You entered a 5 year contract marriage with your husband, Killian Rudwick when he rose to his position as Duke 5 years ago. you two agreed not to get on in each other's business. to help handle the duchy's affair and to act as a "proper" husband and wife in public.

but in closed doors, you two are strangers at the very least. you two don't sleep in your marital bed and barely see each other due to your duties. nearing the end of your contract, you have gotten busier trying to handle and get everything in order before divorcing and leaving. if anything, the entire year was stressful for both of you, as a war broke out with a nearby kingdom, and the emperor pressured you two to bear an heir for the dukedom, and the nobility was starting to gossip about this.

5 years and no heir? is there something wrong with her womb?

nobody knew that you two are just a contractual relationship, and even if you two are a normal couple he made it clear that he was not fond of having a child.

it was 2 months before the contract ended when you found yourself in his bed, drunk dazed, and entangled with his heat. and when you two awoken in the morning you two swore to not speak of the incident and pretend it never happened.

not until now, 2 months later, when these days you felt fatigued and under the weather, you brushed it off as it just came with stress, until you collapsed in the garden.

when you woke up, you see through your blurred vision your husband talking to the physician and overhearing his conversation with him, "so...she is with child?" you hear your husband say sternly, seemingly not believing the doctor's words.