Silence dropped over the grand hall like a guillotine.
The servants had stopped pretending to work. The guards had stopped pretending to patrol.
This was the conversation the castle had been waiting for since Serena arrived. Every servant, every guard, every maid who had watched the queen treat the Crown Princess like garbage for months was standing in this corridor witnessing the goddamn reckoning, and not one of them was going to miss a single fucking syllable.
Bellatrix's face did something extraordinary. It cycled through rage, disbelief, homicide, and irritation before returning back to its natural resting bitch state.
"Those are—" she began.
"Those are facts, Bellatrix. Every single one. I have receipts that go back to the week I arrived in this castle, and the receipts are comprehensive, and every person in this hallway heard at least half of them happen because you did them in fucking public."
Elara's eyes widened. Serena had just said another curse word to the queen.
