CHAPTER 2 — THE FACE THAT SHOOK THE THRONE
The entire throne room watched in complete silence.
No one blinked.
The prince smiled gently.
"You have nothing to fear."
The mysterious girl slowly raised trembling hands toward the black velvet mask.
Her fingers hesitated.
Almost as though removing it would change everything.
Finally...
She untied the ribbon.
The mask slipped to the marble floor.
The sound echoed throughout the hall.
Gasps exploded from every corner of the palace.
Several ladies screamed.
One nobleman stumbled backward in horror.
A servant dropped an expensive silver tray onto the floor.
The king himself stood frozen.
The left side of the young woman's face was breathtakingly beautiful.
Soft skin.
Bright emerald eyes.
Delicate features worthy of a queen.
But the other half...
Looked as though it had been consumed by fire.
Dark scars stretched from her forehead to her neck.
One eyelid barely opened.
Her lips were twisted by old burns.
Some children in the audience burst into tears.
The whispers spread instantly.
"She's cursed..."
"A monster..."
"How could the prince marry someone like her?"
"This cannot happen."
Several nobles demanded she leave immediately.
Count Leopold stepped forward.
"Your Highness!"
The prince remained silent.
Leopold pointed directly at Elara.
"This woman cannot become queen! Imagine foreign ambassadors seeing her! The kingdom would become a laughingstock."
Many nobles nodded.
The king looked deeply troubled.
Before anyone else could speak...
One elderly woman suddenly rushed toward the throne.
It was Queen Helena—the prince's mother.
She stared at Elara.
Then...
Her face turned pale.
Her hands began shaking violently.
Impossible...
It couldn't be...
Slowly...
The queen reached into her pocket and removed an old silver locket she had carried for more than twenty years.
Inside was a faded portrait.
She compared it with Elara's face.
Tears immediately filled her eyes.
"My God..."
Everyone stared.
The queen whispered,
"Where did you get the necklace you're wearing?"
Elara instinctively touched the small pendant hanging beneath her dress.
"I've had it since I was a baby."
The queen nearly collapsed.
"Open it."
Confused, Elara obeyed.
Inside the pendant...
Was the exact same royal crest engraved inside the queen's own locket.
The hall erupted.
The royal historian ran forward.
He examined both lockets.
His face turned white.
"Your Majesty..."
His voice trembled.
"This crest was never given to anyone outside the royal bloodline."
Complete silence.
The queen began crying openly.
Twenty-one years earlier...
The royal family had celebrated the birth of twin daughters.
But during a terrible fire inside the northern palace...
One infant disappeared.
Everyone believed the baby had died in the flames.
Only ashes had ever been found.
For two decades...
The tragedy haunted the queen every day.
Now...
She looked into Elara's scarred face.
And saw the same eyes.
The same birthmark behind her ear.
The same tiny silver pendant placed around the baby's neck on the day she was born.
The queen whispered through tears,
"My daughter..."
The entire palace froze.
The prince stared at Elara.
His blood turned cold.
If this was true...
Then the woman whose voice had captured his heart...
Was not his future bride.
She was...
His long-lost twin sister.
The king suddenly shouted,
"Seal every palace gate!"
Soldiers rushed into the hall.
No one understood why.
The king's face had transformed from joy into fury.
"If my daughter survived..."
He said through clenched teeth.
"...then someone lied to us twenty-one years ago."
He slowly looked toward the crowd of nobles.
"Someone stole a royal child."
Every noble suddenly became a suspect.
Across the room...
An elderly duke quietly slipped toward a side door.
He almost escaped unnoticed.
Almost.
Until Elara looked directly at him.
Her scarred face remained calm.
Then she whispered one sentence that made the old man's blood run cold.
"I remember your ring..."
The duke stopped walking.
The color vanished from his face.
Because for twenty-one years...
He believed the little girl trapped inside the burning palace had died before she could ever remember him.
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He had been terribly wrong.
TO BE CONTINUED...
