He looked like he would roughly seize her jaw and ask, You’re not her, are you?—maybe even lash out, demanding, Who the hell are you?
“Since when?”
Click. A metallic sound echoed as the man picked up a cigarette from a silver case on the bedside table and asked.
Olivia slowly opened the eyes she had tightly shut. A chill ran through her body when she met his cold gaze.
“With Edgar.”
The brief relief that it hadn’t been a confession was short-lived.
“Tell me.”
He held the cigarette loosely between his lips as he interrogated her. His lowered eyes seemed indifferent, yet they were anything but.
“Was it before the divorce?”
“No. You know better than anyone that it wasn’t.”
“Then when?”
His face didn’t change, but his voice carried an unmistakable chill.
“Since it no longer concerned you. Is that enough?”
Olivia didn’t avert her gaze, refusing to be intimidated. Johann silently stared down at her.
“Edgar is… not acceptable.”
What business was it of his who she saw? They were divorced—wasn’t her ex-husband the last person who should be interfering?
Her bright blue eyes glared back at Johann.
“That’s for me to decide. Not you.”
Her pale face was set with stubborn resolve, which Johann didn’t appreciate.
He withdrew a hand from his pocket and leaned toward her.
Startled, Olivia flinched and recoiled like he was some kind of assailant. All he had done was reach for the matches on the table.
“Hold me.”
The voice of his wife clinging to him with temptation teased his ears.
Her revealing nightgown now wasn’t all that different from what she used to wear—but the person beneath it felt like a stranger.
Edgar, a man worth avoiding, was absurdly tall.
Olivia turned her head, trying to escape. In the corner of her eye, she saw his large fingers groping for the matchbox on the table.
“!”
As her eyes followed the outline of his hand, she saw the top of a round no-coal dial on his wrist glinting with the word Pateks.
It had been Olivia Blanchet’s birthday gift. Unbelievably.
“W-Why are you wearing that?”
Her shock made her stammer.
“Because you gave it to me.”
Johann spoke casually. Olivia was dumbfounded by his audacity. A gift? That wasn’t just any gift.
“Give it back.”
“Why?”
He slouched back into the chair, his expression nonchalant. Olivia blinked in disbelief at his attitude.
“It’s not respectful to your fiancée.”
He might scoff and ask if someone who understood respect would send such a gift. True, she hadn’t known they’d divorce—but still.
“We’re not that kind of couple.”
Johann said flatly.
Respect.
To a woman who loved another man while married? He had none to spare.
Which is why he could meet her sparkling eyes—like a summer lake—without hesitation.
Olivia, unaware of this, was only dumbfounded. Seriously, what kind of man is this?
“Then surely, you have a conscience.”
“Of course not.”
He stopped mid-motion, just as he was about to strike the match.
Then tossed the matchbox back onto the table with a thud.
“Give it back.”
When it came to Johann Leopold, Olivia Blanchet’s memories were everything.
She hadn’t gone through each one, but she was glad she had divorced him.
He was rude and shameless—someone she never wanted to be involved with again.
She just wanted the watch back and for him to leave the room.
“I’ll pay for it.”
“I must’ve given you too much alimony.”
It was his money to begin with. His ex-wife seemed to forget that fact.
“You said you loved me.”
She also seemed to forget that she once had.
Olivia’s face went white as Johann hit the mark.
Her long lashes trembled faintly.
Her clear, piercingly blue eyes shimmered. Were they always like this? So lovely and beautiful.
Defiant and unyielding—so unlike the woman who used to weep and cling to him. The change was jarring, and oddly… compelling.
He remembered her from the days leading up to their wedding—how her face flushed red, unable to meet his eyes, as she shyly whispered she loved him.
“You said you loved me, Olivia.”
His deep voice made Olivia’s chest ache.
His sharp gaze pierced into her eyes, almost devouring her. It was exhausting just to hold that eye contact.
But she didn’t look away. She wasn’t Olivia Blanchet anymore.
“Not anymore.”
She didn’t love him. That was all.
In truth, she had never loved him to begin with. To her, he was just a man she had met… twice.
“So that watch. Please return it.”
As if it meant nothing—as if those burning, self-consuming emotions meant absolutely nothing—Olivia spoke coldly.
It was no different than how Johann carelessly let his cigar smoke drift into the air.
