A Stepmother's Märchen

She was the Iron Widow, the Spider Widow, the Witch of Neuwanstein Castle—and the foremost embarrassment to high society. To the watching world, Marchioness Suri von Neuwanstein was a cold-blooded social climber who had seized power through her late husband's death, a young stepmother more suited to be a sibling to her four stepchildren than a guardian. Yet behind the venomous whispers and scornful gazes, she bore a silent, crushing burden. For seven long years, she sacrificed her youth, her dignity, and her very identity to raise children who shared not a drop of her blood, enduring every slight in the hope that her duty would eventually come to a quiet, dignified end. On the morning of her eldest son Jeremy’s wedding, she finally allowed herself to believe that her ordeal was over—that all her struggles had neatly tied the last loose threads of her thankless task. But that fragile hope shattered when a cold message arrived, explicitly requesting her absence from the ceremony. Devastated and fleeing the castle in despair, she met a sudden, tragic end in a carriage accident. Instead of oblivion, however, she awoke gasping on the floor of her own chamber—seven years in the past, on the very day of her husband's funeral. The same resentful eyes of her stepchildren, the same predatory smiles of the nobility, and the same lonely, treacherous road stretched out before her. But this time, Suri von Neuwanstein refuses to walk it twice. She will no longer pour her life into a family that despises her, nor will she die a martyr to their indifference. This second chance belongs to no one but herself.