Chapter 100: Illusion’s End
The worst part out of all of this was that you couldn’t ask the dead questions to find out the truth, I thought to myself, as Reiner escorted me to my bedroom. It was close to dinner time and today Lucien was home. Well, it’s not like I can keep avoiding him forever. I didn’t even bother to change for dinner.
I sat down at the dinner table wearing the same long black dress that I wore to visit my mother’s grave. I apologized silently to the chef and all the kitchen staffs in my head. I’m sure they did a wonderful job crafting all the dishes that made part of our full course dinner, but to me, it just tasted like dry sand.
Lucien was silent as he ate his food. I wonder when it all started. When did I stop looking forward to spending time alone with Lucien at dinner? When did I start to avoid having dinner alone with him? If I knew, would I be able to do something to fix this or was it already too late?
“Is there a way to cancel your wedding with Angela?” I spat out my question out of the blue. Lucien choked on his food and Reiner winced in the corner of the room. I’m not surprised that they’re surprised by my abrupt and direct question. I was surprised at myself and my courage too.
“No. Unfortunately, there isn’t,” Lucien replied after he had recovered from his shock and his choking subsided.
“How long do you need to be married to her? If this is a business contract you signed with the elders, then there surely is an expiration date, right? Or did you forget to negotiate for that clause?” I asked as I put down my silver knife with a clang.
“Two years. I can divorce her after two years,” Lucien replied with a sigh.
Two years...that’s much longer than I thought. I was hoping for something along the lines of three to six months. Now that I know that Lucien does not love her, the main troubling thing was that I felt that Angela truly wants Lucien as her real husband. Not just a husband in name by business contract. I don’t think Lucien knows this and I am certain that he has no plans on how to handle her. I need to come up with some plan...
“Does she need to move in here with us? Or can she live somewhere else?” I asked further for more details.