2
I was imprisoned in the deepest chambers of the royal palace.
My body was weak, clinging to life only through the power Rhys forcibly infused into me daily.
They stripped me of the right to see my son.
“You are the source of the curse, the carrier of this plague.”
Rhys stood at the door, his eyes as cold as ancient ice.
“Do not approach the Royal Heir, and never defile his pure bloodline again.”
The heavy iron doors clanged shut before me, sealing me within this gloomy cage.
Lyra, under the guise of ‘purifying the Royal Heir, monopolized the nursery day and night.
She deliberately had a magic scrying mirror transmit everything for me to see.
To make me watch her seize everything that was mine.
In the mirror, she wore my clothes, sat at my vanity.
Using my lipstick, styling her hair like mine, even mimicking my tone of voice.
“See this, my dear ‘sister‘?”
She smirked at the scrying mirror, her eyes venomous and triumphant.
“Your husband, your clothes, everything you have, will be mine.”
“And you? You’re just a trapped mouse in a cage.”
She walked to the cradle and clumsily picked up Jasper.
Jasper, sensing a foreign touch, immediately started wailing.
“My Jasper, say ‘Mommy“”
Lyra forced his gaze onto her face.
“I am your true mother. Forget that woman.”
The cub cried harder, his little face flushed crimson.
He struggled desperately, trying to escape Lyra’s embrace.
“He doesn’t like me. It’s all that woman’s fault.”
Lyra’s face darkened, becoming truly frightening.
“Her tainted bloodline has corrupted my child.”
She glared venomously at my image in the scrying mirror.
“Burn everything she prepared for this bastard child!”
She ordered the handmaidens to dispose of all the clothes I had prepared for my child.
Those tiny clothes I’d hand–stitched, the swaddling embroidered with gold thread.
“Burn them all, every last one! They reek of her lowly presence!”
Flames soared, turning my heart’s effort into ashes.
Rhys entered the nursery, his face grim.
Seeing the cub’s persistent cries of discomfort.
Instead of soothing him, he turned his anger on me.
He warned coldly through the scrying mirror: “Your bloodline is rebelling. It’s causing chaos.”
“It seems a more thorough purification is needed!”
“If he continues to wail, I’ll sever your connection completely.”
Late that night, I bore the agony, sensing my son’s faint cries of hunger and fear through our bond.
That heartbreaking pain, ripping through me, was transmitted via our pact.
I could only weep silently in the darkness.
Lyra deliberately brought the cub to my door.
Letting the child cry out for me, but refusing to let me near.
“Did you hear that?”
She chuckled triumphantly, her eyes brimming with malice.
“He’s begging *me*, his ‘mother, not you, the ‘sinner‘”
“You filthy vessel, you’ll never be worthy of being his mother.”
The cub’s tiny hand reached through the bars towards me, his golden eyes filled with longing and sorrow.
“Mommy… Mommy…”
His voice was hoarse from crying, as weak as a kitten’s whimper.
I reached out to touch him, but an invisible barrier blocked me.
Rhys issued a final command, setting up a powerful barrier outside my chambers, completely severing all connection between me and the cub.
“From this moment on, you will have no ties.”
His voice was cold and merciless.
“He is the Royal Heir of the Lion Clan, and you are nothing but a criminal.”
I was confined in darkness, unable to hear or feel my child.
All I could do was silently pray that my Jasper would survive each day.
Pray that he would remember, somewhere in this world, there was someone who truly loved him.
