Forgotten Wife

A suffocating heat.

Abril spent a good while trying to take off the corset, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't do it. So she looked for something to cut the corset of her dress, otherwise, it would be impossible to remove it. Seeing the attitude of the maids, she knew none of them would help her take it off.

She searched through the drawers and luckily found a sewing box that had everything. She took out scissors and began cutting the corset, trying not to hurt herself.

When she took off the dress, she felt like she could breathe again. But then she realized she had nothing else to wear. She had arrived at the palace with only what she was wearing, and she had just ruined it.

"Why am I so foolish?"

"What am I going to do now?"

"The king made it clear that I cannot ask for anything in this place."

"And even if I did, I doubt the maids would give it to me."

Abril laid down on the bed, wearing only her thin under-dress, and started thinking about how she could get clothes. She rolled several times on the soft bed, caressing the smooth silk sheets. Then an idea came to her. Since she had no dress to wear, she would have to make one herself. While searching for something to cut her dress earlier, she had found several sets of sheets. She could use them to make one or two dresses.

Abril got up from bed, took out a white and a lime green sheet, and got to work. Luckily, she was skilled at sewing and could make a simple dress. That was better than walking around in just her underwear.

As she cut the sheets, April said:

"I just hope they won't be mad about cutting the sheets."

She shrugged and told herself:

"If they are, I'll have to endure the scolding."

"There's nothing I can do."

"I need my clothes."

She stayed awake all night making her dress. She used some decorations from the wedding dress to make her dress look less plain. In the early hours of the morning, she finished her first dress, which was a simple lime green dress with white lace trimmings she had cut from the curtains.

She tried on her dress and, seeing that it fitted her like a glove, she smiled and was satisfied. Then she picked up the pieces of fabric and hid them so that the maids wouldn't find them, and then she went to sleep.

The next day, no one came to wake her up for breakfast. Abril woke up at noon, and shortly after, a dark-haired maid entered. She said her name was Rena and brought her a simple meal consisting of vegetable soup, a piece of bread, water, and an apple. The maid thought that by giving her such a small meal, they were bothering her. However, for Abril, who couldn't have three meals a day, this was a luxury. She ate the soup and the bread, left the water jug, and saved the apple in case she didn't have dinner.

After finishing, the maid collected the plates and left silently.

Abril spent the rest of the day making another dress and underwear for herself.

At dinnertime, the same maid, Rena, returned to her room with a tray of food. The dinner was more plentiful than at noon; she had served her a beef steak with potatoes and salad. She also had an apple for dessert. Abril ate all the food, cleaned the plate, and saved the apple as she had done at noon. The maid stared at her, but didn't say anything about her strange habit of saving fruit.

The seasons passed, spring ended and gave way to a hot summer. For the first time, that room that had become Abril's home became a true prison. It was so hot that it was unbearable. She would go out to the balcony, but the sun shone all day long without giving her a break. Even the nights had become hot. She had asked the maids several times to let her leave the room, but they said they couldn't let her go out, as it was the king's order.

One night, when Abril felt like she would die from the heat, she escaped from her room. There were no guards positioned at her door, so she had no trouble escaping. She went to the garden, sat next to a fountain, and enjoyed the fresh air mixed with the water from the fountain.

For the first time in days, she felt like she was able to breathe again. She stayed there for a while, but when she had to go back to her infernal room, she hated it. However, she didn't want to get into trouble, so she returned, making sure nobody saw her.

After that day, every night she would escape and go to the fountain to refresh herself. She would put her feet in the fountain and enjoy the cool water, which gave her a little break from the suffocating heat of her room.

Alessandro went out for a walk. He had been working all day, going through documents, and he felt stressed. The heat only made things worse. As he walked through the garden, he saw a young woman sitting on the edge of the fountain with her feet in the water. He wondered who was so shameless for doing that.

He approached a little closer and, seeing her reddish curly hair, he knew who it was. It was his wife, Abril Venobich. Alessandro clenched his fists tightly to suppress his killer instinct. Every time he saw her, he wanted to kill her. Her hair reminded him of King Vritra Venobich, who had cruelly killed several of his brothers some years ago.

She was so small and thin that he only needed to apply a little force to her neck to kill her. He turned around and went back to his room to push those thoughts out of his mind.

After that day, he discovered that Abril would escape from her room every night to go to that fountain to refresh herself. He found her behavior rude, but he let it go. He pretended not to know what she was doing and stopped thinking about her, letting her once again be forgotten.