[Lior's POV — Later That Morning — Morvael Castle]
"…It will not feel so difficult," her Grace said calmly, her fingers resting lightly against the porcelain cup before her, "once you begin accepting what has already happened."
I glanced up at her. Her gaze was steady, cold, and unmoving.
The word echoed quietly in my head, 'Accept?'
How easily she says it! How could she tell me to accept something when I had not even accepted this marriage yet?
I lowered my eyes again. The room suddenly felt smaller. The tall stone walls of Morvael Castle had a strange way of pressing inward, as if they were slowly closing around me. The windows were large, the ceilings high, and yet—everything here felt suffocating, like a cage someone had carefully decorated and then told me to live happily inside.
Silence lingered between us.
Then—
"Now that I think about it…" Her voice broke the quiet so suddenly that I looked up again. "…I am glad he married you."
