After the Prince Fell for My Cousin, I Married the Crown Prince of a Neighboring Kingdom

Synopsis

Ava, daughter of Duke Ryan, had been betrothed to Ethan, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Dawn, since childhood. On the night of her eighteenth birthday, she waited until midnight, only to find Ethan at the bedside of his cousin, Sophia, tending to her needs. Thereafter, Sophia orchestrated a series of malicious schemes—framing Ava for pushing her into the water and causing a riding accident—and Ethan invariably chose to believe Sophia. When Ethan publicly placed the ancestral crown—rightfully Ava’s—upon Sophia’s head, Ava’s heart finally broke; she petitioned the Queen to annul the engagement and proposed a marriage alliance with Alexander, the Crown Prince of the North. The path to the North was fraught with peril: Victoria, daughter of the Regent, viewed Ava as a sworn enemy, unleashing a barrage of deadly plots—from planting a stolen brooch and humiliating her at a tea party to poisoning her at a ball and orchestrating arson and kidnapping. Yet, Alexander never wavered; he shielded her from the flames with his own body and publicly exposed every conspiracy. Sophia eventually confessed to falsely claiming credit for a past rescue during a fire, and though Ethan knelt to beg for forgiveness, Ava simply said, "I neither hate you nor forgive you." In the end, Sophia was banished from the North, and Victoria was exiled to the borderlands. Ava donned the icy-blue crown and exchanged vows with Alexander. Ethan walked alone into the snow; the great gates closed, and the bells tolled.