{Third Person}
Outside the banquet hall, elegant carriages lined the palace grounds, waiting to carry nobles and members of the royal family back home.
Among them was the carriage belonging to the Second Prince.
The moment the carriage doors closed behind them, and the vehicle began rolling through the palace gates, an uncomfortable silence settled between Julia and Zarek. Or rather, it settled over Julia.
She sat beside the window, staring out at the passing scenery without truly seeing any of it. Her thoughts remained trapped inside the banquet hall they had just left behind.
More specifically, they remained fixed on Alexander.
Seeing him again had stirred emotions she had spent years trying to bury. No matter how much time passed, the guilt never truly disappeared. It lingered quietly beneath the surface of her life, waiting for moments like this to resurface.
