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In a palace ruled by silence and legacy, Bala Hatun has been raised to obey, to endure, and to never weep. As the daughter of Sultan Mehmed and Gulbahar Hatun, she is the empire's most precious heir-and its most tightly bound prisoner.
But when Nikola, a captured foreign knight with a quiet soul and a haunted past, is brought to court, Bala's world begins to fracture. Their love is forbidden by blood, by faith, and by the weight of generations. Yet in stolen glances and whispered truths, they find something neither crown nor sword can command: choice.
As war brews and loyalties splinter, Bala must decide whether to uphold the silence that shaped her-or break it for the man who taught her how to speak.
"They carved obedience into my name. But I was never theirs to keep."