Chapter 45
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Anne looked at herself in the mirror. Skin dulled from running around late into the night, and dark circles hollowing her eyes. Even to her own eyes, her appearance drew a sigh.
A maid hurriedly patted powder over her face. Anne tilted her head back, her neck heavy.
“Take your time.”
“Yes, Young Miss.”
The maid answered quickly, but her hands trembled slightly. It was understandable. The prince was waiting downstairs, and he had nearly caused a scene, demanding that Anne Agnes be brought to him immediately.
“Break off the engagement? Who decided that. Bring Anne Agnes here right now.”
His voice had been so loud that even Anne, upstairs, had heard it. The queen had already decided on canceling the engagement, but it seemed Logan had only learned of it today.
She had thought that even if he wasn’t pleased, he would accept it calmly. Instead, he was raging like a man betrayed by his lover.
Was he angry because he felt humiliated? Honestly, she might have reacted the same way if she was in his position.
In any case, Anne intended to take her time on purpose. He must have heard the rumors about the parties, so she might as well make him lose even more of his respect for her. It would be even better if he became furious enough to simply leave.
Another maid brought out a dress.
“Would you like to wear this one?”
“Sure.”
Anne answered without even looking at it. She had no intention of trying to look good for him, so it didn’t matter what she wore. Instead, she was thinking about how to drive the final nail into the broken engagement. If only she could wear something blatantly vulgar, but unfortunately she hadn’t prepared anything like that.
She continued getting ready at a leisurely pace, when suddenly there was a commotion outside. Anne’s gaze naturally turned toward the closed door.
At that moment, the door burst open.
“The Young Miss is still preparing…!”
Logan shook off the butler who was trying to stop him and stormed into the room. The maids gasped and quickly formed a wall around Anne. But Anne herself remained calm, standing in nothing but a thin underdress.
Logan strode straight toward the dressing table. The prince and the ducal lady faced each other. The maids didn’t know what to do. Anne spoke calmly.
“Everyone, leave.”
“Young Miss…”
The maids’ voices trembled. Even if he was still her fiancé, they couldn’t leave their half-dressed lady alone with a man.
But Logan wasn’t even aware of Anne’s state of dress right now, and Anne felt the same. She gave a small nod.
“It’s fine. Go.”
After hesitating, the maids slowly left the room. Anne turned slightly to face Logan. But the gaze she directed at him was cold as stone.
“Your Highness.”
Her voice was flat. Logan suddenly felt uneasy. Had Anne Agnes’s heart completely turned away from him? No, it would be more accurate to say she had never given it to him in the first place.
Rubbing his face roughly, he spoke hastily.
“There are strange rumors going around…”
“They’re not rumors.”
Anne cut him off sharply. Whatever he had heard or seen, it was all true.
For a moment, emotion surged in Logan. All the way here, he had suppressed and suppressed his rising feelings, but at last, they burst out as he demanded in an agitated voice,
“Why did you do that? Do you hate the idea of marrying me that much?”
“Yes.”
The expression disappeared from Logan’s face. Anne stood up. The slender lines of her body showed faintly through the thin fabric. Logan was horrified at himself when his gaze dropped.
Ignoring his reaction, Anne continued.
“Now that it’s right in front of me, I realized I really don’t want to do it. But I told you before. I can’t break the engagement from my side.”
Logan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The ground beneath him suddenly felt dark. He was reminded of that night. When he had spoken of breaking the engagement, had Anne Agnes felt like this? No, probably not. Even then, she hadn’t wanted to keep the engagement, she had only wanted to avoid taking responsibility for the breakup. To protect her family.
Looking straight at him, Anne spoke firmly, as if driving in a nail.
“So please do it. Break the engagement.”
Logan drew in a deep breath. In the end, the words he had once spoken had come back to him exactly. But the situation was completely different now. Logan no longer wanted to break the engagement. Not only that, he had been indulging in his own private fantasies.
In the end, he once again resorted to bringing up her weakness.
“Did you forget who I was injured because of?”
Anne snorted. That kind of threat wouldn’t work anymore. Thinking about that night, it didn’t seem likely that he had any real problems with his body. At most, his originally excessive stamina had only dropped to a normal level.
“But there’s no problem, is there?”
From Anne’s perspective, she couldn’t understand why he was acting like this. He might be angry that she hadn’t warned him beforehand, and it would certainly be embarrassing to become the subject of gossip for a while.
However, even if she had declared the breakup first as he had once wanted, the result would have been the same. The gossip would die down soon anyway.
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