His chest ached. And not from the whiskey.
Johann, usually in complete control of his thoughts, found it increasingly difficult lately.
Especially when the subject was Olivia Blanchet.
He opened his eyes.
“So?”
Listening to Morris’s report, Johann deeply inhaled from his cigar.
A cool summer night breeze scattered the smoke indifferently.
“Yes, the letter matches one written by the Marquess of Lancelot in a similar situation some time ago.”
Johann’s sharp features looked weary. He slowly rubbed his jaw with the hand holding the cigar.
“Princess Anneblin is behind this.”
“The coachman denies it, but the evidence says otherwise.”
“And the witness who claimed to have seen Olivia?”
“Disappeared right after the incident. Still unaccounted for.”
Johann’s blank gaze turned to Morris, who stood still in front of him.
It wasn’t a friendly look. Morris felt like the most useless man alive.
It was already two in the morning.
He’d run himself ragged interrogating the coachman and investigating hotel insiders. He really wished his efforts were appreciated.
“I need to see the princess.”
Johann muttered as he poured himself another drink. His dry eyes were cold.
Kidnapping, unlawful confinement, defamation, obstruction of business. Those charges barely scratched the surface.
She dared to reduce four years of hard-earned investment and effort to utter chaos.
He drained his glass.
“Not anymore.”
“So that watch. Please return it.”
Olivia’s voice echoed in his ears.
Her cold words lit the fuse. Now, all that remained was for the bomb to go off.
Through the shadowed window, the Lancelot Hotel sparkled with bright lights from top to bottom.
Johann took another puff of his cigar.
The first sleepless night at the Leopold Hotel wore on.
“You’ve disappointed me, Anne.”
Crown Prince Alex’s eyes were icy. No matter how much he cherished his sister, he couldn’t defend her this time.
Of all people she could have crossed—
“It was Johann. Johann Leopold, Anne. Do you understand who you messed with?”
“I told you, I had nothing to do with it.”
Anneblin’s voice was as calm as ever.
Her graceful hand lifted her teacup handle gently. She looked no different from usual—like a white peony in a vase.
“Anne.”
“I don’t understand why everyone’s coming down on me. Shouldn’t you, at least, believe me? Hm?”
Her eyes glistened as she slowly raised her gaze to meet Alex’s, full of wronged innocence.
Alex sighed.
She had lost her mother young. He and their father had raised her with only love and affection. This was the result.
“Tell me the truth. It’s the only way I can help.”
“I didn’t do it. Why do you think I’d stoop to such vile tactics?”
Her wounded eyes stared at him.
She knew this look would weaken him. The anger in Alex’s eyes began to soften.
“One last time. Are you absolutely sure you had nothing to do with it?”
“I don’t know anything about it.”
Her voice was calm as she turned her gaze to the window. The soaring spray of the grand fountain glittered outside.
It had been about this time, four years ago. Early summer, everything was green. She had been in love with Edgar then.
Over something trivial, they had a huge fight.
In anger, she had gone to the southern villa, but Edgar had his own way of bringing her back.
“Escort her with the utmost respect.”
Her carriage’s abrupt change of course had been due to a letter Edgar had written to the coachman.
She had cherished that handwritten note like a treasure. She never imagined she’d use it like this.
But all she had to do now was deny it.
They already had someone lined up to take the fall. Someone who would confess to stealing the letter and executing the plan.
She had paid dearly for their silence. Her name wouldn’t leak.
What angered her was that there had been no result. And now she was a suspect.
She hadn’t expected the duke to keep surveillance on his ex-wife.
Johann’s unpredictable move had been her miscalculation.
“It’s time for practice.”
Anneblin stood up, signaling the end of the conversation.
“Your opponents are Johann. And Edgar too.”
Alex’s frustration deepened as he looked into his sister’s unreadable eyes. He rubbed at his brow and spoke again.
“Let’s hope they’re as merciful as I am.”
Both men were capable of holding the entire royal family accountable for Anneblin’s actions.
To cover up her wrongdoing, Alex might have to accept unreasonable demands.
“I hope you act wisely.”
He exhaled a deep sigh and rose from his seat.
After the crown prince left, Anneblin glared out the window, her eyes fierce.
You couldn’t even handle something that simple.
She began biting her nails.
Now her future rested entirely in the hands of a maid—one sworn to secrecy.
