“He is gone…”
“Gone?”The word hit me like a blow, and tears came, fast and hot, blurring the room’s edges.
She nodded, her eyes glossy with unshed sorrow.
“He hasn’t been seen since that night.It’s whispered his body was found with the others.”
I couldn’t breathe.I couldn’t move.My world tilted beneath me.
Amir.Gone.
The room closed in, and the weight of the coverlet was suddenly unbearable.
Mary spoke again, her voice a fragile tether.
“Your father—he survived.But…”
I snapped my gaze up.
She hesitated only a moment, then finished.
“He’s paralyzed.”
A chill traced down my spine.
“Paralyzed?But… he’s alive?”
The words stumbled out, twisting in my throat, refusing to make sense.
Mary nodded solemnly.
“Yes, Lady Elizabeth.He cannot walk anymore… but he’s still with us.”
I sat in silence, a storm churning beneath my skin.My father—the man who had ruled my life with an iron fist, cold commands, and colder punishments—now bound to a chair.
His own body severed his power.
I didn’t know if I felt justice… or fear.
“Tell me more,” I whispered, the words catching like thorns in my throat.
Emotions warred inside me—grief, disbelief, a bitter tangle of relief and guilt.
The past hadn’t let me go.
And now, I would have to face it.
Mary exhaled slowly, her gaze drifting to some distant point of sorrow, her voice softened by memory and dread.
“There’s not much to tell.
“Most didn’t survive the night… the masquerade.”
Her hands trembled slightly as she pressed one to her chest as if trying to hold herself together.
“The dead were… grotesquely deformed.Misshapen.
“There were great efforts to keep the news from the public.
