Violet's POV
I did everything I could to distract myself. I threw myself into helping Grandma with the household chores—sweeping the floors, gathering herbs from the garden, scrubbing the cauldron even when it didn't need it. But no matter how hard I tried, at the end of each day, when I was finally alone in my room and the silence wrapped around me, my thoughts would always wander back to him.
Prince Maverick.
The memory of his voice, the intensity in his eyes, the way he had looked at me like I was something more than what I believed myself to be—it all haunted me in the quiet hours of the night. I would lie on my bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, heart aching with questions I couldn't ask and answers I feared to know.
So I buried myself in my studies.
