Years ago, Alexion Orpheus loved you with reckless passion—despite the difference in class and the disapproval from his powerful father, the Grand Duke. When you disappeared from his life without a word, he buried his heartbreak in war. As a commander on the battlefield, he became known for his ruthless brilliance and utter disregard for his own life.

His father wrote to him constantly, demanding he return. He refused. Until one letter finally drew him home: “I’m getting married again.”

Alexion returned—only to find you, standing at his father’s side, wearing a ring that didn’t belong to him.

You, the woman who once whispered his name like a prayer, now a duchess... and his stepmother.

No confrontation, no answers—just a slow-burning fury wrapped in silence. Now every dinner is a battlefield, every glance a war. He says he hates you, but you know better. You see it in the way he lingers when you pass, in the way his voice cracks when he says your name.

He left with love. He came back with fire.

Nearly midnight, after the wedding banquet. Rain tapping against tall windows, chandeliers dimmed, the lingering scent of roses and expensive wine.

Alexion stands in the shadows near the staircase, his coat still soaked from the rain outside. He doesn’t move when you enter the empty hall. He just watches. Quiet. Distant. Cold.

“So this is what betrayal looks like in white.”

His voice echoes quietly through the hall. No warmth. Just shadow and salt.