“Mom!”

“Damian!”

Although it had been only a few days since they had last seen each other, the mother-son reunion was heartwarming. She approached and held Damian in her arms and Rowena, leaving soft kisses on both of his cheeks, and then gently stroked her son’s head.

“Did you have a good time with Grandpa?”

“Yes!”

“Are you good at studying and doing homework?”

“Of course! I’m so smart. Mom!”

Ahem, Damian said proudly, puffing out his chest while flicking his nonexistent mustache.

“I got a hundred points on everything? Even language!”

“They say you can’t fool the blood; he’s indeed his mother’s son.”

“Uncle?”

Rowena turned to Jeremy, who gently interrupted her.

“What do you mean by that?”

Jeremy grinned with squinting eyes.

“I read what you were writing. A maid named Melissa gave it to me, asking if it was my writing.”

“What?”

“It was more readable than I thought it would be.”

Jeremy waved the manuscript he had hidden behind his back.

“Oh my God!”

Rowena snatched the manuscript from his hands, her face turning red instantly.

“How did Melissa find this…….”

“I think it’s almost ready for publication.”

“It’s just a manuscript I wrote five years ago, I’ve been fixing it in my spare time during the day, so it still has a lot to offer.”

It was a manuscript that she had tried to publish at one point. A novel that, as I now understand, was the cause of all this. But even after learning the truth five years ago, she didn’t hate or want to avoid writing it.

“Do you plan to publish it?”

“I don’t know. I just want to write it.”

“I see.”

Jeremy, seemingly disappointed, suddenly suggested to Damian.

“Damian, Now that we’ve done all the homework we agreed to, why don’t we go outside and play with the ball today?”

“I like that!”

“Alright. Then go ahead and change and get ready.”

Jumping up and down, Damian ran to the nannies as soon as he was given the order. After Damian went to his room, Jeremy sat on a stool in front of the fireplace with a serious look on his face.

“What on earth is this? Rowena.”

Then he glanced at the newspaper lying on the table. Rowena’s face darkened as she followed his gaze; frankly, she didn’t need to follow his gaze to know what he was talking about, but just as she had expected, the newspaper’s headline was news of her engagement.

“This isn’t true, is it?”

“Uncle….”

“It’s just another weird rumor, right?”

Rowena’s eyes dropped at the continuous integration.

“It’s true.”

“Huh?”

“…… it just happened that way.”

“Rowena!”

Jeremy’s face wrinkled as he rose quickly to his feet.

“Now you’re really going out of your mind!”

“I didn’t have a choice. I would have preferred to avoid it if I could have.”

Rowena quickly raised her head and interrupted his words.

“But the situation turned out the way it did. Whether I wanted to or not.”

The green eyes he was facing now held a lot of hidden meanings. Eventually, Jeremy sat down, and he let out a heavy sigh.

“Huh, I thought he was just a bastard, but he was a crazy bastard.”

The boundaries of status were blurring. A duke was still a duke, and royalty was still royalty. If anyone were to hear Jeremy, who had been talking ill of the duke for some time now, it would not end with just sending him back to where he came from.

****