TFAR 57

“Worst day of the year.”
“For the first time today, I share Your Highness’s opinion.”

After finishing the disastrous engagement ceremony, Serena was finally free from the crown prince! Saying goodbye to her previous life—where she had only been pushed around by others—she stepped toward things that truly made her heart race. The freedom she tasted while that sharp-tongued fourteen-year-old boy was away on the battlefield was unbelievably sweet.

I don’t want to wither away and die in the palace, chained by the shackle called marriage.

But then, the crown prince—whose only wish had seemed to be breaking off their engagement—appeared before her again, and something about him was strange.

“I have not forgotten you for a single day.”

The prince who returned after six years was no longer a child. He had shed all traces of youth and come back as a fully grown man.

“I can never be an obedient crown princess or a graceful empress.”
“You’re probably the only woman who dares speak to me so fiercely.”

His height now far exceeded her expectations; the top of his head she once looked down on felt impossibly distant. The heat rising from his body as he drew closer made her dizzy.

“Do you resent my indifference?”

“Serena Astell, I have come to reclaim the oath of our engagement.”