Chapter 2: The Secret Buried Twenty Years Ago
The chamber erupted into chaos.
"Impossible!"
"She looks exactly like the woman in the portrait!"
"How could a peasant resemble the late queen?"
Elena stared at the tiny painting inside the king's locket.
The woman was beautiful, with warm brown eyes and chestnut hair falling over her shoulders.
But what terrified Elena wasn't the resemblance.
It was the necklace.
The woman wore a silver moon-shaped pendant.
The exact same pendant Elena had worn her entire life.
Her hand instinctively moved to her neck.
The room noticed immediately.
Gasps echoed across the chamber.
King Adrian's face turned pale.
"Where did you get that pendant?" he asked.
Elena swallowed nervously.
"My mother gave it to me before she died."
The king took a shaky step forward.
"Your mother... what was her name?"
"Margaret Ashford."
The king closed his eyes.
For a moment, it seemed as though all the strength had left him.
When he finally spoke, his voice trembled.
"Margaret was my wife's lady-in-waiting."
The room fell silent.
Princess Celeste's face lost all color.
Lady Beatrice suddenly looked frightened.
Very frightened.
King Adrian turned toward the nobles.
"Twenty years ago, the royal carriage carrying Queen Isabella and our newborn daughter was attacked during a storm."
Everyone knew the story.
The queen had died.
The infant princess had vanished.
The kingdom had mourned her loss for decades.
"The bodies were never found," the king continued. "Only wreckage."
Elena's heart pounded.
No.
It couldn't be.
The king slowly approached her.
"When Margaret disappeared shortly after the attack, I assumed she had died as well."
His eyes filled with emotion.
"But now I understand."
The chamber held its breath.
"She saved my daughter."
A shocked silence followed.
Princess Celeste staggered backward.
"What are you saying?"
King Adrian faced her.
"I am saying that Elena Ashford is the true heir to the throne."
The words shattered the room.
Princess Celeste's lips trembled.
Lady Beatrice suddenly screamed.
"She's lying!"
All eyes turned toward her.
The king narrowed his gaze.
Lady Beatrice realized her mistake too late.
Royal guards immediately seized her.
Within hours, the truth emerged.
Lady Beatrice had orchestrated the attack twenty years earlier.
She had planned to eliminate the royal family and secretly place her own niece, Celeste, into the line of succession.
For two decades she had hidden the crime.
For two decades she had lived as one of the kingdom's most respected noblewomen.
Now her lies were finally exposed.
As she was dragged away in chains, she glared at Elena.
"I should have finished what I started."
The king's expression hardened.
"You will spend the rest of your life paying for your crimes."
For the first time in twenty years, justice had begun.
But Elena's greatest challenge was only just beginning.
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She had been raised as a peasant.
Now she was expected to become a princess.
