Even so, this was money earned by selling her self-respect. Her hands trembled as she took the envelope.

“Don’t put on airs with your pride.”

“……”

“Miss Heich, I’m telling you this because you seem to often forget what’s important.”

“What is important?”

The words burst out before Nelie could control them.

What is always so easy for this person? How can he so casually ignore and trample on things that are important to her?

“Do I have to tell you with my own mouth?”

Nelie was about to say yes, tell me, but closed her mouth again. She couldn’t bear to hear the truth flow from his lips again. The envelope in her hand was mercilessly crumpled.

“If you won’t accept it, I’ll deliver it directly to your father.”

“……Don’t do that.”

“Then take it now.”

The Duke was a man who would actually do such a thing. Nelie bit her lip and put the envelope in her pocket. It was true that her sick father was more important than her pride right now. Then, trying to compose her chaotic feelings, she stepped back a few paces.

“Is your business finished?”

“……”

“If you came just to give this……”

“No, Miss Heich.”

The Duke coldly interrupted her words. Nelie, struggling to keep her vision from blurring, slowly raised her head and looked at the Duke. Confusion swept over her like dark clouds, soaking her.

“There’s a more important issue.”

“What important issue?”

“Something you need to return. Did you forget?”

“Return?”

“You stole the most precious thing from me.”

Recalling the ring she had sent in an envelope recently, Nelie’s heart grew anxious. At the same time, her heart fell to the floor with a thud.

Ah, the prize money is just an excuse.

He came to find that after all.

The trembling she felt while watching the Duke standing at a distance instantly subsided. This man didn’t come looking for her. He came looking for the ring because she had disappeared with it. It was certainly a ring that seemed too precious to give to her. It was natural that he wanted it back.

‘But I returned it… as he wanted.’

She had definitely sealed it properly and sent it. Could it have disappeared in transit? Or had Jerome’s mail and the Duke’s truly been switched?

Nelie put strength in her eyes. She couldn’t be caught again by theft charges following the defamation complaint. If the ring had been lost, it would also be a matter of holding the post office responsible.

“I definitely returned it to you, Duke.”

“……”

“If the letter went to the wrong place, perhaps to Jerome……”

“Ah. Jerome.”

As soon as he heard that name, Elroy gritted his teeth. Jerome, Jerome. That name was always a problem. His heart, which had been calmly settled while examining the woman’s face, greatly stirred. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he struggled to swallow his anger.

“You told me he was a friend, but actually he’s your lover?”

“What are you saying……”

“You gave your address and asked for a reply from someone you’re not in that kind of relationship with?”

Nelie’s face turned pale. That was definitely the content she had written at the end of her letter to Jerome. That she would write her address, and if he wasn’t too upset, she would like a reply. That she wanted to exchange greetings even in that way.

The fact that he knew that content meant…….

“Did you open my letter, Duke?”

“Yes.”

“Why? You must have known it was a misdelivered letter from the moment you received the envelope. How could someone as noble as you do such a roguish thing……”

“You’re the one who committed such an act, Annelie Heich.”

“……”

“Did you think you could get away with stealing something so precious and running away?”

“I told you. If the letters were switched, Jerome would have the ring. I definitely returned……”

Before Annelie Heich could finish speaking, Elroy reached out his hand. Then, he gently pressed against Nelie’s lower abdomen.

“There’s more that you stole.”

The words leaked through his clenched teeth. Even in this situation, Elroy tried not to apply pressure and carefully cradled her lower abdomen. If there really was a child in there. If she was carrying his seed.

He didn’t want to hurt a child who might take after the woman. Though she had pulled off an absurd escape, the thought of Annelie Heich giving birth to his child wasn’t as bad as he expected. Rather……

The image of a lovely child with clear, bright blue eyes calling him Dad and begging to be taken to the art gallery flashed through his mind. Since he couldn’t raise a child without a mother, the position of duchess would need to be filled. Naturally, the child’s mother should take that position.

Miss Annelie Heich, the first commoner to become a duchess in the Tevant family. He could almost see the headlines the gossip papers would run. In that fantasy, Annelie approached him with a child who looked just like her, smiling.

It was a deadly and futile delusion that felt like poison.

He wanted to laugh at himself for having such thoughts about a woman who left him, but hadn’t he planted quite a lot of seed in there?

His throat went dry again remembering when he gripped the woman’s body while she swallowed her sweet moans. It was laughable how his body got aroused even in this situation. Elroy ignored the aggressively swelling emotions and wrapped his hand around Annelie’s lower abdomen so it fit perfectly.

“Are you really going to deny it?”

The woman, who seemed startled from the moment his hand touched her, drew in a sharp breath and looked up at Elroy. Her trembling eyes slowly moved to her lower abdomen, to his hand placed upon it.

“……Let go.”

Nelie nibbled on her lower lip. She wanted to get angry about how he could do such a roguish thing, but her body, familiar with the Duke, accepted even this gesture naturally. Heat kept rising to her nape, making her anxious.

“Let go, Duke.”

“So I can watch you run away again? While carrying my child?”

The moment she heard those words, she remembered the Duke talking about bastards. After nibbling on her lips several more times, Nelie decided to tell the truth.

“……There’s nothing, Duke.”

“……”

“There’s…… nothing in there.”

Fortunately, her voice didn’t tremble at the end this time. Nelie was secretly grateful for her voice coming out naturally despite her tense body. However, the Duke didn’t back down easily either.

“You want me to believe you when you’ve already lied several times?”

“What lies?”

“First you drew false illustrations to insult me, then you said I was your first. And then……”

“Those weren’t lies!”

“They weren’t lies?”

“……There hasn’t been any other man besides you, Duke. At least that wasn’t a lie. And the illustrations…… I didn’t draw them because I wanted to.”

The Duke’s Adam’s apple bobbed prominently at her rambling words. Strangely, his eyes, which held a heat in them, looked pleased. Though he must be furious with her, yet. Nelie forcefully pushed away the thoughts that were trying to rise.

“This isn’t a lie either, Duke. I……”

In truth, she had thought that even having a child wouldn’t be so bad. She thought that if she gave birth and raised it well, if it was a beautiful baby that took after him, life might be a bit manageable even if it was tough.

But there was nothing. It was just a foolish country girl’s foolish misunderstanding.

Unable to say that much, Nelie squeezed her eyes shut before opening them. The Duke still pressed his hand slightly on her lower abdomen, seeming unconvinced.

“I still have no obligation to believe those words.”

Her heart felt like it dropped along with his coldly delivered words. Her mouth opened impulsively.

“Then check it.”

“……”

“If you check, you’ll know.”

Though she hadn’t trembled throughout, she finally did at the end. Nelie rubbed her increasingly hot eyes while looking straight up at the Duke. She didn’t want to back down easily. The Duke’s lips twisted terribly.

“Check it?”

Elroy let out a hollow laugh while savoring those words. Yes. He had definitely said similar words to this woman before.

“Then let’s check.”

“Let’s check and if it’s not true…”

“You already know what comes next.”

He remembered when he first met the woman. The humid heat of that old warehouse then, when the woman fearlessly sucked his c*ck and he put it inside her. When she instantly turned him, who was experiencing a woman for the first time, into a man mad for the female body.

“If I check and there’s nothing.”

“……”

“What compensation should I give you, Miss Heich?”

“You don’t need to do anything like that. Just……”

The woman opened her mouth with difficulty. Her gaze had already fallen to the floor.

“Please return to Tevant.”

“Return, you say.”

“That…… seems right. You already gave me the prize money. The ring must be in Tevant. So……”