Chapter 1

1 When I was seven months pregnant, I had an overwhelming craving for roasted duck.

I sneaked out of the estate and slipped into The Gilded Blossom, ordering their most lavish feast.

Yet as I stepped out, my husband's newly brought-back female commander treated me like a common streetwalker and humiliated me in broad daylight.

She kicked me to the ground, tearing at my clothes and exposing me before a gathering crowd.

"My husband sneaks out every single day since returning to the capital, and it turns out he was bewitched by a cheap vixen like you! How dare you try to steal my man?"

I clutched my swollen belly, begging her to spare the innocent life inside me.

Instead, she ordered the manor guards to beat me mercilessly until blood pooled beneath my torn skirts.

Looking at the ruined life on the cobblestones, she laughed with cruel delight.

"A filth used by thousands of men! Who even knows whose bastard was growing in that wretched womb?"

Just as she ordered her men to violate me further, my hot-tempered brother, the greatest general in the empire, rode into view...

……

I am the most treasured youngest daughter of the Montgomery family.

My father is the Duke Consort, my mother is the King's eldest sister, and the reigning Monarch is my maternal uncle.

From the moment I drew my first breath, the King personally bestowed upon me the royal title of Lady Corinna.

My parents had three sons before finally having me in their later years, spoiling me endlessly.

My eldest brother, Garrett, entered politics and rose to become the Grand Chancellor.

My second brother, Kieran, fought across bloody battlefields and earned the title of the Undefeated General.

My third brother, Tristan, was forced to inherit the family dukedom, remaining the most eligible bachelor pursued by every noble lady in the realm.

Because my husband was deployed at the frontier year-round, my three brothers worried I would be neglected.

They insisted I stay in our family estate, pampering me with the finest comforts.

Ever since I conceived, they grew extremely cautious, forbidding me from eating this or drinking that.

Finally, in my seventh month of pregnancy, I could bear the cravings no longer.

Taking advantage of everyone being away, I quietly slipped away to The Gilded Blossom.

Just as I wiped my lips and stepped onto the street feeling thoroughly satisfied, a woman in crimson battle armor riding a tall warhorse blocked my path.

She narrowed her sharp, alluring eyes, looking me up and down with blatant disgust.

"So you are the secret mistress Declan has been keeping outside? I wondered what kind of prize you were, but you are nothing more than a whore from The Velvet Orchid."

My maid, Pearle, stepped forward immediately to defend me.

"My lady, you have mistaken her for someone else! My mistress has nothing to do with that place."

The woman dismounted slowly.

She reached out with a pale hand and violently ripped the jade hairpin straight from my hair.

"Mistaken? This hairpin was given to you by Commander Declan Thorne, wasn't it?"

I froze in disbelief.

Declan Thorne? My husband?

I gave a slight nod.

The moment he returned from the frontier, he had presented this hairpin to me like a precious treasure, accompanied by an entire chest of gold and jewelry.

He had piled them all across my vanity table.

When I stepped out today, I had casually picked this exact jade pin to hold up my hair.

Seeing me nod, the woman's eyebrows snapped together in fury, and she lashed her riding whip straight across my arm.

The whip struck with brutal force, tearing through my silk sleeve as blood instantly soaked the fabric.

Pearle screamed in horror and rushed to support me.

"My Lady!"

She turned around, shouting furiously at the woman.

"How dare you! Do you have any idea who my mistress is―"

Before Pearle could finish, two burly guards stepped forward from behind the woman.

They shoved a dirty rag into Pearle's mouth and pinned her violently to the stone ground.