Chapter 1Beneath the Fallen Blossoms

On the day of my coming-of-age ceremony, a group of bandits stormed into my home. They robbed us of everything we owned and burned our estate to the ground.

Then they used my six-year-old sister as leverage, forcing me to show myself.

More than a dozen bandits dragged me back to their hideout and tortured me for three days and three nights before selling me to a brothel.

I had thought about dying, but even death was beyond my reach.

When I was at my most desperate, Duke Landon Knight paid for my freedom and asked if I was willing to go home with him.

After crawling through the darkness for so long, I suddenly saw a light that had never gone out.

Three years into our marriage, I once asked him why, among all the flowers in the world, he had chosen this withered one—me.

"When I caught my first glimpse of you as a child, I swore I'd never marry anyone but you."

I thought he truly loved me. I thought that was why he was willing to marry a brothel girl whom everyone else called a woman who had been with countless men. I spent those three years healing from my wounds, hoping that one day I could give him a son or daughter of our own.

Until I overheard a conversation between him and his closest friend in his study.

"Lucia Bellamy is arriving in the capital tomorrow. Are you really planning to bring her into the estate?

"Isabel has already suffered the loss of her family and been humiliated and sold to a brothel. Her life has been tragic enough. Can you really bear to bring Lucia into the estate and hurt her all over again?"

Landon answered without hesitation, "What do the lives of a few dozen Conrads matter? If the Conrads hadn't reported the Bellamys back then, Lucia wouldn't have been exiled to Southvale, and we wouldn't have been prevented from marrying.

"As for Isabel, I bribed the bandits to sell her to a brothel. I did it only to spare her life and leave her alive long enough for Lucia to come back and take her revenge herself."

So that first glimpse he'd never forgotten had been of Lucia, and I was nothing more than a tool for him to use in taking revenge for the woman he loved.

The next day, I used the Conrad family signet my grandfather, Leonard Conrad, had left me to secure two imperial decrees.

The first was my own request for a divorce, so Lucia could enter the estate as his legal wife.

The second ordered a full investigation into the truth behind the massacre of my family, so that their names could finally be cleared.

* * *

When Lucia Bellamy was brought into the Duke's estate, the fireworks outside went on for what seemed like forever.

The entire estate was buzzing with excitement.

Everyone in the Duke's estate knew a new woman had arrived. Everyone except the people in my courtyard, which remained eerily quiet.

The servants deliberately kept their distance, perhaps afraid I would be hurt if I found out. Or perhaps they were simply relieved that they no longer had to bow and scrape before me, the disgraced wife they all looked down on.

After all, the Duke's estate now had another mistress.

If this had happened before, I might truly have been heartbroken.

But now, I simply sat in my courtyard in a daze, holding the Conrad family signet that my grandfather, Leonard Conrad, had left me.

From beyond the wall came Landon Knight's unmistakably pleased voice. "This is my wife's courtyard. Since you're new here, you should go in and pay her a visit. I have some official business to take care of, so I can't accompany you."

His voice was so gentle it practically dripped with tenderness.

They spoke quietly for a few more moments. Then Lucia's clear laughter rang out.

Soon, footsteps approached from a distance.

The smile was still lingering on her face. She was dressed in a bright red gown. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought she had entered the estate as the lawful wife.

Landon had used official business as an excuse to leave because he wanted Lucia to take her revenge without restraint, didn't he?

I put away the Conrad family signet and stood up cautiously.

But Lucia stopped five paces away and looked me up and down provocatively.

She did nothing else. She only gave me a look that said there would be plenty of time for what came next. It was as though she had just thrown down a challenge.

Then she turned and left.

An hour later, several servants entered my courtyard carrying shovels and axes.