Chapter three: A Daughter’s Resolve

The morning sun spilled golden rays across Lady Seraphina's bedchamber, warming the polished marble floors and illuminating the delicate embroidery on her silk bedding. The air was fresh, scented faintly with lilac from the open balcony doors. A gentle breeze played with the pale curtains, carrying with it the distant hum of hooves and hurried voices in the courtyard below.

Seraphina sat upright on the chaise beside her bed, a silver tray perched on her lap. A porcelain teacup steamed gently beside a half-eaten croissant, and she quietly sipped her herbal tea. Her face still bore the faint pallor of her recent illness, but the fever had lifted, and her thoughts were clear. There was calm in her expression yet it was the calm before a storm.

The door burst open without warning.

“Seraphina!” cried a familiar voice.

Her spoon clattered onto the tray. She turned to see her mother, Duchess Callidora, rushing into the room with her skirts trailing behind her, followed closely by her father, Duke Cassius, and their steward, who tried and failed to keep pace.

“My daughter, you sureeee you're alright?” Duke Cassius gasped, taking in the sight of her with wide, anxious eyes.

Duchess Callidora wasted no time in clasping Seraphina’s hands, tears already threatening to spill. “Finally, you’re over that strange boy,” she muttered under her breath before pulling her daughter into a tight embrace.

“Mother, Father…” Seraphina began, unsure whether to smile or cry. “You're home.”

“We returned the moment we heard,” Duke Cassius said, standing protectively behind his wife. “The steward didn’t send word until two days ago. Poison? And we weren’t even here! What kind of guards let an assassin near my daughter while she lay vulnerable in her own quarters?”

Seraphina placed her teacup down. “It’s alright now. I survived.”

“But the engagement, child,” Callidora said, brushing a loose strand of hair from Seraphina’s face. “Is it true? That you… you annulled it?”

“I did.”

The Duchess clutched her chest. “Bless the stars.”

Cassius frowned. “Honey, he is the Crown Prince. But… he is strange.”

“Strange? Cassius, he’s more than strange. That boy never even held her hand during their courtship! I always said something was off about that royal brood.”

Seraphina sat quietly, letting their words swirl around her like wind through leaves. Her eyes drifted to the window, to the gardens beyond where petals danced in the breeze. She remembered another morning like this… one from the life that no one remembered but her.

A Flash of the Past Life

The smell of the same lilacs had been in the air when her parents returned four days after the engagement celebration. Her mother had burst in the same way, panic laced through her voice, only that time… it was already too late.

“You must call off the engagement!” her mother had pleaded then, hands trembling as she held Seraphina’s poisoned fingers. “This family, this crown, it will be the death of you!”

But Seraphina, still weak, had smiled at the memory of the Crown Prince’s rare smile. She had believed he loved her. Foolishly, she had clung to the idea that duty and affection would merge—that he would protect her.

“I can’t, Mother,” she had said.

Her father had stormed out that day, too angry to speak. Her mother had stayed by her side through the night. But not long after, she had died… betrayed, exiled, and finally executed, all for a marriage that was never real.

Back in the Present

This time, she would choose differently. Seraphina drew herself up, spine straight and eyes firm. “It was the right thing to do.”

Duke Cassius sighed, pacing the room. “The High Priest already left for the capital. That message will reach the prince soon, and the court will stir.”

“I’m prepared for that.”

The Duchess exchanged a glance with her husband, then sat beside Seraphina again. “Are you sure you’re doing this for the right reasons? Not out of spite or fear, but out of clarity?”

Seraphina took her mother’s hand gently. “This engagement never protected me. It nearly killed me. And he—he never even asked how I felt. He was kind when the world was watching, cold when it was not. That’s not love. That’s a performance.”

“You’ve grown,” The Duke muttered, watching her with something like pride hidden in his concern.

“I’ve died,” she thought but did not say. “I’ve learned.”

Aloud, she said, “I’ll take the consequences, no matter how harsh. But I will not walk a path toward my own destruction again.”

Duchess Callidora stood and kissed the top of her daughter’s head. “Then we’ll face them together. You’re our only child. Our treasure. And it’s about time the kingdom realized your worth doesn’t hinge on a prince’s ring.”

“Nor his title,” Cassius added. “Nor his very strange personality.”

Seraphina laughed, and for the first time in days, it was genuine.

As her parents fussed about ordering new guards, scolding the steward, and arranging for her recovery to be overseen by a royal physician, Seraphina leaned back into her pillows.

A fire had ignited in her, and it would not be extinguished.

Let the prince receive the message. Let the court react. Let the world turn.

Lady Seraphina was no longer a pawn. She had rewritten her fate.

And this time, she would not look back.

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