The Return of the Luna Duchess

01 Last Breath

It's hot.

Despite being in a location that is known to be the breeziest on the estate, I still feel like I'm being suffocated by the early morning heat.

What's worse is that it's not even close to noon yet and I feel like I'm melting already. It also doesn't help that I am not alone in the garden and that my companions are chatting up a storm around me and it only makes me more irritated.

However, I can't show them my frustration. As a matter of fact, I can't show anyone any of my emotions.

I learned the hard way that I have to control my facial expressions in order to prevent my enemies from using those against me.

Finishing off my tea, I settle my teacup on the table and wait for a maid to notice and refill my drink.

We're currently in the pavilion found in the private gardens in the von Hansen duchy. A tea party is being hosted right now, hosted by none other than the Duchess von Hansen.

To be perfectly honest, I really abhor these kinds of gathering. If I had my way, I wanted to just get up and go, leave everything behind and escape this hellish place and this hellish life altogether.

But...I can't.

As much as I want to do just that, I can feel the gazes boring in on me. Gazes that haunted my whole life since Mother died. The same gazes that I feel making a hole into my being since I married.

His terrifying gaze...

Flash!

I squint a little when the angry glare of the sun's rays reflects from the spoon of one of the ladies, derailing my train of thought.

The good news is that it made me stop thinking about the despair and hopelessness dogging my every step in life as well as stopping those...gazes coming my way.

However, the bad news is that it brought me back to my senses and I can feel the heat and weight of everything else bearing down on me.

With a sigh, I grab my teacup before me when a maid finally came in and refilled it. I pause, the cup pausing halfway toward my lips, and looked up at the sky, ignoring the nonsensical chatter around me.

Indeed...the day is unbearably hot today but it didn't stop the women around me from dressing to the nines and decking themselves to the fullest.

With their puffy sleeves and layers on top of layers of fabric, with each dress more glamorous and fabulous than the last one, these ladies are here to show that they are superior to the rest.

However, all of their efforts are in vain.

Because...not to toot my own horn, but I believe that I am the one hoarding the spotlight and am the one calling the shots in this little show.

And not because I have the most glamorous and the most fetching gown here at this tea party. It's more because of my identity, who is actually...

"Oh, Duchess von Hansen, that lovely pearl necklace you have on is very beautiful!" One of the ladies gushes in fake exuberance at me.

"Oh my, yes, yes, Duchess von Hansen. Is that a gift from your husband?" another one adds.

The first woman gasps. "Wait, no, pardon me, Duchess. I must have made a mistake. I forgot that the Duke is neglecting you and those pearls are probably from someone else, right? I heard that it was someone from one of the cheap brothels in the seedy parts of town. My apologies."

After that, the women giggle amongst themselves.

With a sigh, I set my teacup down and stared at the women surrounding me.

Yes. I am actually the Duchess von Hansen of the Dukedom of von Hansen. That meant that I was also the host of this tea party. Additionally, I am aware that they are mocking me right in front of my face.

It was more than obvious.

How could mere nobles, who are leagues lower in status than mine, mock someone like the Duchess in her own tea party? The audacity of them, right?

No matter, though. I have no care whatsoever what these little flies are buzzing in my ear for. Especially since I'm aware of why they are doing so.

And it's all because of the woman sitting shamelessly right in front of me.

Olga Jameston.

She's not only the official nanny of the two sons of Duke von Hansen, but she's also the rumored favored Mistress of the Duke.

No, scratch that. She's the ONLY Mistress of my husband.

The woman facing me is wearing a smug and expecting grin on her face. She looks so confident and so sure of herself and her position in the Dukedom. That confidence probably made the other women here think that she is someone worthy of siding with, which is why they are so brave in badmouthing me in front of my face.

Olga looks like she's anticipating for me to say something to rebuke the women so she can play the hero and 'defend' those women from the dreaded and spiteful Duchess von Hansen.

Apparently, it seems that I am known to be the most spiteful and most dreadful noblewoman there is to be found in the Luna Kingdom.

And I don't blame them...because it's the truth.

They say that I never said a nice thing to someone before. Not my family, not my aid, not even my husband. Not one soul.

They also say that I always find fault in everything anyone does. No one impressed me and nothing was done good or even decent in my eyes.

Additionally, I am also known to be rude and menacing. I never let anyone say the last word and whenever I do get the last word in, they won't be able to say anything else after.

I know each and everyone's weaknesses and I will use them in order to be the meanest and most wretched noblewoman in the Kingdom.

Thanks to that, my reputation amongst the people in and out of the estate is not stellar.

In fact, I am confident that I am someone who has the worst reputation despite being the someone who occupies one of the highest statuses in the Luna Kingdom, a Duchess. Just a status down from being a princess.

Having the title of Duchess means little more than dirt in front of these ladies now. Which is the reason why they can easily mock me at my own party like this. They all vie for the spotlight my attention will give them.

And unfortunately for Olga and the women around me, I have no desire for the spotlight. It was just automatically given to me because of my notoriety.

They can have it all they want...and hope they choke on it.

However, I don't want to be bothered to give anyone anything. Not then, and especially not now.

Besides, I already saw through Olga's act the first time she tried to pull that one on me in the first few months since she was introduced into the household as a nanny.

Well, despite the fact that I never bit the bait she throws my way, she still doesn't stop that pathetic little act of hers.

My life is already frustrating and stressful as it is and I don't want any more burden to add to it. Most especially from someone like Olga Jameston.

In fact, I am tired. I am tired of living life the way I am living my life right now. Everything is just a mess and...

