The Duke had returned from his business trip looking impeccable in his tailored suit.

Winter looked at him just as she had when they first met in this room.

His broad frame exuded natural strength, yet his posture was effortlessly elegant.

Her mind weighed down by countless thoughts, she could not help but linger on his radiant golden hair and deep blue eyes.

Those eyes.

She had once spent hours trying to capture them on canvas, painstakingly mixing colors until she found the perfect shade.

Standing before him now, Winter found herself holding her breath.

She wanted to greet him with a smile.

She wanted to welcome him as she always had.

But her lips refused to cooperate; no matter how hard she tried, the corners remained stiff and frozen.

After inviting her to sit down, Eden acted as though nothing had changed. As far as she could tell, he was no different to how he usually was.

“Why are you standing there like that?”

“It’s nothing. I was just a little surprised that you called me to the estate.”

Winter shook her head, her expression stiff and uneasy.

His calm demeanor left her at a loss.

Aside from having returned from a business trip, he was acting as though nothing had happened.

As though the world had not shifted beneath her feet.

The truth was, there was only one thing she wanted to ask him.

Whether the article she had read in the newspaper was true.

Yet even after lifting the teacup and taking a small sip, she could not bring herself to ask.

No matter how hard she tried, she could not bring herself to say the words.

In the end, it was Eden who broke the silence first.

“Did the preparations for your exhibition go well?”

“Yes. I’ve been incredibly busy lately. How was your trip?”

“It went smoothly. Nothing unexpected happened beyond what I had already anticipated.”

It was just an ordinary conversation.

Nothing more than casual small talk.

A few more trivial remarks followed.

Confronted with his calm and unremarkable responses, Winter’s mouth went dry.

They had spent days tossing and turning while waiting for this moment.

They could not hesitate any longer.

Her fingers tightened around the thick wool of her skirt.

“There’s… something I’d like to say.”

“Go ahead.”

Eden nodded casually, as though it were no big deal.

His expression, illuminated by the warm light, remained perfectly calm.

For a moment, Winter’s lips parted soundlessly.

Then, with great difficulty, they managed to force the words lodged in their throat out.

“A little while ago… I saw an article.”

Winter steadied their trembling voice.

For a brief moment, something flickered in Eden’s eyes, but Winter, whose hands were clenched tightly with nervousness, failed to notice it.

“I heard that you’re considering getting married. I thought it would be better to talk to you about it directly than to let my imagination run wild.”

The question that had consumed her thoughts was, in truth, a simple one.

‘Was it true?’

The answer should have been easy enough to obtain.

And yet, Winter found herself wishing she had waited just one more day.

It was a foolish thought, but she could not help it.

Because the moment she heard the answer confirmed, she knew she would never be able to smile at him the same way again.

Even so, she could not let go of the faint hope that the rumor was false.

That somehow, it had all been a misunderstanding.

A brief silence settled between them.

In reality, only a few seconds had passed, but the silence felt unbearably long to Winter.

Without saying a word, Eden lifted the delicate, floral-patterned teacup.

From the outset, he had never intended to enter into a political marriage.

Nor had he ever planned to marry anyone else while he was with Winter.

Someone had simply seized the opportunity and released the story before he could do anything about it.

He could easily picture the look on Winter’s face as she read the article.

Unable to meet her gaze, still clouded by the hurt caused by the article, Eden lowered his eyes.

He felt a powerful urge to explain everything.

But…

Now was the time to sever every tie he had with Winter Wood.

“I haven’t seen the article myself, but if it’s about House Lindal, then it’s true. It was a meeting arranged by His Majesty.”

“…”

It was a calm acknowledgement.

No explanation.

No excuse.

He made no attempt to defend himself.

That was all.

The answer caught Winter completely off guard, leaving her speechless.

She had never thought the article was entirely baseless, but…

If he was preparing to marry someone else, their relationship was over.

Yet he seemed utterly unaffected.

As if none of it mattered.

As if nothing had changed.

Winter stared at him in disbelief as he calmly raised his teacup and took a sip.

“How… No, why didn’t you tell me?”

Her voice wavered.

“Even so… shouldn’t I have known before something like that appeared in the newspapers? At the very least, shouldn’t the person who’s been seeing you have heard it from you first?”

The words spilled from Winter in a rush, tangled and unsteady.

A count’s daughter personally chosen by the royal palace.

Winter knew better than anyone that she could never stand in that place.

She loved Eden, but she had never blamed him for being a man who could not promise her a future.

Then why?

Why hadn’t he given her even a little time to prepare herself?

Why hadn’t he said a single word until she was the one forced to bring it up?

Why?

