Chapter 3My Sister Stole the White Knight, I Married the Dark Duke After Rebirth

At the banquet, a flock of noblewomen crowded around Rosalyn, showering her with compliments. She deliberately raised her glass toward me in a distant toast, her look clearly saying: See that? I'm the one who won.

I looked down at the red wine swirling in my glass as memories from my previous life surged through my mind.

In our previous life, it was Rosalyn who married Adrian. Day after day she complained that her husband stayed stationed in the north and refused to come home, that he wouldn't let her set foot in the war tower, that he wouldn't show her a shred of affection. After the guards barred her from the tower door, she went around weeping to anyone who would listen about how the Black Wolf Duke mistreated his wife.

By contrast, I married Lucian, whom everyone praised. The world saw him playing the harp for me, gifting me precious gemstones, taking me for walks by the sea. No one knew he had intercepted all my correspondence. No one had seen the leather straps on the stone bed in the hidden chamber, or the syringes that stole my sanity one by one.

On the night of the First Frost Feast, Adrian suddenly collapsed from poison and died. Lucian, as the sole remaining Hawthorne heir, seized control of the entire domain, and I became his most convenient test subject.

Later, Rosalyn was sent back to the Vere family on a flimsy excuse. When she saw me wearing the Duchess's coronet, she became convinced I had stolen her life. So on the mountain road, she sabotaged the carriage axle and dragged us both over the cliff.

In this new life, I would never again place my fate in any man's hands. I wanted wealth, an estate of my own, a freehold charter in my name alone. Once I saved enough silver marks, no one in this world would ever cage me again.

A sudden commotion broke out at the banquet. Sir Rowan strode into the hall and placed a military dispatch in Adrian's hands. As Adrian read it, his expression darkened instantly.

"North Bridge has been attacked."

He looked at me, his tone flat and even. "I may not make it back for the wedding."

Rosalyn could barely contain her smirk.

But I remembered clearly from our previous life that the supply route through North Bridge had nearly been severed. Adrian wasn't abandoning his new bride out of cruelty. He was defending the entire Hawthorne domain from disaster.

I nodded. "You should go protect your lands."

Adrian seemed surprised by my response. He was silent for a moment, then said, "I'll come back."

Once again, I couldn't hear a single thought inside his mind.

Yet for some reason, I was willing to believe that promise.