"Lord Garrick… if you knew my sister was murdered…then why did you stay silent for all these years?" King Lucien asked.
King Lucien at that moment didn't sound like the cold ruler Alina had come to know. He sounded like a brother who had just realized that how badly he had failed his sister.
Lord Garrick lowered his head in response. His shoulders trembled under the weight of decades of guilt.
"Because I was terrified, Your Majesty," he confessed. "I was a coward. I had a family to protect, and a name to preserve. I was afraid that speaking up would only get me and my family killed and change nothing. I tried to convince myself that Isadora was already gone and speaking up would only result in more deaths."
He lifted his head, and glanced around the hall.
"But I was wrong. By staying silent I only protected her murderer. Princess Isadora didn't deserve what happened to her? no matter how much you believed she was wrong," his gaze then drifted to Alina.
