“A life where you have to call a man you loathe your husband forever… how pitiable.”

The gentle fingertips with which Francis once wiped the father’s face were now clamped around the daughter’s slender neck.

“No… ngh…”

Barbiena bowed her head, covering her face as she sobbed.

“Please let me go, Your Grace…”

But that trembling was only an act—to hide the pleasure slipping out between her clenched teeth.