“Uh, no, this is…”
Chase, flustered, tried to hide the contract behind him, but the Marquess’s hand was faster.
Shaking the contract in front of Alicia and Chase as if scolding them, Marquess Lancaster questioned, “Were you fighting because of this? Two who never argued in their lifetime.”
“Father, wait a moment. That.”
Alicia urgently rushed to take the contract from Marquess Lancaster, but it was too late.
As the Marquess’s face, initially smiling, turned more serious while reading the contract, Chase became perplexed, and Alicia grew anxious.
“Father, please, it’s nothing.”
“Nothing? What is this?”
“I’ll explain. It really is nothing.”
Marquess Lancaster hastily stopped Alicia from taking the contract.
His gaze shifted to Chase, who seemed unsure of what to do.
“Chase, did you know about this too?”
“Uh, that.”
“Father, Chase doesn’t matter. That.”
“Chase, I’m sorry, but you better leave now.”
“What? But.”
Watching Chase hesitate while glancing at Lancaster Marquess and Alicia with a puzzled expression, he awkwardly hesitated, unable to take a step back.
“I said leave.”
“Oh, yes. Excuse me, then.”
Feeling apologetic as if it were his fault, Chase looked at Alicia, then reluctantly left the room with heavy footsteps.
After Chase left, the Marquess walked briskly and sat on the sofa.
“Sit.”
“Yes.”
Alicia cautiously sat on the sofa, glancing at the Marquess, who had a serious expression and clenched fists.
“Explain.”
Nervous, Alicia’s hands sweated, and she tightly grasped the edge of her skirt.
“When we first met, we wrote this. At that time, neither of us had any intention of getting married, and our parents were pushing, so we thought of buying time.”
“So?”
“Father wasn’t around, we needed to earn money, so I suggested it first to him.”
“You suggested it first?”
Stunned, the Marquess was left speechless.
After gazing elsewhere for a moment, Marquess Lancaster turned his gaze back to Alicia.
“So, you pretended to be engaged in exchange for money? And he agreed to that?”
“It’s not like that. I worked legitimately at the Duke’s business and received a salary.”
“Do you still receive it now?”
“Yes.”
“So, even though this contract is now useless, it means the conditions are still being fulfilled. Yet you say it’s nothing?”
Suppressing his anger, Marquess Lancaster stared at Alicia.
“Moreover, now that I’ve returned, the contract should be terminated, right? There’s a clause stating we won’t meet again, here. And yet, you say it’s nothing?”
Alicia couldn’t bring herself to speak, feeling like a deer caught in headlights.
It would have been better if Marquess Lancaster scolded her loudly and expressed his anger.
Lancaster Marquess, with a sunken expression and voice, continued to glare at Alicia.
“Despite doing such a terrible thing and making it sincere now, it doesn’t matter what you did? Fooling the families who only wished for your well-being?”
“…”
“Even after doing such a despicable thing, now that you’ve made it sincere, nothing matters? Is that right?”
Alicia couldn’t utter a word.
It would have been better if Marquess Lancaster expressed his anger loudly.
Unable to find appropriate words to logically answer Marquess Lancaster, the silence between the two continued.
Breaking the silence was Marquess Lancaster’s composed voice.
“Fulfill the contract to the end. Since you both willingly entered into it, fulfill it properly.”
“Yes?”
Though Marquess Lancaster wrinkled his brow, he still tried to control his anger as he spoke firmly.
“If you want to stop the business with that household, do it immediately and don’t meet or contact that person. As per this contract. Also, just to be sure, you’re prohibited from going out.”
“That’s absurd, Father. I.”
“Unbelievable, Father. I.”
Flustered, Alicia abruptly stood up.
Originally, Alicia wasn’t the type to get flustered or excited in this way.
However, once her words were blocked, everything got stuck in her mind, leading to emotional desperation.
“And the compensation for the contract, right. I’ll return everything to that household, including the interest you mentioned as your salary. It seems you’ve incurred a lot of debt to that person, so let the money agreed upon in the contract handle it. They won’t have any objections either.”
“But, but where do we have that kind of money?”
“I’ll take care of that, so don’t worry. Besides, even if you have no money, do you want to make me the kind of father who forces his daughter into an engagement to earn money?”
Alicia stared blankly at her father.
That wasn’t the intention.
Marquess Lancaster didn’t anticipate that he would become this angry.
Tears welled up quickly in Alicia’s eyes.
“Even if you look at it that way, it’s useless. I can’t believe your words now.”
“Father.”
“Let me ask you one thing. Did you tell him sincerely?”
Alicia nodded vigorously with a determined expression.
Thanks to that, the tears that had welled up began to trickle down, and Alicia quickly wiped them away.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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