Chapter 184: Chapter-184

She sat back.

“Let me be very clear,” she said. “I can kill them. All five of them. I have cause, I have evidence, and I have the authority. The only question was whether doing so was worth the political disruption.” A beat. “The calculus has changed.”

The word ’kill’ in her mouth was not dramatic. It wasn’t a threat delivered for effect.

It was simply a fact, stated with the same tone one might use to discuss weather.

That, somehow, made it worse.

All four of them sat very still.

Then — and this was why she’d noted him from the beginning — Duke Valen spoke.

Kieran’s father. Military background, iron-straight posture, the face of a man who had survived forty years of court politics by being the person in the room who asked the question everyone else was avoiding.

“Your Majesty,” he said, “what do you want?”

Heena looked at him.

He held her gaze steadily and continued, “You could have had our sons arrested. You could have issued the declaration you just described. You could have done any number of things before today, and you chose not to.” He paused. “You called us here. That means you want something that requires our cooperation rather than our destruction. So I’ll ask directly — what is it?”

The other three looked at him slightly nervously, as if he’d just walked into traffic.

Heena studied Duke Valen for a long moment.

’Smart,’ she thought. ’The only one of the four worth talking to.’

It was, she thought, slightly tragic that the man with the most functional brain in this room had produced Kieran — who had plenty of intelligence and had chosen to spend most of it being hostile.

She felt, very faintly, the same distant thing she’d felt about Damien.

She filed it away.

“Now ’that’,” she said, and the smile that crossed her face was the first genuine one of the morning, “is the right question.”

She looked at Duke Valen with something approaching respect.

“The rest of you,” she said, without looking away from him, “should take notes. This is what useful sounds like.”

Duke Remington made a sound. Duke Hart stiffened.

Heena ignored them both and kept her eyes on Valen.

“Sit comfortably,” she said. “We’re going to have an actual conversation now.”

The Duchess, silent until this moment, reached forward and poured herself a fresh cup of tea with the serene air of a woman who had known exactly how this meeting was going to go.

She caught Heena’s eye and gave a very small nod.

’Good girl,’ that nod said.

Heena turned back to the four patriarchs.

Heena picked up her cup of tea and smiled as she took a sip.

She had to say, the tea these servants made was exceptional. Brilliant, even. No matter how many times she drank it, every time there was a different, subtle flavor profile. The palace tea masters were artists.

She looked at the cup, swirled it gently, and then her eyes moved to Damien’s father.

She looked at him directly and said, “If I’m not wrong, Damien is not your only child.”

Damien’s father paused, his own teacup halfway to his lips.

He looked at her carefully.

Even though Damien’s father had many mistresses—even though he famously couldn’t control his wandering eye or his pants—he was still a shrewd businessman. He knew what benefited him and what didn’t.

The only reason he still supported Damien, even though he had so many legitimate and illegitimate children, was because Damien had been the one to surpass all his siblings and become an imperial consort. That position brought prestige and power to the entire family.

But that didn’t mean he had any particular ’love’ for this son.

He raised his eyebrows and said carefully, “What do you mean by that, Your Majesty?”

Heena took another sip of tea and said casually, “Just think about it. What would you prefer: your dear son, or your family’s survival?”

He paused, his expression becoming very still.

Heena continued, “You’re a smart man. I don’t need to spell everything out for you. If one son dies, you can have another. Men like you have… options.”

She gestured vaguely.

“But what if that son drags your ’entire family’ down with him? I can guarantee you that my mind is already leaning toward destroying your so-called sons. And the only thing possibly stopping me is that you’ve been my loyal subjects for quite a few years, and you haven’t personally done anything to anger me.”

She set down her teacup with a delicate ’clink’.

“So I’m giving you a choice. Choose between your son and your family’s continued existence.”

She turned to look at the others.

“I have the same offer for all of you.”

Her eyes moved to Adrian’s father. “Adrian is your only legitimate son, but come on—is one son worth destroying your hundreds-of-years-old family legacy? A family whose generations have sacrificed themselves on battlefields for this empire? Are you ready to throw all of that away for a son who couldn’t control his own actions?”

Then she looked at Kieran’s father and Lucian’s father.

“Kieran is your only son, and Lucian—if I’m not wrong—has a younger brother. Plus, Kieran himself has a son already.”

She smiled pleasantly.

“Forgive me, gentlemen, but I don’t think any of you have gotten so old that you couldn’t have more children. So think carefully: what do you want? Your family’s continued honor and prosperity, or one specific son who’s brought shame to your name?”

All four patriarchs looked at her with grim expressions.

Because if this were a question of honor—if they were just noble fathers defending their sons—of course they would have chosen their children.

But this was a ’tactical’ question.

And these men loved their families, their legacies, their generations of accumulated power and prestige more than they loved any individual child.

For them, their family lines weren’t just about honor—they were about ’existence’. About survival. About ensuring their bloodlines continued for centuries more.

If they chose their sons and the Empress actually followed through on her threat, they would be dragged down into destruction with them.

After a long silence, Kieran’s father spoke—his voice carrying the seriousness of a military general who’d seen countless battles.

“Your Majesty, you know as well as we do: our sons have made mistakes. We won’t claim they’re ideal husbands or perfect consorts. Yes, you can punish them however you want. You can even execute them if that’s your judgment.”

He paused, his eyes hard.

“But the offer you’re giving us is useless. Do you think that if we publicly give up on our sons—if we abandon them—the people would let us live peacefully? We’d be branded as traitors who abandoned the empire’s heroes. Our reputations would be destroyed anyway.”

Heena looked at him and smiled. “I knew that would be your concern.”

She reached for a scroll on the table beside her and placed it down in front of them.

“How about this: you don’t need to make it official or public. Just give them up ’formally’, in private.”

The Duchess, who’d been sitting quietly, raised her hand slightly.

Secretary Chen—who’d been waiting outside—immediately entered with four identical documents. He placed one in front of each patriarch with practiced efficiency.

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