Chapter 25. A New Bride?

Aurora’s POV

I placed my hand on my face, right on the spot where the woman from earlier had struck me. The skin there still throbbed, tender and swollen, as though the pain had seeped deep beneath the surface instead of fading with time. Every slight movement of my jaw reminded me of the sharp crack of her palm against my cheek, of the hatred burning in her eyes as she looked at me.

She had cursed me viciously before ordering the guards to throw me out of the room. Her words had been filled with venom, spitting accusations and insults I didn’t even understand. I hadn’t been given a chance to defend myself, not that it would have mattered. In her eyes, I was already guilty of something—something unforgivable.

That was how I ended up in the cells with the men.

I couldn’t understand why she was so displeased wit