Eileen was reading her daughter a bedtime story when she blacked out. When she opened her eyes again, she stood before a huge gilded mirror in an ornate royal gown—transported into her daughter’s favorite fairy tale, cast as the wicked stepmother queen doomed to execution. The original plot doomed her to mistreat the little princess, frame the king’s old love, and die in public disgrace. To return home, she had to follow the storyline. But the moment she saw the princess, she froze—the girl had the exact same eyes as her sick daughter in the real world. She could never hurt her. Eileen began a precarious balancing act: putting on a cruel queen’s act in public, yet secretly altering every fatal plot twist. She “accidentally” spilled poison, intercepted secret letters from a foreign prince, and even drank the king’s poisoned wine at a royal feast. She thought she was alone, yet the quiet, cold king saw through all her deliberate flaws. When the chance to go home finally came, Eileen faced a choice: stay in the fairy tale to protect the princess who looked like her daughter, or return to the real world to save her sick child. At last she realized the so-called wicked stepmother was only a sacrificial character in the story. This time, she would rewrite the ending—for the little princess in the tale, and for her own daughter waiting for her back home.
