A large plate covered with a silver dome was placed on the round table. Johan lifted the dome.

Whether by coincidence or not, it was sea bass fillet, Olivia’s favorite.

The smell of aromatic butter blended with basil pesto made her feel hungry.

Come to think of it, she realized she hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday evening.

“Come and sit down.”

“…I’d rather go.”

Though hungry, the thought of Princess Kranz made her appetite disappear. She didn’t think she could swallow any food.

She didn’t have the confidence to calmly cut sea bass in her ex-husband’s room. She would surely choke.

“You can’t go. I told you.”

“If I dress as a man and leave through the back door, it’ll be fine. If you just get me some clothes.”

Olivia’s gaze was quite determined.

“Eat first.”

“This isn’t right.”

Was she always this stubborn? Johan quietly observed Olivia standing firmly.

The summer sunlight streaming through the large windows illuminated her face brightly.

He felt the urge to grab her shoulders and make her sit down.

“If you’re curious about who’s behind the incident.”

At that, Olivia’s eyes widened in response.

“Sit down.”

Johan sat down first, but Olivia still hesitated.

“If you’re worried about my fiancée, don’t be. She returned to Brite Palace yesterday. Now, sit down.”

Hesitating, Olivia pulled the hem of her large mac coat and sat across from him.

“Did you find out who’s behind it?”

Instead of Olivia, who didn’t touch her utensils, Johan picked up the cutlery and began cutting the sea bass into small pieces as he spoke.

“Anblyn Grace Brite.”

“…”

A gentle breeze blew in, slowly inflating the lavender silk curtains.

Olivia was shocked by the name carried on the wind.

Surely a princess of a country wouldn’t have done such an outrageous thing.

“That’s impossible.”

Why.

Why would she go that far?

Olivia frowned and let out a hollow laugh.

Edgar. Because of that man?

She clenched her fist on the table. Johan quietly watched her reaction.

The MacDowell family’s coachman was bribed by the princess.

Though he vehemently denied it, it was only a matter of time before he confessed.

Angela Birkin had already spilled everything.

The coachman handed Olivia, who was unconscious from anesthesia, to the grocery store clerk. It was a place that had a supply contract with the Leopold Hotel.

The clerk, claiming he had forgotten, belatedly brought a sack of potatoes and handed it to the hotel staff.

The staff member bribed by the princess went to Room 3016 with a spare key he had taken out in advance.

With the sack placed under the trolley, covered with a white cloth.

And the journalists and instigators bribed by the princess herded people to Room 3016.

It was truly an almost perfect kidnapping plot.

“…That’s too much.”

Just imagining the situation Johan described made Olivia’s head spin.

If she had been discovered in that room with him…

A chill ran down her spine.

“It’ll be handled legally, so don’t worry about it.”

Johan said as he placed the plate of sea bass fillet, cut into bite-sized pieces, in front of Olivia.

“No.”

Johan’s gaze, which had been on the plate, slowly moved up and stopped on her face.

“Don’t do that.”

It was a firm voice.

It had been just one day since Olivia disappeared.

She hadn’t shown up at Riverside or the Dumblin Club. She must be at the Leopold Hotel.

Edgar stared at Johan’s hotel visible through the window, arms crossed.

His eyes were red from a sleepless night.

“What about Olivia?”

Edgar asked Gerald.

“The upper floors are a restricted area, so we haven’t been able to confirm yet.”

She must be there.

With Johan.

Golden sunlight was brilliantly scattering over the top floor of the Leopold Hotel where she likely was.

What would it be like to reunite with a divorced ex-husband?

It was an area he couldn’t fathom.

Edgar pressed his stiff eyes with his hand and said,

“Go out.”

Gerald, who had been worriedly looking at Edgar’s back, finally remembered his errand.

“Duke MacDowell has arrived.”

Edgar slowly turned around.

“Show him in.”

Moments later, Henry MacDowell appeared.

Henry’s expression was not good, having gotten into an awkward situation out of goodwill.

He never imagined the coachman he provided for Olivia’s convenience would do such a thing. Seeing Edgar, Henry sighed first.

“You’ve come.”

Edgar bowed his head politely.

“Sit down. No need for tea.”

After Gerald withdrew, an uncomfortable silence fell between them. After a moment, Henry finally opened his tightly closed mouth.

“I’m on my way back from seeing the Crown Prince.”

“Yes.”

It was as expected. And so was the topic Henry was about to bring up.

“He wants this incident covered up.”

Henry’s expression was stern.

As expected. Edgar swallowed the laugh that was about to escape.

