Duke Thaddeus exhaled. Slowly. Controlled. The weight of the moment pressing deep into his chest.
For too long, he had been silent.
Stunned.
Madeleina's words had been a dagger—one aimed at everything he had once believed, at everything he had dedicated himself to.
But it was Luca's words—that damned boy's words—that had finally shattered the haze clouding his mind.
He could see it now. Clearly.
He turned his gaze to Aeliana.
Her hands were still clenched at her sides, her fingers still stained with blood—Madeleina's blood. But it wasn't just rage that burned in her amber eyes.
It was something far deeper.
Something close to grief.
She had always known she was seen as a burden. Always. But to hear it spoken so plainly, to hear it from someone who had been so close to her father—
That was something else entirely.
Thaddeus let his golden gaze linger on her for a moment before speaking.
"This whole situation is because of me," he said, his voice quiet but absolute.
