Princess Anblyn Grace Britt.

This despicable.

Edgar swallowed a curse.

Tennis was a sport that valued dignity and honor. It was clear as day that with a scandal of this magnitude, the right to participate in tournaments would be revoked. Forever at that.

A precarious tension filled the air. Not even a breath could be heard. Everyone watched anxiously, wondering who would break this silence.

Who would open Pandora’s box?

Edgar and Ivellionne’s gazes met. The onlookers gulped.

Would the Marquis of Lancelot open it, or would the princess open the door?

Just when the air was so tightly swollen that even watching felt suffocating.

Suddenly, the door opened from inside. People’s necks instantly stretched out like turtles.

“You’re late after calling for someone, Princess.”

“…”

The one who walked out of Pandora’s box was none other than Duke Johan Leopold.

Johan was looking down at the soundly sleeping Olivia with a calm gaze.

‘We have secured Miss Blanchet.’

The news brought by the sparrow attached to Olivia was truly absurd.

Kidnapping, of all things.

After the Blanchet Count incident, he had authorized intervention regarding surveillance targets in emergency situations.

As a result, she was now lying on the bed in his private room, not in room 3016.

Not content with kidnapping the woman who had been his wife, the culprit tried to ruin the opening party of Hotel Leopold. Along with his reputation.

How dare they.

Johan completely loosened his tie, then reached out to pull up a chair.

In the faint bluish light of dawn just breaking, his sleeping wife’s face bathed in the dim light was…

Pretty.

Perhaps that was why he had been able to marry a woman he had never met before. Because she was beautiful.

Was Olivia the target?

His calm, settled gaze slowly swept over the woman’s face.

For what reason?

Before their marriage, he had never looked at his sleeping wife’s face like this. Not even once.

It felt strange.

Johan slowly stretched out his arm.

How much had she cried with that pretty face? How broken had she become?

Diane Brook.

Behind those incomprehensible actions was that damned woman.

The ripples caused by that fact sank Johan’s mood back into the mud. He clenched and unclenched his fist before lowering his hand.

Then his long fingers carefully brushed away the spilled brown hair, tucking it behind her ear.

Olivia wrinkled her nose bridge. Her long eyelashes trembled, then slowly began to move.

Olivia was dreaming.

It was a dream of when she was herself.

She was lying in a room without warmth, waiting for her mother who had gone out.

The sunlight pouring through the latticed door covered with rice paper was clear, then yellowed and reddened, and soon darkened, but her mother did not return.

Tears flowed along the corners of her eyes.

She was cold, hungry, and scared. The moment she thought she was scared, the black darkness took the form of a black glove and pounced on her.

Olivia woke up with a shrill scream. Shallow breaths poured out. Cold sweat flowed.

“It’s okay.”

A voice rang in her ear. The murmur that spilled out was heavy. Her violently beating heart began to calm.

“It’s okay now, Olivia.”

It wasn’t an auditory hallucination. The soothing voice comforting her sounded both familiar and unfamiliar.

Olivia raised her head towards the direction of the sound.

Her head spun. Due to not being fully conscious, her vision was murky.

She raised her hand to rub her eyes. Still, things were blurry. After blinking a couple of times, her focus slowly sharpened.

The dark-looking form gradually became clearer in outline.

“!”

Olivia froze in place.

She was sure she had been kidnapped, but…

Why was this man…

“Don’t tell me, it was you?”

“No.”

It didn’t seem real at all, but it couldn’t possibly be a dream. All her senses were too acutely aware of this man.

His scent, body heat, breath, even his low voice.

…This isn’t a dream.

Above all, when she met the gray eyes directed at her, even her desperate hope that it was a dream flew away.

Olivia Blanchet’s husband, of all people.

She wished she could faint again.

“Then, w-why are you here?”

“Good question.”

Olivia flinched as she retreated hesitantly and was stopped by the bed’s headboard.

Johan straightened his posture that had been bent to fix her hair.

“I should be the one asking. Just what have you been up to?”

The sapphire blue eyes that had been wandering as if exploring seemed to finally scan her attire.

Olivia’s face turned bright red with shame as she hurriedly pulled the blanket up to her chin.

It was quite an extreme reaction for someone who had lived together for 3 years.

“W-was it you?”

The sharp glaring eyes weren’t bad.

They were better to look at than the broken, shattered glass bead-like eyes. However, the gaze looking at him like a strange man wasn’t very welcome.

“No.”

It meant he hadn’t kidnapped her or undressed her.

Despite his explanation, the woman who had been his wife stared at him as if she couldn’t believe it.

“Then who.”

