Chapter 4 - The Gold Dress
The royal dressmaker, Madame Elise, was brought in before sunrise.
She started crying before Isabella asked a single question.
“Who ordered the gold dress brought back?”
“Lady Celeste.”
Adrian frowned.
“I gave the final order.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. After she suggested it.”
He remembered.
Celeste had joked that the queen might regain discipline if she saw how much her body had changed.
Adrian had laughed.
Then agreed.
Elise opened her tailoring book.
For almost a year, Celeste had requested Isabella’s old measurements and compared them to new ones.
Those numbers appeared in the fitness file.
“They measured me like livestock,” Isabella whispered.
Elise lowered her head.
Then Dr. Vale inspected the gold gown.
His face changed.
The waist had been secretly reinforced with a stiff inner band.
“This wasn’t part of the original dress.”
Elise shook her head.
“No.”
The band made the gown even tighter.
Dangerously tight.
Someone had taken a cruel idea and turned it into a medical risk.
A palace seamstress admitted Celeste brought the gown to her two days before the ball.
“She said the queen needed to look smoother.”
“Did you know about my surgery?” Isabella asked.
“No.”
Another person used without understanding the whole plan.
Then Mara found a folded note stitched into the lining.
USE THIS ONE. IF SHE REFUSES, THE KING MUST ORDER IT.
Celeste’s handwriting.
Under it, in another hand:
TIGHTER THAN NECESSARY.
Dr. Vale recognized the script.
“It belongs to Dr. Lucian Graves.”
Helena’s personal physician.
Adrian stared at his mother.
Helena finally looked nervous.
Before he could speak, guards found Celeste hiding in the old chapel.
She asked to speak only to Isabella.
When Isabella entered, Celeste was crying.
“I never hated you.”
Isabella’s expression hardened.
May you like
Celeste whispered:
“I was paid to make you hate yourself.”
