Aurora took her time answering, turning the whole idea over in her mind before letting a single word out.
Divorcing Cassandra carried more risk than reward, at least on paper. It wasn’t that Aurora placed no value on becoming Adrian’s rightful mate, far from it, but a divorce this messy could shadow both their futures for years to come, and her own standing mattered to her every bit as much as his did.
And yet, there was Cassandra herself to consider. Something about that first meeting still sat wrong in Aurora’s chest, some quiet unease she hadn’t been able to shake since. Cassandra had a way of drawing people in without even trying, and more than once Aurora had caught herself wondering whether Adrian might drift back toward that pull one day if given enough time and opportunity.
If the divorce went through, Aurora would become the only mate in that house, no longer standing in someone else’s shadow. Her father had never fully warmed to this arrangement in the first place, not while Adrian already had a wife waiting at home. Even with equal legal standing promised to her, she would still have carried the weight of being second, a truth no title could quite erase. But if there was no first wife left to compare her against, her father would have nothing left to object to. And really, who wouldn’t want that kind of certainty for their future?
She had only agreed to the original terms because her bond with Adrian had begun after his marriage was already settled, and she’d counted herself fortunate that he and Cassandra had never fully consummated it. Besides, Aurora had always assumed Cassandra was little more than a soft, sheltered noblewoman, someone raised on silk and comfort who wouldn’t know the first thing about handling real hardship. What did it matter if she ran the household? That was simply the tedious work someone else did so the rest of them didn’t have to.
That had been her thinking, at least, before Cassandra’s stubbornness had turned into something far harder to ignore. Now Aurora found herself nodding along with Adrian’s plan without much hesitation left in her at all.
"What she’s done is unforgivable. I won’t pretend otherwise." Aurora met his eyes. "Let’s move forward the way you want. As for her dowry..."
She paused there, choosing her next words with visible care. "Our laws don’t require a divorced woman to keep her dowry. If you let her take it, that’s your generosity showing through, and no one could fault you for it. If you don’t, there’s precedent enough to support that too. I won’t push you either way."
"I don’t want it." Adrian said it again, firmer this time. "None of it."
Something warm crossed Aurora’s face as she looked at him. "That’s exactly the kind of man you are. You’d never stoop to taking something like that from her. Valor Estate is large enough on its own. What use would we have for whatever small amount she brought into this marriage?"
Hearing that from her lifted something in his chest, easing a worry he hadn’t realized he’d been carrying.
"It’s more than refusing the dowry," he added. "I want to repay everything she’s put into the family this past year as well."
Aurora went still. "She’s been supporting the household financially? With her own dowry?"
"My mother’s medicine from Sebastian never came cheap, and between the estate’s income and our salaries, it’s never quite covered everything." Adrian’s discomfort showed plainly on his face. "Once Cassandra married in, she started covering the difference."
"Your family still needs that kind of support?" Aurora’s surprise was genuine now. "My father told me your grandfather was granted shops and good farmland along with the estate itself. How could things have fallen apart this badly?"
"They did fall apart, yes. We just weren’t careful with any of it, and eventually we sold most of it off."
The words landed on Aurora like cold water down her spine. "So Valor Estate is nothing but a name now. An empty shell wearing an old family’s title."
"It’s fine. We’re turning things around already." Adrian’s confidence hadn’t wavered an inch. "Our pay and future rewards will more than cover what’s needed going forward."
He was already picturing the two of them building something new together, certain she’d stand beside him through whatever came next without a second thought.
But Aurora’s mind had already run somewhere else entirely.
The old Alpha had granted Valor Estate to Adrian’s grandfather back when the Warren name still meant something in every corner of this territory. She never would have guessed the family could sink this far below that legacy. Thinking it through now, though, the pieces fit easily enough. Adrian’s father and uncle held no real influence, his elder brother had never distinguished himself in any meaningful way, and every scrap of the family’s former standing had rested entirely on one grandfather’s battlefield achievements, achievements that had died with him.
Adrian and Cassandra’s wedding had been the talk of the whole territory once, a procession grand enough that even Aurora had assumed both families stood on equally solid ground. She understood now that all of it, every bit of that grandeur, had almost certainly come from the Sinclair name and Sinclair coin. Which meant Cassandra’s dowry had likely been enormous, far larger than Aurora had ever bothered to imagine.
Something shifted quietly behind her eyes as all of this settled into place.
After a moment’s hesitation, she spoke again, more carefully than before. "If you return everything to her, all of it, won’t people start whispering that you’ve treated her unfairly in some strange way? That returning so much looks like guilt rather than honor?"
Adrian blinked, caught off guard. "What do you mean by that?"
Aurora looked away, her voice dropping just slightly. "I only mean that returning part of it would already prove your character well enough. There’s no need to give back every last coin."