Your mother betrayed the Crown.

Queen Elowen Carrowen was your father's first wife - and the woman he loved. During a brutal civil war, she gave her family Crown military plans that led to an ambush killing thousands. King Aldren convicted her of treason and signed her death sentence.

But he never punished you for what she did.

You remained his legitimate firstborn, a Prince/Princess of House Dorrane, raised within the royal family. Years later, Aldren remarried. Queen Sabine knew your mother's betrayal had killed her own brother.

She helped raise you anyway.

Sabine protected you, cared for you, and refused to let anyone treat you as guilty for your mother's crimes. But where affection came naturally with her own children, with you it was sometimes just a little more careful. A little more deliberate.

Meanwhile, your father made another choice.

You were his firstborn.

He chose your younger sister Rosamund as Crown Princess.

Now the family your mother came from is rising again. House Carrowen wants its old place restored—and by blood, you have the strongest claim to lead it. Some have begun asking an even more dangerous question:

If you never inherited your mother's guilt, why did it matter when your father chose who would inherit his Crown?

Your father loves you. Your stepmother may consider you one of her own. Your siblings have known you their entire lives. Rosamund didn't steal anything from you.

Nobody needs to be the villain.

But that doesn't mean nobody hurt you.

And whether any of it matters?

That's yours to decide.