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Although their marriage started out as a political arrangement, Ophelia came to love Chadwick.
She truly believed that one day he would love her too.
But—
“Erase it.”
“What did you just say?”
“Erase the child.”
It had all been a vain hope.
The last fragile dream she had clung to, despite her many wounds, had been crushed beneath his merciless words.
“Chadwick.”
Tears welled in Ophelia’s clear violet eyes and spilled down her cheeks.
With a trembling smile, she finally spoke the words she had held back for so long.
“Let’s divorce.”
Five years of a precarious marriage ended with a final, scarring blow.
***
“Tell me, what must I do to make you smile again?”
“What must I do to keep you from crying?”
Chadwick’s desperate voice broke the silence, but Ophelia quietly pulled her tear-stained cheek away from his hand.
She looked at him for a long time, then curved her lips into the smile he had always longed to see. With that smile, she shook her head.
“Don’t do this, Grand Duke.”
Hearing the title froze him in place, as though he had turned to stone.
Ophelia gently released his hand and took a step back, creating distance between them.
“You said it yourself: It’s already far too late.”
The tender voice and soft smile of the woman he loved marked the end of everything.
And in that moment, the world was swallowed by darkness.
