I stared at the paper trembling in my hands, the black ink blurring as tears welled in my eyes. The royal seal at the bottom might as well have been a death sentence for me too.
"Public execution by hanging," I whispered, reading those four damning words again. "Mother..."
Outside my window, birds chirped cheerfully, oblivious to the shattering of my world. My mother—my difficult, ambitious, sometimes cruel, but always present mother—would be dead within days. And all of Lockwood would watch her swing.
I crumpled the paper and hurled it across the room, a strangled sob tearing from my throat. First Father, now Mother. I was truly alone.
"Miss Clara?" Marta's tentative voice came from the doorway. "Do you need—"
"Get out!" I screamed, whirling toward her. "Leave me be!"
The maid's eyes widened, and she backed away quickly. "As you wish."
