For the first time in both of her lives, Vivianne heard something that had never been spoken before. A secret buried deep within the royal family of Erengard, one that not even she, when she was the empress in her first life, had ever been told.
Morwenna's voice is calm but steady as she begins, "The late emperor, your grandfather, Heinrich I de Erengard, had an illegitimate daughter with a palace maid, me. That was before he finally marked his empress and after the birth of Dietrich's father, Heinrich II. When his wife was pregnant, he had the audacity to mate with a maid."
Vivianne's breath caught. She had heard whispers of royal scandals before, but nothing like this. "Heinrich II was born two years before Morwenna," Ashkareth added quietly, glancing at his wife. "To hide the shame from the nobles, they made it seem as if the empress herself had given birth to her. The child was raised as royalty, though her true mother had already been cast out."
