Delphina froze.
Rosaline's words did not echo, but rather landed. Heavy. Final. Like a door quietly shut behind them.
The fan slipped slightly in Delphina's grip, forgotten.
Rosaline didn't elaborate. She didn't cry or twist her face with remembered pain. She simply stood there, poised as always, with that eerie composure that was too smooth to be natural. It made the silence that followed feel… sacred. Or cursed.
Delphina turned, slowly, studying her companion with a gaze that sharpened rather than softened.
"You never told anyone," she said.
Rosaline's smile was faint now, a trace of memory instead of calculation. "There was no sympathy left for a woman who bedded the Emperor because of a contract. Especially one he didn't choose."
"You think that makes you better than Gabriel?"
"No," Rosaline said calmly. "It makes me wiser. "
Delphina inhaled sharply, the edge of her fan pressing into the soft flesh of her palm. "You planned for failure."
