“Stop. There’s no point in talking any further.”

No matter what she said, he wasn’t going to listen.

The moment she heard his reply, Ariadne stopped trying to explain anything else.

Why had she even felt the need to explain her relationship with Jade to him? She had been friends with Jade long before she ever met Kieron. Everyone understood that without explanation. So why should she have to justify it to him now?

If he didn’t want to understand, she would stop trying to make him.

“Talking? You think this is a conversation?”

“Then is it an argument? Ah—no, I suppose it’s just me making statements, since Your Grace refuses to hear anything I say.”

“What exactly are you trying to do right now?”

At the same time, she realized that her voice sounded just as distant as his.

People must speak like that when they’re exhausted and emotionally drained.

This surprised her.

Even in a moment like this, she could still think so calmly.

Until now, whenever she had faced him, she had only ever felt excitement or fear, never anything in between.

But now, she could answer him and observe her own feelings at the same time, as though she were standing outside herself.

Noticing that his expression had become even more irritated, she shrugged indifferently.

“I’m simply saying what I think. Since you never listen anyway, you’ll hear it however you want and believe whatever suits you.”

“So you’re saying I can think whatever I want about you and Young Master Derayan?”

“It won’t be very helpful to you, but if that’s what you want, then go ahead.”

After all, thinking isn’t a crime.

Ariadne’s voice remained completely flat, as though she were discussing the weather or the latest fashion trend.

To Kieron, however, it sounded unmistakably like she didn’t care what he thought anymore.

“You’re being awfully roundabout in claiming you’ve committed adultery.”

“Don’t force your thoughts onto me. Thinking isn’t wrong, but forcing those thoughts onto someone else is.”

“Didn’t you just say I could think however I want?”

“Thinking is free.”

They exchanged words like it was a pointless game, and Kieron’s brow furrowed.

Yet amidst that tense exchange, her voice and expression were so monotonous and devoid of feeling that it created a strange sense of dissonance in him.

“I truly have no idea what you’re trying to do.”

“Think whatever you want, but don’t force me to accept your thoughts as fact. Whatever fantasies or suspicions you come up with are your responsibility, not mine. So don’t push the consequences of your imagination onto me.”

“So what you’re saying is—my misunderstandings are my fault, and the person who caused them bears no blame?”

“And the fault of refusing to believe someone who said no—does that not occur to Your Grace?”

The two of them were talking more than they ever had during their entire marriage. In fact, it was the longest and most sustained conversation they had ever had.

However, the subject matter was extremely tense, and their tones were dry to the point of brittleness.

Kieron was becoming increasingly irritated by this never-ending, circular conversation.

“Enough wordplay. So—is it true, or is it not?”

“And if I say it, will you believe me?”

Again.

The same loop, circling right back to the start.

He raked a hand through his hair in frustration.

“Ariadne Ambrose. Are you playing games right now? You need to say something so I can clean this up.”

If she had committed adultery, all his questions would be answered. He could then return this infuriating woman to the Peyton family without losing anything.

In fact, he could confront the Marquis with confidence and demand compensation for the insult.

However, setting all that aside, he could not bear the way she was looking at him now, with those cold, distant eyes.

“If you want to fix it, then fix it. However you plan to.”

“It sounds like you’re saying there is something to fix.”

“You can confirm it yourself. You wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

With those final words, she lowered her head back down onto her knees.

It was a clear refusal. She was making it clear that she had no intention of speaking any further.

Anger surged through him again, but Kieron did not make the mistake of forcing her to stand up or shouting at her. Instead, he clenched his jaw, turned on his heel, and strode out of the room.

Fine.

Just as she said, he would look into it himself. If there was suspicion, he would clarify it. If there was something to hide, he would bury it.

Then he would stop clinging to that corpse-like woman for no reason.

That was what he told himself.

And yet—

Even though he had sworn there would be no ‘third time’, Kieron still couldn’t understand why he was so overcome with anger as he stepped out of her room.

Or why seeing her lifeless eyes had felt so unbearable.

***

“Ariadne… is she really that sick?”

During the carriage ride back, without ever seeing her, Jade noticed his friend’s somber expression and tentatively spoke up.

The moment he received her letter saying that she wanted to meet him and see her family, he dropped everything to go to her.

Coincidentally, her older brother, Heidel, had been visiting that day. As Jade hesitated for a moment, Heidel grabbed his arm and took him straight to the Ambrose estate.

However, the woman they had both been eager to see never appeared. Instead, the butler came out and said that she was unwell and unable to receive visitors.

It made no sense.

After all, her handwriting had practically sparkled with excitement that very morning.

Nevertheless, Jade and Heidel had no choice but to turn back.

