ONE NIGHT STAND WITH HOT DUKE-Chapter 188: I will not forget everything

Demian turned slowly.

His gaze was sharp, cold and for the first time that night, unmistakably angry, no longer restrained.

"My position?" he repeated softly, as though tasting the word.

Ivanka nodded sharply. "Yes. My position. You can’t cast me aside for a woman who chose to leave you. Everyone saw how you abandoned me, how I was humiliated. Do you know what they say about me?"

She let out a short, nearly hysterical laugh. "That I’m a rejected wife. An unwanted duchess. A woman who couldn’t even make her husband stay on their first night."

Vedseel released a quiet breath, clearly impatient, but he remained silent. This was not his concern at least, not yet.

Demian stepped closer.

With every step, Ivanka was pushed further back, though she still tried to stand her ground.

"You want me to understand your position?" Demian asked lowly. "Very well."

He stopped directly in front of her.

"You forced me into marriage under the pretense of death. You and your father hid the truth, manipulated the situation, even tried to bind me with magic."

Ivanka opened her mouth, but Demian did not allow her to speak.

"And now," he continued, his voice hardening, "you stand here, blocking me from searching for the woman who left because of all that."

Ivanka’s face drained of color. "She left because she was weak," she said quickly, desperately. "Because she couldn’t accept the fact that you were married. She chose to run, Demian. I chose to stay."

"No," Demian countered coldly. "She left because I failed to protect her."

The words silenced Ivanka for a moment.

Then her eyes reddened.

"And what about me?" she asked, her voice breaking. "What am I to you? A tool? A mistake? Do you think I’m not afraid of dying? Do you think it’s easy living in a body that’s called fragile, with a future always hanging on other people’s mercy?"

She stepped closer again, this time almost pleading. "I just want you to see me. To acknowledge me. To forget the past and live with me. We could be happy—"

"Enough."

The single word was spoken louder.

Demian’s aura shifted violently. The pressure radiating from him made the air feel suffocating. Even Vedseel instinctively raised a hand, restraining the residual magic so it would not react.

"Listen to me carefully," Demian said, his voice low and dangerous. "I will not live happily on a lie. And I will not forget Valerie."

He looked Ivanka straight in the eyes.

"If you still have even a shred of dignity, step aside. Do not force me to see you as an obstacle instead of a wife."

Ivanka trembled.

Tears streamed down her face, but something darker now mixed in her gaze fear and fury entwined.

"You’ll regret this," she whispered. "If you keep going like this, you’ll lose everything."

Demian did not blink."No," he replied coldly. "I already lost everything when Valerie left."

Silence fell heavily between them.

At last, Vedseel stepped forward half a pace, his voice flat but sharp. "If you do not leave now, Duchess, this ritual will fail. And if that happens I cannot guarantee what will happen to you."

Ivanka glanced at him, then looked back at Demian.

For several seconds, she seemed on the verge of saying something more. But finally, her breath broken and her body shaking, she turned away.

Her gown whispered as she walked no longer graceful, no longer confident.

The door closed behind her.

Demian did not look back.

He turned instead toward the ritual circle.

"Continue," he said to Vedseel, his voice cold and resolute. "I don’t care who tries to stop me."

Vedseel nodded slowly.

The magic stirred once more.

And far away, in a place no longer part of this territory, a woman unknowingly tightened her grip around her stomach while the thread of fate was pulled ever tighter, drawing together two wills that both refused to lose.

The blue fire within the magic circle suddenly trembled violently.

Vedseel, who had been concentrating his energy, immediately sensed something was wrong not because his incantation had faltered, not because Valerie’s trace had vanished but because of interference.

Ivanka.

She had not truly left.

Behind the door, unnoticed by them, she crushed something in her hand a small pendant given to her by her family’s elder. Not powerful magic. Not a forbidden ritual. Just a simple ward... enough to disrupt concentration.

And that was enough.

The magic circle cracked.

Green light split into wild sparks, the symbols on the floor flaring briefly before burning out. Wind roared inside the chamber, snuffing out the candles one by one.

Vedseel staggered back. "It’s been interrupted!"

Too late.

A small explosion of energy shook the floor. Ash scattered. The ritual circle shattered completely.

Demian turned sharply.

The door stood half open. And there Ivanka stood, pale-faced, breathing hard. The pendant slipped from her hand and clattered against the stone floor.

For a fraction of a second, there was no sound.

Then the anger detonated.

Demian moved far faster than Ivanka could evade. His hand clamped around her wrist mercilessly.

"You dare," he said, his voice low, nearly inaudible yet all the more terrifying for it.

"I was only," Ivanka tried to speak, but her words cut off as Demian dragged her out of the ritual chamber.

His steps were harsh. He did not care about the gown scraping along the floor, nor the soft cries Ivanka let out as she tried to free herself.

Vedseel stood still for a few seconds, then followed to the doorway.

"Shall we continue?" he asked flatly, as if what had just happened were merely a minor technical inconvenience.

Demian stopped in the long corridor of the castle, still gripping Ivanka’s wrist. His eyes were dark, darker than the night.

"Postpone it," he replied coldly.

He released her with a hard shove. She stumbled, nearly falling.

"Get out of my sight," he said.

Ivanka stared at him, her face wet with tears. "I only didn’t want you obsessing over that woman! I’m your wife !"

"Silence."

That single word was enough to freeze the entire corridor.

"What you just did," Demian continued quietly, but laden with threat, "was not the act of a wife. It was the act of someone obstructing my command."

Ivanka trembled.

Demian turned away without looking at her again.

"Guards!" he called sharply.

Footsteps rushed closer. The castle guards bowed.

"Confine the Duchess to the east wing. No permission to leave. No visitors."

Ivanka stared at him in disbelief. "Demian, you can’t!"