An enthusiastic wave of cold morning breeze entered in the room as if trying to tresspas the couple's conversation. Augustus was deep in his reverie reminiscing painful old times with a distant look in his eyes.

Ritha couldn't decipher her husband's emotions which she so desperately wanted to do. Everything was messed up. So messed up! She waited for him to continue because that was the only thing in her hand at this moment.

"She tried to break my marriage with Valentina by accusing her falsely and when Valentina was pregnant, she tried to harm her and our baby." heaviness in his voice was the evidence of the whirlpool of emotions he was feeling.

"All of these took a serious toll over Valentina's health because apart from me, father and Marcus, nobody talked with her or consoled her. She became very weak and her health kept detirorating during pregnancy."

These relevations made Ritha gasp with surprise and sorrow while a look of pain was surfacing on Augustus's face.

"Her eyes lost all their charms and there were black circles beneath them. She wasn't herself and occasionally came out of the room. I tried my best, God knows I tried my best, she knows I tried my best to take care of her but guess what? I failed! I miserably failed!In the end, she left me and Justus in this chaotic world and that's the reason why her father dared to curse my son." His eyes were were shining with seriousness with a glint of moistness in them.

Ritha's heart went out for the lady who suffered so much in this palace. It wasn't her fault. Her heart was feeling so many emotions like grief, pain, sorrow and maybe a tint of jealousy which she knew was futile but couldn't stop herself from feeling so.

She knew that consoling him at this moment would do no good because he was deep in the forest of regret where guilt was working as canopies and no matter how hard she tried, her positive Sunrays couldn't reach till there.

Instead, she clasped his hands within hers and laid her head on his chest and in return, Augustus held her tightly.

Early morning Sunrays were lighting up the room. Faint sound of the fluttering pages was adding up as a distant sound.

After a pregnant silence filled of grief and sorrow, Augustus's next words came as a brewing storm.

" She committed suicide. "

"Suicide?" the very thought of it was sending an uneasy emotion through her veins.

"At first, when she tried to poison our father, we couldn't believe it. We tried to put some senses in her by scaring and other means. Father loved her too much to punish her for such a severe crime. He tried to look past it and told us to do the same but when she tried to harm Valentina, I couldn't take it and threw her in one of the prisons. I tried to talk with her but that heartless woman still had no shame!" the way Augustus had his jaws tightened, confirmed his anger.

"Did she again do something?" asked curious Rithambara.

His hold tightened on her waist when he spoke, "One day, Valentina visited her in the prison but that old hag instead of apologising, tried to choke her up. It was me who freed Valentina from her clutches. We were all in trauma with her behaviour. I couldn't come up to kill her because she was my mother but she ended up killing herself in the prison making our job easier."

"But what was the reason behind doing all these? What would have she gained by doing all these? If we end up winning Rome, ultimately she would have been the queen! There seems no reason behind doing all these." Ritha couldn't help but ask.

"Even we wanted to know the same and tried getting answers from her but everytime she denied doing any of those viscious things." replied Augustus.

Rithambara looked puzzled because she couldn't take down the fact that Athena committed suicide. "This all looks so absurd! Firstly, she tried to kill father, then tried to break your marriage and kill Valentina and then suddenly commited suicide!" commented Ritha with bedazzled expressions.

Nothing was making a complete sense over here. If a woman could be cruel enough to poison her husband and try to kill her daughter in law, then how could she be so weak to commit suicide.

"Did she have any mental health problem or ...."? Ritha couldn't complete her sentence when Augustus spoke -

"I don't know, she was very distant in her last days and didn't talk much but otherwise, she was all fine."

"Maybe she was not fine." remarked Rithambara.

Heaving a sigh, Augustus tried to divert their minds from such a gloomy topic and spoke, "Maybe or maybe not. But she is gone from our life for good and let's focus on other things like mask procession. "

"Mask procession? What's that? "

Augustus chuckled seeing Ritha's confused expression and explained it to her, "It's an annual celebration where everyone disguise in any form of character from our ancient books or simply anything according to their taste. Royal members get the special priveliage of disguising ourselves into our Gods like Mars, Neptune, etc. "

He caressed her cheeks with adoration and Ritha was amazed with this piece of information. She was looking forward to this event but the previous topic had her utmost attention and something was compelling her to dig deep into the matter.