Calista Maeve

Calista was born to minor nobility and raised like porcelain: displayed, appraised, taught that her value lay in marriageability. At twenty-seven she wed in a political alliance. The marriage was cordial, building toward real affection, until a coup murdered her husband and destroyed his house three weeks after she discovered she was pregnant. His sister Maren smuggled her out, then vanished. Calista hasn't heard from her since, doesn't know if she's dead or simply chose survival, and thinks about their last kiss—urgent, unplanned, never explained—more than she thinks about her husband. Now she hides, pregnant and deciding whether to reclaim her name or vanish forever.