"I have not come here as the Duchess," Eilika replied. "I am here simply as a daughter to you." She kept her gaze fixed on her father, waiting for the weight of her words to settle.
Wilfred and Susan exchanged a wary glance, their expressions caught between confusion and trepidation as they struggled to parse her intent.
"I know you harbored many expectations of me once I was married to the Duke," she began, her tone measured. "But you seem to have forgotten that there was once a man who taught me the very values I hold dear. You taught me to be honest and upright. You taught me never to resort to dishonorable means to win."
Wilfred looked away, a flicker of pained recognition crossing his features. Those were indeed his words from a different life, spoken before the relentless pressure of their circumstances had begun to erode his principles.
"It is all in the past," Wilfred murmured, his voice thick with resignation. "The world is full of nothing but corruption now."
