Once morning rose, Suzette woke up before a maid even came in to attempt to and stretched her body, she turned to her nightstand to ring her bell when she saw a note, she could instantaneously tell that it was from Duke Theodore as it was his handwriting. She studied the note and she felt her face turn red into eventual panic.

            Where did I kiss him? My body feels okay so we didn't go any farther than that, right? Right??? Oh god, he wants to meet me--what if we did do that? I'll have absolutely no excuse to refuse him anymore--even though I did tell him that I'd marry him, but still, Her brain went into an over-thinking overdrive, once a maid entered, to them it looked like she had steam coming out of her ears.

            The maid suggested she take a bath first instead of eating, to check on her wounds from yesterday. Whatever medicine or disinfectant he seemed to use last night on her wounds seemed to have worked really well. The maid said aloud to herself that she should have the butler ask Duke Theodore and order some for the estate. After her bath was over, they re-bandaged her healing wounds and got her dressed. She was wearing a scarlet dress that covered most of her bosom, her sleeves ended with white ruffles and the red fabric split down the middle past her stomach and showed white ruffles as well. She didn't wear a choker today, but her hair was put up with a barrette that was decorated with red roses.

            She walked towards the dining hall, everyone was in attendance, including Duke Theodore, he smiled brightly as soon as she walked in. She gave him a nod as a greeting but she was more concerned about her sister's well-being. She seemed to be okay, thus far, but everyone couldn't help but feel like she was forcing herself to smile. They showed that they were there for her whenever she needed them as they didn't want to push an answer out of her before she was ready to talk about it.

            As Cynthia was sitting right next to Suzette, she leaned in to whisper, "Thia, the offer to borrow my novels is still open if you want."

            Cynthia smiled a bit weakly and nodded, at that moment, Suzette's heart felt like it was being crushed. Thia was so excited the day before yesterday to read them and she wished she could go back in time again to prevent this from ever happening to her. As she looked forward again, catching eye contact with Duke Theodore in the process.

            She ended up flushing red and looked back down at her plate again, That's not fair! Who said you could smile at me like that with those warm eyes! She could hear him chuckling at her reaction and then he continued talking to her father about business. Even though it seemed as if time stood still, breakfast past by before she knew it. She reminded herself of the note he left her and went to his guest room.

            She stood outside the door for a little while, a bit too nervous, she eventually knocked on the door. Once he answered the door, she couldn't tell at the table but he looked extremely tired, regardless of that he still greeted her warmly. Her eyes peered down and noticed he exposed his chest, it must've been too stuffy in the dining hall.

            "Are you okay?" At this point she was a bit concerned.

            He pressed his fingers to his temples, "It's just my insomnia, I'll be fine."

            Her eyes seemed pained by his confession, "You still can't sleep properly...?" Even when they were together there were times he was up all night, while they were both responsible for them, she wouldn't be surprised if most of the arguments came from irritability due to lack of sleep.

            "You know that only you can ease my ease my insomnia, I haven't really been able to sleep at all since you've left me." He grabbed her hand and kissed it tenderly.

            Ba-bump, ba-bump...

            "You still could barely sleep when I was there," She muttered. She tried to ignore her heart skipping a beat but her face was far too flushed for it to go unnoticed, she tried to change the subject, "What did you want to see me for?"

            "Let's...sit down first." He began, they sat down at the sofa in the room and his body language immediately changed, she wondered if he had more information from what happened yesterday, his face was looking too serious and grim, "This is...going to be a hard subject to swallow, but I want you to listen to everything I say before you react."

            His serious voice pulled her into another round of over-thinking, hesitantly she said, "O-okay..."

            He sighed and with a whisper to himself, "I'm glad we were able to save her this time..." He didn't expect her to hear him, but she did.

            "Thank you again for rescuing her, I don't remember anything like this happening before..." She bit her lip, immediately his face looked pained, like he was on the verge of tears.

            "You don't remember...because you blocked the memories of this incident. In our previous past...your sister had been kidnapped and murdered for resisting."

            Her face went into a state of shock and she started shaking, "N-no, t-that can't be t-true, it, it can't...!"

            He grabbed a hold of her shoulders and pulled her close to him, "I know it seems hard to believe and I understand you still need time to accept it, but this all happened. You were so traumatized by...the state she was left in...so you made yourself forget everything. You thought she was still alive and began to hallucinate her...you would...write her letters and be concerned when she wouldn't show up for meals...At my estate I had thought you were getting better...but, once we visited your parents it showed itself again. I tried my best to convince you, to break you away from that lie and let you heal but...it caused us to drift..."

            She could barely speak, "I, I--" her voice was shaking and cracking too much. She tried her best to think about the time before they came back and it just felt so unreal. Honestly, he didn't even want to tell her but he knew if she had found out later she'd probably never forgive him. A part of him was surprised she even reacted the way she did in the previous timeline, when he saw her visiting his grave he thought it was a rather ironic miracle. He half-expected her to hallucinate him as well.

            He continued to look down at her tenderly, "I would never lie to you. Back then and now, I still love you. It just hurts to see you constantly deceive yourself." Her brain still felt so confused that she couldn't keep up with what he was saying. Since she kept her silence, he continued, "Of course, it did happen earlier this time around, it was originally five months from now. At that time we were engaged and living together in my estate. Did anything happen to change recently...?"

            That made something click in her brain, "Well...the day before our meeting I was spending time with her in the garden, she was complaining about her tutor being mean, so I had offered to attend the class with her."

            "Hmm, that's suspicious, it's possible the tutor was in on it as their inside man. There also may be more spies in the estate's walls. I'll have my people look into it."

            Breathlessly, "Okay, thank you." A part of her still wanted to refuse that this was all real. Her sister had died once...? In the previous timeline, whenever she saw her after they were married she looked and felt so real. Suzette took some deep breaths, trying to calm herself and then he ended up kissing her tenderly on the forehead--this reminded her of the note, "I, the kiss, what did I...?"

            As soon as she asked him, his face was sly, "Were you worried about last night's kiss? As long as it's just me seeing your adorable side, I don't mind."

            The fact that he didn't explain the kiss still worried her, he continued his sly act and nibbled on her ear, "Hey! That's--! Mm, we...didn't do anything else...right?"

            He smiled down at her again, kissing her hair, "You mean...something like this...?"

            He gently pushed her underneath him on the sofa, though he would've preferred the bed as it was more spacious. Her heart was racing and her body began to quiver in anticipation. He kissed her cheek and even though she expected more to come, his touch was gone as he pulled himself off her.

            She sat up with her heart racing as he was standing in front of the sofa fixing his wrinkled shirt. Once he turned back, her face seemed to be filled with expectation and disappointment, with a mischievous smile he countered her expectations, "I told you I would earn your love again. So once this investigation is over, let's go on an outing, just us two."

            Her heart was still ferociously beating as he walked towards the door, "It's time for me to start the interrogation, so I'll see you later."

            Immediately upon hearing this, she sprang up from the sofa, "Wait! Take me with you!"