CHAPTER 25
Anne reached her chamber without properly registering that she was going there. It was as though her body had carried her there on instinct while her mind stayed behind in the library.
The door closed behind her, and for a moment, she simply stood with her hand still pressed against the wood, waiting for the image to change if she gave it enough time. It did not.
She crossed the room quickly and turned the key in the lock. The click echoed too loudly in the quiet. She did not move away from the door, even though she wished to put as much distance between her and her husband as possible.
Dorian’s footsteps stopped outside the door soon after.
“Anne,” he said urgently. “Open the door.”
She did not answer.
After a brief pause, he tried again, his voice lower and more controlled but still strained. “Please listen to me. What you saw in there was not what it looked like. I would never have done that to you.”
More silence followed, then his voice came closer, as though he had stepped right up to the door.
“Lady Vivian kissed me,” he said plainly. “I did not initiate it. I did not want it. I should have stopped her immediately, but I was in shock. I never would have expected that from her, as I have never been interested in her. I would never be interested in another woman.”
Anne closed her eyes, her forehead resting briefly against the door, though she still did not open it. She wanted to believe him, but she had seen it with her own eyes.
“Nothing happened beyond that,” he added. “Nothing else. I know what you saw, but you have to believe me when I say that is all it was.”
Still, Anne said nothing. She did not know what to say to him.
“Anne,” he said again, softer. “Open the door.”
When she finally spoke, her voice was steady but fragile at the edges. “I cannot.”
“Then tell me what this is about,” he coaxed. “Because it is not only what you saw.”
Anne hesitated, her hand still resting against the door as though it was the only thing keeping her upright.
“I believed you,” she said at last. “I believed this time would be different, and that I would not be foolish enough to trust someone completely again. And yet I have been proven wrong once again.”
A pause followed on the other side of the door, longer this time, as though even Dorian needed a moment to absorb what she had said.
When he spoke again, his voice had changed, stripped of anything defensive. “You are not foolish.”
Anne let out a small, uneven breath, but she did not respond because that was not what mattered. What mattered was that she had finally let herself believe she could trust someone again without bracing for the moment they would be taken away, only to be left standing behind a locked door, realizing how quickly that fragile belief had shattered.
“Dorian,” she said, and it took effort to make the word steady. “Tell me something.”
“What is it?” he asked carefully. “Anne, you can ask me anything.”
She closed her eyes, swallowing past the lump in her throat before forcing out the questions. “Is she right? Lady Vivian, is she… is she right about you? Do I deserve better than you?”
Dorian did not respond at first. At his hesitation, something inside Anne tightened painfully because she understood him well enough to know what silence meant when it came from him.
When he finally spoke, his voice was lower than before, stripped of its earlier urgency and replaced with something far more uncertain.
“I do not want to hurt you,” he rasped.
She lifted her head slightly from the door, though she did not open it. “That is not what I asked you,” she said, her voice breaking slightly. “Do you believe it or not?”
Another pause followed, and this time it lasted just long enough to confirm what she had already begun to feel.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
