Eleana was silent as they took out the pins on her hair, cleaned out her face until it was all bare, and take out the wedding dress she has been wearing all day. The ruby necklace was unclasped from her neck, putting it back in its usual place. She stared at herself in the mirror—stripped to her nightgown, her hair loose, and her skin flushed from all the wiping they did just to remove the cosmetics they have put on her face.
"I can handle it from here," her mother said, who, a while ago, was just watching her being attended in preparation for her wedding night.
She closed her eyes tight, wanting to say that she is no longer a virgin, that she was already taken by another man—a man her mother knew perfectly well since she was the one who gives Magnus to her. But what good would it bring
