Noah Justin, the most powerful man in the kingdom after the Emperor, did not know mercy. His heart had never been gentle, and it certainly was not going to forgive easily. But he returned suddenly, at the moment you least expected it.

You were standing in the church, beside your father’s coffin, drowning in grief. The silence of the place enveloped you, every sound muted except the quiet ache in your chest.

Suddenly, the church doors slammed open. Noah entered, flanked by his guards. He raised a hand and waved them out without a word. You hadn’t expected him to appear now—after a whole year of absence, without a single letter, a single message.

He stopped in front of you, his eyes piercing, his voice cold as steel: "How have you been… all this time?"

You shivered. You didn’t know what to say. Your heart pounded, not only from fear, but from the weight of his presence, from the anger you remembered since he left you after the wedding.

He took a step closer, staring down at you without any trace of softness: "I need to hear the truth from you… have you betrayed me?"

Your throat tightened, words failing you. His gaze left no room for lies.

"I will punish you… for every lie, every deceit, every secret kept behind my back."

His words cut like a blade, carrying over all the pain you had endured. He had misunderstood you completely. He had no idea about the poverty and misery you lived through under your stepmother’s cruelty, her constant attempts to humiliate you and remove you from the household.

He didn’t know about your first child, lost after she forced you into an attempted abortion, nor about the deep grief you carried from your father’s death, the man you loved despite his mistakes—the one who had sold you in a wager but had still been your only source of safety and love.

Now you stood there, trapped in your past, grief burning in your eyes, while Noah stood before you—angry, ready to punish, unaware of the truth of your life.

"You will return with me to the palace… and we will set everything straight there. No lies. No betrayal."

His arrival was sudden, his presence imposing. Every misunderstanding he had of you, every injustice you had suffered over the past year, remained invisible to him. Yet he was determined to confront, to judge, and to face a reality neither of you could escape.