Delphine Winters POV:

I stood in the shadows, a ghost at my own husband's homecoming feast. I watched as Erwin was surrounded by his family, Beryl clinging to his side like a frightened rabbit. The boy, Theo, was already perched on Matilda's lap, being fed a piece of dragon-flame baked pastry.

That should have been for the child I was never able to bear him—the child we might have had, had he ever truly come home to me. A sharp pain lanced through my chest, but I forced my face to remain a mask of indifference.

Finally, Erwin broke away from the crowd and walked toward me, holding two goblets. They were made of dragon-crystal, shimmering in the firelight, vessels only dragon-kin nobility were permitted to use. He offered one to me.

I didn't take it. "I'm not thirsty, Lord Ward."

His face hardened. "Delphine, we need to talk."

"I think we have nothing to talk about." I turned to leave.

He grabbed my wrist. His hand was hot, like a brand. "Don't be like this."

I looked down at his grip, my voice dripping with ice. "Please let go. Your partner is waiting for you."

Erwin took a deep breath, his voice low and urgent. "Beryl and Theo will be living here now. I need you to give them the Lakeview Pavilion."

The Lakeview Pavilion. The most beautiful, spacious residence on the entire estate. By tradition, it was the home of the lady of House Ward. I had lived there for five years. Now he was asking me to give it to another woman.

I laughed. It was a soft, brittle sound. "Of course. It won't be my place for much longer anyway."

He stared at me, stunned by my easy agreement, completely missing the meaning behind my words.

I pulled my arm from his grasp, not giving him another glance, and walked toward the corridor that led to my own residence, the Azure Pavilion. I could feel his gaze burning into my back, but I didn't turn around. The moment he walked through that door with her, everything between us had turned to ash.

When I reached my rooms, my maids, Clara and Mina, were waiting anxiously.

"My lady," Clara whispered, her eyes red. "They are too cruel!"

I sank wearily into a chair as Mina poured me a cup of hot tea. "It's useless to say that now."

"So we just accept it?" Mina asked, her voice tight with indignation.

"Of course not," I said, lifting the cup and watching the steam curl into the air. "But not now."

My plan would require time. Patience. And the perfect moment.

A hurried knock came at the door. It was Erwin's personal manservant.

"My lady," the servant panted. "Lady Eleanor has requested Lord Ward's presence. The lord is... in a temper. But he asked me to inform you that he is coming to your court."

I raised an eyebrow. Erwin, coming here? Forced by his mother, no doubt.

A few moments later, I heard his heavy footsteps. He hesitated outside my door before finally pushing it open. He had changed out of his uniform and into a casual tunic embroidered with the red-gold dragon of his house. It made him look less like a soldier and more like a man consumed by irritation.

He waved my maids away, leaving us alone.

He didn't look at me, pacing to the window instead. "My mother sent me to explain."

"Explain what?" I asked, my voice flat. "How you found 'true love' on the battlefield? Or how you can live comfortably on my family's wealth while supporting a mistress and child elsewhere?"

He spun around, his face a mask of fury at being so accurately called out. "It's not like that! Beryl..."

He bit back his words, the anger dissolving into a frustrated sigh. "Delphine, I know I owe you. But you can't deny there's been no affection between us for a long time."

"So that's your excuse for betrayal?" I scoffed.

He had no answer, only pacing the room like a caged beast.

This was all going as I'd predicted. Eleanor, that clever woman, knew where the lifeblood of House Ward truly lay. She was afraid I would cut off the funds in a fit of anger, so she forced her selfish son to come here and offer false comfort.

A pity for them. It was too late. My heart had died the moment I saw that woman.

Erwin finally stopped pacing. He stood before me, reaching for my hand. I pulled it away.

"Delphine," he said, his voice strained. "Just give me some time. I'll handle this."

Delphine Winters POV:

I watched Erwin's hand freeze in mid-air. A flicker of hurt crossed his face, but it stirred no sympathy in me.

"Handle this?" I repeated, my voice laced with undisguised mockery. "Is your way of handling this to ask me to give the mistress's residence to your lover?"

