ONE NIGHT STAND WITH HOT DUKE-Chapter 156: I will not marry her

Demian stood in that room far too long, until the fire in the hearth dwindled to embers. Valerie’s words circled endlessly in his mind not as permission, but as release. And it was precisely there that the unease took root. If Valerie had been angry, he would still have had something to fight against. But that calmness... felt like a door slowly closing.

He stepped outside.

The castle corridor stretched in silence. Valerie’s footsteps echoed lightly yet firmly in the distance, as if she knew exactly where she was going and had no intention of looking back. Demian quickened his pace, catching up to her until he stood just behind her.

"Valerie."

She stopped.

Demian drew a breath, deeper this time. "I... will not marry her."

Valerie turned slowly. Her face was composed, but there was a brief flash in her eyes not hope, but caution. "Why?"

"Because it would be the wrong way," Demian answered honestly. "I hesitated not because I feared your anger. I hesitated because I realized there is always another choice besides sacrificing one person to ease my own guilt."

He stepped half a pace closer, careful to keep a respectful distance. "Marrying her wouldn’t save Ivanka. It would only make me feel as though I had paid a debt."

Valerie studied him for a long moment. "And her final request?"

"I will stay by her side," Demian said. "I will make sure she is cared for. I will take full responsibility politically, financially, morally. I will guarantee her honor, her name, her safety. But I will not bind my life to yet another lie."

Silence settled between them more honest than before.

"Are you certain?" Valerie asked softly.

"No," Demian gave a bitter smile. "But I am certain that marrying her is not the answer."

Valerie exhaled. For a moment, the tension in her shoulders seemed to ease. "Then do it cleanly," she said. "No half-measures."

"That is my intention."

He looked at Valerie, as if needing to confirm one last thing. "And whatever happens, I will not make you the reason for my decision. This is my choice."

Valerie nodded slowly. "As it should be."

They stood facing each other in the quiet corridor, no longer as two people pulling and restraining one another, but as two souls learning to let go of old ways of surviving.

Demian stepped back once. "I’ll go to Kosler tomorrow."

Valerie nodded again. "I know."

When she resumed walking, Demian did not follow. This time, he let her go not out of fear of loss, but because for the first time, he knew exactly what he would do. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

And in his chest, for the first time in a long while, the decision did not feel like a punishment.

Valerie walked away with steps that appeared calm too calm for someone whose heart was in turmoil. Her back was straight, her expression composed, as though Demian’s decision moments earlier had shaken nothing inside her.

The truth was the opposite.

Beneath that composure lay an anger that tightened her chest. Not the kind that exploded, but the kind that settled heavy, clinging, slowly poisoning every breath. She was angry because she was tired. Angry from always being the one who had to understand. Angry from constantly being the "strong" one, the "reasonable" one, the one who never stood in the way.

And more than that she despised herself for the small part of her heart that still hoped.

Valerie closed her chamber door softly and leaned against it for a long moment. Her breathing trembled. Her hands clenched, then slowly loosened.

Leave, she thought.

The urge was no longer a whisper, but a force pressing insistently against her chest. She wanted to go as far away as possible not to punish Demian, not to make him regret anything. On the contrary.

Only by leaving could Demian truly find peace beside Ivanka.

Only by disappearing could she stop being the knot that bound everything together.

Valerie stepped toward the mirror. Her reflection looked pale, her eyes slightly hollow. Her gown fell tighter around her abdomen a small change she could no longer ignore.

Slowly, almost without realizing it, her hand lifted and rested against the faint curve of her belly.

There was life there.

And that was precisely what made everything infinitely more complicated.

"How can I leave... without binding you to me?" she whispered softly whether to herself, to the child, or to the cruel turn of fate, she did not know.

She knew Demian. This child Morvek blood would become a tie he could never sever. Even if he released the bond, even if he refused to marry Ivanka, the existence of this child would still draw him back to her, sooner or later.

And Valerie did not want that.

Not because she did not love Demian but because she did. In her own painful way, she wanted to free him. She did not want Demian bound to her by duty, by guilt, or by a child born of this chaos.

She wanted to leave... as her own choice.

Valerie closed her eyes. Her thoughts drifted to the only person who might have answers or at least, options.

Lena.

The old witch with an ambiguous smile and eyes that held far too many secrets. A woman who never spoke of right or wrong, only of possibilities and consequences.

Valerie opened her eyes again, her resolve clearer now.

"Tomorrow," she murmured. "I have to see Lena."

She did not know if there was a path that would leave no one wounded. She did not know if her wish could truly be fulfilled. But she knew one thing with certainty.

She could no longer remain here, waiting for other people’s decisions to define her life.

That night, Valerie sat on the edge of her bed until late, one hand resting on her belly, her gaze empty while her thoughts raced far ahead laying plans to leave, to disappear, and for the first time... to choose herself, no matter the price.

"Tomorrow I have to go"