Aeliana returned to her chambers, her mind weighed down by the conversation she'd just had with her father. The moment the door closed behind her, she exhaled sharply, as if expelling the sheer magnitude of everything she had just learned.
Then—without hesitation—she threw herself onto her massive bed, the silken covers billowing slightly under her weight.
Staring at the ornate canopy above, she let out a quiet groan, pressing the heels of her palms against her eyes.
'What the hell am I supposed to do with all of this?'
Her mother. The engagement. Lucavion.
Everything she had thought to be fixed, to be set in stone, had suddenly been upended with a few carefully spoken words.
Her father had been willing to break the engagement—just like that.
For years, she had assumed that the decision was unshakable, that she had no say in the matter. That her life had already been carved out for her, dictated by duty and necessity.
