Chapter 1

One year later…

Rain fell softly over the Agrece estate gardens, as if the sky, too, mourned the silent despair hanging in the dark. The early dawn swallowed the corridors in shadows, broken only by Ana’s hurried footsteps echoing like a secret about to be unraveled.

She was trembling—not from cold, but from fear. From guilt. From love.

Her pale dress dragged across the stone floor. Her boots were caked in mud. The hood masked her golden hair, but not the tears spilling freely down her cheeks.

“Forgive me, Vanessa,” she thought, heart pounding like war drums. “I can’t marry him. I can’t live this lie—I’m a coward.”

She stumbled across the side courtyard, scratched by rose bushes she'd known since childhood. The back gate was unlocked—just as planned. Through the mist, her tear-blurred eyes found the discreet carriage waiting in the distance. Two horses. A coachman paid in family jewels.

She didn’t look back.

Because if she did, she would return.

If she saw Vanessa’s bedroom light still on, she might regret it. If she saw her father’s guards on patrol, she might freeze. But Ana kept walking, step after trembling step, until the night swallowed her whole—as if she’d never belonged to that world at all.

Ana wasn’t just fleeing a wedding.

She was fleeing a fate that denied her the right to love.

Because her love... wasn’t for Ryan.

It was for Isaac.

Isaac, with eyes that saw straight through her masks. Isaac, who never spoke his feelings—but whose silences screamed when she got too close. Isaac, who was far away now, maybe forever, and might never know she left for him.

⋯ ❈♛❈ ⋯

The next morning, chaos.

“What do you mean she fled?”

Emperor Eze’s voice sliced through the air like a blade, echoing off the throne room’s marble columns. Cold. Final. Those around him instinctively stepped back—

Everyone except Duke Eckart, standing calmly beside the throne, and the knights behind him in an imposing line of steel and shadow.

In front of Vanessa, her parents shrank into themselves, trembling. She didn’t understand why they even tried to plead. Appealing to Eze’s mercy wasn’t just pointless—it was dangerous.

“I… ”Her father swallowed hard, his voice cracking. “Forgive me, Your Majesty, but… Ana is just a child! Only seventeen. I don’t know why sh—”

“Silence.”

Eze didn’t shout. He didn’t need to. His low, controlled tone thickened the air like a storm about to break.

“Spare me your pathetic excuses. Your daughters carry what is required to become duchesses. By law, you are bound to offer one to the heir of the dukedom.”

He leaned forward slightly.

“Refusing an imperial command is not just disobedience… it’s treason.”

Vanessa’s blood ran cold. For a moment, the floor seemed too far beneath her feet.

Then she stepped forward.

“Take me.”

Her voice shattered the silence—steady, despite the tremor in her spine. Before her parents could react, Vanessa dropped to her knees before the throne. Her clenched fists touched the floor, knuckles already reddening, and she bowed her head low.

“My blood is the same. ”Her voice was softer now, but unwavering. “Take me in her place, Your Majesty.”

The silence that followed stretched into something unbearable.

Vanessa could feel the stares of the court burning her skin. Shame twisted in her gut, but she didn’t move. She could imagine the stifled laughter, the whispered cruelty, the veiled mockery behind the ladies’ golden veils and the nobles’ narrowed eyes. Her arranged fiancé was likely somewhere in the room, sighing in disappointment.

She braced herself for rejection.

But she spoke again, lower this time, more intimate:

“I know I’m not Ana. I know that better than anyone. But I’m of age. And… I won’t run.”

She lifted her chin and met the Emperor’s eyes. She wanted him to see what she couldn’t say aloud: If this saves my family, I’ll die for it.

Because Vanessa was not Ana.

Ana was soft. Radiant. Kind. Beautiful, with porcelain skin and golden hair that caught the sun, a smile that made strangers love her. People called her perfect—like a doll made to be adored.

Vanessa, on the other hand, bore the features of a forgotten aunt—the family’s black sheep. Average in every way: average height, average beauty, average skills. Skin dark as storm-swept skies, coiled brown hair she barely knew how to tame, and green eyes that rarely spoke. She was quiet. Studious. Good with numbers. Destined for a loveless marriage to a wealthy merchant—a life of stability.

To be chosen to enter the Duke’s household?

Unthinkable.

She said nothing as laughter echoed. Nothing as the jokes began. Nothing as the silence of the Emperor’s knights suffocated her.

Finally, Eze raised a hand, commanding silence. His eyes lingered on Vanessa for a long moment, weighing her like a coin at market.

He didn’t see a girl kneeling.

He saw a convenient solution.

If Vanessa agreed to the marriage—and died trying—the contract would still be honored. The family's honor restored. Her parents spared. The empire would carry on. And no one, absolutely no one, would lose.

Except her.

But that was her role, wasn’t it?

To carry the burdens her pampered sister could not.

The future duke stepped forward at Eze’s gesture. He leaned to speak quietly with her father, then with the emperor. Vanessa resisted the urge to look at him. She wanted to know who she’d be bound to—but she couldn’t afford to appear eager. That would make her weak. And she was already far too exposed.

Her chest ached. Breathing felt like swallowing stones. When the Emperor finally dismissed the audience and turned back to her, Vanessa already knew the sentence.

“So be it. ”His decree dropped like lead.“You are dismissed for the night. The wedding will proceed at dawn, as planned.”

Eight hours.

That was all she had left.

Vanessa’s stomach twisted. She didn’t know how to prepare for what awaited her. She couldn’t think.

Three months of travel to reach the imperial castle…

One month living here as a shadow…

And now, this.

She’d spent her days exploring the castle’s halls, memorizing windows and gardens and turns—beautiful things to keep, because… well, she’d always known her life wouldn’t have many joys.

She thought she’d have time.

She thought she’d marry quietly.

She thought she’d live in a too-large house with a distant husband.

Now, her entire life had been reduced to eight hours.

Her chest tightened.

Something should be said. Something meaningful. Grand.

But no one said anything.

So Vanessa simply bowed her head again. Whispered a barely audible thank you.

And followed her parents, in silence, back to the suite that—for one final night—she still called home.

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