Reborn To Change My Fate-Chapter 105 - Hundred And Five

The sun was setting, casting long, orange shadows across the dusty road that led back to the Thompson estate. The carriage ride had been silent and suffocating. Beatrice, the Dowager Duchess, had punished them. She had sent Ashlyn and Carlos to one of the family Orchard, a remote property on the very edge of the Thompson lands, to "inspect the harvest and learn the value of hard work."

It had been three days of dust, heat, and sleeping in a drafty, old farmhouse. It was a humiliation. They were nobility, yet they had been sent away like naughty children.

Now, they were finally back in their own chambers. Ashlyn felt grime on her skin and a deep ache in her bones. She wanted a hot bath. She wanted to forget the smell of rotting apples and the judgment in the Dowager’s eyes.

She pushed the door to their bedroom open, expecting peace. Instead, she walked into a disaster.

The room looked as if someone came to rob them. Drawers were pulled out and dumped onto the floor. Silk dresses were trampled underfoot. The heavy velvet curtains were ripped from their ties.

And there, in the center of the chaos, was Carlos.

He was on his knees, his fine coat thrown aside, his shirt sleeves rolled up. He was sweating, his hair wild and unkempt. He was digging frantically through a pile of boxes—Ashlyn’s jewelry boxes.

The velvet linings were torn out. Gold rings, pearl earrings, and silver hairpins were scattered across the carpet like common pebbles.

"What are you doing?" Ashlyn asked, her voice a mixture of shock and rising anger.

Carlos didn’t stop. He didn’t even look at her. He was breathing hard, muttering to himself, his hands shaking as he pried open a small, locked casket.

"Carlos!" Ashlyn shouted, stepping over a pile of her own undergarments. "I asked you a question! Look at this mess! Have you gone mad?"

He finally stopped. He turned his head slowly to look at her. His eyes were bloodshot, rimmed with dark circles. He looked desperate. He looked like a man who was drowning.

He let out a loud, annoyed sigh, as if she were the one being unreasonable. He stood up slowly, his knees cracking. In his hand, he clutched a glittering object.

"The Grand Duchess," he spat the title like a curse word, "froze my allowance. She did an audit while we were away. She cut me off. Completely."

Ashlyn froze. Marissa. Of course. While they were eating stale bread at the orchard, Marissa had been tightening her grip on the household finances. She had cut the flow of money.

"So now..." Carlos said. He raised his hand.

Dangling from his fingers was Ashlyn’s diamond necklace. It was the centerpiece of her dowry, a gift from her mother, Lady Anita. It was a heavy, intricate piece, with a large, tear-drop diamond in the center that caught the lamp light and fractured it into a thousand rainbows. It was the most valuable thing she owned.

"...I must rely on you for household expenses," he finished, his voice cold and entitled.

The seriousness of the situation crashed down on Ashlyn. He wasn’t just looking for loose coins. He was liquidating her assets. He was stealing her future. If she lost her dowry, she lost her only safety net. In this era, a woman without money was a woman without a voice.

Panic, sharp and electric, shot through her.

"No!" she screamed.

She rushed forward, not caring about dignity. She grabbed his wrist with both hands and pried his fingers open. He was surprised by her ferocity, and his grip loosened just enough. She snatched the necklace away, clutching it to her chest, backing away from him until she hit the wardrobe.

"You cannot take this!" she hissed, her breath coming in short gasps. "This is mine. It is my dowry. It is my insurance!"

Carlos took a step toward her, his face darkening. "I am your husband. What is yours is mine. I have debts, Ashlyn. Debts that cannot wait."

Ashlyn looked at him. She saw the desperation in his eyes. She knew what those debts were. Gambling. Women. The bottomless pit of his vices. If she gave him this necklace, it would be gone in a night, lost on a card table or spent on a dancer at a pleasure house. And then he would come back for the earrings. Then the bracelets. Until she had nothing.

She had to stop him. But she couldn’t fight him physically; he was stronger. She had to fight him the way she knew best—with manipulation. She had to redirect his hunger.

She took a deep breath, forcing her racing heart to slow. She lowered the necklace, though she kept her grip on it tight. She looked at him, changing her expression from fear to a calculating, supportive intensity.

"Carlos," she said, her voice dropping to a serious, urgent whisper. "Listen to me. Since there is no allowance, throwing money into a pit won’t save us. You need to stop." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Stop?" he scoffed. "I need money to live!"

"Try going out less," she said firmly. She walked back toward him, sounding like a partner. "Stop the gambling. Stop the drinking. Those things are beneath you."

She reached out and placed a hand on his chest. He tried to pull away, but she held him.

"Focus instead on how to beat your brother," she said, looking deep into his eyes. "Focus on how to take the Grand Duke title."

Carlos blinked. The sheer audacity of her words stunned him into silence. He looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice losing some of its aggression.

Ashlyn smiled. It was a slow, dangerous smile. This was her advantage. She had lived this life before. She knew how the power in the kingdom worked. In her past life, Derek had remained the Grand Duke because he held the military power. And Carlos somehow managed to take it from him, collecting both his title and army, making Marissa the Grand Duchess.