Chapter 6: The First Letter from the Capital

My first week at Highmoor passed so quickly that I barely noticed it.

Every morning, I worked in the peace archives with the other volunteers. We sorted old treaties, copied damaged records, and organized reports from Packs that had once been on the verge of war.

The work was tiring, but I liked it.

No one here knew me as Gavin Mercer’s abandoned fiancée.

I was simply Celia Langford, one of ten women selected for Princess Helena’s service program.

On the eighth morning, a royal messenger arrived at the archive.

He held a sealed envelope in his hand.

“Celia Langford?”

I looked up.

“That’s me.”

He handed me the letter.

The seal belonged to the Redoak Pack.

For a moment, my heart stopped.

I stared at it without opening it.

The messenger gave me a curious look.

“Are you expecting correspondence from the capital?”

“No.”

I broke the seal anyway.

The letter was from Patricia Mercer.

She wanted to know whether I had truly submitted the engagement dissolution papers without consulting Gavin.

There was no apology.

No explanation.

Only a carefully worded request for me to reconsider my decision for the sake of both families.

I folded the letter neatly.

Then I placed it in the archive’s waste basket.

The other volunteers stared at me.

One of them finally asked, “Was that important?”

I shook my head.

“Not anymore.”

That afternoon, another letter arrived.

This time, the handwriting was unmistakable.

Gavin.

I took it outside and sat beneath an old pine tree before opening it.

“Celia, I heard you arrived safely.”

“I know you’re angry. I also know you’re making this decision because you’re hurt.”

“Three years is a long time. You don’t have to make any permanent decisions while you’re emotional.”

I almost laughed.

Even now, he believed my decision was temporary.

The next line made my smile disappear.

“I spoke to the Royal Castle. They confirmed that leaving Highmoor before your service ends would violate the terms of the program.”

“If you reconsider, I can arrange a private transfer for you.”

So that was it.

He wasn’t asking me to come back because he finally understood what he had done.

He simply believed he could still arrange my life whenever he wanted.

I folded the letter and put it away.

I didn’t reply.

The next day, I received another one.

Then another.

By the end of the week, I had received five letters.

None of them contained the words I had once waited years to hear.

None said, “I was wrong.”

None said, “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

Every letter only asked me to wait.

Wait until Evelyn recovered.

Wait until his work settled.

Wait until the wedding could finally happen.

I looked at the stack of letters on my desk.

For six years, I had waited.

I had waited through three years at Lakewood.

Three years at the northern border.

And then one final postponement in the capital.

I had waited long enough.

That evening, Princess Helena found me alone in the archive courtyard.

“You’ve been receiving letters.”

I nodded.

“From your former fiancé?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t ask what they said.

Instead, she sat beside me.

“Celia, there is something you should understand about leaving the capital.”

I turned toward her.

“When you walk away from something powerful, people will often assume you’re trying to make that thing chase you.”

Her gaze was calm.

“But if you truly want freedom, you cannot spend your new life watching the road behind you.”

I lowered my eyes.

She was right.

That night, I burned Gavin’s letters one by one.

The flames consumed his words until nothing remained but ash.

I watched the last piece of paper curl into blackened fragments.

Then I stood and walked back inside.

I did not look behind me.

I didn’t know it yet, but far away in the capital, Gavin had finally received the same answer from the Royal Castle.

My engagement dissolution had been officially approved.

For the first time, the decision was no longer something he could postpone.