In reality, the silence probably didn’t last very long. But to Jane, it felt like an eternity.

“As you know, Jane, His Majesty’s anger is indescribably great.”

Duke Hastings said. It wasn’t a good start. But Jane clasped her hands and waited. Inwardly, she desperately prayed for her request to be granted.

“I can’t give you a definite answer, but I’ll try.”

“Really?”

Jane’s shoulders jerked in surprise. Even as she made the request, she hadn’t expected Duke Hastings to readily agree.

Everyone who knew about it was aware of how much Helena Royal Strain, who became queen at a late age, detested the rebels. She had almost failed to ascend to the throne because of them.

So, helping the Count and Countess Whitney, who had been caught supporting the rebels, was not something that could be done with an ordinary mindset.

Jane repeatedly bowed, shedding tears of gratitude.

“Thank you… so much. How can I… ever repay this kindness… Thank you, thank you. Duke, Duchess.”

The Duchess of Hastings’ expression soured as she watched Jane, who was a mess of tears.

“Stop crying.”

Duke Hastings nudged his wife’s side. He turned his head with a displeased expression.

Heaving an inaudible sigh, the Duchess of Hastings came to Jane’s side and gently stroked her back.

Jane’s crying gradually subsided. The Duchess of Hastings took Jane’s hand.

“Jane, since we’ve granted your request, will you grant ours?”

“Anything, my lady. I’ll do whatever I can.”

Jane said, wiping away her tears.

“Jane, I know this will be hard for you, but…”

The Duchess of Hastings gently smoothed Jane’s disheveled hair. Jane’s eyes instinctively closed at the warmth that one might only feel from a mother.

Jane didn’t know that this warmth would soon become a blade to stab her.

“Jane, please break up with Cain.”

“…!”

Jane’s eyes widened. She thought she had misheard.

“Break up with Cain, Jane.”

The Duchess of Hastings repeated, enunciating clearly as if engraving the words into Jane’s mind.

Jane hadn’t misheard. Her eyes shook violently. She clutched the hem of her dress tightly. She felt like she would lose her mind if she didn’t grasp onto something.

Cain Hastings was Jane’s fiancé.

He was her fiancé decided when she was 6 years old, and her first love.

He was kind and affectionate, and superior in every way. No amount of flowery words would be enough to describe him.

At the age of 6, too early to know love, Jane fell in love with him at first sight.

It was the same for Cain. She couldn’t remember exactly when his gaze, which had only treated her as a little sister, began to show a yearning for a woman, but he loved Jane too.

Jane and Cain were a couple rarely seen among the nobility.

After all, it was uncommon to love the fiancé chosen by one’s parents.

In fact, it was thanks to Cain that Jane could endure this situation.

Because if she could just hold on for two more years, she could marry him, and if she broke down, he would suffer…

When going through a dark tunnel, imagining the brilliant sunlight outside gives strength. Cain was that brilliant sunlight itself to Jane.

The person who made her stand up and gave her courage.

Asking her to give him up was like asking Jane to give up on life.

Jane wriggled to free her hand from the Duchess of Hastings’ grip. But the Duchess didn’t let go.

To think that hands that had been so gentle could be this firm. Jane realized yet another fact.

“Did I… did I do something wrong?”

Jane barely managed to ask in a trembling voice.

“Jane, you’re not at fault. The fault lies with your parents.”

“Then why…”

Jane’s voice was miserable.

“The reason we’re making this request… it’s not because we dislike you.”

“I’ll try harder. I’ll do better.”

“Jane!”

As Jane clung to her, crying, the Duchess of Hastings shouted sharply. Then, as if realizing her mistake, she quickly forced a smile.

“Jane, you’re a smart girl. And you love our Cain, don’t you?”

Even in her confusion, Jane nodded confidently. Her love for Cain was the truth without an ounce of falsehood, and a pure love untainted by even a speck of impurity.

Tears blurred her vision, making the Duchess of Hastings’ face appear hazy.

“Just as your parents are most important to you, Cain is simply the most important to us. If you let Cain go, if you make Cain give up on you, we’ll make sure your parents are saved.”

“I…”

As Jane was struggling to find words, Duke Hastings interjected, running his hand through his hair.

“It’s to be execution by hanging. And your parents’ heads will be displayed on the outskirts of the city.”

