Adrian cut in before his mother could say another word. "Mom, please, just listen to me for a moment. I won’t keep her dowry. I can’t."
"You’re a fool, my son!" Rebecca’s voice cracked through the room. "That woman has bullied this family to the edge of ruin, and you’re still soft on her? She wants me dead, Adrian! She wants me dead"
He held his ground. "Taking her dowry isn’t something a man of honor does. I won’t do it, and that’s final." He turned to his father and brother. "Dad, Benjamin, tomorrow I need you to send word to both family heads. Have them come here."
"I also need the matchmaker who arranged the marriage present," Adrian went on. "For the neighbors, we can pick a handful of respected families to make everything official."
Jonathan’s brow creased. "The one who arranged your marriage was Lady Avis. She’s Melanie’s cousin, Cassandra’s own aunt on her mother’s side."
"Then leave her out of it entirely." Rebecca’s tone left no room for argument. "Send for the matchmaker who first carried your proposal to the Sinclair family instead, the one from the western district."
Lady Avis wasn’t in good health these days, and as a lesser mate to Prince Yuvan, her standing in his household had already slipped so far that a rival had taken over the very duties meant to be hers. The Warren family had no real fear of an unfavored, childless consort making trouble for them, but there was little sense in stirring up any connection to the royal line if it could be avoided.
"I’ll leave the rest of the arrangements to you, Mom." Adrian straightened. "I’m going out for a while."
"It’s late." Benjamin glanced toward the window. "Where would you be going at this hour?"
"Just a walk. I need some air." Adrian was already halfway to the door, his hand on the frame before the last word had even finished leaving his mouth.
That wasn’t the truth, not fully. He was headed straight for Aurora, needing her to hear his side of things before anyone else’s version reached her first. She had little patience for men who treated women poorly, and the last thing he wanted was for her to think he was making Cassandra’s life difficult out of spite rather than genuine frustration with what she’d done.
This wasn’t his first late night visit to the Yates household, not by a long way.
Aurora’s father, Tristan, had once fought alongside Hector on the same battlefields, until an injury cost him a leg and put an early end to his fighting days. When Aurora came home carrying merit of her own, Tristan’s pride in her had been plain for anyone to see, proof that his bloodline still had warriors worth respecting. He hadn’t been fully at ease about the marriage at first, not until Aurora convinced him that Cassandra understood the arrangement and had no real objection to it. After that, his doubts had quieted enough to let the matter rest.
Aurora’s mother, meanwhile, had welcomed the whole thing with open arms and an even more open hand, insisting on a betrothal gift substantial enough to match her daughter’s new standing.
A small stone tapped against Aurora’s window, and moments later the door opened just wide enough for Adrian to slip through unseen.
Her room was crowded with weapons, none of them especially fine or costly, kept mostly because she liked the way lamplight threw long shadows off every blade hung along the walls. In that dim, flickering light, he pulled her close, and for a moment neither of them said anything at all.
"Why are you here so late?" she asked, her voice low.
The Yates home wasn’t large, just a small hall between two rooms with a modest courtyard out back where her brother and his wife lived, close enough that any raised voice would carry straight through the walls. Aurora kept her words quiet out of habit more than fear.
"Aurora." He gripped her shoulders, his face serious in the low light. "I’ve decided to divorce Cassandra. I need you to understand why."
"Divorce?" She pulled back slightly, caught off guard. " why do you want a divorce?What happened?"
"My mother collapsed tonight. I tried to bring Sebastian in to treat her and he wouldn’t come or even send someone."
"Is she all right now?" Concern flickered across Aurora’s face.
"She’s stable. We had to call in a physician from the pack council instead, but he said her heart can only really be managed with Sebastian’s Snowdrop Pills. Sebastian’s been close with the Sinclair family for years, so he answers to Cassandra before anyone else. If she tells him to stay away, he does."
Understanding settled over Aurora’s face almost instantly. "So this was her, using your mother’s life to keep you from marrying me."
"That’s exactly what it was." Adrian’s jaw tightened. "I told her tonight, plainly, that I intend to end this. But I want you to know I’m not taking a single coin of her dowry with me. I’m not trying to ruin her. What she’s done just crossed a line I can’t look past anymore."
He kept explaining himself, piece by piece, one hand rubbing the back of his neck the whole time, worried that if he didn’t lay it all out clearly enough, Aurora might start to wonder whether he was simply the kind of man who discarded women when they became inconvenient.
Aurora’s anger only grew as she listened, her fingers curling tighter around the edge of the windowsill with every sentence. "What she did is unforgivable, it is a taboo to be precise and deeply insulting. This has nothing to do with respect anymore. She went after your mother’s life to get her way. That’s not stubbornness, Adrian. That’s cruelty. what if mother had died, what would be her reason"
"So you agree, then." His eyes searched hers. "You think I’m right to divorce her."