A painful lump rose in her throat, and her fingertips trembled faintly.

At last, Eden, who had remained silent as he watched her, finally spoke.

“I seem to recall that you were the one who said you wouldn’t ask for anything from me.”

Despite his gentle manner, his remark was painfully cruel.

Winter, who had often spoken to him just to hear his soft, low voice, was speechless.

She did remember saying that.

When Eden asked her what she wanted, Winter shook her head.

“I don’t need anything like that. Being with you is enough for me.”

But this was different.

At the very least, Winter had expected to be given time to prepare for the end of their relationship.

After all, they had even spent the night together before he left on his business trip.

If nothing else, he should have told her then.

As Eden watched her struggle to find a response, his throat tightened.

The bitter realization that he had become the very man she would come to despise weighed heavily on him.

It lodged in his chest like a shard of glass — something he could neither swallow nor force out.

Silence stretched between them.

Then, after a long pause, Winter finally spoke.

“Is there… something I don’t know about?”

Despite her confusion, Winter took a deep breath and tried desperately to steady herself.

No matter how many times she replayed everything in her mind, this was not the Eden she knew.

While it was impossible to truly see into another person’s heart, she wanted to believe that he was not the kind of man who would continue seeing her while secretly planning to marry someone else.

With trembling eyes, Winter looked at him.

Only then did she notice the strain etched around his eyes and the tension in his jaw.

Even the faint shadows beneath his clear blue eyes caught her attention.

“No matter how I think about it, this is too sudden. If there’s another reason, please tell me honestly.”

Winter gathered her courage one last time.

She wasn’t trying to cling on to Eden.

Even if their relationship had to end, she wanted to know why he had changed.

Under her unwavering gaze, Eden’s throat tightened.

“Winter.”

He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, forcing himself to stop before the words escaped.

Where was he supposed to begin?

How could he possibly explain that they were bound by a bitter past neither of them could escape?

He rose abruptly from his seat and walked towards the large cabinet across the room.

Winter watched him as he stopped in front of the long bar table.

He took a crystal glass and a bottle of amber liquor, poured himself a drink, and slowly returned to his seat.

It was only after the harsh liquor burned its way down his throat that he finally raised his gaze.

His gaze settled on Winter, sitting opposite him, and he saw that it was filled with emotions too tangled to name.

“My mother passed away when I was young.”

It sounded less like an explanation and more like a quiet confession to himself.

Winter lifted her gaze and looked at him as he leaned back in his chair.

What she knew about the Mayers amounted to little more than scattered pieces of information.

The previous Duchess had passed away, and after his father’s death, Eden had inherited the title and everything that went with it.

“It was publicly reported that my mother died after her lung disease worsened. But there was another reason behind her death. My father, as her husband, and even the royal palace made sure the truth was buried and never spoken of.”

“…”

“It all began when my mother fell in love with another man.”

His calm voice echoed quietly through the room.

Winter felt deeply uncomfortable, as though they had been made privy to a secret they were never meant to hear.

The atmosphere had become far too heavy for them to speak easily.

“The man Harriet Mayer became involved with was married, too. The real problem arose afterwards. While my mother was prepared to leave her husband and child behind to run away with him, he never intended to do the same.”

Eden paused and slowly swirled the liquor in his glass.

More than a decade had passed, yet the memories remained painfully clear.

It had happened by chance.

One day, he saw his mother with a man he had never met before, and the intimacy between them was impossible to mistake.

At first, he refused to believe what he was seeing.

But the truth was undeniable.

The man continued the affair through secret meetings and stolen moments, but one day he disappeared without warning.

He left behind Harriet Mayer, who had been willing to risk everything for a reckless dream of escape.

The moment she realized she had been abandoned, she broke completely.

When Eden’s father finally learned the truth, his once-happy childhood also came to a crashing end.

“My mother was devastated by the betrayal and worn down by my father’s constant suspicion. She stopped eating altogether. Not even her only son’s desperate pleas could reach her. Eventually, her body became so weak that it could not fight off even a common cold. What started as a minor illness developed into lung disease, and she died.”

Despite recounting something almost impossible to believe, Eden’s face remained astonishingly calm.

While Winter sat frozen, unsure how to react, he continued with a faint trace of self-mockery.

“You could call it the hidden truth of the Mayer family. The kind of story the public never heard about.”

His gaze settled on Winter.

“But Winter, do you know what I’ve often wondered about?”

The question came without warning.

Winter blinked rapidly.

A heavy silence filled the room.

As though he had never expected an answer, Eden spoke softly.

“I’ve often wondered how the man my mother dreamed of running away with lived the rest of his life.”