The Empress, pale and composed, followed after the Emperor. She was worried, for whom? For herself? She did not know. She had personally decorated the hall, made use of her family's resources... All for Cassian!
But it was in vain. All her hard work was used on the pathetic ceremony between the Northern Duke and the damned Saintess who put on airs.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the Emperor, who stopped.
He spun around so suddenly that she took a step back. "This is how you've raised him?!" he bellowed, his finger pointing accusingly at her. "This is the Crown Prince of the Empire? Such an embarrassment!"
The Empress inhaled sharply, but the Emperor was not finished. "You were supposed to mould him into a ruler! And yet, look what he has become. All because of your incompetence! You failed him as a mother, as an Empress—and as a wife!"
Something inside the Empress snapped. Years of buried indignation, silent suffering, and bottled humiliation boiled to the surface.
