King's Landing, the Queen Mother's Bedchamber.
Cersei Lannister lay submerged in a tub filled with scalding water, rose petals floating on its surface.
She closed her eyes, trying to drive away the chill seeping from deep within her with the scorching heat.
But it was no use.
Joffrey's venomous eyes were still lodged in her heart.
"You're nothing but a shameless woman!"
"A... whore who seduces even her own family!"
"What makes you any different from those women in brothels who sell their bodies?!"
Ungrateful wretch!
The son she had spent her entire life loving, indulging, and clearing a path for had insulted her with the cruelest words imaginable.
And her father, Tywin Lannister, that man who was always composed, always right.
For the sake of his so-called family interests, he was treating her like a mare awaiting the highest bidder, selling her to the Tyrells of Highgarden just as he had sold her to Robert.
In her son's eyes, she was a shameless slut.
In her father's eyes, she was a mare he could breed whenever he pleased in exchange for advantage.
She had lived through tragedy and thought the nightmare was over, only for it to begin all over again.
What had her whole life been for?
For Jaime, she had borne the vilest condemnation the world could offer.
For Joffrey, she had poured out everything she had, enduring Robert Baratheon's humiliation and silent treatment.
For the glory of House Lannister, she had staked everything on this game of power.
And what had she gained in the end?
Jaime, far away in the North, had actually chosen to fight for Lynn.
Joffrey hated her to his bones, piercing the last shreds of her dignity as a mother with the cruelest words.
And her father, the man she had