My Mother Forced Me to Marry a Stone Statue to End a War — On Our Wedding Night, I Felt My Dead Fiancée's Heartbeat Inside the Marble
The first rays of dawn were just painting the castle turrets when I returned. The castle felt different now, no longer a sanctuary but a cage, every stone a witness to my mother’s cruelty. My rage burned cold and clear, pushing aside the grief.
I found Captain Thomas Reed overseeing the changing of the guard, his posture rigid, his face etched with the lines of duty. He was a man of unwavering loyalty, a quality my mother had clearly exploited.
“Captain,” I called, my voice betraying none of the turmoil inside me.
He snapped to attention, his hand going to his sword hilt. “Your Majesty.”
“A word, if you please. About the new bride.”
His brow furrowed slightly. “Her Majesty Queen Dowager Eleanor has given strict orders for the statue’s protection. A twenty-four-hour guard, as befits a sacred artifact.”
“Sacred artifact,” I repeated, letting the words hang in the air, tasting the bitter irony. “Is that what she told you?”
He looked uncomfortable. “Indeed, Your Majesty. She explained it was an ancient relic, a symbol of peace, crucial to the consecration ritual. To ensure the treaty’s success, it must remain untouched, undisturbed by common eyes until the wedding ceremony.”
“She said it needed ‘total isolation prior to the official peace consecration,’ didn’t she?” I pushed, watching his face closely.
Reed stiffened. “Precisely, Your Majesty. Her words. She emphasized the sanctity of the ritual, the need for absolute vigilance against any desecration.”
“And you believed her?” I asked, though it wasn’t a question. I knew he had. Reed was honorable, a man who saw loyalty as his highest virtue.
He looked puzzled. “Why would I not, Your Majesty? The Queen Dowager’s word is law.”
I stepped closer, lowering my voice. “Captain, what if I told you that the statue is not an artifact? That it is a woman. A living woman. My fiancée, Clara Danforth.”
Reed’s eyes widened, a flicker of disbelief and then dawning horror crossing his features. His hand, which had been resting on his sword, slowly dropped to his side.
“Your Majesty, that is… that is impossible. She drowned three years ago. The Queen Dowager herself declared it.” His voice was a strained whisper.
“My mother lied,” I stated, my gaze steady. “She had Clara petrified. Trapped in that stone, alive. Her heart beats, Captain. Faintly, but it beats.”
Reed took a step back, his face going ashen. He ran a hand through his his closely cropped hair, his jaw working. The weight of my words seemed to crush him.
“You mean… I have been guarding a woman? A living soul, imprisoned?” He looked down at his armored hands, as if seeing them for the first time, stained by an unwitting complicity.
“You were manipulated, Captain,” I confirmed. “Just as I was. Just as everyone was.”
“But… the consecration. The peace treaty,” he stammered, grappling with the deception. “She spoke of divine ritual, of securing the realm.”
“All lies, Captain. To keep Clara hidden. To secure her own power.”
Reed’s eyes flashed with a dawning anger, not at me, but at the deception that had been woven around him. The code of honor he lived by had been twisted into a weapon against an innocent.
He looked at me, a profound sense of betrayal etched on his face. “If this is true, Your Majesty… If I have unwittingly participated in such a heinous act…” He trailed off, his voice thick with emotion.
“It is true, Captain,” I said, my voice firm. “And I need your help to right this wrong. I need your loyalty now, more than ever, not to a crown, but to justice.”
He met my gaze, a flicker of resolve hardening his eyes. “Tell me what you need, Your Majesty. My oath is to the true sovereign, and to what is right.”
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