Candice's POV
"I have treated you with respect," he said. "I have never been cruel to you. I have never dismissed you or humiliated you or made you feel small in front of the court." He paused. "I gave you what I could, Greta. I was always honest about what that was."
"Honest," she said. "You call it honest. I call it cold."
She looked at him directly. "You married me knowing full well that your heart was somewhere else. That it would always be somewhere else. And I was supposed to be grateful for the portion you had left over."
The king looked at her. He did not look away and he did not look guilty. He looked like a man who had had this conversation before and had made peace with where it ended.
"You knew," he said simply. "Before you agreed to stand beside me, you knew how things were. You knew what I carried and you chose to stay anyway."
Greta's jaw tightened. "I thought things would change," she said.
"I never told you they would," the king said.
