Page 116 of A Bride for the Duke of Sin

She had not been to any party with the Viscount at all, and in every other social affair she had attended, Ethan had always been by her side.

“Never mind,” she said, feeling ultimately drained as she shook off his hands once more. “I do not want to know.”

“Where are you going?” he asked as she turned to leave.

Phoebe paused with her hand on the doorknob as she looked at him over her shoulder.

“I will be at Scarlett’s,” she told him flatly. “If you truly are the father of Miss Delaney’s child, then please apologize to his mother on my behalf and take good care of him.” She gripped the doorknob and steeled herself for her next words. “You will need an heir, since I willneverlet you touch me again.”

Phoebe let out the sigh she had been holding in and finally allowed the tears she had been holding back to fall.

“Farewell, Ethan. I hope you have a happy life without me.”

Ethan groaned and sank onto the sofa, raking his hands through his hair before covering his face. Outside, he could hear the commotion of the carriage being prepared, valises being loaded.

Phoebe was leavinghim.

He could stop her. He could run down flights of stairs and holler at the servants to juststop, but what good would it do?

She would just load the carriage on her own and attempt to drive it if I dared to stop her.

There was a pause, and he walked to the window just as he saw her emerging from the front door with her maid, Ella. Even from his vantage point in his study, he could see how she walked with her back ramrod straight, her chin held up at a defiant angle.

Just before Ella could help her into the carriage, she looked up, and Ethan wanted to just call out to her. To tell her he had made a mistake and he wanted her back. Wanted her more than anything else in the world.

But would it be enough to make her stay? Would it make all the wrongs magically become right?

No, Ethan did not believe in magic—not since his mother passed away and he had had to live alone as the sole heir of the Duke of Sinclair.

But Phoebe had already turned her back to him and stepped into the carriage, and with her, she seemed to take all the happiness and light that had filled Sinclair Estate ever since she arrived.

Ethan heard a familiar knock on the door, but he could not turn away from the window. His eyes followed the carriage as it rolled down the tree-lined drive.

“Your Grace, the Duchess has already left.”

It was Morton, and despite the man’s neutral tone, Ethan could tell that the butler was most displeased at having to convey the news to him.

More than four decades of service and it was the first time Ethan had ever heard the faithful servant express displeasure at anything that did not involve dust on the mantelpiece.

“I can see that, Morton,” he muttered, his fingers gripping the windowpane as he watched the gates swing open and the carriage roll past it.

“Is there anything else you need, Your Grace?”

Phoebe. I want Phoebe back.

“No, Morton, that will be all. Thank you.”

The door closed behind the butler, and Ethan was left to wallow in his thoughts.

Alone, once more, just as he had always been.

CHAPTER 34

It was all over—for Phoebe, at least.

Her heart was broken. Her marriage was in shambles.

And she was currently sitting on one of her closest friends’ sofa, her tears like a leaky fountain, except there was nothing elegant or beautiful or artistic about it.

---