Garden of May - Chapter 143
Blair swallowed a low groan. He reached out and slowly pulled his sobbing sister into his arms. Their hearts beat in the same rhythm becoming a sorrowful kind of comfort.
“Don’t think about anything. Just rest, Rosalyn.”
Whenever he closed his eyes, the memory of that day still came back vividly.
A girl from a summer long ago, her hair tied high, dressed in a white dress. Beneath a tree heavy with leaves, she had turned back toward him with a smile.
Her small face. Her cheeks flushed fresh from the heat. The beads of sweat at the nape of her neck. Her soft lips. The faint scent of wild strawberries that lingered with every breath…
That was the very first moment he had thought that he wanted to protect her.
Blair.
The voice rang in his ears like a vivid hallucination. He jerked his head up. A clear, bell-like laugh echoed as if she might step out of the darkness at any moment.
He stared blankly into the air, then let out a twisted smile. The end of a relationship so thoroughly broken beyond repair was this miserable. Like ashes left after a wildfire. Like bare branches in the dead of winter.
Perhaps they should never have met in the first place. Even in its happiest moments, their friendship had been nothing more than a distorted imitation of something that belonged to others.
Rosalyn, following the mother she both loved and resented. Vanessa, driven by a loneliness that cut too deep. And he—
A trembling breath slipped through his clenched teeth.
It had been a long, deliberate deception. Not once had he ever thought of Vanessa as just a friend. Not even in those innocent childhood days when he first met her.
It was a feeling he had carried in secret, even from his own twin sister. That someday, all of her firsts would belong to him, and all of his firsts would belong to her.
There are moments when even what you would never give up, must be abandoned. Like being swept away by a tidal wave. Like being buried under a landslide. Pushed by a force no human can possibly resist. A single tear slipped down his long-dry cheek.
Perhaps now, at last… he could—
* * *
“How unexpected. I had assumed the Duke himself was behind that scandal.”
They were in a private room of a clubhouse, the third one he had moved to in an effort to avoid the persistent reporters.
Theodore fixed his opponent with a cold gaze.
Instead of the person he had agreed to meet, it was a now-familiar woman who had taken the seat across from him. She handed her rain-soaked coat to a servant with effortless ease.
“I won’t take much of your time. It seems you have another engagement afterward.”
“Miss Morton.”
The Duke let out a heavy sigh. It had been a long, exhausting day. After a string of interviews that had already worn his nerves thin, seeing Hayley Morton was enough to deepen his fatigue.
“I thought I made myself clear. I do not welcome meetings arranged like this.”
“I decided the method didn’t matter. Even if I had been more polite, I doubt you would have been any more willing to meet me. So I chose the one approach that was at least certain to work.”
She stared at his gaze directly, a soft smile forming on her lips.
Her appearance had changed noticeably since the last time. Her makeup pared down to something almost bare, her attire modest to the point of suffocation, her hair half-tied and loosely falling.
Theodore let out a quiet, incredulous laugh. Because that appearance was nothing more than a painstaking imitation of Vanessa.
“So this time as well, did you threaten the club owner with his weaknesses?”
“Oh my, it wasn’t a threat—it was cooperation. And this time, Grandmother lent a hand.”
A trace of venom flickered in Hayley Morton’s pretty eyes.
“After all, Your Grace simply refused to see me.”
“I should inform Grandmother. That you are entirely unsuitable for her grandson.”
“Is that really necessary? Surely you know I’m your best option.”
Theodore set down his pen and leaned back in his chair, as if indulging her just to hear what nonsense she might spout. Avoiding her now would change nothing. She would simply find another way in.
“I’m here to propose a contract. Or perhaps… a deal.”
Theodore let out a low laugh.
“A deal requires equal exchange. And I see no such value in you, lady.”
“What if it concerns Lady Vanessa?”
- Protected: Garden of May Chapter 152 - Jun 16, 2026
- Protected: Garden of May Chapter 151 - Jun 16, 2026
- Protected: Garden of May Chapter 150 - Jun 16, 2026
