Previously
At Saint Blaise Restaurant, the luncheon turns tense when Adrian unexpectedly shows up alongside Marquis Rochester, James, and Angelica.
Angelica cast a venomous sidelong glare at Dolores.
‘That wretched bitch…’
Because of Dowager Marchioness Lindinis’s pronouncement, Angelica had been forced to curb her own social appearances.
Why was it that Dolores always walked away with everything good?
‘The original plan… won’t do at all.’
Angelica bit her lip, swallowing the bile rising in her throat.
Meanwhile, Dolores watched Angelica with cool composure.
‘Growing old once certainly has its uses.’
Having lost her innocence, she had gained the wit to tear someone down with subtle mockery.
‘Had I softened for even a moment, she would have struck at me instead.’
Dolores glanced discreetly toward Adrian.
‘Now that I’ve torn Angelica apart like this, will he finally give up on me?’
By any measure, her display was a far cry from a submissive, docile lady.
She truly prayed he would lose interest in her and go comfort Angelica instead.
Adrian, however, merely stared at Dolores, utterly entranced.
‘Dolly… When did you change like this…?’
In the past, he had thought her merely pretty and gentle.
Whatever he asked, she would offer a docile smile, letting him lead her into saying, ‘I am lacking, so please guide me, Your Highness.’
‘To be frank, it was boring back then.’
That was why he had turned his affections toward Angelica, who knew how to play hard to get.
Yet now, while remaining as breathtaking as ever…
She commanded the room with such venomous, elegant barbs.
‘What am I to do?’
Adrian’s heart fluttered with sudden, wild excitement.
It was maddening to think he had let her go.
The regret was unbearable; he wanted to reach out this very second and drag her back to the imperial palace.
A rose truly had to bear thorns to be worth cultivating, rather than simply being pretty.
‘I can’t leave this be. I have to take matters into my own hands.’
Adrian hastily looked away from his half-brother and drained his wineglass.
The way Resurreccion’s golden eyes narrowed made him feel as though his inner thoughts were being laid bare.
Even so, his mind was made up.
‘I need an excuse to banish that bastard somewhere far away.’
And in the meantime, he would bring Dolores to the imperial palace…
To keep her tied by his side forever.
After the dreadful meal finally reached its conclusion with dessert…
“Phew…”
Dolores stood in the restaurant’s washroom, pressing a hand to her forehead.
Though called a washroom, it was a pleasant space arranged like a private lounge.
Thanks to a quiet request made to the proprietor, she had the entire place to herself.
The truth was, by the end of the meal, her nausea had pushed her to her limit.
‘I barely ate anything. Though perhaps it’s safer that way.’
She had already been keeping her portions small at the Lancaster townhouse.
Today, however, putting anything in her mouth threatened to bring on dry heaves.
‘It’s because of Adrian and Angelica.’
Seeing either one of them was enough to turn her stomach, so having the pair of them together made it unbearable.
Though she had crushed Angelica this time around thanks to the girl’s inexperience…
‘Years of torment aren’t healed so easily.’
Yet when she raised her head, the woman reflected in the mirror did not look defeated.
A light sheen of cold sweat coated her skin, but her eyes shone with sharp clarity.
The lips in the mirror parted slightly.
“Lauren…”
The pet name the Grand Duke had conjured with astonishing quickness.
Though he had only thought of it to mock Adrian…
The more she turned it over in her mind, the more she liked it.
‘Dolores,’ steeped in sorrow, evoking Our Lady of Sorrows.
‘Dolly,’ fitting only for a naive young girl.
‘It’s far better than either of those.’
It rolled cleanly off the tongue and carried a certain bold poise.
A vibrant person capable of accomplishing anything.
It made her feel like someone she had never managed to become until the day she died.
“Should I tell him to call me that from now on?”
Truth be told, she liked the pet name far better than the gift he had given her.
A pang of shame followed as she remembered that she still hadn’t opened it.
‘I do feel a bit guilty.’
He had swallowed his disdain for House Rochester just to accompany her today.
It was likely jewelry, and she should have worn it as a courtesy.
‘I must thank him again in the carriage on our way back.’
Yet the moment she stepped outside, an unwelcome voice called from behind her.
“Hey.”
“…!”
“You certainly look pleased with yourself, Dolores.”
Dolores began to scowl, but smoothed her features into a haughty, impassive mask before turning around.
She had wondered why he had kept his mouth clamped shut like a clam throughout the entire meal.
“James.”
Her only brother and the heir to the marquisate.
High-society ladies fawned over him, calling him a handsome gentleman blessed with striking green eyes.
Some even claimed that seeing Dolores and James standing side by side was a feast for the eyes.
