Faced with Smelian's taunts, Cecil was powerless to retort. He wasn't afraid of Duke Lu Xia ending their spousal relationship; what he couldn't defy were the oppressive constraints of Lady Daina and the authority of the Imperial Family.
It wasn't that he hadn't resisted, but his resistance had been fruitless. He had assumed that after ignoring him for so long, Duke Lu Xia would have long forgotten him. And while she hadn't come looking for him, his mother, unfortunately, remembered the matter all too well, giving him absolutely no chance of escape.
The freedom he had enjoyed these past days now felt as if it had all been stolen.
Standing here now, forced back to reality, made him exceptionally irritable.
Smelian, of course, knew what his situation was. Even with their different family backgrounds, the shackles they both bore were the same.
