The dukes eyes darkened, "Make no mistake, Vivian Neptine, I don't favor confident liars as children, nor heirs" he said in poorly veiled distrust and disgust, Vivian froze *I had expected it to turn out like this but... he truly lives up to his name, The fox of the north, duke Neptine. He can be cunning and sly, or dangerous and deadly... from here on out, I'm threading on thin ice...* "If I provide a way, you must cancel my marriage with the crown prince" The duke froze, afterall, the marriage is something Vivian had begged for so, to cancel it on her whim? The duke smirked again, *of course, I had too high expectations for a spoiled child*. Vivian braced herself before giving the solution, she steeled her nerves, her voice calm "The northern fortress, the one that was captured by those monster leading barbarians, it has a secret escape tunnel, right?" The duked muscles tensed, with only one thought in mind *How does she know?* after all, it made no sense, the tunnel was something only the architects, himself and his deceased wife knew, never once was it mentioned to the children. The architects were under no suspicion of revelation as well as the castle was built decades before.
The spoke with calm authority, "How do you know of the underground escape, Vivian? And it's an escape, how do you plan to use it?" Vivians eyes darted away as she unconvincingly replied. "I just found out by chance..." There was no way she could tell her father she knew because it mentioned in the original novel that the female lead had discovered it, it was a plot point in the novel that further strengthened her position and destroyed Vivians foothold. "A-anyways! an exit could always be used as an entrance." The duke froze, how had he never thought about that, he smirked. "very well, if this plan of yours succeeds, I shall annul your engagement to the prince, but if it fails, I believe you know there shall be consequences." Vivian elegantly curtsied, "Ofcourse, your grace. I would expect nothing less." She replied before leaving.
"Your grace, was it that what she said that bothered me so?" The duke muttered, now alone in his office, never once had she called him 'your grace' before today, and it bothered him much more than he would've ever thought it would.
Meanwhile, Vivian ran into her younger brother outside the office, it would doit no justice to say that their original relationship was worse than those of cats and dogs. "Lucas" Vivian said calmly, with a hint of coldness and wariness. "what brings to his graces office?" She asked. Her younger brother scoffed, "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that, Vivian? WHat the hell do you think your doing, talking to father and getting into more trouble, huh? Your the stain of the Neptines!" Her brother asked with no effort to veil his hatred. "I suppose so... although, who the true tain is time will tell. The fraudulent daughter or the soft son. But make no mistake, I have no intention of ever answering to you unless you become the heir or the duke, and since you are neither, I believe there is no reason for me to respond." She said before leaving, grace without a hint of submission, the tiniest bit of warmth in her gaze before she disappeared around the hallway.