Chapter 1
On the day the enemy kingdom fell, the Princess Royal, once sent away in a political marriage, returned in triumph.
While the people of the capital praised her sacrifice, she fell for my husband, Edward Payne, at first sight.
After a few calculated advances, he quickly gave in and came to me asking for a divorce.
Avoiding my eyes, he said, "Charlotte, the Princess Royal is the one who truly suits me. She can help my future. I can't go on like this. Please... let me go."
A dull ache settled in my chest as the quiet warmth of our once-steady marriage turned cold.
He seemed to have forgotten that, when he first asked to marry me, he had spoken with the same urgency.
Back then, his eyes were bright, his voice earnest. "Charlotte, you are the dearest person in my life. Meeting you is my greatest fortune. I don't want to miss a single day with you. Please, marry me."
In the end, power and beauty were enough to cool even the warmest of hearts.
I said nothing more. I signed the divorce papers and cut all ties between us.
Yet even after winning Edward, the Princess Royal remained wary of our past. Fearing that old feelings might one day return, she sought a royal decree to send me to Northridge in a political marriage, hoping I would suffer the same humiliation she once endured.
When the news reached William Sterling, my childhood companion and the frontier general who had waited for me for ten years, he finally lost control.
*****
Back then, Edward Payne knelt outside Hughes Manor for three days and nights, begging my father to grant him my hand. He swore I was the one he loved above all else, the only woman he would ever marry.
I put my faith in him, tuning out the gossip surrounding his birth as the lesser son of the Royal Preceptor, and married him against all judgment.
For a time, I thought I had chosen well. After the wedding, I threw myself into running the household and caring for him, attentive in every possible way.
He had neither power nor standing, yet I never once resented it. All I wanted was for him to remember the promises he had made and to spend his life beside me.
I never imagined how easily that fragile peace could be undone. It began with the return of a single person—Princess Royal Aurora.
Three years earlier, she had been sent to a rival kingdom in a political marriage. People called it a noble sacrifice, and I was no different.
I pitied her, a young woman forced into a distant and hostile land, certain she must have suffered more than anyone knew.
I had even prayed for her in secret, hoping she would one day make it home safely.
What I never could have foreseen was that the day she returned would also mark the beginning of my downfall.
That afternoon, I was in the courtyard, trimming back the overgrown branches with a pair of shears.
I had just cut away a withered twig when a sudden burst of noise rose from outside the gate, followed by a maid's sharp, carrying voice. "Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal, has arrived."
The words caught me completely off guard. What possible reason could the Princess Royal have for coming here?
Our residence was little more than an offshoot of the Payne Estate, belonging to a lesser son. It was modest, even shabby by noble standards, hardly a place that would ever warrant her attention.
There was no time to dwell on it. I set the shears aside, smoothed out my sleeves, and made my way quickly to the covered walkway to receive her.
Moments later, a retinue of finely dressed maids swept into the courtyard, parting just enough to reveal the woman at their center.
It was Aurora.
She was dressed in a formal gown of deep crimson, the heavy silk threaded with gold embroidery that caught the light with every step. Jewels adorned her hair in lavish excess, framing a face that remained as radiant as ever.
And yet, something about her had changed. There was a sharpness to her expression now, an edge of indulgent cruelty, and beneath it all, a shadow she could not quite hide.
It was the kind of mark suffering leaves behind, not just endured, but twisted into something else.
For a brief moment, I felt a pang of sympathy. Whatever she had gone through in that distant court must have been unbearable. If it had hardened her, altered her temper, perhaps that was only natural.
The thought had barely formed before it shattered.
Aurora's gaze swept across the courtyard without so much as brushing past me. Instead, it fixed unerringly on Edward, who stood beneath the opposite side of the walkway.
I hadn't even noticed when he arrived. Clad in a plain blue robe, he stood there with an expression carefully arranged to look both startled and flustered.
The moment their eyes met, the air between them shifted. It wasn't subtle. There was a familiarity there, an intimacy that needed no concealment.
Aurora crossed the courtyard with a light, unhurried step and stopped in front of Edward, as if I weren't there at all.
Her fingers drifted lazily over the front of his coat as she spoke in a soft, coquettish tone. "Edward, do you have any idea how hard it was to track you down?"
He paused for the briefest moment, then quickly recovered, his expression shifting into one of flattered surprise. He bowed at once. "Your Highness."
When he straightened, he made no move to step away. Instead, he reached out and lightly took her wrist, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. The intimacy of the gesture was unmistakable.