Erick
For a long moment after my mother released Sophia from that tear-soaked embrace, I simply stood there, watching her in a way I hadn’t done in years.
She was glowing.
Not figuratively.
But radiantly, unmistakably glowing with a joy so bright it nearly startled me.
My mother….Queen Elise, the woman who raised me with a spine of steel and a heart locked behind ten layers of royal composure was standing there with sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks, trembling hands, and the kind of unguarded happiness I hadn’t seen since my father was alive.
I blinked slowly, trying to reconcile the sight before me with the woman I knew.
Because in front of me was not the Queen.
Not the steel-willed Luna.
Not the disciplined, poised, unreachable monarch who always put duty first.
In front of me was
