I Was the Stepping Stone novel Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Yes-this is my second life with Alaric Thorne.

In the life before, we were bound by feeling, yet undone by fate.

Our stations were shackles we could not break. And so we missed one another-utterly and permanently.

In this life, I vowed not to repeat the same mistake.

To mend what was broken, I cast aside pride and clung to him without shame.

I knew his heart burned for the Empire, his ambition stifled by court politics and noble blood.

So I became his shadow-offering counsel, maneuvering in silence-until he rose, step by step, to become the Empire’s

Warden General.

I had thought: if I helped him reach his dream, he would take me with him into the light.

But from the beginning, the one in his heart… was never me.

His sword, his bloodshed, his victories-none of it was for me.

It was for her. The High Princess. His childhood companion.

When he returned triumphant from the northern front, bathed in honors and titles, the capital rejoiced.

He cared little for the feasts and praise-but never missed a single royal banquet where she would appear.

After I entered his household, she began sending invitations to the General’s estate.

He would urge me to go.

To attend. To befriend her.

He would tell me about her temperament, her favorite flowers, the things that made her laugh.

All with the reverence of a man describing a sacred text.

I smiled and nodded through it all. But my hands trembled in my lap.

It takes time-years of watching-to know someone so completely.

Jealousy bloomed sharp and bitter in my chest.

But still, I pretended. I obeyed.

Every time the Princess hosted a gathering, he would escort me there-then ask me to stall while he stole a private moment with her in the carriage.

When I joined them again, his gaze would still linger on her.

Soft. Gentle. Eyes I had never seen turned on me.

Chapter 3

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I have pursued him for five years now.

The world mocks me-calls me shameless, a woman who would sell herself to power.

They say I long to climb above my station.

To become nobility by lying in a powerful man’s bed.

And yet, after all these years, I don’t even hold the status of a concubine.

To them, I am a delusional fool.

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