To avoid the reporters stationed at the hotel and train station, Bella took refuge in Joshua’s dormitory.

There, she tried to calm her racing heart.

The afterimage of the flashing lights lingered in front of her, blurring her vision.

“Bella, how are your hands?”

Joshua returned with a glass of water and set it down in front of her.

“Here you go.”

Bella lowered her gaze to her hands.

They were steadier than before, but it would be a stretch to say that they had stopped trembling altogether.

“They’re better than earlier. Thank you.”

Although she spoke calmly, her voice lacked strength.

The hotel lobby was crowded with reporters. They shouted the duke’s name. Sneers and jeers mingled with the noise. The accusations were aimed at a woman deemed unworthy of standing beside him.

All these memories resurfaced at once.

“None of it means anything. Don’t take it to heart.”

Seeing how dejected she was, Joshua tried to encourage her.

However, his words of comfort did little to ease her troubled thoughts.

The image of Mrs Fraser visiting the hotel flashed through her mind.

“You will end up dragging the duke down with you.”

The warning had come true.

‘If I had known it would turn out like this…’

She shouldn’t have been so greedy.

If it were only her own problem, she could endure it. However, the fact that she had also harmed the duke made it far harder to bear.

***

That night, it took Bella a very long time to fall asleep.

Whenever she closed her eyes, she could see camera flashes bursting like lightning in the darkness. When she opened her eyes, she felt as though she could still hear the shutters clicking somewhere nearby.

She tossed and turned until dawn.

Still barely awake, she reached for the newspaper Joshua had left behind that morning.

“….”

When she saw the large photograph spread across the front page, she rubbed her eyes and looked again.

Maybe she had made a mistake. But no matter how many times she checked, the figures in the picture remained the same.

There they were: her and Joshua, standing in the hotel lobby.

Any lingering trace of sleep vanished at once.

Joshua’s arm was partially shielding her face, but this only served to fuel the imagination further. What could not be clearly seen invited even more speculation.

The article beneath the photograph was written in provocative language with unverified claims, loaded expressions, and carefully chosen phrases designed to inflame curiosity and stir public opinion.

After reading it to the very end, Bella slowly lowered the paper. Joshua was not in the room. He had been called to the university early that morning.

She did not need to wonder why.

It was because of this article.

‘No matter where I go, I only cause trouble.’

With her thoughts in disarray, Bella leaned slowly back in her chair.

Then, in the silence of the room, her phone began to ring.

It was Joshua’s phone.

She stared at it as the sharp sound echoed loudly through the empty room.

Very few people knew his private number. Before leaving that morning, Joshua had warned her not to answer any calls in his absence.

So she did exactly as he had instructed. She waited for the ringing to stop.

At last, it fell silent. But only for a moment.

The phone rang again.

And again.

The shrill sound pierced the quiet relentlessly and insistently, as if it would not stop until she answered.

After hesitating for a long moment, Bella finally reached out and lifted the receiver.

She had to know who was calling her with such persistence.

— “Bella.”

Although she hadn’t said anything, the caller recognized her immediately.

It was a voice she knew well.

— “Are you all right?”

“…Yes.”

It wasn’t true.

She was not all right.

She wanted to ask why this was happening, how things had got to this point, and what she was supposed to do now.

The words rose to her throat, swelling until they hurt, but Bella could not bring herself to utter a single one of them.

—”You’ve seen the papers by now. Don’t pay them any mind. The press is only talking as it pleases.”

He spoke with certainty.

“……”

—”No matter what they say from here on, don’t believe it. Just wait. I’ll handle it.”

Even in Bella’s silence, he continued steadily. Though every headline was bearing his name, he remained calm.

—”I’ll come for you soon.”

And just like that, the line went dead.

Even after slowly replacing the receiver, Bella stood beside the phone for a long time, unable to move.

He had spoken with such certainty— “Soon,” he had said. He would resolve everything soon. But Bella knew better than anyone how fragile and uncertain that word could be.

Nevertheless, she chose to believe him. She chose to trust the duke and wait for him to set things right. In her current situation, it was her only option.

Before long, she received another distressing report.

[Duke Fraser Officially Announces Marriage to Lady Amelia Everett After a Long Engagement.]

It was his official wedding announcement.

***

Following the sudden announcement of his wedding, Logan was summoned from place to place from early morning onwards.

Before he could find out how Bella’s information had been leaked or why the reporters were waiting outside the hotel, he was confronted with an entirely new headline: the news of his own marriage.

It was news of his own marriage.

News that he had never approved.

An official statement had been released without his consent, and related articles flooded out in rapid succession, as if the world had been waiting for them.

A formal announcement issued by two noble houses carried far more authority than rumor, and everyone understood this. Public attention immediately shifted to the marriage.

The phrase ‘the duke’s mistress’, repeated with such venom only days before, was quietly recast by the press as a mere misunderstanding. The outrage that had once burned so fiercely vanished almost overnight, replaced by congratulatory messages and optimistic predictions about the couple’s future.

Newspapers and weeklies competed to publish romantic narratives — tales of love after a long engagement, fateful stories of how couples became engaged, and accounts of steadfast devotion, such as Amelia Everett’s.

Gradually, Bella’s photograph, which once filled entire columns, disappeared from the pages. But Logan did not welcome that.

Seizing a brief gap between obligations, he went to see his mother. Only one person could have forced a wedding announcement through without his agreement.

“You announced a marriage without my consent. What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Rarely having defied his mother’s wishes before, Logan confronted her in a sharp tone of voice.

He demanded an immediate correction.

Scarlett refused.

“This decision is for you—but it is also for the family.”

She responded calmly, as if she had been expecting him.

She explained that the matter had already been resolved with the House of Everett.

As they had anticipated, once the wedding announcement was made public, the scandal surrounding the affair faded as though it had never existed. In its place came warm congratulations and well-wishes for a joyous union.

After such a long engagement, the wedding could hardly be considered sudden. It was simply the natural conclusion to something long anticipated.

Neither house had anything to lose.

“And if you issue a correction now, what becomes of my dignity?”

Scarlett made it clear she had no intention of retracting the announcement.

“I suppose it will fare better than mine. Since this is your will, Mother, I understand.”

Logan turned away from her.

He was aware of some of the lies that the Everetts had told about his family, yet his own mother had chosen to support them rather than him.

Vincent had offered to try and persuade his family again. However, Logan now realized that words alone could no longer resolve the situation.

When Vincent asked him not to reveal the truth, Logan quietly retrieved the investigative report he had kept in reserve and began arranging the documents.

It was at that moment that Amelia came to see him.

“When I first read the article about you, I was so shocked. I’m relieved that, thanks to my mother and Mrs Fraser’s determination, the suspicions surrounding you have begun to fade.”

She did not accuse him of betrayal.

She did not beg for his love.

“I understand now that you don’t love me. I won’t ask you to love me. If you truly care for that girl, then keep her as your mistress instead.”

She spoke with unsettling composure, as though she were offering him a magnanimous concession.

“You know better than anyone how cruel society can be to a maid who marries into nobility.”

No matter how prestigious the House of Fraser might be, she would never truly be accepted into high society. She would be isolated and shunned, unable to form a single genuine friendship.

A faint trace of pity threaded through Amelia’s voice as she continued.

“I promise I won’t interfere with her. I’ve spent my entire life looking only at you – everyone knows that. If the engagement were broken now, it would damage both of us.”

Her argument was delivered with calm, careful logic, each point placed deliberately.

After a brief pause, Amelia spoke her final words.

“So marry me.”