His expression turned ugly, a mixture of guilt and impatience. "Delphine, it's different! Beryl... she saved my life!"

He finally said it. The great, noble reason.

"In the Blackwood of the North," he began, his voice low and colored with memory, "I was ambushed by enemy dragon-fire. My Dragon Core was nearly shattered. The burns of enemy flame could not be healed by any herb in the borderlands, and my shattered guards lay dead around me. I should have died in that snow. But Beryl—a Dragonless woman with nothing—found me bleeding and burning, and she refused to let me die. She dragged me back from the brink and kept me alive for three months."

He did not say it, but I understood what he was leaving out: a common herb gatherer could not heal a wound of dragon-fire. What Beryl had saved was his body—the fever, the bleeding, the broken bones of a fallen dragon. The rest, the Dragon Core he said was "nearly" shattered, his own dragon's constitution must have clawed back from the edge on its own, slowly, over those three months. She had kept him alive long enough for his soul to survive. That was the debt he owed her—not a cure, but a life.

I listened silently. I listened as he described her bravery, her gentleness. I listened to the undisguised love in his voice.

Every word was a shard of ice driving into my heart. And then I realized my heart was already numb. I couldn't even feel the pain anymore.

"So, to repay her for saving your life, you destroy our five-year marriage? You destroy my five years of waiting?" I asked calmly.

"I'm not destroying it!" he retorted, his voice rising. "I can take her as my second partner! Delphine, among dragon-kin, a lord may take more than one partner—this is permitted!"

"Permitted is not the same as normal." I cut him off. "It is a rare thing, and a shameful one, and it is not normal. Not for me."

"It's not up to you!" His patience finally snapped. He pulled a scroll from his tunic and threw it on the table.

It was bound in black leather, stamped with the golden sigil of the Dragon God. I recognized it. A command from the Dragon King.

"A co-partner must be entered into the bloodline registry—it touches the succession and the inheritance of my house—so I have already petitioned the King and received his permission," he announced, his voice dripping with condescension, trying to crush me with the weight of royal authority. "By this decree, Beryl King will be a legal co-partner of House Ward, and Theo our registered firstborn."

I stared at the Dragon King's Command. It was a death sentence for my love, my dignity.

I started to laugh. I truly laughed, so hard that tears pricked my eyes.

Erwin was bewildered. "What are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing at myself, for being such a fool." I stopped, my gaze turning cold. "Erwin Ward, have you forgotten who pulled House Ward back from the brink of bankruptcy five years ago?"

"Who filled your empty vaults with chests of Winters family gold? Whose dowry allowed you to maintain the facade of a Dragon Lord, to afford to even go to that damned war?"

Every question I fired made his face grow paler.

"I bought your family's honor with my family's wealth. And what did I get in return? I waited for five years like a widow, only for you to bring home a pregnant mistress and an illegitimate son, and to use a royal command to tell me I must share my husband!"

My voice grew louder, five years of humiliation and rage pouring out of me.

"You are using my money to raise your lover and your bastard, and you expect me to be grateful for the arrangement? Erwin Ward, is your face made of dragon scales?"

He staggered back under the force of my words, his face a mottled mess of red and white. He couldn't form a single sentence.

"Delphine, I..."

"Get out," I said, pointing to the door. My voice was quiet, but it held the unshakeable force of a final judgment.

He stared at me, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief. In his mind, I had always been the docile, obedient wife.

We locked eyes, the air crackling with tension.

This was the first time in our five years of marriage that we had truly fought. And it was the first time I had ever told him to get out.

He looked like he wanted to argue, but I just turned my back on him, a gesture of final dismissal.

Another word from him would make me sick.

Finally, he stormed out, slamming the door so hard the windows rattled in their frames.

The room fell into a dead silence. I slowly sank to the floor, a deep chill seeping into my bones.

Clara and Mina rushed in, helping me to my feet.

"My lady, are you alright?"

I shook my head, steadying myself on the table. The Dragon King's Command lay there like a venomous snake, its golden sigil mocking me. The break was complete. It had already begun.