"I was overpowered with ease after just a few short exchanges... yet she didn't strike the final blow. She didn't even lift her hand to finish me off.
Instead, she simply looked at me and asked—calmly, almost curiously—why a prince, someone of my status and bloodline, would choose to behave in such a reckless, self-destructive manner.
And right then… I crumbled.
Something inside me gave way."
"I thought it was the last time I would ever be allowed to speak… the final moment in which my voice could carry the weight of my suffering.
I felt as though the universe had finally allowed me a listener, someone who would hear the pain no one else saw.
So I told her everything.
I confessed it all.
The things I did.
The things he did to me.
The betrayal. The destruction. The rage."
A faint, ironic smile spread across Hedrick's lips.
"I must have sounded pitiful, or maybe just honest enough, because she didn't kill me.
Instead, she offered something I never thought possible.
