The soft rustle of turning pages filled the study.

With every sheet Vincent flipped, the color slowly drained from his face.

The documents revealed not only the orphanage that the Count’s family had used to launder money, but also several other corrupt institutions. Clear records showed that the Duke of Fraser had done far more than offer sponsorship; he had secretly paid off the Count of Everett’s gambling debts. Enormous sums had changed hands time and again.

No matter how carefully they had tried to hide it, they could not erase the records bearing the central bank’s seal.

That had been the Count’s fatal mistake.

“Ha…”

Vincent let out a long, unsteady breath as he stared at the staggering total of the family’s debt.

Even as children, he and Amelia knew that their father had once strayed from the right path. Late at night, the sound of their parents arguing would drift down the hallway and seep beneath his bedroom door. There were nights when he pressed a pillow tightly over his ears, desperate for silence and sleep.

But somewhere along the way, his father’s reckless habits had quietened down. Or perhaps Vincent had simply chosen to believe that they had. He wanted to stop clinging to the past. He wanted to recognize the man who was trying to return to his family and make amends, even if it was too late.

Yet the debt laid out before him now was far too immense to accept so easily.

He knew his father drank heavily and sought pleasure outside the home. He had even heard rumors of gambling. But he had never imagined that things had spiraled to this extent — not even in his wildest suspicions.

“The money… I mean…”

Vincent trailed off, too shaken to form a coherent sentence. Even the sum officially lent to his father by the late Duke would be difficult to repay all at once.

Logan observed him in silence.

It seemed that Vincent had truly known nothing of this.

“I didn’t show you this to demand repayment.”

Logan had no intention of reclaiming the money his father had lent him during his lifetime. As his mother had said, the ducal house had prospered well enough without it. They were not experiencing any urgent financial difficulties.

“But it’s sufficient grounds to dissolve the engagement. The trust between our two families has collapsed.”

Logan’s voice was firm.

“I have no intention of making this a bigger issue. Whatever choice the House of Everett makes, my answer will remain the same.”

He understood better than anyone that a simple declaration of a broken engagement would never be enough for the House of Everett to accept without protest. That was precisely why he had put this card on the table from the outset.

If the truth were exposed, Everett would suffer a fatal blow.

If it became known that they had pursued an engagement while concealing a substantial amount of debt, their position in noble society — built on mutual trust — would crumble. No one would willingly bind themselves to a family whose word could not be trusted.

“A marriage that neither of us truly wants would not be good for Amelia either. I would never be able to give her the life she deserves as a wife.”

“I understand your intentions. I’ll speak to my family about it.”

Vincent nodded slowly, having understood exactly what Logan meant.

There was nothing left to argue about.

Perhaps it would truly be better for Amelia if things ended here rather than forcing her into an affectionless marriage.

All this time, Vincent had tried to persuade and prepare her for that possibility. Now that the outcome he had long feared had finally come to pass, he could only sigh with weariness. He had no grounds to blame Logan.

After carefully replacing the documents on the desk, Vincent rose and left the estate.

Exposing the wrongdoing of a friend’s father could not have been easy for Logan. Having once again witnessed Logan’s unwavering resolve in securing the broken engagement he so desperately wanted, Vincent felt far from calm as he walked away.

***

Several days passed and, finally, the day arrived for Bella to leave the capital.

Unable to see her off in person due to a prior engagement, Logan asked one of his employees to give her the train ticket.

Having finished preparing to return to Netherwell, Bella checked the room one final time to make sure she hadn’t left anything behind.

She didn’t have much to pack: just a few changes of clothes, several books, and a small souvenir that Joshua had bought her at the festival. That was all. She had never planned to stay in the capital for so long, so her belongings had always been modest.

Once she had closed her suitcase, Bella paused and slowly looked around the room in which she had been staying.

It still felt surreal that she had become so familiar with this hotel suite — a place she had once believed she would never set foot in.

“All set?”

Joshua stepped inside after receiving word from the duke. Since Logan was busy, Joshua had come to escort Bella to the train station in his stead.

“I didn’t see you often, but now that you’re really going back to Netherwell, it feels a bit disappointing. I wish you could’ve stayed longer and seen more of the capital.”

He lifted her suitcase as he spoke.

“I’m disappointed too, but it couldn’t be helped. I’ll come visit again later.”

Bella offered a faint smile and followed Joshua out of the room.

Until she had closed her suitcase and left, the idea of leaving had not felt real. But the instant she stepped across the threshold, she realized: she was really going.

She was really leaving.

The lift ride down felt unbearably long, as though time itself had slowed.

Then the doors slid open into the lobby.

A blinding burst of light exploded from every direction.

For a split second, her vision turned completely white. Flash after flash overwhelmed her, and the frantic clicking of camera shutters mixed with raised voices, crashing painfully against her ears.

It wasn’t just one or two reporters waiting.

They were surrounded.

The flashes erupted all at once, attacking them relentlessly from every side.

“Over here, over here!”

“We heard you were the victim in the Jack Hunter incident! What is your relationship with the Duke of Fraser? Why did he put you up in a hotel?”

“Please lift your head!”

“Does Miss Amelia Everett, the Duke of Fraser’s fiancée, know about this?”

Joshua instinctively stepped in front of Bella to shield her, but this had little effect.

Despite the hotel staff’s efforts to intervene, they could not hold back the wave of reporters pushing forward. The crowd surged forward like a breaking tide.

Someone shoved Joshua from behind, knocking Bella’s suitcase to the floor. Some reporters began pushing and grappling with one another, each desperate to get closer to Bella and capture a better shot of her face.

“Please step back!”

Joshua shouted at last, anger breaking through his restraint as he shielded Bella with his body.

“She’s a private citizen. She has no obligation to give you interviews. What kind of behavior is this, coming here without even confirming your information?”

“Dr. Joshua Powell, correct? How do you know this woman?”

“Mr. Powell, just a word, please!”

This only drew more attention to him, however. The reporters who recognized him started asking him questions. His demand for them to stop was lost in the chaos.

Bella could do nothing.

She stood curled up and frozen to the spot, unable to break free from the moment.

“Let’s leave through the back.”

Joshua spotted a small gap in the crowd, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her through it. Her luggage had already been kicked and trampled on by the reporters. But there was no time to think about it. Bella simply followed him, running across the lobby.

“Just one comment about your relationship with the duke!”

The cameras did not stop, even when they reached the car waiting at the rear entrance. It was only once the door had shut behind them that the relentless clicking of the shutters finally stopped.

Leaning back in her seat, Bella looked down at her hands.

They were trembling.

“There are reporters waiting at the station as well.”

After receiving word from someone ahead, the driver relayed the situation in a tense voice.

“How…?”

Bella’s thoughts turned to the journalists waiting for her, as if they had known she would be leaving the capital today.

They had managed to escape the hotel, but the photographs taken moments ago would undoubtedly appear in tomorrow’s newspapers. The articles she had once read with detached curiosity — stories that had belonged to other people — would now carry her name.

A kind of fear she had never experienced before gripped her tightly.

She could not shake the memory of the crowd closing in on her, the blinding camera flashes and the deafening noise.

She sat there in stunned silence, her eyes unfocused, unable to respond even when the driver asked her where to go.

Noticing her state, Joshua answered in her place, his voice steady despite the growing concern in his eyes.

“…Please take us to the university.”