the Villainess they took for granted

Chapter 56: Chapter 56: The Invitation

Marian spent three entire days avoiding a very specific thought.

Unfortunately, the invitation arrived on the fourth.

The timing felt deliberate.

Vindictive, even.

As though fate had personally decided she wasn’t suffering enough.

The elegant cream-colored card sat innocently on her desk.

A formal dinner at the Imperial Palace.

Attendance requested.

Nothing unusual.

Nothing remarkable.

Nothing whatsoever that should have caused her heart to skip.

And yet.

Cassian will be there.

Marian immediately flipped the invitation over.

The invitation remained unchanged.

The thought remained too.

The traitor.

The absolute traitor.

For the next hour, Marian successfully ignored the invitation.

By which she meant she thought about it continuously.

This was humiliating.

Because she was not a child.

She was not sixteen.

She was not some lovestruck noble girl composing poetry in her bedroom.

She was a grown woman.

A practical woman.

A rational woman.

A woman who had died once already.

She should be above this.

Unfortunately, her heart had apparently resigned from its position.

The following morning, her maid arrived carrying dresses.

Marian immediately knew she was doomed.

"My lady, which gown?"

"Any."

The answer came too quickly.

The maid looked suspicious.

Correctly.

"You don’t have a preference?"

"No."

Another lie.

The third of the morning.

Possibly the fourth.

Marian had lost count.

The maid laid several dresses across the bed.

Blue.

Silver.

White.

Gold.

Marian stared.

The dresses stared back.

An argument began.

An hour later, nothing had been resolved.

The blue dress was elegant.

The white dress made her eyes brighter.

The silver dress was sophisticated.

The pale gold dress looked softer.

Each came with advantages.

Each came with disadvantages.

This was ridiculous.

Completely ridiculous.

"Perhaps the blue, my lady?"

"No."

Five minutes passed.

"The blue."

Another five.

"No."

The maid wisely remained silent.

Marian appreciated the restraint.

Eventually she found herself standing before a mirror.

Staring.

Thinking.

And then a horrifying realization struck.

Not even for Adrian.

The thought appeared from nowhere.

Brutal.

Uninvited.

True.

Marian froze.

Because it was true.

She had attended countless events with Adrian.

Countless dinners.

Countless banquets.

Countless celebrations.

She had never cared this much.

Never.

Not once.

And now she was standing in front of a mirror questioning earrings.

Earrings.

The realization was devastating.

"Who am I trying to impress?"

The words escaped aloud.

The maid wisely pretended not to hear them.

The answer, unfortunately, was obvious.

Cassian had seen her covered in mud.

Cassian had seen her soaked by rain.

Cassian had seen her threaten innocent trees.

Cassian had seen her at her absolute worst.

Which somehow made wanting to look beautiful in front of him infinitely worse.

Not better.

Worse.

The situation was becoming untenable.

--

Far away, in another wing of the capital, Adrian stood before a window.

Watching dark clouds gather beyond the city.

The invitation sat unopened on his desk.

He already knew what it said.

The dinner had been planned long before anyone disappeared into a forest.

Long before anything changed.

Long before Marian vanished.

The thought appeared before he could stop it.

Vanished.

Not missing.

Not delayed.

Vanished.

For a moment Adrian closed his eyes.

The memory returned immediately.

As it had every day since.

Elena had been found.

Relief swept through the search parties.

Through the palace.

Through everyone involved.

The crisis appeared over.

At least, that was what everyone believed.

Then someone asked a simple question.

"Has anyone seen Lady Marian?"

At first, nobody worried.

Marian was a duke’s daughter.

The Crown Prince’s fiancée.

Surrounded by attendants and responsibilities.

Surely she had already returned.

Surely someone had seen her.

Surely—

Nobody had.

The realization spread slowly.

Then all at once.

Lady Marian was missing.

Adrian didn’t learn immediately.

He learned later.

Much later.

By then Elena had already been found.

By then most people believed the danger had passed.

By then an entire day might have gone by.

The exact number of hours no longer mattered.

Only the realization remained.

Marian had disappeared.

And he hadn’t even known.

The memory still made something uncomfortable twist inside his chest.

Because for years Marian had simply existed beside him.

Constant.

Reliable.

Certain.

Like sunrise.

Like breathing.

Like something that would always be there.

And for the first time in his life, she wasn’t.

The search resumed.

The second day passed.

Then another.

No sign of Marian.

No sign of Cassian.

And sometime during that second night, a thought entered Adrian’s mind.

A single thought.

One he immediately hated.

What if she doesn’t come back?

The possibility struck harder than it should have.

Hard enough that he couldn’t sleep.

Hard enough that he found himself staring into darkness for hours.

Hard enough that he finally understood something he had never been forced to consider before.

There was a future where Marian did not exist.

A future where she wasn’t beside him.

Wasn’t laughing at him.

Wasn’t arguing with him.

Wasn’t there.

The realization left an emptiness he could not explain.

Nor did he want to.

Because the moment he imagined that future—

Truly imagined it—

Something inside him recoiled.

Violently.

Not Marian.

Anyone else.

Not her.

Never her.

Adrian opened his eyes.

The clouds remained beyond the window.

The unease remained too.

Because since Marian’s return, things felt different.

Not worse.

Different.

As though something had shifted while she was gone.

Something he could feel.

But not understand.

And for reasons he could not explain, that unsettled him more than anything else.

--

Several miles away, another man was having his own problems.

Cassian Ashford stared at his wardrobe.

His wardrobe stared back.

Neither appeared particularly cooperative.

This was unfortunate.

Because Cassian had attended hundreds of formal dinners.

Hundreds.

Possibly thousands.

He had never once spent fifteen minutes deciding between coats.

Yet here he was.

Staring.

Thinking.

Debating.

Like a fool.

Wonderful.

Absolutely wonderful.

He chose one.

Then changed his mind.

Then changed it back.

Then immediately became annoyed with himself.

Because he knew exactly what was happening.

And worse—

he knew exactly who was responsible.

A certain blonde-haired woman with blue eyes and terrible judgment.

The realization did nothing to improve his mood.

When he finally looked into the mirror, he almost laughed.

The most handsome man in the Empire.

A title he had spent years ignoring.

A title he had never particularly cared about.

Yet suddenly he found himself wondering something profoundly stupid.

Would Marian like it?

The thought was so absurd that he nearly walked away immediately.

Nearly.

Unfortunately, he already knew the answer.

He was looking forward to seeing her.

And that, more than anything else, was the real problem.

Because the forest had ended.

Reality had returned.

And tonight, for the first time since dawn broke over a forgotten shelter in the woods—

they would see each other again.

Neither Adrian.

Nor Marian.

Nor Cassian.

Had any idea that the dinner waiting for them would become the beginning of something far more dangerous than the forest ever was.

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