Randolph shot a displeased look at Alicia.

Digging into Lucas’s past had been a taboo in the Duquesne household. It was a strict order from Richard, and anyone who worked in this dirty business had to obey it.

Besides, those who knew about Lucas’s past were all dead anyway. The only things Randolph knew were that Lucas wasn’t Richard’s biological son and that he had come from the Old Continent.

That information alone—that he had “lived low”—meant nothing. Because there was no proof.

Alicia crossed her arms and tilted her head.

“But you really can’t tell just by looking. Does living in squalor make someone stupid?” I heard that he graduated at the top of his class from a prestigious local university. His manners are impeccable, too.”

“He just broke my nose—what exactly is impeccable about that?”

“Isn’t headbutting and fighting kind of a thing around here? People from this side of the continent are a whole different breed from those back in the Old Continent.”

Even though he stood out at an elite Eastern university and acted like a thug, even that was something high society in the New Continent readily embraced.

No matter how hard they tried to appear refined, their roots lay in self-made success. They were men who had started out with nothing and made their fortunes on vast tracts of land. As such, they admired vitality and naturally followed strong leaders.

Above all, the lower classes instinctively submitted to the upper class. Yet Lucas acted as if there wasn’t a single thing in the world he feared.

In any case, Lucas’s past remained an unsolvable riddle.

“But I do know he’s from the Empire. He used to speak with an Imperial accent, though it’s less noticeable now. It was obvious back then.”

“Hmmm… Could he really be an illegitimate child from one of the fallen nobles in Aberon that Lord Richard picked up?”

Lucas’s mother was said to have come from the Kingdom of Aberon, which collapsed during a revolution. As the nobles had been executed in such horrific ways, survivors were rare, and the tragedy made it difficult to investigate further.

Randolph paced the room, muttering to himself.

“That can’t be. Still… I need to find out where exactly Lucas came from.”

He had served faithfully for so long, only to be denied the right to succeed Richard. Even his own men were starting to look at Lucas as if they wanted to switch sides — a thought that made his blood boil.

Unable to bear seeing her husband so agitated, Alicia finally spoke up.

“This won’t do, Randolph. We need help. Trying to handle this on our own isn’t enough.”

“Help? Do you mean your family? They’re no use to us now.”

“Not them. I’m sure there are people we can turn to right here, aren’t there?”

After all, there was a woman just a few blocks away who hated Cordelia as much as Alicia did.

Alicia stood up and, without calling for a servant, dialled the phone herself.

It was late, but she figured that the urgency of the situation would speak for itself.

“Please connect me to Lady Louisa of the Vanderbilt family.”

***

There was a time when Cordelia had found true happiness in her nights with Lucas.

Lucas looked like the very picture of calm and composure, but once in bed, there was not a shred of that composure to be found—something that had startled Cordelia at first. It was as if he feared she would vanish unless he held her tightly.

There was also something boyish about him, like a young man clinging to his first love, with no thought for technique or finesse.

Lost in that intensity, Cordelia would throw her head back and shed tears of joy on those nights.

She used to believe that passion equalled love — a notion that made her blush and flutter with excitement.

But now, despite the sensations and cries being the same, the face reflected in the window — framed by the glittering view of Millionaire Row — was marred by sorrow.

“Ah…!”

However, before sorrow could fully contort her expression, Cordelia threw her head back in a dizzying rush.

A cold, smooth gemstone slowly trailed down her bare back.

The heat of her body made the chill of the stone all the more jarring — sharp enough to make her shudder intensely.

Unable to endure the tingling sensation, Cordelia turned her head.

In the dimly lit room, Lucas’s hair shimmered white in the glow of the city lights.

Her lips parted involuntarily the moment her eyes met his flirtatious gaze.

His teal eyes, illuminated by the light beyond the window, appeared ready to consume her entirely. Dark and fathomless, they resembled the depths of the ocean.

It wasn’t just the lack of love in his gaze that scared her, but the complete absence of any trace of the affection she had once thought existed.

And yet, at the same time, a question she could not comprehend arose in Cordelia’s mind.

‘Why? Why would this man go to such lengths to ruin my family?’