There are some things I want to do but just can't. There are places I want to go, but I know that I can never escape from my fate as well as my captor. I will forever be a prisoner. A puppet. An object to be used to his advantage and his greed.

The women suddenly stopped their giggling and their chattering. All of their gazes and attention are focused in the direction of the entrance of the pavilion. Based on their starstruck and gaping expressions, I already knew who had arrived.

"Oh my, he's so handsome." one of the ladies twitter and titter like tiring birds at the crack of dawn.

"He's getting more and more good-looking by the day."

"Thank goodness he only got the eyes from the Duchess and the rest are from the Duke. Those blue eyes much suit someone like the Young Master that the Duchess herself."

"I know, right? They always radiate with warmth compared to the Duchess who is always ice cold. It's chilling to the bone."

I blink and keep my expression blank. What the women around me had been saying since the start of the tea party had never bothered me before. However, for some reason, that comment piqued my interest.

I casually shift my gaze so I can see the newcomer arrive at the pavilion.

The newcomer is no other than my eldest son, Keenan James von Hansen.

I silently and secretly watch as he takes confident strides towards...the one person that I abhor the most.

Olga.

I watch...as his stoic and statue-like demeanor drastically changes to accommodate a warm and smiling expression. However, that obvious transformation wasn't directed at me, his real mother.

Instead...

"Mother." he greets warmly as he leans down to plant a kiss on Olga's cheek.

"Oh, my, Keenan, my boy!" Olga gushes as she cups Keenan's face between her hands and fondly ruffles his hair, all the while sending me a smug look from the corner of her eye.

"Miss Olga really does have the power here considering the Duke and the Young Master favor her more than the Duchess," one of the ladies whispered none too quietly. Though I have a feeling that they did that on purpose, anyway.

"See? What did I tell you? Look at how he usually looks whenever he's with Miss Olga!"

"Yeah, I can see it. If only Miss Olga was the Duchess and not the current Duchess."

At that, Keenan glances my way and gives me but a cold nod and an equally cold stare. Against my better judgment, that look made my badly beaten heart squirm uselessly inside the ice I had encased it in.

Feigning indifference, I close my eyes and block out everything around me.

The noisy, chattering women who are shamelessly gossiping about me in front of me. The picture of my eldest son treating my husband's mistress as if she was his birth mother. And how the coldness in Keenan's gaze leaves me cold deep in my bones.

I blocked all of that and more.

Who would have thought that after years and years and becoming the Wretched Duchess of the Luna Kingdom, it seems that I am still affected by talks when my eldest son gets dragged in the same sentence as me?

Wanting to finish all of this fake display and even phonier pleasantries, I take my somewhat forgotten teacup and took a long drink.

The drink was a little on the cooler side and I'm not sure if it's because of the cool temperature or something else, but this tea tastes differently than the one I was drinking earlier.

A familiar giggle filters through my senses and I stop drinking, glancing to the side to see Olga smirking at me. And as if that is not enough, I also see Keenan staring at me intently.

Even though I don't want to waste any of my attention on them and I should ignore them the way I usually would, something tells me there's something off about both their expressions today.

However, before I can think about what it was, my eyes widen and I gasp when I feel a sudden pain forming in my gut.

It was so sudden and so painful that it felt like someone dug their claws inside of my stomach and ripped my innards out.

Bile rose in my throat at the comparison, I coughed and my eyes widened even further when I saw blood spewing from my mouth to splatter against the white table cloth.

Blood? What...?

"Oh, no! Duchess!" I hear Olga cry out from the corner and feel her scrambling next to me.

"Somebody, quick!" I hear her yell.

"Get someone here to help! Quickly!"

I can see her from the corner of my eye, but I feel my senses are starting to fail me. Like my vision going hazy and blurry, the sounds and voices I hear seem to fade in and out, and I start to feel cold and numb.

Just...what...?

"You like it?" I start when I felt, with what little sense of feeling I have left, Olga leaning beside me and whispering in my ear.

"You should thank your Daddy for giving me not only poison to get rid of you, but also the go signal that I can finally kill you." She snickers and continues. "I already had the poison since I came into this place actually. In return for me not telling you that your Daddy was not only destitute but also a big fat liar."

She snorts a little and pats my head. "You are just so stupid and naive enough to believe that he still has his leash on you? Didn't you know that he has neither the power nor a penny to keep eyes on you here in the Dukedom? How funny. You are cowering in fear over nothing for the past years and now that you know you were actually free from that bastard, it's too late. You're already dying. Nothing can save you now and I...will become the next Duchess."

She leans away from me and from the corner of my hazy vision, I see her grin. "Maybe you should just thank me for finally set you on the path to eternal freedom, hmm?"

She smirks at me and glances from the side, in the direction where my son is standing in place, blocking Olga and her maliciousness from the view of others.

Someone was probably on their way here, which was why she started crying fake crocodile tears, wailing about my demise.

A demise that she herself started...and no one in the tea party would suspect that this was actually her doing.

Another cough racked my body, this one more painful than the last that had me coughing up more blood. I feel faint and dizzy now that I just slowly let myself down on the floor rather than wait for my body to give in and smack myself on the ground.

Tilting my head and feeling my vitality drain from me, I watch amidst my hazy vision, the cold blue eyes that regard me nonchalantly.

Eyes that are the same as mine...eyes...that I would have wanted to shine at me with warmth like a blue flame rather than the coolness of ice.

I open my mouth and--

My eldest son, Keenan...how I wish...things were different...

At least that's what I wanted to say, but all I ever did was open my mouth.

I feel the voiceless words, the same as my last breath, left me.

And I was dead.