One day, all of a sudden, her former fiancé Ethelred appeared before her eyes.
The frail, pampered young boy she once knew had become a strikingly handsome wanderer.

“Fiancé? What are you talking about? It’s been six years since we broke off our engagement.”
“What are you… talking about? When did we break it off?”

In the hand of her former fiancé—who didn’t even know he had been rejected—
was a letter ordering him to assassinate her.
The problem was that the sender of that letter, Duke Edgar,
was none other than the man Valentina was about to marry.
And an even bigger problem…
was that this cunning former fiancé had no intention of ever letting her go.

“What about this question? That day, after your secret wedding ceremony…
did you consummate the marriage before witnesses?”

Valentina’s mind went completely blank.
Yet she understood better than anyone what he was trying to achieve with his provocation.
She clenched her teeth and slapped him across the face,
but Ethelred, his voice filled with mockery, whispered:

“Oh, really? You didn’t even complete a single step required to become a true married couple.”

The air grew heavy as her breath began to falter.
Ethelred’s jet-black eyes, burning with strange, uncontrollable heat,
surrounded her like flames.

“…Choose me. I’ll make you the empress of the continent.”

Extra Tags
#DarkRomance #LoveTriangle #ContractRelationship #UnrequitedLove