I. "Today is the last day of my life."

“Congratulations, you are getting married…” a young woman muttered in front of a magnificent antique mirror. Her expression was complicated. The look in her eyes only depicted emptiness when she dwelt about her fate.

She faintly heard the sound of romantic music outside the room. But to her ears, the melodies seems more like a funeral hymn than a love song. It was terrible and suffocating at the same time.

‘How do I wake up from this nightmare,’ the girl thought with a sad expression mixed with fear.  She gripped the snow-white dress that framed her petite body, feeling a number of gems pierce her palm. ‘It hurts… But this is the reality, Amanda.’  The girl's brows furrowed. ‘How did this happen?’

The girl was still unable to accept the reality before her now. She closed her eyes, trying to replay the events of this early morning when she stood stiffly in the midst of her 'foreign' family.  The cold gazes of her father, mother, and stepsisters pierced her.

"Amanda," called a man with a thick and messy beard, who looked much older than his actual age. “Put on those clothes.” Baron Broke ordered coldly to his biological daughter.

‘What is this? Did they finally accept me?’ Questions kept popping up in the mind of the nineteen-year-old girl. A hope arose from the great longing for a family, based on the different treatment from her father today.

Seeing that Amanda didn't budge, the girl who had been sitting beside Baron Broke started cursing. "Huh! What an annoying sick girl!" she said while frowning, as if disgusted.

“Gisella,” Baron Broke called out to the girl, seeming to want to rebuke. However, he instead said, “What did you expect? She was indeed handicapped from birth."

Yeah, insults and insults were Amanda's daily ‘food’. After all, apart from insults, punches and kicks were also common things she received from her family. The cruel treatment of her stepmother and stepsister didn't matter to her anymore, as if the girl was used to it.

However, not with the treatment of Baron Broke—her biological father. Someone who was blood related to her, Amanda would never get used to the pain. Always getting painful and more painful from time to time.

Amanda lowered her head, letting her silver hair cover half of her face. "I don't want to be born different either..." Her purple eyes stared down at her snow-white skin. “Am I that bad?”

Gisella smirked, satisfied with Amanda's hurt face from her father's comment. "You must be wondering why we called you here," said the firm-jawed girl. “Let me help Dad tell you, you are getting married soon. Today."

Amanda immediately tilted her head.  "W-what?"  Her eyes were widely opened.

"You're going to marry a prince, you know? How lucky a handicapped girl like you is to be with a prince," said her stepmother, smiling sarcastically.

‘They must be joking, right?’ Amanda asked herself, not daring to say it.  But she realized, since when her mother and step sister asked her to joke? They were not that friendly to her.

Gisella's heart was thriving with joy seeing Amanda looked shocked. “Doesn't that sound like a dream? Your future husband is a handsome prince. He’s a physically perfect man," the girl continued with her right eyebrow raised, revealing a mocking expression. “But, all of that was ruined because of the injuries he received during the war. He is a crippled prince now.”  Gisella showed a face of mock sympathy only for a moment then a slight curve appeared on her lips.  "But, hey, isn’t that means you two are matched, right? Both disabled!”

A shrill laugh resounded in the luxurious main room. Not only Gisella, but her mother also laughed sarcastically.

Amanda's brows furrowed as she looked desperately at her father, but the old man looked away instead. Baron Broke was silent in the corner of the room, as if he didn't care instead of defending the only biological child he had thrown away eight years ago to the old manor behind his own residence.

Gisella smiled, then walked over to Amanda. She passed the girl and stopped when she was behind his stepsister. Suddenly, Gisella grabbed Amanda's silver mane and forced the girl to look at her.

Amanda grimaced as she wondered to herself, ‘Isn’t it Gisella who always wants all her life to be a high-class noble? Why didn't she marry this prince? Is it only because of physically disabled matter?’ Amanda found this quite strange. ‘Why did they offer this marriage to me?’

"Why you and not me?" Gisella asked as if she could read Amanda's head. A smirk appeared on her firm-jawed face before continuing her words. "Because, of course, I don't want to marry a murderer."

"W-what do you mean ...?" Amanda asked while holding the top of her head, which now suddenly get dizzy.

“That man has killed his two wives. Blood is his favorite thing, especially when he's in bed."  Gisella ran her finger down Amanda's neck, causing the girl to give off an expression of pain mixed with fear. “You must have heard rumors about him, right? The Black Prince."

Amanda stared intently at her step sister's face, hoping that she was just scaring her as usual.  But the glint in Gisella's eyes seemed reassuring, as if there were no lies.

The Black Prince, a man who was always bathed in blood until his black armor smelled rancid.  The son of the king who managed to take down all the enemies of the kingdom without batting an eye. The cruelty of that man was well-known to everyone.

“T-that man… will become my husband?!” Amanda looked back at her father pitifully.  However, the man just walked out of the room, leaving Amanda with the two people she feared the most; her stepmother and stepsister.

What happened next didn't need to be said anymore. Amanda was just a toy for Gisella and her stepmother. Torture and insults were things she could never avoid when she was in the same room with the two of them.

Amanda opened her eyes, once again looking at her reflection in the mirror. Everything was real that she would be betrothed to the most dangerous man in the kingdom. She would also die at the hands of that man.

"Wedding day?"  Amanda wore a helpless smile on her face.  "No, this could be my last day."