They threw her into the arena for loving her stepbrother. Three years later, she crawled out missing a foot. Her family didn’t believe her. He didn’t either—he was too busy marrying the woman who set her up. At the wedding, the Emperor looked at her face and stopped the ceremony. He knew her. She had saved his life years ago. He made her his queen. Her stepbrother killed his bride and ran for the border. Everyone else grew old alone. But on her coronation night, the Emperor leaned close and asked her one question: “How did you really lose that foot?”