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Then, his face comes into sharp focus.
Deep, dark rage.
He’s angry.
My brows draw together and I try to reach for him, but another hand slips into mine.
“Dearest Ada,” the Count croaks, blocking my view of the Duke. “I hope you’ll forgive me for my rudeness. I just couldn’t go on thinking of anyone else.” His beady black eyes rake over me, and it hurts. Physically. Mentally.
I can’t think. Can’t breathe. I pull my hand away. “Excuse me.”
I stumble away, searching frantically for the Duke, even though I already know he’s gone.
18
Heath
Count Gregory wants to marry Ada.
This is an attack. It’s directed at me. I know it is. He saw me and Ada together at his Christmas party, and he decided to step in and take her from me, too. Just like he took everything else.
Whoever saw me exiting the bathroom must have whispered into his ear, and now his poisonous tentacles are reaching back into my life.
I feel sick.
I need to talk to her.
But what will I say?
I left the concert hall without saying a word to her, even though I could see the agony on her face. She doesn’t want to marry him—but I know what it means to her family.
The Count knows every dean at every major university on the continent. He can offer stability for their family and a good education for Ada’s little sister.
What can I offer? What do I have?
A knock sounds on my office door, and I call out for the visitor to enter.
My personal butler, Seville, steps in. “Lady Belcourt is here, Your Grace. She’s waiting in the formal living room.”
I hide my shock behind a stone façade. “Thank you. I’ll be right there.”
Seville bows and exits the office, closing the door softly as he goes.
I stare at the closed door, my heart banging against my chest.
She’s here. She came straight here. That’s good, right? That means she feels something for me? It means she wants to refuse the Count?
On trembling legs, I stand up. I take a deep breath and stare at the door, willing myself to take a step forward.
What if she’s here to break it to me gently? She wants me to hear of the betrothal from her own lips, and tell me she doesn’t want to see me anymore? What if this is the end?
It can’t be the end. It can’t. I can’t allow her to marry the Count when I’m so close to bringing charges against him. We almost have enough evidence to bring a case against him. I just need one more university to release their documents to the royal investigators, and we’ll have enough to put the Count away for good. He’ll rot in jail, exactly where he deserves to be.
But if she marries him…that will ruin her, too. It’ll bring shame on her whole family.
Can I do that to her?
Steeling myself against whatever Ada has to say, I take the first step. Then another. Soon I’m standing outside the formal living room, peering in.
