Thank you I keep seeing comments on how she shouldn't of ran away or kept the kids from him but he seriously needs to do some growing because as far as I've seen he's been nothing but toxic and kinda emotionally abusive towards her she did what she thought was best for her and the kids safety
I hate it when authors give us their sob stories to try and make us pity them and excuse their actions for the sake of the relationship support from the readers
Ikr?
Like, he did nothing to earn her trust. He knew she was pregnant when she asked him the what he'd do if a woman confessed she was with his child, yet he still told her "she would be lying".
No encouragement, no honesty, no nothing. He just fed her insecurities and fears and for what? Amusement?
Next, when she discovers their dreams together are real, she becomes justifiably angry. He could apologise. He could beg for her forgiveness. He could profess his love. He could try to explain himself.
Yet, does he do any of these things? No.
He doubles down and tells her: "Then I'll bring you back by force".
She may not have done much to understand him better beyond the rumours, but he certainly didn't do anything to improve his reputation or earn her trust, beyond letting her sit on his lap (which gross uncles and mall Santas can also do). Lol.
It's so fakeeeeee. Like, STAPH IT.
If a neighbour killed my cat, then I found out he had a tragic backstory where cats ate his parents' corpses or some shit, it still would not change the fact THAT HE KILLED MY CAT.
It may explain why he's afraid of cats, and thus why he'd be tempted to kill my cat when he saw it on his lawn, but it wouldn't excuse his actions.
Lol. No amount of sappy backstory is going to make me like the Emperor.
A sad past does not excuse his actions.
He still kept her in the dark, manipulated her, spied on her, tried to control her and when that failed, threatened her. Then he abused his power to make her an outlaw, hunted her, kidnapped her children and he is STILL neither explaining himself nor trying to listen to her/understand her perspective.
He isn't treating her like a lover. He's not even treating her like a person and I HATE THAT I CAN SEE WHERE THE AUTHOR IS MOST LIKELY TAKING THIS.
Imo, there are only two routes the author can take to save this story and not make it a cliché-toxic-romance:
1. Double down on the angst.
Make the Emperor more obsessive and cruel and turn the genre towards thriller/horror where the mc needs to save her kids and try to escape the Emperor for good.
2. Make the Emperor repent.
And I mean REALLY repent. Make him see EXACTLY the kind of manipulative, controlling asshole he's been and REGEET IT. BIG TIME.
I'd honestly prefer the first one at this point. Rn any attempt to make him more likeable, is going to feel forced and cliché.
So, I'm debating with myself whether I should prepare myself for disappointment, but hope for the best, and stick around or just save myself the grief and drop this...