They Gave My Crown to an Adopted Daughter. The Queen Raged novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: The Annulment
He dipped the pen in the ink without hurrying.
The hall watched him do it.
Three hundred nobles of Merrow stood very still, and I heard a candle gutter somewhere at the back.
"If I sign, the Skarn captains will call me the man who sold his wife for peace," Conroy said to me, level.
"Conroy."
"Let them. I am the reason the law bars you, and I will not be the reason you pay for it."
"Put it down."
"I'll sign it, and the north will keep the peace, and I will ride home with my head up."
His eyes were grey and very steady.
"Tell them I forced you, if it helps."
The pen touched the line.
I reached across the table and pulled the paper from under his hand.
The pen dragged a long black line across the vellum, and the ink spattered.
"No," I said.
I tore it down the middle, one long ripping sound in the silence.
I tore the halves again, and again, until I held a fistful of cream-colored scraps.
I opened my fingers and let them drift down on the tiles at the lords' feet.
"The peace is not for sale," I said, "and neither is my husband."
"Princess," one of the six lords began, a stout man with a thick chain. "The law."
"The law bars an heir who kneels to a foreign crown."
I walked down off the dais and across the floor to him.
"Which of you has seen me kneel?"
He opened his mouth.
"I rode into the north under a false name and came out an equal," I said.
"I did not bend my knee once in three years, and neither did he."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of They Gave My Crown to an Adopted Daughter. The Queen Raged are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend