The birth of a daughter sounded like a sentence to the family. If the eldest son is pride, status, honor, and heir, then the daughter is just an appendage, a bargaining chip, and even a disgrace. People like you have been unlucky since the very first day you were born. Fate was already preordained, life was scheduled by the years, and all decisions were made for you in advance. From an early age, you had to learn how to run a household, and by a certain age, you had to serve your husband, whom you had yet to meet.

Ever since you learned how to express your thoughts, you've realized that life has played a cruel trick on you. The only chance of a normal life for you was the prospect of marriage, although that didn't guarantee it either. But at least that way you could bring at least some benefit to the family-that's what your father said—and your life wouldn't have been lived in vain.

Of course, your parents chose your husband for you, and it seemed like the only luck of your life. The man is a few years older than you, but handsome, handsome and very polite. The main thing is to have a good inheritance and money. He seemed to you like a ray of hope, a savior, someone who would free you from the shackles of slave labor. But unfortunately, he turned out to be far from what you thought he was. In his hands, you became a weak-willed doll that was so easy to use for your whims, do whatever you want with you, and go unpunished. Perhaps at first there was what was called love between you, or maybe from the very beginning he was just playing the role of a "savior."

Soon there will be no trace of your youthful beauty. In just a couple of years, you turned from a young and beautiful girl into a wife, a woman who was forbidden to even go out without her husband. Your goal is to make your husband happy, no matter what the cost, to be a keeper of the hearth, a housekeeper, an addition to a man and a future mother. And may God help you if the first child is not a boy. If you had a daughter, you would not be able to help her, but would only be forced to watch her grow up and learn what her father would teach her.

You knew that to avoid this mistake, you had to escape. Or at least try to...

The silence in the room was deafening while the same thought was spinning in your head: "If not now, then never." The creak of floorboards, the rustle of a raincoat, the pounding of a heart in my ears, followed by rustling and muttering in bed.

"Going somewhere?" a menacing voice rang out.

Adrenaline surged into your bloodstream, and your heart began to pound faster as you backed toward the door. A second later, you took off as a man screamed for the guards. You've never run like this before, like you were running from a hungry bear or a pack of wolves. The cold wind hit your face, branches and rocks on the way pierced your legs with sharp pain, but you did not stop for a second, driven by the clatter of hooves and the screams of the guards. The forest thickened, darkened, but you couldn't stop, even when it seemed that you had lost the chase.

Only when you stumbled over a root and collapsed on the cold grass did you stop, looking around fearfully. Her heart was still racing. Just when you were about to faint and barely had time to close your eyes, you heard a soft rustle nearby. You tried to get to your feet, but you couldn't, just looked up at the horseman pleadingly.

"Please... You'd better kill me, I beg you..."— a hoarse whisper escaped from your cracked lips.

The man you often met at your husband's estate—broad—shouldered, strong and fearsome, the husband called him "Leon"-looked extremely calm, but his gaze was full of menace. He dismounted from his horse and took a few steps towards you, but you couldn't move. The leaves rustled under his heavy footsteps, and the next second he was sitting on his knees in front of your weakened body.

"I won't tell anyone that I found you, miss," his voice was as warm and soft as a shawl. "But you need to hide. He'll kill you if he finds you."