The unexpected heir to the line of a prince who has no male descendants

Irene, Viscount Arthur’s illegitimate daughter, was abused by her stepmother Sylvia and stepsister Clara and kept as an attic servant. Her only hope was studying at the Royal Academy. At the prince’s bride-selection banquet, Prince Rivell, drugged, forced himself on her. Thinking him sterile, she believed it was over—until she was pregnant three months later. Her stepfamily tried to abort the child and marry her to Count John, notorious for killing three wives. When she said the child was the prince’s, no one believed her. As a knife neared her belly, Rivell and royal knights saved her and made her princess. She later entered the Royal Academy and won a royal design contest with a “Rebirth from Broken Cocoon” gown made of burnt cloth and fairy-godmother starlight thread, defeating plagiarist Laina. Clara, Count John, and Arthur then kidnapped her at a palace banquet, nearly causing a miscarriage. Rivell exiled the Ambrose family. Irene rose from a trampled Cinderella to a royal mistress standing on her talent.