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The duke's frantic gaze swung wildly to where the tremulous voice had come from, and Rathe didn't know if what he was seeing was real or a fucking ghost.
Am I too late, God?
He flipped the light switch on and immediately bit back a curse.
Fuck!
Mary's stepfather was dead. His overweight body was absolutely still on the floor, his head partially decapitated, and was that a fucking ear floating in the aquarium?
Police sirens started wailing from a distance, and the sound had Rathe recovering from his shock and in moments, he was pulling a sobbing Mary into his arms.
"R-Rathe?"
His hands shook as he cupped her face. "Are you alright?" he asked hoarsely.
"All of you were right," she choked out. "My b-babies aren't vegetarians."
The duke didn't know whether to laugh or kiss her.
"And t-then there's m-me."
Her voice caught, and Rathe whitened when he saw all too late the pain in her gaze.
"I was n-never your m-mistress, was I?"
No. God. No.
"Because I'm j-just your w-whore."
The words killed him, and Rathe knew he had this one chance to make things right.
"I lied," he said tautly. "When you asked me if I read the contract I made you sign...I lied, Mary. I didn't read a single word in it because I couldn't."
"W-Why?"
"Because it was the same contract my father had made my mother sign, and I didn't want to know what was inside of it. I only thought...if it was good enough for them, it would be enough for us, and that was why...I didn't understand why you wouldn't sign it."
Mary no longer knew what to think. How could his parents have such a contract between them?
"When you left, that was when I forced myself to read it, and...every fucking word in it was vile. I don't blame you at all for thinking I was a monster to make you sign it, and for thinking that I only see you as a whore."
He took her hands in his.
"But you were never that, Mary. And I can't even fucking say you were only a mistress to me because that would also be a lie. You are the only girl to make me forget that I'm my father's son..."
His own voice broke, and Mary's heart started breaking as well.
"But you're also the only girl I can't love because you'll always be too fucking young for me."
That he could only love her but could also never love her had Mary wanting to laugh and cry at the same time.
But in the end, there was nothing else for her to do.
Nothing else but to tell the duke the truth, and that was—-
"I love you," she whispered. "I think I always will...and if y-you'll l-let me...I know I can m-make you l-love me back."
