ia

ith carefully worded clauses. I was copying the format from an old bo

turn of my dowry-or whatever was left of it after Jaden's lavish sp

than it had been in years. For the past seven years, I had lived like a pathetic puppet, m

ward, I would liv

, and gently blew on the ink to dry it. A

tside-the sound of a woman's bright laughter mingling with

a silver bell, and it made the hair on my arms stan

tta P

g here? In the ma

, and moved to the window, carefully lift

old-trimmed carriage. The smile on his handsome face was sickeningly tender, his eyes

m. She surveyed the grand architecture of our home with the haughty, satisfied gaze of a mistress who had alre

not a sho

n cheap red silk and suffocating incense, desperately trying to mimic a fraction of this woman's allure j

paraded his courtesan into our home. It wasn't just a slap to the face; it was a public execution of my dignity. It wa

the room, shutting the door quickly behind her.

. he's settled Miss Payne in the finest guest suite in the Eas

the other servants whispering in the hallway,

to the main house." "I heard the Exarch is utterly smitten.

need to say more. I understood everything perfectly. Jaden was already impatient to have her

my knees and wept. But today? The rage burned in my chest like a

would solve nothing. It would only make him despise me more

on for The Severance. I folded the thick parchment carefully,

you your wish. I thought, my jaw set. I will make you sign

cate, whining voice drifted up from the courty

arsh in this part of the garden.

, my love. I'll have the gardeners remove those unsightly lotus flow

round the envelope, crinklin

en, sharp pain piercing m

t seven years meticulously tending to those lotuses, nurturing them through the harsh Vorrath winters. It

lled them

to rip out my last precious memory, just to p

I opened them again, the last lingering trace of warmth I

es hardening into chip

le thread that tied my heart to this plac