The Hastings family was, indeed, a prominent one in the Empire. And yes, she had once been the center of attention in the Hardrian social scene—so much so that people had teasingly called her the Hardrian Rose.

But still, was there truly any need for Lucas to seek out a bride from Hardria?

‘No, that can’t be it. There were plenty of noble families in the Old Continent that had lost their power, not just mine.’
‘Those families wouldn’t have minded if Lucas had approached them with a marriage offer.’

So maybe… maybe she hadn’t been chosen simply because she was the best “investment a commoner could reach for.”

Maybe—just maybe—there was a very specific reason why this man had fixated on her family.

“Open your mouth wider, darling.”

But Lucas noticed that Cordelia was lost in thought and smiled faintly. As their bodies drew closer, his tongue slid in deep.

The moist flesh moved like a serpent returning to its den, slowly swirling through the narrow space of her mouth, brushing against the most delicate places.

Cordelia squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to match his movements. Her heart was in turmoil, torn apart by a storm of anger at being deceived and a sense of hollow despair—yet her body still reacted to the familiar pleasure, and that only made her more furious with herself.

‘Just endure it this once.’

She couldn’t let him know she was thinking about something else. Lucas had to lower his guard—this was necessary.

But when the sound of waves — ones that could not possibly be coming from any nearby port — began to fill the room, Cordelia couldn’t help herself.

A small, animal-like whimper escaped her lips.

***

Cordelia didn’t just enjoy being with her husband in bed—what she truly loved was what came after.

In the past, once it was over, they would remain wrapped in each other’s arms. Lucas would play with her hair between his fingers and speak to her in a slow, gentle voice. Sometimes it was a joke, other times a soft, tuneless hum.

It didn’t matter which. In those moments, she had felt loved—so deeply loved that she’d think, I must be the luckiest woman in the world.

But now, though the air was still warm with lingering heat, the room was filled only with silence.

“…Ha.”

Cordelia pulled the blanket up to her shoulders and curled into herself. Thankfully, the night had ended just as she had set the boundary—after one round.

Lucas left the room afterward, just as if he were merely fulfilling a duty for the sake of producing an heir.

‘So this is what a proper marital bed looks like.’

If she had married Duke Berkeley in a political arrangement, this is the kind of night she would’ve had.
Even if she had wed someone else, this was typical among noble couples.

Nevertheless, if she continued living like this, the pain would be so intense that it would feel like a branding iron against her heart — she might actually die.

To survive, she had to leave Lucas. And she had to do it as quickly as possible.

When she did, she would leave behind that cruelly cold pink gemstone without a second thought. Forever.

‘I will never have a child under these circumstances.’

She didn’t want to bear a child just to continue a bloodline or pass on wealth and status. She wanted to have a child with someone she loved—someone she cherished.

It might be an embarrassingly naive wish for someone of noble birth, but she was certain on that point because, if not, her own childhood would be repeated: all she would do is bring another lonely child into this world.

‘I should sleep. Even if it’s just to have a good dream. I need to be ready… to find a place to go.’

Cordelia forced her eyes shut. If there was one small mercy in all this, it was that her body had been so worn down, she didn’t even have the strength to cry.

Because it had been a long day, it didn’t take long for sleep to come. In her dream, she found herself watching the day she left her homeland behind.

Before boarding the ship for the grand wedding awaiting her in the New Continent, Lucas had turned to her and asked,

“We may never be able to return to the Empire, Cordelia. Will you truly be all right with that?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine.”

At the time, Cordelia hadn’t thought deeply about all the things she might never see again for the sake of this marriage.

But not once did she miss the extravagant life of the Empire’s high society. Even so, she should have at least paid a visit to her hometown.

Why hadn’t she gone back before leaving the Empire for good?

‘Because I didn’t know I’d come to miss it.’

Back then, she had wanted to appear strong in front of her husband. She hadn’t brought a dowry, and the last thing she wanted was to look weak—crying over homesickness.

But now that she could no longer place her husband at the center of her world, she found herself missing the people she had let go of.

First and foremost, she missed Annie, her longtime maid. And aside from her…

‘That’s strange. There was someone important… but who was it?’