My Fiancé Betrayed Me With My Best Friend — So A Duke Claimed Me In Public
Part 1
The heavy oak door of the library stood slightly ajar, spilling a thin slice of gaslight onto the corridor’s patterned carpet.
I smoothed the silk of my pale blue gown and stepped closer, expecting to find my fiancé securing another of his endless business investments.
Instead, I heard the unmistakable sound of a woman weeping softly in the shadows.
I held my breath, pressing my shoulder against the wall as the voices drifted through the crack.
Craig spoke first, his tone carrying that familiar, polished arrogance he usually reserved for his inferiors.
“We cannot continue meeting like this, Brenda, not with the wedding only weeks away.”
My stomach twisted violently at the sound of my best friend’s name on his lips.
Brenda sniffled, her silhouette barely visible as she stepped into the sliver of light.
“It isn’t fair to Megan.”
Her words sounded hollow, entirely devoid of the fierce loyalty she had sworn to me since childhood.
Craig laughed quietly, a dry sound that scraped against my nerves.
“Since when has fairness been a consideration in matters of marriage?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, my fingernails biting into my palms as he casually dismissed our engagement.
“My arrangement with Megan is purely business, a stepping stone to her father’s trading connections.”
Brenda stepped closer to him, her hands resting flat against his waistcoat.
“And what of love?”
“Love is for fools and poets,” Craig murmured, leaning down to brush his lips against her temple.
“But if you insist on such sentiments, know that you alone hold my heart.”
The air vanished from my lungs.
I had never expected a grand romance from our union, but to hear him discard me so coldly to the woman I trusted most was a cruelty I could barely process.
My first instinct was to turn and flee, to preserve whatever dignity I still possessed.
Instead, a strange, icy calm settled over me.
I pushed the door open, letting it swing wide so the hallway light illuminated their embrace.
They sprang apart instantly, Craig’s hand falling awkwardly from Brenda’s waist.
“Megan,” Brenda gasped, her face draining of color.
“Please don’t insult me with excuses,” I said, my voice shockingly steady.
Craig straightened his coat, quickly reassembling his mask of aristocratic indifference.
“You’re making a scene over nothing, Megan.”
I stared at the man I was supposed to marry, finally seeing him without the veneer of proper society.
“I heard everything, Craig.”
A flicker of genuine annoyance crossed his features.
“Marriage among our class is about advantage, not sentiment.”
He took a step toward me, adopting a patronizing tone.
“I thought you understood our arrangement.”
“I understood we had an agreement,” I replied, forcing myself to hold his gaze.
“What I did not agree to was humiliation.”
Brenda took a hesitant step forward, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“It just happened, Megan.”
“How long?” I asked, refusing to look at her.
When neither answered, I stepped fully into the room.
“How long have you been deceiving me?”
“Six months,” Craig admitted callously, abandoning any pretense of regret.
Half a year of lies, of Brenda listening to my wedding anxieties while secretly meeting my fiancé.
The suffocating weight of their betrayal finally pushed me backward into the hall.
I turned and walked away, ignoring Brenda calling my name.
I navigated the crowded ballroom like a ghost, keeping my spine perfectly straight despite the trembling in my knees.
When I finally reached the sanctuary of the garden, the cool night air hit my flushed skin.
I leaned against a stone balustrade, fighting the tightness in my chest as the reality of my ruined future sank in.
By tomorrow, I would be the jilted bride, pitied and whispered about in every drawing room in London.
“You seem genuinely distressed.”
I turned sharply, finding a tall figure stepping from the shadows of the garden path.
Dan, the Duke of Ashford, regarded me with a quiet intensity that commanded immediate attention.
He was a man who notoriously avoided society, yet here he stood, observing my unraveling.
I quickly wiped my cheeks, offering a stiff curtsy.
“Forgive me, Your Grace, I didn’t realize anyone else was out here.”
“No apology needed,” he replied, his voice gentler than his formidable reputation suggested.
He stepped closer, the garden lanterns casting sharp angles across his face.
“It’s more than mere social fatigue, I think.”
Something in his direct, uncompromising gaze broke through my defenses.
“I’ve just discovered that my fiancé and my dearest friend have been involved for months,” I confessed.
I fully expected a polite, awkward retreat.
Instead, Dan moved to stand beside me, looking out over the manicured grounds.
“The true cowardice lies with them, Megan.”
His unexpected validation loosened the knot in my throat.
“Nevertheless, I shall be the one bearing the brunt of the scandal.”
He remained silent for a long moment, his gray eyes calculating.
“Scandal can be redirected,” he said finally.
I frowned, unsure of his meaning.
“What narrative could possibly overshadow this humiliation?”
A sharp, predatory light entered his eyes.
“What if, instead of the abandoned fiancé, you became the woman who caught the interest of a duke?”
I stared at him, my mind struggling to process his proposition.
“Allow me to escort you back into that ballroom,” he continued smoothly.
“I shall make it clear to all present that I find your company preferable to any other.”
He extended his hand toward me, offering a lifeline wrapped in scandal.
“What say you, Megan?”
I looked from his gloved hand back toward the brilliantly lit windows of the ballroom.
I placed my hand in his, ready to turn my greatest humiliation into his absolute ruin.