Olivia asked again while warily eyeing the man who had briefly denied it.

“It’s under investigation.”

The man with soft golden hair answered calmly.

It was the brightest gold Olivia had ever seen. That was the only reason her gaze had lingered for so long.

“Where is this?”

“My hotel.”

“…”

Johan was nonchalant.

On the other hand, Olivia’s vision went dark and her heart began to beat irregularly. It was the second most shocking event.

H-hotel?

She became afraid of seeing tomorrow morning’s newspaper. The only fortunate thing was that she hadn’t walked in proudly on her own two feet. That was all.

“I need to go back.”

Olivia stood up, throwing off the blanket she had been clinging to like a lifeline.

The hot summer night breeze blew in through the open window.

The white curtains swayed, and the semi-transparent fabric fluttered on the half-raised body on the bed. Johan’s gaze slowly followed that movement.

“Stay the night.”

Johan said as he gently pushed down on her round shoulders to make her sit.

Trembling eyes looked up at him. Seeing himself reflected entirely in them was satisfying.

“I said, stay the night.”

“No.”

The simple and clear denial had not a shred of hesitation. The clear sea-like eyes were like midwinter.

That gaze was so unyielding that it seemed unfamiliar, like someone he didn’t know.

“I have to go.”

‘Can’t I stay the night? Let’s stay the night, Johan.’

It was you, Olivia, who used to beg and hold onto me as I was leaving the bedroom after our relationship ended.

Now it was Johan Leopold who was clinging. Pathetically.

“…Reporters are swarming outside.”

Spouting such a cheap excuse felt idiotic.

“Stay the night.”

The smooth tenor was heavy. Yet his attitude was domineering and prickly.

At the word ‘reporters’, Olivia, who had been about to put her feet down on the floor, froze in place.

Olivia was sensitive to the mention of reporters. The momentum that seemed ready to dash out at any moment weakened because of that.

One wrong move and she would be embroiled in an irreversible scandal.

Not content with enjoying secret meetings with her ex-husband’s rival, now she was a shameless woman who spent the night with her ex-husband who had visited with his fiancée.

Olivia’s brow furrowed terribly. Just imagining it was too horrible and sensational.

“I’ll be fine if I leave through the back door.”

“There too.”

Olivia bit her lip.

Of course. What fool would come out through the front door?

As much as she wanted to run out right away, dawn was too secretive a time for that.

Just right for wild imaginations to spread their vicious branches.

An uncomfortable silence continued. Through the dim dawn light, the man was still staring at her.

Even though there was no force in his gaze, it felt suffocating.

“…Anne will be worried.”

Olivia broke the silence, averting her gaze.

Although she felt sorry for the owner of this body, it was fortunate that he had been an indifferent husband to his wife.

If that hadn’t been the case, you would have noticed all too easily. The fact that the woman before you was not Olivia Blanchet.

Yet she was afraid. Because the solid gray eyes looking down at her were suffocatingly persistent.

“I sent someone.”

“…”

Olivia looked up at him.

“How did you know?”

“Know what?”

“…Where I live.”

Olivia suddenly got goosebumps.

How did he know about the residence that Edgar had kept strictly secret to avoid the press?

“Don’t tell me…”

“The coachman told me.”

The man answered as he took off his outer coat, hanging it on the edge of the bed, and unbuttoned his collar.

His tone was as natural as flowing water, as if it were no big deal.

“Ah!”

Olivia’s eyes, which had been on high alert, softened.

After all the trouble of rescuing her, the woman who had been his wife had been treating him like a kidnapper and scoundrel since earlier.

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

Of course, it was true that he had people trailing and investigating her, but.

“Why would that person do such a thing?”

“It will come to light soon.”

Olivia frowned.

‘To be escorted respectfully’

The signature below those words was clearly in his handwriting.

Why would the MacDowell family’s coachman have that letter? It was then that she remembered the man’s existence, which she had completely forgotten about.

“Edgar.”

With that, his name popped out from her mind. At the same time, their gazes met. The man’s blank stare towards her was heavy.

“…”

The iron-gray eyes under thick eyebrows slowly narrowed.

As the man who looked displeased, or perhaps angry, raised his body, a long shadow fell over Olivia.

Olivia instinctively pulled the blanket to cover her body.

He approached.

Why…

Facing such an overwhelmingly large and intimidating presence, her heart began to beat rapidly.

Was it because the act she had been putting on, fumbling through Olivia Blanchet’s memories, had been clumsy?

When the man stopped right in front of her, her mind went blank.

The very next moment, the man reached out his arm and bent his upper body.

Olivia unconsciously held her breath.