House Black

Chapter 10

"_The ball? I see, so Eden and her will be there too."

Vincent couldn't help but smile fondly every time he thought of Y/n. Paul stared at him worried. His Lord deeply loved her, even after so many years.

He couldn't help but think about Eden and the Duke's younger children. Among the three kids, only Eden looked like his father.

"_If I may ask my Lord ...

_Paul tries to inquire about her dress, I want something to match her dress.

_My Lord!"

Vincent looked up with an eyebrow raised and unimpressed. Paul held his head low while he was panting as if he ran a marathon.

"_She is married to the Black! Even if you love her...

_Six years ago, she and I held a small marriage named White. By the law, we are still married. Do you know what it means?

_But it's been five years since you both saw each other. So your...

_It's true that after a long disappearance like this, both parties are allowed to consider remarriages. Even more in our situation where a death/life situation happened."

Paul wanted to add something but Vincent stopped him before adding.

"_ We are not divorced, Y/n got married taking advantage of the unknown widow law. Under that law, you can remarry if you don't know whether or not your spouse is alive after a certain amount of time. Our situation goes completely under that law."

Paul shuddered as he saw his Lord's crooked smile. He wasn't going to let her go. Vincent looked lovesick as he blabered about how she was his only love and so on.

"_Anyway, I'm counting on you to make sure nothing happens to them. Eden is our heir after all.

_Isn't young Lord Dimitri the heir?

_Hm? Eden is my eldest son, why on earth did you think that Dimitri would be the heir?

_Then why did he take on the heir's lesson?

_That kid is 4. Why is he taking on such lessons when he doesn't even know how to write?"

Paul blushed and embarrassed, Evelyn insisted that the twins were capable of taking advanced lessons but it was true that the fake twins were too young. At that age, they still needed to nap and run around to explore.

"_ Get rid of those lessons and let them learn the basics. And if Evelyn is complaining about it, tell her that she should know her places, and stop coveting the duchess's things. The least she could do is be a mother for those two kids."

Paul looked at him in horror. Evelyn WAS the Duchess. Was he going to demote her for some wench he married in the countryside?

"_ Madame Evelyn is the Duchess, my Lord. You both got married 1 year before you met and married Miss L/n.

_Isn't it funny? I didn't attend my wedding, but everyone is acknowledging it as a fact. Like they saw me put that ring on her finger.

_It couldn't be helped, you were bedridden.

_Right, fortunately for them I couldn't move. If I could I would have just abandoned her to the altar.

_ She is still the mother of your two youngest children, master.

_ That is why she is still here, I can't even stand her. But she is still the mother of Dimitri and Atel. Even though I don't remember ever sleeping with her, it's undeniable that they are of Calisto blood."

Vincent talked with a cold voice as he thought about it. He was too busy searching for Y/n and their son's remains at that time and was barely at the duchy. He wasn't in his right mind either, so he didn't question it when he collapsed and woke up next to Evelyn. And two months later they learned she was pregnant. It was strange, it was hard to get him drunk even now.

"_Paul, look into Evelyn's behavior during the past five years and...

_That!"

Vincent raised an eyebrow unimpressed before smirking. He had a fierce and cold look on his face.

"_Have you ever wondered why I kept you around when you clearly have a loyalty problem?

_My-!

_This is your chance to prove you are still useful to me. If not, I will make sure to have your head roll for what happened to my wife and son five years ago."

Paul bowed as he paled. A long shiver ran along his spine. His head was on the lines, he was sure the duke never knew things but he may have underestimated his luck. He did everything out of loyalty but for a commoner woman, his Lord deemed him unloyal and even threatened him.

"_I will report to you anything the Duchess...

_Only Y/n can be referred to as the Duchess.

_Yes... I will report to you anything madame Evelyn does."

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This is a short chapter only on Vincent's POV. Every time I write, it's on one or more character's POVs. So yes, I'm kind of an unreliable narrator. This means Eden and Y/n saying he ran to Evelyn out of guilt and confessed may be false. And so on. There are many things that the characters presented as fact that are wrong or they don't actually know the situation behind it.

Proxy marriage: A Proxy marriage occurs when one or both parties of the marriage are not present at the ceremony

This is the law Vincent is referring to for his marriage with Evelyn. It's also a law used in Mother, ML used this to change MC's groom to himself.