The Common Way to Ruin a Life - Chapter 29 🔞

Even after returning victorious from the wager, the aftertaste was anything but pleasant. The moment he arrived at the estate, Dominic headed straight for the third floor.

The Crown Prince might appear carefree at first glance, but he was a man who understood the weight of his own position. Dominic knew better than to dismiss his words as idle gossip. If the Crown Prince had deemed the rumors worth mentioning, they couldn’t simply be ignored.

So the first person he sought out was his sister.

“What?”

Appearing in the sitting room with her usual expressionless face, Chloe took a seat on the sofa opposite him.

He had spent the entire ride home steeling himself, determined that it was time to be stricter with her. Yet the moment he actually saw her, his resolve softened all over again.

Come to think of it, not even their father had ever once raised his voice at his youngest child. And until her dying breath, their mother had worried only for her little girl.

Standing before the graves of his parents, buried barely a month apart, Dominic had made a solemn vow. No matter what happened, his little sister would always come first.

His decision to postpone marriage stemmed from that very promise. He wanted to look after her until she gradually became comfortable in society, and until the day she married someone worthy of her. Until then, he intended to remain the steadfast support at her back.

And yet, to think that he was the one tarnishing her reputation. This was exactly why he despised living a life that required him to worry about every little thing.

“I’ve already spoken to Mrs. Lidden. The two of you will discuss it and arrange a tea party as soon as possible.”

Tilting her head slightly, Chloe stared at Dominic. Her narrowed eyes plainly conveyed her displeasure.

“Out of nowhere?”

“I told you before. It’s time you started participating in society.”

“I already said I don’t want to.”

“Chloe.”

The weight in the way he spoke her name made Chloe press her lips together. After a brief sigh broke the silence, Dominic continued.

“I know being around strangers makes you uncomfortable. It’s not that I don’t understand how you feel. But you can’t spend all your time with Miss Vanderberg. You’re at an age where you should be associating with young ladies of your own standing—”

“Brother.”

Chloe abruptly cut him off, never once taking her eyes off him.

“Do you dislike Miss Irene?”

Without so much as a single blink, Dominic hid his unease and lied nonchalantly.

“I have no reason to dislike Miss Vanderberg, do I?”

“Then I’m going to do what Miss Irene said. I don’t need social engagements yet. When I do, I’ll put myself out there. So stop trying to push me.”

So that cunning, perverted psychopath really was standing in the way of his sister’s future.

Back in his study, Dominic drew a slow, deep breath to quell the anger surging inside him before summoning the head butler.

Carefully gauging the mood of his master whose clothes still carried the faint scent of gunpowder, Benjamin bowed.

“I need to speak with Miss Vanderberg. Bring her here immediately.”

“…Right away, Your Grace?”

Benjamin looked at Dominic in puzzlement. The duke hadn’t even changed out of his clothes after returning from the hunt.

For a fleeting moment, he wondered whether it was wise to bring the governess before a master who looked thoroughly irritated with the world. In the end, however, he had little choice but to obey.

Once the butler had left the study, Dominic raked a hand roughly through his hair and let out a long sigh laden with conflicting emotions.

Ever since confronting Irene Vanderberg a few days earlier, he had made a deliberate effort not to think about her. If he were honest, a part of him had been avoiding the issue altogether.

At the time, he’d been too dumbfounded and exasperated to process it properly. But after the initial storm of emotions had settled, an odd feeling had remained.

It was an unfamiliar sensation, an unease and discomfort that he couldn’t quite put a name to. Dominic Whitmore had never encountered anyone like her in his life.

The people who approached him were, for the most part, transparent. Their motives were easy enough to read.

Of course, there had been people whose outward appearances differed from what lay beneath. But none of them had been as shocking as Irene Vanderberg. As for the army, that was another story entirely. It had been full of simple-minded brutes.

Yet that woman wore such a gentle, innocent face while harboring thoroughly antisocial thoughts.

And where had the dignity expected of a governess gone? She indulged in lurid stories so obscene that they were beyond anything he could have imagined — a woman completely captivated by ever-stronger stimulation.

Dominic still couldn’t erase the contents of that coverless novel he’d skimmed from his mind.

Scarlett, already gasping with one man’s hard cxck buried deep inside her, still seemed insatiable. She roughly pulled another man’s powerful thigh between her legs.

“Ah… One isn’t enough. Please… both of you at once. Fill me completely!”

At her shameless, lewd plea, the two men abandoned all reason. Growling like beasts, they mercilessly drove their overwhelming desire into her tight, little cxnt together.

The passage had been so vulgar it was almost absurd. So that pervert had read things like this… and then dreamed about him…

She was insignificant. Truly insignificant. And yet, for some reason, his thoughts kept drifting back to her, forcing him to make a conscious effort to ignore her.

Whatever his personal feelings, though, if it was for his sister’s future, he needed that woman’s cooperation.

It left a bad taste in his mouth, but he would give her what she wanted. In return, he would make one condition: she had to persuade Chloe.

That was the plan. But then—

“I’d like this week to be my last.”

Standing with her hands neatly folded before her, Irene Vanderberg quietly submitted her resignation.