CHAPTER 51
Emma instinctively shrank back. She lowered her head, her shoulders curling inward as if trying to make herself smaller. Her cheeks, already flushed from the fever, deepened another shade of red. She wasn't used to being spoken to like that. The people around her had handled her with endless patience. Even when she was in the wrong, someone would eventually comfort her, reassure her, or gently explain things to her. To Emma, Leon's blunt criticism felt unnecessarily harsh. Unfortunately for her, Leon wasn't her mother who felt sorry for her. Nor was he anyone inclined to indulge childish behavior. Working in the royal palace had stripped him of any sympathy for petty theatrics long ago. He had witnessed people enduring genuine suffering, victims of political schemes, torture, poison,
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