What else would that sister-doting Crown Prince do? But what could be done about it?

“That… won’t be possible.”

Edgar declared with a hint of sarcasm.

He was not in the mood to compromise with anyone right now. It wouldn’t be different even if it was the Crown Prince of Brite.

Returning what he received. That was all.

“Do you understand what that woman has done to you?”

Johan looked at Olivia with disapproving eyes.

“I know. Because I know, I’m asking to postpone it for a while.”

Sitting with her back straight, her half-lowered gaze was calm.

There was no trace of the excitement or anger she used to show.

Now that he knew those irritating, maddening behaviors were due to the drugs Diane Brook had given her, he had to exercise extreme patience to maintain his composure.

“Why.”

Johan’s voice was heavy as he suppressed his anger.

“I want to compete with her.”

Johan’s brow furrowed at the calm declaration.

This unfamiliar expression of the woman, her clear eyes, unsettled Johan’s mind.

Olivia opened her lips again.

“The princess.”

In this place where social hierarchy was firmly established, the only place she could face a princess of the country on equal terms was on the tennis court.

Olivia decided to confront the princess in her own way.

“I want to defeat her on the court.”

Participating in the Dumblin Championship was merely a condition for getting her identity vouched for.

Although Edgar wanted her to become the owner of the trophy, she no longer desired such attention.

At least until just now.

“The law can come after that.”

Her ice-blue eyes burned hot. Olivia finally began to yearn for victory.

Johan silently looked at the woman. Slowly, as if examining her.

“Tennis.”

His quiet voice was chilling.

“You played?”

“…”

At that moment, Olivia’s body stiffened. Her heartbeat became abnormally fast.

“Since when?”

The sharp gaze constricted her heart.

“I’m asking you.”

Each word flew and struck like an arrow. Her lips wouldn’t part.

Olivia remained frozen, only her eyes fleeing from his gaze.

Did he notice?

Her opponent was Olivia Blanchet’s husband. Though only for three years, he was a man who knew as much as he needed to about her.

“Olivia.”

Her heart began to race with anxiety. She had to give some answer. Before his suspicion deepened.

“…Before. Occasionally.”

“Before. When?”

Silence fell again. The man’s gaze, demanding an answer, was too persistent.

“…Before I married you.”

Even to her, the words she uttered seemed too pathetic.

A lie that would be easily exposed if checked with the Blanchet family.

But once he returned to Londos, they would never meet again, and this incident would soon be forgotten.

Olivia, who had been anxious, tried to feign calmness as she slowly raised her head. Their eyes met.

His suspicious gaze seemed to scrutinize her, making it hard to breathe.

The gaze that held her, preventing her from escaping, was overwhelming.

She wanted to run away.

“I should go now.”

“Dressed like that?”

Olivia, who was getting up hesitantly, bit her dry lips.

“Listen first.”

Johan said as he filled a clear water glass.

“I’ll bring you clothes after we finish eating.”

She felt like she would choke.

Johan raised his gaze. Olivia, seemingly resigned, began to move her utensils.

Her pink lips chewed slowly. Every time her thin hair, swaying in the breeze, touched and left her pale cheeks, the scent of roses wafted.

Her unenthusiastic eating looked no different from before.

Before marriage, she said.

There was no way a man like Count Blanchet would have taught tennis to a granddaughter he had kept locked up until she was sixteen.

Perhaps how to pretend to be a clumsy lady, or techniques to seduce men, but not tennis. So Olivia’s words were nonsense.

Why. Was she lying?

Olivia Blanchet playing tennis. No matter how he thought about it, this didn’t make sense.

Johan stared at the woman who was once his wife. People say that when someone dies and comes back to life, they can change, but Olivia was beyond that.

What happened that day? Have you. Become a different person?

Diane Brook, that damned woman, what did she do to you?

Even Diane Brook’s death did little to alleviate this intense anger.

With curiosity about the truth of that day added, his tightly closed lips began to move.

“About that day.”

Johan’s eyes wavered slightly.

Olivia, who had been pushing her fork into a piece of fish, looked up.

“By the lake-”

‘If anyone should go to hell for this, it’s not me, but you yourself, Your Grace.’

Diane Brook’s voice clung to his mind like an unpleasant intoxication.

At that moment, Johan was enveloped by a strange sensation.

The innocent-looking blue eyes blinked slowly, as if waiting for his words.

‘The young lady took more medicine than usual that day. After arguing with that woman… she even drank alcohol saying the medicine wasn’t working. Perhaps she went to the lake feeling distressed and slipped…’

The maid’s confession came to mind.