A year passed in the blink of an eye.
Autumn always arrived early in Silvercrest City, and fallen leaves covered the streets.
Today was the day the High Moon Tribunal would deliver its first verdict in the case against Adrian Blackwood and Beta Derek for violent offenses causing death and treaty fraud.
Over the past year, Derek had blamed everything on Adrian in hopes of a lighter sentence.
He had also revealed all the evidence of Adrian’s pact corruption and falsified records during the Northern Territory Expansion.
After I withdrew Royal Pack Support, Blackthorn Pack lost its treaty protections and territory after territory fell. Former allies also submitted evidence that Adrian had falsified records under the Council Trade Alliance.
As for Serena Vale…
She was alone with an infant who needed constant care, and she’d accumulated enormous debts.
Adrian had accused her of extortion while held in the Council Holding Cells.
She lost the case and became a debtor with no means to repay what she owed. She ended up raising her pup in one of the poorest, most crowded neighborhoods of Silvercrest City.
To afford formula, she worked illegally in an underground bar.
A gang of local thugs broke her leg. From then on, she was trapped in the same miserable life.
At ten that morning, reporters crowded outside the High Moon Tribunal.
I sat in a car across the street with my daughter in my arms.
She had just turned one, and her plump little fingers wrapped around mine as she smiled.
“Royal Heiress.”
Marcus opened the front passenger door, climbed in, and handed me a copy of the Tribunal Verdict.
“The sentences are in.”
“Adrian Blackwood received fifteen years in Council custody, with all personal holdings confiscated, for the combined offenses.”
“Beta Derek got eight years.”
I scanned the verdict, feeling perfectly calm.
The great iron gates of the High Moon Tribunal slowly opened.
Several Council prisoner transports rolled out as reporters took photographs at the entrance.
The first transport passed beside our car.
A red light brought both vehicles to a stop, side by side.
I lowered my window to let in some air.
Inside the transport, Adrian Blackwood sat in restraints, staring blankly outside.
He looked more than ten years older. His face was gaunt and his eyes lifeless.
Then his gaze drifted toward the car beside him and locked in place. The mate bond gave him no sign, but he recognized the face he’d spent every day and night longing to see.
He saw me.
And he saw the baby girl in my arms.
His face transformed.
Joy, regret, and despair crashed over him all at once.
Adrian hurled himself against the transport window, pounding on the glass.
“Elena! Elena!”
He screamed until his voice cracked.
“You’re alive! That’s our daughter, isn’t it?”
“I was wrong! I know I was wrong!”
“Look at me! Please, just look at me!”
He struggled so violently that the restraints cut into his wrists and drew blood.
He didn’t care.
There was only one thought in his mind.
She’s alive.
I heard him shouting and turned my head.
Barely six feet separated us as I looked directly at his face.
I felt nothing.
Then, without a moment’s hesitation, I pressed the window switch.
The glass slowly rose between us.
I lowered my head and kissed my daughter’s forehead. I didn’t look at him again.
Adrian let out a scream of utter despair.
At last, he understood why I’d sent Marcus to deliver that message.
Knowing I was alive, yet knowing he would never have me again, was the cruelest punishment of all.
“Sit down! Stay down!” a Council guard barked.
The guard wrestled Adrian back into his seat.
The light turned green.
The prisoner transport headed toward Ironfang Prison.
Adrian Blackwood would spend the rest of his days counting out the years behind its walls.
Our car merged smoothly into traffic and drove in the opposite direction.
My daughter grabbed the front of my shirt and babbled softly.
Warm sunlight streamed through the window onto her little face.
I smiled, held her closer, and looked outside.
Eight years of love and resentment had finally come to an end.
“Marcus,” I said quietly.
“Yes, Royal Heiress?”
“Is our flight arranged for tonight?”
“Everything’s ready. Grand Patriarch Edmund’s residence in Willowmere has been cleaned and prepared. The climate there will be good for the Little Princess.”
I nodded.
It didn’t matter where we went.
What mattered was that the road ahead would finally be clear.