His voice was excessively dry as he spoke of the punishment that the Count and Countess Whitney would receive.

Jane’s complexion turned deathly pale.

Jane let go of the many words she had thought of to try and change the minds of the Duke and Duchess of Hastings.

Jane had received an indescribably great love from her parents.

Zillen had breastfed, which was taboo among noble ladies, and James had stopped going to gentlemen’s clubs after Jane was born, personally teaching and playing with her.

Jane had received not only material abundance from her parents but also emotional fulfillment.

Because of this, didn’t she herself claim to be a child favored by God?

For Jane, there was no option to abandon her parents.

With a feeling of tearing out her heart, Jane nodded.

“…I’ll break up with him.”

Jane barely managed to answer.

“We won’t see you out.”

Duke Hastings’ dismissal fell as if he had been waiting for it.

* * *

Upon returning home, Jane immediately wrote a letter to Cain. She included the content that the Duke and Duchess of Hastings had requested.

She didn’t know that writing the four words ‘Let’s break up’ would be this difficult.

Jane cried as she looked at the dozens of crumpled paper balls scattered on the floor.

They were letters ruined because the tears made the writing blur, because the ink smeared from not letting go of the pen after putting the full stop, because her hand was shaking.

‘I hope he doesn’t come.’

But she didn’t have high hopes. Since yesterday, situations had always gone contrary to Jane’s thoughts.

Sure enough, despite her desperate prayers, Cain came rushing over.

Jane locked herself in her room to avoid seeing him.

“Jane, what’s wrong? Open the door.”

Cain pounded on Jane’s door.

“Go away, Cain!”

Jane stood with her back against the door, absolutely refusing to open it.

“You have something to tell me, Jane. Are you serious about breaking up?”

“Yes, I’m serious.”

Jane bit her lower lip hard before lying. Her lip, which she had been biting incessantly for the past few days, finally burst.

“There must be a reason, Jane! Please, Jane, open the door.”

“I’ve grown to dislike you!”

Jane sat down, still firmly grasping the doorknob. She gritted her teeth to keep from crying.

“Miss…”

El, Jane’s maid, looked down at her mistress who was crying without tears, with a pitying expression.

“Jane, let’s talk face to face first.”

Cain was persistent.

“I’ll wait until you come out.”

There was a rustling sound from outside the door. It was the sound of Cain sitting down in the corridor, anticipating a long wait.

After that, the corridor fell silent. Cain was truly intent on waiting until Jane came out.

El, who had been fidgeting restlessly, spoke up.

“Miss, I think you should go out.”

“And if I go out? What should I say?”

El found it difficult to choose readily. If Jane chose Cain, the Count and Countess Whitney would die, and if she chose the Count and Countess Whitney, Jane’s heart would die.

“I’m sorry, El. I’ve made you worry too.”

Seeing El whimpering without being able to answer, Jane steeled her resolve.

After much deliberation, Jane stood up. Before going out, she looked in the mirror.

Her reflection in the mirror was truly miserable. Her dry skin and tear-stained face looked unsightly.

Under normal circumstances, she would never show such an appearance to Cain.

‘Maybe it’s better this way. It would be good if he loses interest after seeing me like this.’

Jane grasped the doorknob. She took a deep breath. As she slowly turned the doorknob, Jane’s hand stopped.

Her love for Cain held her back.

‘I don’t want to break up. But if we don’t break up?’

Jane asked herself and chuckled bitterly. It was a laugh tinged with a deep sense of helplessness.

The only thing she could do right now for her family and parents was to break up with Cain.

The image of her parents wailing desperately flashed in her mind.

Jane’s lips tightened with resolve. There was no more time to hesitate. Jane opened the door.

Cain was there in front of the door.

He seemed to have rushed over as soon as he received the message, still not in his formal attire. Sweat that he hadn’t had time to wipe off trickled down his forehead.

Yet he was still handsome.

His neat and refined features and brilliantly shining golden hair were almost too dazzling to look at directly.

His eyes sparkled like sunlight on the sea. Whenever Jane met those eyes, she would helplessly fall into them.

Why did he have to be so handsome even on a day like this?

Jane resented how even his casual shirt, unbuttoned a couple more than usual, looked stylish. No, she wanted to resent him.

