Sera nodded at once. "Very well, Lady. We'll prepare it."
Once she was properly dressed, Valerie stood and walked back to the window this time stopping without opening the curtain.
Beneath her composed exterior was an awareness she could no longer deny:
Demian was not merely busy. And Ivanka was not merely paying a visit.
Yet, as always, Valerie chose silence.
Not because she did not care but because she was measuring just how much longer she could endure, carrying feelings she kept pressing down on her own.
Valerie had thought it was all over.
When Sera and Lira told her that Demian had left the castle on urgent business, Valerie truly believed that Ivanka had gone with him or at the very least, that she was no longer in the same place. Her chest felt a little lighter, just enough for her to decide to leave her room for a moment, to walk and clear her thoughts.
That calm shattered the moment she stepped into one of the castle's grand reception rooms.
