Chapter 2

2.

Their footsteps faded away. No one noticed me standing rigid behind the folding screen.

Today was my debutante ball. Because my room was missing my favorite brow pencil, I had snuck into my mother's chambers to finish my makeup.

I never expected a single screen would shatter the beautiful lie I had lived for years.

In the mirror, my tears flowed uncontrollably, streaking across the delicate rouge on my cheeks.

I was still wearing the silver hairpin Lance gave me before he supposedly left.

Over the years, the silver had tarnished and turned black, yet I wore it every single day.

"Faye, going to the Northern Border is perilous, and only this silver pin can represent my heart. Pure and unyielding."

Back then, his eyes were full of sincerity and tenderness. "When I return, we will get married."

I had waited for two whole years.

For two years, the Lockhart estate kept its gates closed just to hide from me. Meanwhile, Lance and his childhood sweetheart, his cousin Maisie, lived in sweet bliss and even conceived a child.

I waited until the silver turned black, only to find he was having a baby with someone else.

I ripped the hairpin from my hair with force, the sharp tip tearing a long, bloody gash across my palm.

Yet it did not hurt half as much as my shattered heart.

My maid, Penny, returned with my formal gown and gasped when she saw me clutching the hairpin with tears streaming down my face.

"Miss! What happened to you?"

Her gaze landed on the wound in my palm, and she took a sharp breath. "Isn't this the pin General Lockhart gave you? Why did you take it off?"

I threw myself into her arms and wept bitterly without restraint.

After a long time, I wiped my tears against her shoulder and caught my breath.

"Redo my hair. Give me a style that does not need this hairpin."