My Disfigured Duke Husband Helps Me Plot My Revenge
Chapter 133: Every Emotion All at Once

Chapter 133: Every Emotion All at Once

Leonor’s hands began shaking at the evidence in front of her.

"Excuse me, sir," she requested, trying to keep her voice from trembling. "You said these were the duke’s items?"

"Yes, your grace," he said. "He told us to pay special attention to items that meant so much to him during the long years at battle."

"Very good," she managed. "Please, excuse me."

Trembling, she folded up the cloak and held it to her chest as she escaped the gaze of her husband’s men.

She stumbled up the stone stairs and into the front of the estate. Gideon, who walked out of the large front entrance, asked if something was the matter and Leonor shook her head.

"I- I just feel a bit sick," she admitted, clutching the cloak more tightly. "Please, let me rest for a while. I would like to be left alone."

Paranoia surged through Gideon as he observed the duchess’ behavior and the item she was holding protectively in her arms. She had been doing so well and didn’t know what could have upset her to such an extent.

Her face was pale as if she had seen a ghost.

Considering the tower of secrets between the duke and duchess, Gideon was always in fear of her finding out the truth in an unsavory way. It was a truth he and King Stephano both tried to force Desmond to tell her, but they knew he couldn’t be forced when paranoia lived inside of him.

It was only Leonor who could bring the truth out of him. They seemed closer than ever before and he thought it may happen soon.

Gideon had to attend to the items being brought to the front entrance so he couldn’t check on the duchess at that moment. He asked a maid to check on her, expressing his concern for her condition.

He didn’t witness her barely make it to her chambers with a hand over her mouth as her heart and mind fired off many different thoughts and feelings at once.

She managed to get inside and slam the door behind her, although she didn’t make it far and leaned against the door. The cloak was tossed onto the floor and she stared at it with watery eyes. Overcome with a multitude of heavy feelings, she slid to the floor with her hands firmly over her mouth.

A scream threatened to escape if she didn’t keep her hands there.

The evidence was laid out before her and something she didn’t imagine was possible came to light. She still didn’t know if she could believe it.

Was her perception of the world so skewed she believed Desmond and Valerio could perhaps be the same person?

The moment her small hand left her lips, one name slipped out and all the anguish she had been holding onto came out with it.

"Valerio," she gasped and her stomach clenched as if even saying his name was a curse she didn’t want to be struck by.

When he didn’t return from war, she was in physical pain at the thought of never seeing him again. It had shaken the very core of her being. From that point forward she was different.

Yet she held on.

Leonor thought of him returning to her a broken man from all he likely saw and went through in battle. She wanted to be the one he held onto through sleepless nights and readjusted to a calmer existence.

She daydreamed of the comfortable life she could give him when she was Countess von Burien.

That title had been unfairly ripped from her fingers. She thought it was her who failed Valerio and yet...

Had he been there the whole time?

Desmond: the closed-off man who never revealed too much to her.

There were a lucky few moments when she could see him smile. Even a few times he held her gaze for more than a second or two because he was finally warming up to her. In both of those moments, she always sensed Valerio. She thought she was delusional because of how much she missed the man of her past.

Desmond’s whisper, the part of his mouth that could still smile, his scent, and when he finally broke his promise never to touch her as he gave her a hug that filled up her entire world and left her with no one else but him.

She shared hugs like that with Valerio.

However, his eye was wrong. His name was wrong. His cynicism was not lighthearted Valerio’s, but she wasn’t the same as when they last saw one another either.

As she hugged herself, feeling like tears were stuck in the back of her throat and behind her eyes, her feet didn’t stop moving and she kicked them while she tried not to sob. She couldn’t bring herself to cry because of how angry she was.

Did he plan to lie to her the entire time they were together?

A dry sob finally fell from her lips. It felt like she had been punched in the gut.

Was it possible that the person she was starting to love was the same as the one she loved in the past? He knew everything about her already.

Things lined up perfectly yet they didn’t make sense whatsoever.

In a scramble, Leonor pulled herself up from the floor and went to a sitting table between the large windows lining the southwestern wall of her room. She had papers to write letters but hadn’t used them often except to communicate with Francia.

She didn’t care about any rules. The situation felt improper so she would behave accordingly.

On a page she scrawled, "You knew and you lied".

She instilled the paper with protective magic and she rolled it up.

Even though she felt like the world around her was spinning, Leonor picked herself up once again and opened the door leading to her balcony. She only made it forward a few steps before she fell into the stone railing and buried her face in her arms. She stood on her knees and weakly extended one of her hands.

"You know where to take this," she said, her voice wavering.

Eve, who ran from inside the building, turned into a bird upon jumping in the air and took the letter from Leonor’s fingers.

The duchess only peered over her arms as she watched Eve leave and track down King Stephano.

With her familiar left Leonor’s willingness to control herself. She no longer had it in her to think logically.

She began to cry, letting out gut-wrenching sobs in a way she hadn’t done since she was a child.

She felt betrayed yet strange relief lived in her heart as well.

There wasn’t evidence outside of the cloak, but her instincts were screaming that she finally found an answer to all her pain.

She wanted to hate Desmond for lying but the love she had for Valerio and Desmond suddenly grew into a whole rather than two divided pieces.

Knowing how much pain she had been through in the past years because of seemingly one person, she knew she needed to hear what he had to say.

However, she couldn’t face him yet. She felt like every emotion known to man was living in her heart and mind at once.

Elation, hurt, madness, sadness, and love made her feel the world was far more beautiful than she could have ever imagined.

Pulling herself together, she got up and locked the door to her room.

That liar would have to work hard to make it up to her.

She was mad, justifiably so.

As she went to the couch Desmond hugged her in front of before he left, she sat down with a hand over her heart and glared at the tattered cloak lying on the floor.