Chapter 152: The News

Chapter 152: Chapter 152: The News

The news reached Adrian three days later.

Not because nobody told him.

Because nobody thought they needed to.

By then, the capital had already decided the matter was common knowledge.

Which, Adrian reflected, was a remarkable way to learn that the woman he had been engaged to for eighteen years was apparently going to marry his cousin.

"Have you heard?"

The words drifted across the drawing room.

Adrian did not look up from the document in his hands.

Years of training made that easy.

The conversation continued anyway.

"Duke Ashford finally proposed."

Finally.

An interesting choice of word.

Adrian continued reading.

Or appeared to.

The distinction was becoming important.

"Lady Marian accepted immediately, of course."

A laugh followed.

Light.

Careless.

Entirely harmless.

"Of course she did."

The conversation moved on.

The nobles found a different topic.

The Empire continued functioning.

The ceiling remained overhead.

The walls remained standing.

Nothing changed.

And yet.

Something settled heavily in Adrian’s chest.

Cold.

Unwelcome.

Persistent.

Three days.

Three days ago.

The realization arrived immediately.

The day after the ball.

The day after the dance.

The day after Marian and Cassian had stood together in the middle of the ballroom while half the capital watched.

Already?

The thought appeared before he could stop it.

Adrian immediately disliked himself for thinking it.

Five months had passed since the dissolution.

Five months.

Not five days.

Not five weeks.

Five months.

Any objective observer would call the timing perfectly reasonable.

The problem was that Adrian found himself remarkably uninterested in objective observers.

The document remained open before him.

He had not read a single line in several minutes.

An unfortunate development.

Eventually he closed it.

The motion drew a glance from his aide.

"Your Highness?"

"Leave us."

The order emerged calmly.

The aide bowed immediately.

A moment later, Adrian found himself alone.

Silence settled across the room.

For several seconds, he simply stared at the window.

Then at nothing.

Then back at the window.

Duke Ashford finally proposed.

The sentence repeated itself.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Until eventually Adrian understood what was bothering him.

It wasn’t the proposal.

Not exactly.

The proposal had always been a possibility.

An obvious one.

Anyone with functioning eyesight could have predicted it.

No.

What bothered him was something else.

The certainty of it.

The finality.

A proposal meant intention.

A proposal meant planning.

A proposal meant that while Adrian had spent months trying to understand what exactly he wanted, Cassian had apparently spent those same months building a future.

The realization irritated him immediately.

Then offended him.

Then refused to leave.

His thoughts returned, unwillingly, to the ball.

To the dance.

To Marian.

To Cassian.

To the way they had looked at each other.

Gods.

At the time, the entire thing had felt unbearable.

Now it looked worse.

Because Adrian suddenly realized something.

The dance had not been the beginning.

It had not even been close.

Cassian had returned intending to marry her.

The proposal proved that.

The ball had merely been the first Chapter Adrian was unfortunate enough to witness.

The story itself had already been underway.

The realization settled poorly.

Very poorly.

His jaw tightened.

How long?

The question appeared unexpectedly.

How long had Cassian been planning this?

How long had he known?

Months?

Longer?

Adrian leaned back in his chair.

The movement did little to relieve the pressure building behind his ribs.

His mind supplied images uninvited.

Cassian returning from the north.

Cassian purchasing a ring.

Cassian speaking with Duke Valmont.

Cassian asking permission.

The images arrived one after another.

Each more irritating than the last.

Ridiculous.

He knew they were ridiculous.

Most of them were assumptions.

Conjecture.

Nothing more.

Yet they lingered anyway.

A particularly unpleasant thought followed.

What if everyone else had seen this coming?

The possibility annoyed him instantly.

Because if that were true—

if society had expected this—

then why had he been surprised?

The answer arrived before he could stop it.

Because some part of him had assumed there would be more time.

More time before anything became permanent.

More time before decisions became promises.

More time before Marian belonged somewhere he could not reach.

The realization landed harder than he expected.

Adrian rose abruptly.

The study suddenly felt too small.

Too quiet.

He crossed toward the window.

The capital stretched beyond the palace walls.

Unchanged.

Indifferent.

Somewhere out there, Marian was likely wearing Ashford’s ring.

The thought irritated him so thoroughly that he nearly laughed.

Not because the ring mattered.

Because of what it represented.

A future.

A future everyone had apparently accepted.

The Emperor.

Duke Valmont.

Society.

Cassian.

Marian.

All of them moving forward.

All of them treating the matter as settled.

His expression hardened.

Settled.

Interesting word.

Who exactly had decided that?

The question arrived quietly.

Dangerously.

Adrian folded his arms.

For a long moment, he said nothing.

Then another realization surfaced.

One he disliked considerably more than the first.

If the engagement proceeded—

if the wedding happened—

then this would truly end.

Not temporarily.

Not symbolically.

Not emotionally.

Legally.

Publicly.

Permanently.

Marian Ashford.

The title appeared in his mind.

The reaction was immediate.

Violent.

Instinctive.

Wrong.

The feeling struck so quickly that Adrian almost stepped back from it.

Almost.

Instead he stood perfectly still.

Examining it.

Dissecting it.

Understanding it.

The way he approached every other problem.

Marian Ashford.

No.

The answer emerged before he consciously formed it.

Simple.

Certain.

Absolute.

No.

Silence filled the room.

Adrian stared out across the capital.

His expression unreadable.

His thoughts considerably less so.

The engagement.

The proposal.

The ring.

For the first time, none of it felt theoretical.

It was happening.

Actually happening.

And somewhere along the way, Adrian had reached a conclusion he found impossible to ignore.

He did not want this marriage to happen.

The realization should have disturbed him.

Instead it settled into place with alarming ease.

As though it had been waiting for him to acknowledge it.

At last.

Outside, the capital continued about its day.

Inside, Adrian stood alone beside the window.

And for the first time since the dissolution, he found himself looking toward the future and seeing an obstacle.

Not a problem.

Not a misunderstanding.

Not an inconvenience.

An obstacle.

One that stood directly between him and what he wanted.

The thought lingered.

Quiet.

Patient.

Dangerous.

And this time, Adrian did not look away.i