Chapter 3 - Princess Evelyne’s FearPrincess Evelyne shattered a mirror before sunrise.
Her mother, Queen Consort Celeste, found her standing in the center of her dressing room with blood on one finger.
“What happened?”
Evelyne turned.
“She is alive.”
Celeste closed the door.
“Lower your voice.”
“You knew.”
“I suspected nothing.”
“You’re lying.”
Celeste slapped her.
Evelyne froze.
Her mother had never struck her.
“Listen carefully,” Celeste said. “You are still the king’s daughter.”
“For now.”
“This is not a succession hearing.”
“It will become one.”
The royal succession laws of Aurelia were unusual.
King Rowan had been crowned because Seraphina had died without a recognized heir.
But Seraphina had been named First Heir before her death.
If Lily was truly Seraphina’s daughter, legal scholars could argue that Seraphina’s hereditary claim had transferred to her child.
Evelyne might no longer be next in line.
That terrified her.
But not only because of the crown.
For twenty-two years, Evelyne had been told she was special.
Necessary.
Destined.
Suddenly a girl with dirt beneath her fingernails could stand in the ballroom and make everyone forget the princess existed.
“I humiliated her.”
“Yes.”
“In front of everyone.”
“Yes.”
Evelyne glared.
“You’re very helpful.”
“You created your own problem.”
Celeste approached the window.
“The question is whether you make it worse.”
Meanwhile, Lily was experiencing the opposite problem.
Everyone wanted to see her.
Servants bowed differently.
Guards stood straighter.
Nobles who had laughed while Evelyne humiliated her now sent flowers.
One duke sent diamonds.
Lily returned them.
A countess sent a handwritten apology.
Lily returned that too.
Only one gift remained.
A bundle of white roses.
No card.
She assumed they came from Elias.
Then she noticed something tied around one stem.
A narrow piece of black ribbon.
Marian had used black ribbons to mark poisonous plants.
Lily immediately stopped.
She called Elias.
Inside the rose bundle, they found a thin metal key.
Elias stared.
“I know this.”
“From where?”
“Your mother kept one like it.”
He led Lily to the oldest greenhouse.
Behind rows of dormant climbing roses stood a stone storage cabinet that had not been opened in years.
The key fit.
Inside was a wooden box.
Marian’s name had been carved into the lid.
Lily’s hands shook.
The box contained letters.
A bloodstained piece of royal-blue cloth.
A signet ring.
And a journal.
The first page read:
If Lily is reading this, then I am gone or the truth has finally reached her.
Lily sat on the greenhouse floor.
Elias stood behind her.
She read.
Marian had been more than Seraphina’s nurse.
She had been her closest confidante.
On the night of the fire, Seraphina woke Marian and handed her the baby.
“She told me they are coming,” Marian wrote.
“Who?” Lily whispered.
The next paragraph answered.
Chancellor Varen had discovered that Seraphina intended to expose a conspiracy inside the Crown Treasury.
Millions had disappeared.
False military contracts.
Land seizures.
Bribes.
And Varen was not alone.
Seraphina believed someone inside the royal family had approved the scheme.
The journal did not name that person.
But it contained one terrifying sentence:
If anything happens to me, do not trust the person who benefits most from my death.
Lily looked up.
Elias was pale.
“Who benefited?”
He answered reluctantly.
“King Rowan inherited the throne.”
Lily’s stomach dropped.
“No.”
“I’m not accusing him.”
“But that’s what it means.”
There was another page.
Marian described escaping through a servant tunnel while flames spread.
She heard Seraphina scream behind her.
Then someone blocked the passage.
A palace officer named Captain Gideon Vale helped Marian escape.
Afterward Gideon vanished too.
Lily had never heard the name.
King Rowan had.
When Lily showed him the journal, he went completely still.
“Gideon Vale was commander of my sister’s personal guard.”
“What happened to him?”
“He was accused of starting the fire.”
Lily stared.
“By whom?”
Rowan’s jaw tightened.
“Chancellor Varen.”
The king suddenly looked less like a monarch and more like a man realizing how thoroughly he had been manipulated.
Lily continued reading.
Near the final pages was a note written only one year earlier.
Marian had discovered Gideon might still be alive.
She had intended to find him.
Then she became ill.
Beneath the note was an address.
A fishing village three days north.
King Rowan ordered horses prepared immediately.
Lily stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
She stared at him.
Rowan sighed.
“You have been royal for less than twenty-four hours and you are already arguing with the king.”
“I’ve been a gardener’s daughter for eighteen years. We argue with people who give bad instructions.”
Elias coughed to hide a laugh.
Even Rowan smiled.
Then the doors opened.
Princess Evelyne stood outside.
Her eyes fell on the journal.
“What did you find?”
Lily closed it.
“Why do you care?”
Evelyne’s expression hardened.
Then she said something unexpected.
“Because Chancellor Varen visited my mother three nights ago.”
Everyone became silent.
“He gave her a sealed envelope.”
Lily stared.
“What was inside?”
Evelyne swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Then she looked at her cousin for the first time without contempt.
“But I think we should find out before someone else disappears.”
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