A Few Minutes Back.
Lunch had been served. As the Grand Duke of the Southern West—Velmoria—in Veloria, Ethan Valencia was a busy man but always made it down for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with his family. He believed in familial bonds even though he was anything but a good father.
The dining table contained sixteen chairs—seven on each side, then one at the head and one at the end. Ethan didn't like his wife sitting on his right, so he made her sit at the far end of the long table, while the Valencia daughters sat opposite each other, two seats away from their father. His own form of respect was unbelievable.
Valerie picked at her food with her fork and placed it in her mouth. There was more tension in the dining room—tension no one knew the cause of. Valerie and Malorie were close. They might as well have been twins. They looked similar in every aspect, except that Valerie was older. They had their father's moonlike eyes and their mother's blonde hair. Both girls were beautiful and had many suitors from the moment they turned sixteen. It was tradition in Veloria—once a girl reached the age of sixteen, she was ready for marriage.
Not Valerie, though. Her father intended to punish her. Malorie, on the other hand, had been promised to the Grand Duke of the Northern East—Aetherialis—in Veloria. A man rumored to be insane. A man who shouldn't be walking the same land as normal people. A man with multiple scars and stories. A man who ruled the Northern East with an iron hand. It was no surprise that a girl as dainty as Malorie would be terrified upon hearing the news of her marriage to the infamous Nor'east Grand Duke.
The moment Malorie had turned sixteen, her father had traveled to Aetherialis to discuss the arrangement. Of course, a man like the Aetherialis Grand Duke wouldn't care to marry any woman who loved her life. But Ethan hardly cared for his children's opinions. The detached Nor'east Grand Duke agreed to the holy bond of matrimony, not particularly caring which wife he was getting. But Ethan had one condition—Malorie would wed him once she turned eighteen. The man, of course, agreed.
For two years, Malorie had lived quietly in dread. The thought of marrying the Nor'east Grand Duke led her to do things she wasn't supposed to. One of them being pregnancy.
"What's with the wired tension? Is the food not to your liking, girls?" Ethan raised his head, looking at the girls and then at their mother, who sat opposite him at the long table. She wasn't their real mother, but the girls took the woman as their own. They loved her as much as she loved them.
"The food is good, Father," Valerie was the one who spoke. She slanted her eyes toward her sister, who picked at her food. Valerie's gaze narrowed in concern.
"Good, then. I wanted to use lunch as an opportunity to relay some news. Malorie," he called, and the girl looked up at him immediately, her eyes wide with terror. Ethan smiled, he thrived on the look of fear, even when it came from his own family. "You'll be getting married to Raelyth Valik Thalor in two months."
The spoon in Malorie's hand slipped from her fingers, clattering onto the table. Ethan regarded the action with disdain.
"That's quite disrespectful, sweetheart."
Malorie's heart thumped. She knew her father was angry, but she couldn't stop the trembling in her hands that had led to the spoon's fall. "I... I'm sorry, Father. It won't happen again," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Good. Don't you have anything to say about what I just told you?" Ethan asked.
"I... I..." Before she could finish, her stomach churned violently. She clutched her belly and abruptly got up, screeching her chair back as she bolted from the dining room, a hand clamped over her mouth. Valerie was on her feet in an instant, following after her. The duke's wife's face was twisted with worry, while Ethan smiled in disbelief.
"It better not be what I'm thinking," he muttered before leaving the dining room for the sitting room on the other side of the mansion.
★
"Who's the father?" Ethan asked when the three women sat before him, his eyes trained dangerously on Malorie.
Malorie gripped Valerie's hand so tightly she might have broken a bone. She shook her head slowly at the question.
Ethan let out a dark, humorless chuckle. Meanwhile, Valerie feared what might happen next. She knew that once Malorie set her mind on something, there was no going back. And she knew Malorie wouldn't give up the name of the child's father—not even if her life depended on it.
"Malorie sweet, I'm going to ask you again, and I expect an answer. Not a goddamn shake of the head, or things will get dirty. Who is the father of the baby you are carrying?"
Malorie whimpered and shook her head again. Valerie pressed closer, shielding her sister with an arm that wouldn't do much against their father but still refusing to move.
"No?" Ethan scoffed. "Protecting the bastard's father, Malo? That's not how I raised you, darling."
Valerie was tempted to tell him that he never raised them. He was never there for them. Their mothers were. But she bit her tongue. This wasn't about her, it was about her sister.
"You're going to tell me the name of the man, Malo dear, or else I will beat the child out of you."
Ethan turned to one of the maids beside him.
"Get me my cane."