My Best Friend and I Ran Off With Our Kids, and Our Husbands Lost Their Minds

My best friend and I were transported to another world together. She became the Empress, and I was her lady-in-waiting.

The Emperor adored her for three years, and for three years, she doted on me.

She said I couldn't be single for two lifetimes, so she arranged my marriage to the nation’s top general, a man with an eight-pack, promising me a life of carnal bliss.

The reality? After a year of marriage, he hadn't touched me.

I went to the palace to cry on her shoulder. "That bastard is useless in bed! What do I need him for?"

She burst into tears right along with me. "The royal physician says the Emperor is sterile! What do I need him for?"

Through our tears, our eyes met.

"I want a divorce," I said. "You?"

"If you're leaving, I'm leaving!"

And so, a great fire claimed the lives of the Empress and the General's wife.

A few months later, in a small border town, two beautiful, wealthy ladies appeared.

…

1

The maid woke me before the sun was up.

I, who usually slept until noon, forced myself out of bed, dressed with a heavy heart, and managed to rush out of the general’s residence just as Marcus Thorne was stepping into his carriage.

"What are you doing here?"

Marcus’s voice was clipped with annoyance as he took in my breathless state. His handsome, chiseled face was a mask of indifference, but his dark, piercing eyes betrayed his impatience.

"I need to go to the palace!" I explained hastily. "It's been a while since I've seen the Empress. I wanted to visit her."

He frowned. "Do you have to go right this second?"

The way he said it made it sound like I was using the visit as an excuse to ride with him, as if I were some predator looking to devour him.

I pouted, mumbling under my breath, "Your carriage is the only one with silver-thread charcoal and a fox-fur blanket. It’s warmer."

He paused, then finally moved aside to let me into the carriage for the journey to the palace.

Marcus had always been cold and distant with me. I knew he looked down on me, a former palace maid, believing I was beneath him, a blemish on the honor of the great General Thorne.

But after today, he wouldn't have to worry about that anymore.

Because my visit to the Empress was for one purpose: to get a divorce.

My best friend, Selena, and I had been transported to this alternate historical reality together. She became a powerful Empress from a noble family, exclusively favored by the Emperor for three years. I became her handmaiden, living comfortably under her protection for those same three years.

She'd declared that after twenty years of being single in our past life, I deserved to experience a man in this one. She raved about General Thorne's physique, promising me he would deliver nights of earth-shattering pleasure.

I’d snuck a peek at him once at the training grounds. The way his sweat-soaked tunic clung to his torso, outlining every single one of his eight abdominal muscles…

I was hooked.

So, Selena had bartered a red lace camisole I’d made for her to convince the Emper...