"Grand Duke."

"It has been a while." His deep and calm voice brings somewhat some pain to my chest for no reason. What is that?

"It has indeed been a while since the last time I saw His Grace."

"Yeah, how are you? Are you having a hard time? You can always come to me if something is bothering you."

I frowned. I know that he must have good intentions for me because of what happened in the Vatican, but it's inappropriate for a bachelor like him to say things like that to a married woman like myself. If anyone hears that, they might think that something is going on between us.

"Thank you for the kind offer Your Grace, but I'm afraid that I have those people beside me to be the ones who can offer comfort to me."

He smiled at me. A smile that has a sad hidden meaning.

"Well, I guess I'm already not one of those people who can offer you comfort..."

He muttered something that was hard for me to understand. I don't want to ask what it was so I didn't say anything.

"You still haven't given me a response."

Suddenly, I remembered what he said. "If it's about wealth and power, I should be on the same par with Regan. Then why did you choose to break off our engagement, My Lady?"

That is right, Grand Duke Alessio Kail Astaseul is Cressida's first fiance before being the wife of Regan. It was never mentioned in the novel their real relationship, like if Cressida loves the Grand Duke or what, but it's clear that the engagement was broken off because of the Marquis, my father.

"It is best that we don't talk about that Your Grace. There is no point in talking about that now."

He chuckled, the kind of chuckle that you'd do if you're going through something unbearable that you just choose to laugh it off.

"You're so heartless... Dahlia."

His voice sounds so broken and holds a lot of emotion. Pain, sadness, hatred...

"You're so heartless after promising me that you'll never fall for that man. Even so, I still want to believe you. Because you told me that you're mine..."

My head suddenly ached and a scene played under my close eyelids.

"Kai, my father is thinking of breaking our engagement for you..." A woman that looks 16 said as she looks at the man above her. Her head was on the man's lap.

"I won't let that happen, Dahlia, I'll go and speak with the Marquis myself. I don't want you to be a part of our plan."

"I also don't want that to happen Kai, but my father already passed the letter to your father... And it seems like..."

"Don't worry too much, I'll fix this."

The man gently pushed back her bangs and placed a light kiss on her forehead.

"If it can't be helped, I promise that I will never fall for that man, Kai. But in return, you must hurry up and take him down."

"I hope you forgive me if I can't stop the decision of my father."

The woman only smiled.

"It's okay because I'm yours, Kai."

"Dahlia!!"

I opened my eyes, the Grand Duke had already closed the distance between us, his hands were both on my shoulder.

"What happened to you?" He asked, his voice laced with worry.

I felt warmth on my cheek, his hand gently wiped away the tears that I didn't even know of.

"Wife..."

Suddenly, my heart sank. There stood Regan with a dark expression, exuding a dark aura around him.

In a blink of an eye, he was already in front of me while the Grand Duke was sitting on the ground coughing blood, his cheek was bruised and there was a cut on his lips.

"Regan!"

He turn to me and then his eyes widened before frowning, and now his eyes darkened once again.

"How dare you make my wife cry, you must be very excited to lose your life, Alessio..."

Regan called the Grand Duke with his name and not his title, he's livid right now and I am not sure what to do.

"It's a misunderstanding Regan, calm down..."

I tried to pull him to the exit of the garden but he just won't budge.

"Come back to me Dahlia..."

My eyes landed on the Grand Duke. His eyes were glistening with tears. A part of my heart was in pain, but not to the point that it was unbearable.

Suddenly, a black glove was thrown in front of the Grand Duke.

"It's a duel..." Regan said as his eyes glares at the Grand Duke.

Regan... Is scary... He's terrifying...

Probably because of what was happening, I felt dizzy, and then I passed out. The last thing I saw was their two shocked faces

"Mother?" I opened my eyes and saw Calix, worry was plastered on his face.

I feel so weak but I still managed to smile at him and reached for his face and then I caressed his chubby cheeks.

"How are you mother? Is there anything that I can do? Are you in pain?"

I shook my head. Then scenes flashed through my eyes and now I remembered what happened in the Empress' garden.

"Where is your father?" I hurriedly asked him. The child was confused at first but he respond after a couple of seconds.

"I saw father calling all of the knights mother, he might be going in a subjugation."

Subjugation?! For sure he's calling them to subjugate the Grand Duke! I must stop him, what exactly went in his head to do this!

"Can you call for him?" I said, my feet are weak right now for me to move and I am still a little bit dizzy so I can't move around that much. More importantly, I might lose Derrick if I continue to do anything that might exhaust me.

Minutes have passed when Calix went out to look for Regan, I'm still in my bedroom waiting for him to arrive. A few minutes later and I heard footsteps getting nearer, it was heavy and loud, just with that I know that it was Regan.

"Wife."

He still has a dark aura surrounding him but his face holds a worried expression. He kneeled beside my bed and clasped my right hand before kissing it affectionately.

"Stop it, Regan, it's all a misunderstanding." I felt him stiffen through his hands that hold mine.

"Do you still love that man that it made you cry the moment you reunited with him?"

His warm hands let go of mine the moment he stood up. With a frowning face, I asked him. "What are you saying, Regan? "

He has this emotionless face on right now, the one that he has the first time I saw him on my first day when I reincarnated here.

"You never loved me right? I know at least that much until now. Still, it was okay for me to hold your hand, to kiss your forehead to expect that someday you'll learn to love me too. I dare not to force myself to tell you to love me too, to say that you should love me too and give the same affection that I give to you because I love you too much to do that. But it was too much for me as well to give you to that bastard that you love. I don't want you to go back to that bastard Cressida, I can't, call me selfish but I just can't, I love you, I'm willing to do anything for you except let you go and be with someone else. I'd rather you kill me before that happens."

July 9, 2022

LizzannaWrites