Yet like many siblings, neither harbored any warmth for the other.
Particularly when James stood before her with his face twisted in bitter fury.
“Ha…! You know whose fault it is the family is in a crisis? Must be nice, acting so high and mighty all on your own.”
“In a crisis?”
Dolores let out a soft snort.
“You mean Father and you have worked yourselves into a frenzy. What, exactly, have we lost?”
Why must they constantly hound her?
Granted, the eldest daughter had failed to become Crown Princess.
Yet House Rochester remained a wealthy, prestigious marquisate.
‘Besides, Adrian’s the one acting strange. If they just betrothed him to Angelica, they’d reap plenty of benefits anyway!’
James shoved a finger into Dolores’s shoulder, his voice rising.
“Do you have any idea how many people invested in me because they believed you would become Crown Princess?!”
“Pah…”
“All my friends have deserted me! No one invites me anywhere anymore!”
“And who told you to go around peddling your sister’s name before she was even crowned?”
Dolores brushed his harsh hand away and snapped back.
No less than Madame Rouare, Angelica, or Adrian, her own family had rotted her inside out.
‘I’m frightened he might actually turn violent, but…’
In this moment, she could not hold back the tide of scalding fury.
“And ‘friends’? What kind of friends drag you to a gambling den and don’t even let you win a single round?”
“You…!”
“You’re nothing more than their purse, Brother. How can you not see that, and who dare you blame?”
“…!”
While James froze in humiliated shock, Dolores quickly swept her gaze across the hallway.
‘The proprietor followed my instructions too well.’
It seemed he had cleared not only the washroom for her, but the surrounding corridor as well.
‘Tsk. I’d better get out of here.’
Before she could gather her skirts and run, James caught her by the shoulder.
His grip was rough enough to bring sudden tears to her eyes.
“Ugh! What are you—talk to me with—”
“You’ve completely lost your mind, haven’t you, Dolores? Have you?”
“Ah!”
“Talking back to your brother!”
James slammed Dolores hard against the wall.
As if tossed aside, her back collided with the stone, knocking the breath straight from her lungs.
“Ghk…!”
“Where does a failure like you get off running her mouth?”
“Cough, gasp!”
“We left you alone just because of that pretty face, so you forgot to fear your own brother, did you?”
“Uh, ugh…”
“You’re not Crown Princess anymore. I can bash this face into the wall and be done with it!”
James’s hand clamped down hard over Dolores’s jaw.
The sheer malice in his grip drained every drop of color from her face.
‘Don’t tell me… he really means to…?!’
Did he intend to wrench her face and grind it into the wall?
Or drag her skin across the rough stone until she was permanently scarred?
Knowing it was no idle threat, she struggled frantically against him.
“Ngh, ugh!”
“Well, Dolores? Scared now?”
“Ugh…!”
“If you’ve learned your lesson, apologize to me prop—ack!”
Someone struck away the hand pinning Dolores’s face.
James, who had been shouting so triumphantly a moment before, went tumbling backward in an unsightly heap.
Dolores rubbed her stinging cheek, panting for breath.
‘What…? Who… when did they get here?’
Distracted though she had been, she shouldn’t have missed someone’s approach entirely.
Then the voice that spoke sent a chill straight down her spine.
“I was wondering what was keeping you.”
“G-Grand Duke…?”
“What were you doing cornered in a place like this, Lauren?”
The Grand Duke looked down at her with a gentle smile.
Yet Dolores felt every hair from the base of her spine to the nape of her neck stand on end.
‘Is he… is he furious?’
The sheer weight of his presence was on an entirely different level from their bickering over the ruined salon.
The corners of his lips were unquestionably curved upward in a smile.
Yet above those lips…
She could not summon the courage to look past the bridge of his nose.
She felt as though a single glance into his eyes would strike her dead on the spot.
Resurreccion looked down in silence at the trembling Dolores.
Then, in a nonchalant drawl, he addressed James, who was groaning on the floor.
“You really aren’t close with your brother, are you?”
“Pardon? Yes, that’s right.”
Dolores answered immediately.
…Truth be told, the air was so suffocating that she would have denied it even if they had been dear friends.
“Understood.”
“Wait, Grand Duke?! What are you—”
Before Dolores could even move to stop him,
he closed the distance toward James, who was scrambling to his feet and stumbling backward.
Just like a beast leisurely herding its prey into a corner.
“G-Grand Duke. You… you must be mistaken…! That was just a little tease—”
“Do you know what it is, brother-in-law? Insulting my wife constitutes lèse-majesté.”
“That…! It truly was just a joke! Never would I—”
“Let’s have a duel, brother-in-law.”
“What? Guh!”
In the blink of an eye, James’s neck snapped violently to the side.