The execution square that day was crowded with spectators, and justice was but an empty word chanted by the angry mob. The family that “Ilara’s” mother had married into was convicted of high treason. On that day, the air was filled with accusations and curses, and the harsh sentence had already been passed: execution for every member of the family. The people screamed for justice, while “Ilara’s” mother, who was not a blood relative of that family, stood in the center of the crowd, trembling in fear for her two daughters.

“Ilara” and her sister were there, standing in confusion and pain. “Ilara” clung to her sister’s trembling hand, their eyes fixed on their mother, who was being taken to the gallows. Their mother looked at them in silence with a gaze no one understood at the time—a look that said, “Forgive me.”

Days before the family was arrested, the mother learned of her husband’s betrayal and, in an act of desperation, slipped into the Duke’s palace. She was not seeking mercy for her husband’s treacherous family but was clinging to a past favor: the friendship that had once connected her to Duke “Ethan’s” late mother.

“My Lord Duke,” she said in a voice choked with tears, “I am not asking for mercy for my treacherous husband’s family. I only ask you to remember your mother’s friendship with me. My former husband, the father of my daughters ‘Ilara’ and her sister, died because of this family. I was forced to marry the traitor after I lost my husband. My daughters are not to blame for anything.”

She continued, pleading with him to grant them his protection. “My youngest daughter  is married to a count she loves, and she fears that this betrayal will affect her marriage and end her happy life. I beg you, protect them from a disgrace they are not responsible for.”

The idea was insane—to marry an unknown girl to save her life—and “Ethan” initially refused. But her pleas were sincere, and her tears told a story of a mother’s love, a love ready to do anything to protect her children.

In the execution square, as the family was sentenced to death, her mother was executed before her very eyes. In that moment, “Ilara” was shocked when she learned that her mother had arranged a marriage without asking her opinion. She thought it was a selfish act, believing her mother wasn’t considering her happiness.

However, “Ilara” eventually understood her mother’s insistence. Thanks to this marriage, she and her sister were no longer part of the treacherous family but were now under legal protection. Her sister could keep her marriage, and “Ilara” could escape the death sentence.

And so, “Ilara” became the Duke’s wife, not out of love, but out of a mother’s sacrifice and a man’s loyalty to an impossible promise.