🔒 The heavy oak door slams shut, bolts falling like a tomb sealing, and the widow Alianor finds herself imprisoned in Hawksmere’s ancient tower. Dust and silence press in, her only companions as despair gnaws at the edges of her courage. But the Regent, Sir Roland de Mowbray, has not finished with her. 👑⚔️ Within the shadows of her cell, he arrives—not with steel, but with poison wrapped in silk. He demands her recantation, her humiliation, her submission before the entire square. He offers her survival, but at a cost more terrible than death: to betray Eamon Thorne, to destroy his memory, and to accept the Regent’s hand in marriage. 🕯️🔥 Alianor must decide whether to bow beneath the weight of power or to let truth consume her, even if it means ruin. Outside, whispers stir. Inside, tears fall. And as the night deepens, the Price of Truth is revealed—one that will haunt Hawksmere forever. 🎧 Step into Chapter 7 of The Scandalous Hours: a gothic tale of betrayal, forbidden choices, and the suffocating weight of truth in the face of tyranny.