A Marriage Forged From Schemes
546 Words
Chapter Twelve
A week passed.
No report.
No whispers.
No sign of success.
Lyanna paced her chamber like a caged serpent, nails biting into her palms as dread coiled tighter around her heart. The head maid had never failed her before — never disappeared without a trace. Silence, in a world of schemers, was the most dangerous message of all.
Something had gone terribly wrong.
And Lyanna knew exactly what that meant.
Camila.Fear twisted swiftly into desperation. If her plans against her sister had failed, then there was only one path left — the one she had always intended to walk.
Prince Fredrick.
She would not let him slip away. Not after everything she had sacrificed. Not after everything she had done.
Fredrick, meanwhile, stood in quiet defiance against the engagement arrangements. His every excuse grew thinner, his patience fraying like old silk.
“I told you, Lyanna,” he said sternly, avoiding her gaze, “this marriage was never meant to be decided so hastily.”
But Lyanna’s eyes gleamed with calculated sorrow.
Then, with a trembling voice soft as silk dipped in venom, she spoke the words she had prepared long ago.
“You took my innocence,” she whispered, allowing tears to spill just enough to be convincing. “Now you wish to abandon me? Is my honor so worthless to you, Your Highness?”
The memory she forced upon him blurred his expression.
That night.
Fredrick had been unwell, dizzy, his consciousness dulled by an unseen hand. His lips had murmured a name not hers —the name he should never have spoken.
Camila.
Lyanna had smiled through her rage as she staged the scene perfectly, arranging everything to appear as though he had violated her. When he woke, confused and horrified, she presented herself as a broken victim, demanding emotional compensation, her voice trembling like a dove with clipped wings.
Now, trapped by duty, shame, and royal expectations, Fredrick exhaled slowly.
“I will marry you,” he said at last, his voice hollow. “I will take responsibility for the pain I caused.”
Lyanna froze — then her lips curled into avictorious smile the moment he turned away.
Preparations began immediately.
The palace buzzed with excitement, silk and gold flooding the halls as Lyanna ensured everything reflected perfection. Her wedding gown became her obsession — a masterpiece of shimmering ivory and pearls, designed to eclipse every noble bride the empire had ever seen.
She would not merely marry a prince.
She would become a queen.
High above the celebration, the Queen watched her son from the balcony, regal and sorrowful. Her eyes, sharp as ever, saw what love could not.A marriage born of deception.
A crown offered to lust.
She sighed softly, the weight of prophecy heavy upon her shoulders.
“My son walks willingly into his doom,” she murmured. “And the woman beside him… may yet prove to be our kingdom’s greatest disappointment.”
Her gaze drifted toward the horizon, thoughtful, almost mournful.
She could only hope…
that if fate was truly cruel — her first son would survive it.
For storms were rising on all sides of the palace.And this union, forged in lies and manipulation, would not bring peace.
It would bring war .
- Writer