They couldn’t force their way into the home of a duke, even though one of them was his brother and the other his closest friend.

“Well… you know how it is. Rene was always sick.”

Finally, Heidel answered in a low voice.

His dark blue eyes, so similar to his sister’s, held a troubled glimmer as he stared out of the window. He responded to Jade’s question, but the look in his eyes suggested that he suspected something entirely different.

Jade, who had known him longer than anyone, could see it immediately. Heidel was entertaining thoughts that were far too dangerous to voice.

At this rate, the Peytons might send an assassin to the Ambrose estate within days.

Pushing this grim notion aside, Jade changed the subject to something they had not finished discussing that morning.

“Right. Has Her Highness still not changed her mind?”

“What? Ah… you mean the bridesmaid.”

Heidel, pulled from his darker thoughts, turned back toward Jade and let out a quiet sigh.

“Sylvia rarely changes a decision once she’s made it. Unless something extraordinary happens, she plans to ask Ariadne to be her bridesmaid.”

He shook his head in a gesture of helplessness.

This was one of the reasons why Jade had insisted on bringing him with her today.

Princess Sylvia, Jade’s fiancée, wanted to ask her future sister-in-law to be a bridesmaid at her wedding.

Jade suspected this was partly because Heidel often spoke fondly of his younger sister, and partly because the three Paeton siblings shared a close bond.

“They say their relationship grew distant after the marriage, but Sylvia seems to think this might help me get along with Rene again. She refused to back down.”

Princess Silvia had even conveyed the idea to the future mother-in-law—the Marchioness of Peyton—who welcomed it wholeheartedly.

The only one to protest vehemently was Sylvia’s own sister, Princess Lorelei, who had also hoped to be chosen. But Silvia had never cared much for Lorelei’s opinions.

“Isn’t it because Her Highness isn’t close with her own siblings? She always admired how close the three of you were.”

“That may be true… but at this rate, I’m not sure I’ll even be able to see Rene on the day of the wedding.”

Heidel let out a heavy breath.

His marriage had been strained from the beginning. The emperor had hoped that the powerful Peyton family would support a union with his young son, who was not yet ten years old.

However, in open defiance of the emperor’s wishes, the Peytons had instead pushed for a marriage between the prince and the second princess, who was many years his senior.

Regardless of whether the couple themselves agreed, the marriage carried significant political weight among the empire’s nobility.

Jade simply wanted to help the couple navigate the complications of the arrangement, even in some small way.

When Ariadne’s letter arrived at such an opportune moment, Jade brought Heidel with him, hoping that perhaps something — anything — might be made easier.

But looking at Heidel now, Jade felt helpless.

The burden he had wanted to ease for Ariadne had only become heavier.

“She’ll come. She said she wanted to see her family, remember?”

“But judging from today, it looks like the duke is preventing her from going out.”

The dark gleam returned to Heidel’s eyes, the very one Jade had barely managed to soothe earlier.

At this rate, the entire Peyton household might storm the Ambrose estate soon. Jade let out a small sigh at the thought of the worst-case scenario unfolding.

“There’s no way. Didn’t he say he’d treat Rene well?”

“He only said that because he has too much to gain. My father wouldn’t hand over all that support without attaching conditions.”

Through the marriage, Duke Ambrose had profited beyond anything imaginable. Jade had overheard people whispering—not loudly, but enough—calling it a “marriage bargain.” He had struggled to keep his expression steady whenever he heard the phrase.

“But Rene loved him.”

“Rene was young, Jade. It’s not that she didn’t believe in love, but if she’d had even a little more time… she never would have married.”

Heidel muttered the words, his expression tightening with displeasure.

There were countless forms of love, and people loved in different ways. However, Heidel believed that love needed time to grow.

Marriage meant choosing a life partner, and a person needed enough time to truly understand who they were committing themselves to in order to make such a choice.

It was with this conviction that he had chosen his fiancée.

“If Rene hadn’t been ill, none of us would have allowed her to marry so quickly. She should have been given more time to be happy first. If only she had known someone, we could have helped her.”

Heidel forced the words out through clenched teeth, feeling thoroughly dissatisfied with his new brother-in-law.

He had every reason to feel that way because, after the wedding, Ariadne had cut off all contact with her family.

Whether that was Rene’s own decision or the Duke of Ambrose’s, no one could say.

“Yeah. It would’ve been better if it were someone familiar.”

Understanding how he felt, Jade quietly agreed with Heidel that Ariadne deserved far more happiness.

Then he noticed the direction of Heidel’s gaze.

It was as if he knew everything Jade was thinking.

Jade quickly averted his gaze.