Jane, who was about to reach for a handkerchief out of habit, clenched her fist instead.

“Jane!”

Cain, who had sprung to his feet, habitually reached out to Jane. Since he had come of age two years ago, their greetings had changed from light kisses to deep embraces.

Jane twisted her body to avoid Cain’s hand. Cain awkwardly lowered his hand and forced a smile.

She needed to say something, but her mind was blank as if she had been hit hard on the head with a blunt object.

Cain rubbed his face repeatedly with his dry hand before finally coming to his senses. He managed to open his mouth.

“I knew you’d come out, Jane. It’s been hard, hasn’t it? Everything will be alright now. So don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“No. I meant it when I said let’s break up.”

Jane kept her head bowed low.

“You meant it… Why?”

Jane bit her lower lip.

The time waiting for her answer felt like an eternity. Cain rubbed his sweaty hands on his pants.

“If I tell you the reason, will you break up with me?”

Cain hesitated. He sighed as if frustrated and gave a slightly delayed answer.

“Alright, Jane. Yes, I will.”

Cain spoke as if soothing Jane. He firmly believed that once this situation passed, she would return to him.

Foolishly, sadly.

Jane took a deep breath. She didn’t think Cain would accept the breakup easily.

If the situation were reversed, she wouldn’t have given up on Cain until the very end.

So Jane had prepared a reason to push Cain away harshly.

The reason she didn’t state it from the beginning was because it would be painful both for her to say and for Cain to hear.

It’s more than just pain.

Those words would carve out both Cain and Jane’s hearts.

But for her parents’ sake, Jane opened her mouth with a feeling of hanging herself.

“What can you do for me?”

Cain was momentarily taken aback.

“Anything. I can do anything.”

Jane rolled her lower lip into her mouth.

“No. You can’t do anything. Because you don’t have anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Can you get my parents out of prison, Cain?”

“That’s…”

“See? You can’t, right? Then, can you at least gather signatures to petition for my parents’ lives? You can’t. You’re incapable.”

Jane didn’t sincerely want Cain to start a signature campaign. If he did, she would rather stop him. She didn’t want to put him in danger.

“Cain, it wasn’t you that I loved. It was your family’s power.”

Words she didn’t mean flowed out smoothly. But while her mouth loosened, Jane’s heart hardened.

‘Cain, curse me now. Tell me you hate me, that I’m bad.’

Jane pleaded, clutching her chest tightly. But Cain disappointed her expectations.

“You dislike me because I’m incompetent?”

“Yes, I dislike you.”

“Is the Hastings family not enough?”

“The family isn’t yours, is it?”

Cain was at a loss for words. He had lived thinking that the Hastings family was synonymous with himself. But hearing Jane’s words, he realized it was true.

He couldn’t give Jane what she wanted. A hole opened up in his heart. A sense of powerlessness took over his body.

But he couldn’t let Jane go like this. Although he didn’t have the power to save the Count and Countess Whitney, he could at least take responsibility for her alone.

If only Jane wanted it.

“Look me in the eye and tell me, Jane. Do you really want to break up with me?”

Jane squeezed her eyes shut before raising her head. Cain looked at her quietly. Jane looked like she might break if touched lightly. He wanted to hold her in his arms and comfort her right away.

“I’m asking if you want to break up with me, Jane.”

“Yes, I want to break up. I don’t want to see your face.”

Jane answered immediately, as if she had practiced.

Cain’s jaw tightened. He repeatedly ran his hand over his face, looking deep in thought. He turned around, clenched and unclenched his fist, and tugged at his shirt collar as if his chest felt tight.

“She means it.”

Cain muttered to himself. Then, having finished his thoughts, he turned back to Jane.

“Can’t I wait?”

“…”

Cain’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down prominently.

“I must have hurt you. I’m sorry, Jane.”

Cain apologized instead of blaming her. His eyes were clouded with deep resignation.

Cain turned his back on Jane in the corridor.

It’s completely over.

Jane’s mouth fell open. Although no sound escaped her throat, she screamed internally.

He was a good man until the end.

But Jane changed everything. The good Cain disappeared from the world. Because Jane completely abandoned him.

And the next day, Jane killed the part of herself that loved Cain.

The execution date for the Whitneys was set.