The Crown Princess's Gambit Chapter 1

The night before my wedding to the Crown Prince, my father brought home the daughter he’d had with his mistress.

“Your sister is a celestial beauty, far more striking than you. With her by your side in the Prince’s household, she will surely help you secure his favor.”

I found it almost laughable.

I was, after all, her mother’s killer. How could she possibly help me?

And just as I expected, on my wedding day, she stood beside me in a breathtakingly simple white gown, stealing the gaze of every person present.

Except for my husband, the Crown Prince.

* * *

The mistress my father cherished more than his own eyes was my mother’s half-sister, Liana.

Every day, she would come to our estate to play the part of a devoted sister to my mother, all while secretly carrying on an affair with my father.

When my mother was eight months pregnant with her second child, the royal physician declared it would be a boy.

On the day of my mother’s labor, Liana chose that exact moment to confess, weeping, that not only had she become my father’s mistress, but she had borne him a daughter eight years prior.

Eight years ago. The second year of my parents’ marriage.

The facade of a loving marriage shattered into a lie. The bond of sisterhood became a cruel joke.

My mother, consumed by grief and rage, gave up and died, leaving me with a wailing infant brother.

I was eight years old. I grew up overnight.

I trailed behind the head nurse, learning how to manage my mother’s funeral arrangements, never leaving my infant brother’s side, soothing and caring for him.

My father was at his private villa, celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in blissful harmony with Liana and her daughter.

On the seventh day after my mother’s death.

I dragged my frail, sick body to the villa my father had provided for Liana.

As always, she greeted me with a look of maternal affection. “My dearest Viola, in a few days, your father will bring me home as the new lady of the house. You’ll have to start calling me Mother then.”

The feigned warmth couldn’t hide the triumph in her eyes. She stroked my face and called for her daughter, Beatrix, and her son, Alistair.

“Come, come and meet your elder sister.”

Beatrix and Alistair called me “sister,” their expressions a mixture of curiosity and unease.

Liana teased me. “It’s the first time you’re meeting your brother and sister, so of course you didn’t bring a gift. When you’re back at the manor, you must remember to make up for it. Even though you no longer have a mother to teach you, you must still learn to be proper.”

I smiled, my fingers caressing the cold steel of the blade hidden in my sleeve. “Aunt,” I said, “come closer. I have a white jade hairpin for you.”

She bent down without suspicion, her eyes crinkling with self-satisfied amusement.

A second later, the smile vanished.

Her eyes froze as she clutched the gushing wound in her neck. Her mouth opened in disbelief, but no words came out. She convulsed on the ground, kicking up dust, her bloodshot eyes staring at me in horror.

Beatrix and Alistair shrieked.

I calmly wiped the blood from the blade and smiled.

“A welcome gift from your sister. Do enjoy it.”