The capital was abuzz on her wedding day.
The legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhen’s household despised her fiancé’s cold, imposing authority and ran away on the eve of the wedding, abandoning her entire family to peril.
In a moment of desperation, the overlooked eldest daughter born of a concubine was forced to don the wedding dress and take her place at the last minute.
She became a laughingstock, a lowly substitute and a second wife, doomed to spend her life in her legitimate younger sister’s shadow.
The noble young ladies of the capital all mocked her, saying the prince had married her only to save face, and that his true love would always be the legitimate daughter who had fled.
But in time, people began to notice.
The prince doted on his principal wife, showered her with gifts, and protected her from harm. The tenderness in his eyes was meant for her alone.
He had never settled for less, and she had never been anyone’s replacement.
The world knew only that she had taken her sister’s place at the wedding. No one knew that, through the long years, he had looked past every blossoming flower and gazed silently at her. His heart and eyes had always held only her.
