"How stupid was I?" she whispered to the empty room, her voice cracking on the last word. She laughed, a dry, hollow sound that died in the quiet. How wrong she had been. How painfully, devastatingly wrong.
They hadn't wanted a daughter; they had wanted a pawn. They had only hunted her down to fill a slot in a marriage alliance because Lydia… the golden child, the "real" daughter they'd kept and raised, had thrown a tantrum and refused the match.
Their precious princess couldn't be bothered to sacrifice for the family business, so they'd remembered the spare daughter they'd tossed away years ago. The daughter who didn't matter enough to keep, but mattered just enough to use.
She had been a body to fill a dress. A signature on a contract. A convenient solution to an inconvenient problem. Nothing more. The realization burned through her chest like acid.
