Chapter 3

For the next few days, I felt like a canary trapped in a gilded cage.

I lived in the most luxurious palace in Swisey, using only the finest wares.

Countless court attendants waited on me day and night. But I had no freedom.

Alex forbade me from taking even a single step beyond the palace doors.

It was like he completely forgot about me. For half a month, he didn't show up at all.

Every day, all I did was sit by the window, zoning out as I stared at the sky outside my window.

The maids treated me with the utmost respect, but I could always catch a flicker of curiosity and fear in their eyes.

They probably couldn't wrap their heads around why Alex would let a Rivergate princess live. Especially one who couldn't even speak.

Honestly, I couldn't figure it out either. I used to think he kept me here to torment and humiliate me.

But Alex never bothered with me again. That only made me even more anxious.

The unknown was what scared me the most.

One day, a maid named Samantha brought me lunch.

She was from Rivergate, taken prisoner and brought to Swisey a few years back.

Maybe because we were both strangers in a foreign land, Samantha always acted a bit warmer toward me.

Seeing I had no appetite, Samantha quietly urged, "Lady Violette, just try to eat a little, please.

"If you keep skipping meals like this, your body won't hold up."

I picked up my fork and took a bite, but it felt impossible to swallow.

I gestured toward the outside, then pointed back at myself. I wanted to ask her when I could finally get out of here.

Samantha caught my meaning and sighed. "Don't even think about it, Lady Violette.

"Nobody's going to let you out unless His Majesty gives the word."

After a pause, Samantha said softly, "Honestly... His Majesty treats you in a way that's already pretty special."

I looked at her, puzzled. Special? What was so special about it?

Was it the way he claimed me on our wedding night, or the way he'd ignored me for the past two weeks?

"You're the first woman His Majesty has ever personally brought into the palace," Samantha said, lowering her voice like she was sharing a secret. "All the other women were just sent to him by his servants.

"And this place you're living inn, the Star Palace. His Majesty had it built himself after he became king. It's been left empty until you arrived."

Star Palace. My heart gave a thump. I liked to watch stars at night. Was this just a coincidence?

"And," Samantha went on, "the day you first showed up, when His Majesty kicked the door open to rescue you, we were all outside, listening in.

"His voice... it was something we'd never heard before. He actually sounded... anxious."

Anxious? I remembered that night, his cold stare, the way he handled me so roughly.

Anxious? That word didn't fit him at all.

After Samantha left, I sat alone in the hall, my mind tangled in confusion.

Alex said I didn't even deserve to die. He said he wasn't finished playing with me yet.

This palace, built for me alone. This marriage, which seemed more like a business deal than anything else.

Maybe none of this was an accident after all?

A chilling thought suddenly struck me. This marriage, Alex had been plotting it from the very start.

He never cared about Rivergate's cities, or that so-called peace. From beginning to end, the only thing he ever wanted was me.

But... why? I was just a voiceless princess nobody cared about, raised in the secluded palace.

Why would Alex scheme and plot for so long just to have me? We'd never even met before.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of a single thing that could possibly connect us.

Fear closed in on me like an invisible web, trapping me with no way out.

If he really had plans for me, then what was he truly after?

That night, Alex appeared. No warning, no sign.

I was reading under the flickering candlelight when the door swung open and he walked in.

He'd ditched his robes for simple black attire.

He looked less like a king and more like someone dangerous. There was something almost wicked about him.

Alex walked up to me and pulled the book from my hands. "So, what are you reading?"

I pressed my lips together and didn't reply.

He didn't bother with my silence, tossed the book onto the table.

"When your king asks you something, why don't you answer?" Alex pressed, his voice edged with annoyance.

I looked up at him. I pointed at my lips and shook my head.

I couldn't speak. I figured he already knew that.

But my gesture only seemed to make him angry.

"Quit acting pitiful." Alex grabbed my wrist and yanked me up from the chair. "Drop your pathetic act in front of me. I don't want to see you trying to win sympathy."

His grip was so tight it hurt.

I winced and furrowed my brows from the pain, staring at him in confusion. I couldn't understand why he was so angry.

"Violette," Alex leaned in, his jaw clenched and voice icy, "don't you dare forget how you spoke to me five years ago."

Five years ago? It hit me like a bomb went off in my head.

A memory I'd tried so hard to forget suddenly came rushing back.

Five years ago, on the mountain behind the secluded palace, I was trying to get away from a few young servants who were bullying me, but I slipped and fell down the slope.

A boy, covered in blood and wearing Swisey attire, was the one who saved me.

He was seriously injured and completely unconscious.

I was so desperate to keep him alive that, for the first time, I actually cried out. It was just a few slurred, fragmented sounds.

"Water... don't... die..." I barely whispered.

Later, the boy finally woke up. I found some herbs for him and got him to drink some water.

We spent three days together.

Those three days were the only time in my sixteen years that I ever felt truly warm.

When he was about to leave, the boy asked for my name. I used a stick to write 'Violette Lennox' on the ground.

He told me his name was Alex Morgan. And he promised he'd come back for me.

I thought it was just an empty promise from a boy. I believed our lives would never intersect again.

I never could have guessed that battered, bloodied boy from years ago would become the ruler who decides whether I live or die.

*****

I hadn't really been voiceless for a long time. After that day, my voice gradually returned.

But silence had become my habit. I was scared to speak, too.

My mother always warned me: "In this palace, the more you say, the more trouble you invite.

Keeping silent was the perfect cover. So I kept pretending to be the mute princess. And I stayed that way for five years straight.

It turned out Alex knew everything all along. He knew my name, and knew I wasn't really mute.

This marriage, this so-called alliance, all of it... was just his revenge. Revenge for the lie I told him years ago.

I looked at him, my body shaking like a leaf caught in a storm.

The rage in his eyes was so fierce, I felt like I might be incinerated on the spot.

"So, are you still going to keep pretending?" Alex asked coldly.

I tried to speak, but my throat was so parched, not a single sound came out.