Cassandra’s POVFor a long moment, there was nothing, no sound, no breath, no movement, only the two of us suspended in a silence so heavy it felt like it could crush bone. The air in the room was thick, humid from the steam that had followed me out of the bathroom, yet cold at the edges in the way only palace walls could be. Richard sat on the edge of the bed, shoulders slumped forward as though the weight of the crown, past, present, future, had finally settled on him all at once. His eyes, usually sharp with princely discipline or clouded with guilt, were now dark, empty, hollow.He was waiting.For an answer.For a truth neither of us had dared speak for six years.And I stood there, wrapped in a towel, my hair still damp and clinging to my shoulders, my skin still flushed from the too-hot water I had used to scrub away the evidence of a man who wasn’t my husband. But even beneath the heat, I felt cold. The kind of cold that came from years of loneliness, years of hoping and break
Last Updated : 2025-12-13
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