Chapter 2

I clenched my fists and walked step by step toward the ones I had never dared to meet their eyes before.

Lydia's smug look froze, and she instinctively stepped back.

Caleb stepped forward, shielding Lydia behind him.

"Sophia, what are you trying to do now?" Caleb asked.

They probably still thought I was the same Sophia who would lose her mind if Caleb so much as exchanged a few words with another noblewoman.

But I just knelt down, my face blank, and bowed my head to them in a formal salute.

Caleb's frown deepened, a flicker of emotion flashing in his eyes. He moved his arm slightly, as if he wanted to reach out to me.

But as soon as he raised his hand, Lydia gently held it.

"Caleb, do you think Sophia hates me? After all, she's suffering because of me..." Lydia said softly.

"Is she even worthy? When our master's body was barely cold, that damn emperor wanted to send you off for a peace marriage. This is nothing but her own retribution!" Caleb spat.

Caleb shot me a scathing look, all warmth gone from his eyes.

"Get her out of here! Don't let this trash dirty our sight!" he barked.

I was dragged to lavender laundry like a rag doll, tossed onto the floor, and put to work scrubbing the servants' filthy clothes.

My chilblains split open again, itching and burning, but with every shout and every crack of the whip, I kept working, too scared to pause for even a moment.

It was past midnight when I finally pushed open the door, exhausted. Before I could even react, someone pulled me into a tight embrace.

It was Susan, my old head maid.

She practically hauled me up and dragged me toward the palace gate, talking a mile a minute.

"Your Highness, you have to leave tonight with the supply wagons. Get as far away as you can!" she urged.

"I overheard that everything from back then was orchestrated by the Bett family. Lydia Bett—the imperial consort—won't ever let you off..." she added.

An arrow shot straight through Susan's chest, nailing her to the cracks between the bricks right in front of me.

Her eyes had been wide open as she had fallen stiffly backward.

Before I could even savor the joy of our reunion, I lost the last family I had in this world.

Years of suppressed pain erupted all at once. I threw myself onto her body, howling in agony.

Through my tear-filled eyes, I looked up at the man who was somehow standing before me, though I hadn't even noticed his arrival.

Caleb's expression was shrouded in moonlight, and the heavy scent of liquor clung to him.

Without a word, he hauled me up and shoved me into the familiar canopy of Earthly Tranquility Hall.

I stared blankly at the swaying curtains above, letting him do as he pleased.

After the storm was over, Caleb pulled away and got up, his face once again cold and distant.

"Why...why did you kill Susan?" I choked out.

My voice was so hoarse, it barely sounded like me.

Caleb paused, but didn't turn around.

"Sophia, you'll never get out of here," he said, his tone icy.

Tears slipped down my hair and into my skin. I curled up, just like all those endless nights before, waiting for the pain to fade.

I didn't know how long I lay there, but suddenly, the palace door was flung open with a straw mat bundle.

Susan's empty eyes stared at me from the opening in the straw mat.

My blood ran cold.

"That lowly maid deserved her fate. His Majesty was merciful enough to order a proper burial. I thought, little sister, you might want to see her one last time," Lydia said.

She walked slowly into the hall, her eyes unmasked, filled with jealousy and madness.

She leaned in close to my ear, her voice soft but dripping with poison.

"Funny, isn't it? Anyone who gets close to you never ends well, do they?"

"Your parents, your Susan, and... Summer, who followed you all the way to Northica," Lydia sneered.

I flinched, staring up at her.

Summer died under the branding iron of Northica's second emperor, all because she tried to save me.

How the hell did Lydia know about that?

As Susan's dying words flashed through my mind, a realization hit me like a bolt of lightning.

Three years ago, the day before Caleb and I were married, word arrived in the capital that General Bett had fallen in battle.

At the same time, a letter from Northica arrived, demanding that Lydia be sent for a peace marriage.

The next day, Caleb marched through the palace gates in plain white mourning garb, his spear aimed straight at my father.

"My master died on the battlefield for the Ogilvy family, and now you want his daughter to be disgraced in Northica?" he shouted.

Back then, Lydia nervously hid behind Caleb, but there wasn't a hint of sorrow for her father on her face.

The same venom flashed in her eyes as the woman before me.

Lydia savored my terror, her lips moving as she watched my frightened face.

"Little sister, they're all dead. Why are you the only one still alive?" she sneered.

Yeah, why was I still alive when everyone I loved was gone? Despair flooded in.

Overwhelmed by endless hopelessness, I let out a guttural scream and slammed myself into the pillar before me.

But instead of the release I was desperate for, I crashed right into a broad, solid chest.

Caleb was suddenly there in the hall, his hands gripping my shoulders so hard they shook with the effort.

"Your Majesty!" Lydia gasped, her panic perfectly staged.

"I was just trying to comfort my little sister, but she's at it again, trying to end her life! You need to do something about her!" she said.