The Promise I Mistook for Love

Clarissa Yowell once saved Julian Slater's life. To repay her, he swore that if fate ever raised him to emperor, she would be his empress. Years later the court holds its breath as Julian takes the throne; nobles whisper, subjects wait, and Clarissa is certain the vow will be kept. Her certainty becomes a quiet, mounting expectation. Then the coronation shatters it: Julian names his childhood sweetheart, Sophia Lynch, as empress. Clarissa, who believed she would be chosen, is the last to hear. Shock and humiliation follow amid palace splendor and public curiosity. The sudden reversal forces Clarissa to face what a promise, memory and love mean when power rewrites destiny.