บททั้งหมดของ They Stole My Twin's Crown: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

By the time I reached the royal palace, the coronation was already underway.Rosalind Vale sat beside Emperor Lucien Arden wearing the imperial phoenix crown.My parents sat below the dais, smiling as though the woman being crowned were their own daughter.I watched through the crowd for one long moment, and I didn't move.Strangling them where they sat would be letting them off cheap.First, I needed to find Elara.I avoided the Imperial Guard and came in through the old passage beneath Ardenhall, into the palace where my sister had lived.Moonrest Palace had once belonged to her.Before Elara married into the royal household, I'd prepared a hundred slabs of alabaster for the floors and twenty pear trees for the courtyard. Every piece was written into her dowry inventory.Now the alabaster had been pried out.The pear trees were gone, cut down to the roots.Even the carved MOONREST PALACE plaque had been ripped from the gate and thrown into the mud.A palace maid stood on

Lucien came through the gate of Moonrest Palace and stopped when he saw Harriet Greaves tied to the stump.His expression darkened."Elara. Who gave you permission to touch the Empress's servant?"I struck Greaves again while he watched.She screamed."Your Majesty, save me!"Lucien stepped between us and reached for the whip."Let go."I looked at him."Elara's been missing for three days."Instead of looking for her, you're busy crowning another woman?"Impatience flashed across his face."What are you playing at now?"Three days ago you hurt your guards and got out of the Winter Wing. Now you come back pretending you were missing, so I'll pity you?"I almost laughed.He still hadn't realized I wasn't Elara.My sister and I had identical faces.Everything else about us was different.He said he loved her.And another woman could stand in front of him wearing her face, and he saw nothing.Lucien mistook my silence for guilt.His voice softened."Go back to the Wi

Mother's lips trembled."You're alive?"I rested the sword tip against her shoulder."From your tone, that's a disappointment."She shook her head at once."No. I'm only shocked."You drank the death-simulating draught. I thought you'd never come back."I smiled."Death-simulating draught?"There was Widow's Veil in that bowl."Her face changed.Father cut in immediately."Nonsense."He pointed at me."Mara, you come back after three years, walk into the palace armed, pass yourself off as Elara, and attack the Empress. You've clearly lost your mind."I looked at him."Widow's Veil tastes faintly bitter. An hour after you swallow it, blood starts coming from the eyes, the nose, the ears."My smile sharpened."Care to guess why I'm still standing here?"He said nothing.I'd known something was wrong the moment the bowl was carried in.My parents called it a harmless sleeping draught.Someone had put poison in it.They were afraid that if I simply vanished, I might

Lucien tore the medical ledger out of Rook's hands.The further he read, the worse his face became.The record was plain.Rosalind had never been pregnant.She'd bribed Aldous Mercer, the royal physician, to certify the pregnancy.Her own maid had prepared a hidden pouch of animal blood under her dress.On the day of the terrace, Rosalind had deliberately provoked Elara.Before my sister could even reach her, she threw herself down the steps and ruptured the pouch.Lucien looked up."This is forged."Rosalind grabbed at it."It is."She sobbed."Elara hates me. She and Mara put it together to ruin me."Elara leaned against me."The ledger carries Mercer's private seal."Every draft can be traced to its source."She looked at Lucien."You wanted evidence."It's in your hands."His grip tightened on the pages."If you had this, why didn't you bring it to me?"Elara laughed once."I did."You burned it."He froze.My sister reminded him calmly."Last winter, I k

For the first time, real panic showed in Lucien's eyes.He stood in front of Elara."I didn't know the truth."They deceived me."His voice went soft and desperate."Stay. The throne beside me is still yours."I'll have Rosalind executed. I'll bring the best physicians in the empire to you."Elara looked at him."Where were you the first time I was beaten?"Lucien froze."Rosalind said I pushed her into the water."And the second time?"She said I poisoned her tea."And the thirtieth lash?"His mouth opened.Elara answered for him."You said I'd never learn my place unless it hurt enough."Lucien's face went white.My sister went on quietly."The day you took the crown from me and sent me to the Winter Wing, I waited for you to come and ask what had happened."I waited until dark. You never came."Later I cut my wrist and sent a maid to beg you to see me."She looked straight at him."You said I was playing games again."Lucien, you had every chance to know the