going to do anything stupid."

He took the seat next to my legs and placed his hand over them.

"I promise I won't do anything stupid, I swear, just let me see him for at least a few minutes. Let me hold him for a little bit."

"Ah, but we all know how much you lie, Jasmine." He lit another lantern that's been sitting on the other side of the table. His face became visible with the fire dancing so close to his face. His eyes looked darker and more ominous than the last time I saw him and it made Yuan looked no less than the devil himself. "I know you're just saying that. I know you'll probably just steal Hoon and try to escape with him as soon as I let you out, or as soon as I let you hold him"

True, I'm not even going to argue with him because it crossed my mind too many times that I will be tempted to do just as he said.

"I'm trying to save your life, why can't you see that? Once you take off with the crown prince there's no way for me to prevent the guards from stopping you. They are mandated by an edict to do whatever it takes to keep Hoon safe, and that's including from you, Jasmine."

"How long do you intend of keeping him away?"

"As long as I needed."

As long as he needed, he said, and Yuan kept to his words. A few more weeks passed, and those weeks turned into months. Two months passed, and I only imagine how big my Hoon had gotten, how much he smiled, how fat he became.

I wonder how he looked like, since I never got to see how Hoon looked like when they snatched him away so quick for Yuan to hold.

I bet he looked just like his father. I bet he got his father's honey colored eyes, his dark hair, his sunkist skin, and his bones that would shape into a form of warrior one day. My heart swelled at the thought, there's nothing more I want than to watch the son we created turned out to be a spitting image of the man I love.

I began to lose hope without too much knowledge of anything happening outside of these walls. I don't even know if anyone still thinks of me, or whether they know I'm still alive. But one thing I found out when princess Yu Yan came outside the door to say her last words.

She told me I had won, that she never truly loved prince Julong, and she never truly hated me. She wished me good luck and to find happiness with the man I love. She said I deserved prince Julong and his child and she'll try to help as much as she can.

It was never clear to me that she'd known Julong was the father since she never came around to harass me anymore. But princess Yu Yan had known all along.

I believed that it broke her heart, I believed that she laid in bed and cried each night. No woman wants her husband to prefer another woman other than her. All I could do at the time was thank her and apologize. I felt guilty and I felt bad.

I'm sorry about everything. I murmured quietly behind the wall. I can't say I've been in better shape than her. I've been imprisoned, beaten and raped by the emperor multiple times.

Princess Yu Yan let know she was due to leave the next day, her father ordered for the dissolution of her marriage to prince Julong since the prince had been declared a rebel and an enemy by the emperor.

There was no reason for princess Yu Yan to keep a non-profitable marriage to prince Julong anymore.