Acidity of Regret Ch 38
- Dec 30, 2025
- 8 min read
Vanessa lifted her head, her vision slowly sharpening. The maid’s face was one she recognized, standing out in the sterile perfection of the manor for one simple reason: Sophie was still human.
The other servants moved like hollow automatons, their every breath dictated by Declan’s iron will. None of them dared to think or take a stray glance.
But Sophie was different. Perhaps she was too new to the Grand Duchy, but the flicker of anxiety in her eyes and the warmth of her living emotions made her a beacon in a house of dolls.
[Vanessa] “...Help me.”
The moment Vanessa recognized a kindred soul, the plea tumbled from her lips. Her desperation, fueled by the secret growing inside her, whispered a single command to her brain:
Run. You have to run.
In this fortress of absolute submission, there was only one person who might offer her a lifeline.
[Vanessa] “Please... you have to help me.”
Sophie was the only one who had looked at her with pity instead of judgment, the only one who had extended a hand of comfort.
Sophie’s hesitation lasted only a heartbeat. She promised to do whatever she could. Instinct likely told her that if she refused, the flickering ember of Vanessa’s will would be snuffed out forever, plunging the Grand Duchess into an abyss from which she would never return.
With Sophie as her shadow ally, Vanessa began to claw her way back to reality. She couldn't afford to be a ghost anymore, not if she wanted to protect the life within her.
She had to leave Declan.
To escape him, she buried her rage and waited for the perfect crack in his armor.
The opportunity arrived that night.
Declan rose from the bed, pulling the silk duvet over Vanessa’s exhausted form. He drained a glass of water, his voice steady and certain, as if he knew she was still awake and listening.
[Declan] “I’m heading to the mountains in three days. I have business there.”
Her eyelids flickered, though she kept her gaze fixed stubbornly on the window.
The mountains—the monster-infested peaks that bordered the duchy. When Declan went on a hunt to cull the beasts, he was often gone for weeks. It was the window she needed.
The following days were a blur of adrenaline and secrecy.
Vanessa and Sophie traded frantic, whispered notes. To evade the ever-present guards, they staged accidental encounters—a request for tea, a command to tidy a corner.
The messages were clipped and cryptic, written in a hand that only they could decipher. When their fingertips brushed during an exchange, Sophie’s cheeks would flush, but the secret stayed safe beneath her nervous energy.
The replies came hidden under the heavy porcelain of the dinner service. She would signal Sophie to set the tray directly before her.
[Vanessa] “Thank you, Sophie.”
The soft gratitude and the genuine smile that accompanied it made Sophie feel like she was serving a queen from a legend—a siren whose voice could pull sailors into the deep. It was a sweet, intoxicating danger.
Finally, four nights later—a day and a half after Declan had ridden out of the castle gates—the plan was set into motion.
Vanessa dismissed her attendants early, claiming a crushing migraine. Once the doors were locked, she began to dismantle the room. She tore down the heavy drapes and tapestries, knotting the thick fabrics together into a makeshift rope.
The logic was sound. Weeks ago, when Elliot had carried her out of the room, she had caught a glimpse of the floor below.
She recognized the balcony of a room she had stumbled into before her marriage, back when her pride was in tatters, and she was wandering the halls like a ghost.
It was the only room in the entire pristine castle that remained a ruin—a place of shattered glass and tattered curtains, smelling of dust and old secrets.
Vanessa would use that forgotten space. She would rappel down to the terrace, change into the maid’s uniform Sophie had stashed there, and vanish into the night.
Sophie’s position in the kitchen had made the preparations easy; she could slip sedatives into the knights’ rations and "accidentally" ruin uniforms to secure a spare for Vanessa.
Vanessa didn't expect to put the entire guard to sleep. She only prayed the numbers would be thin enough to slip through the gaps.
The hour arrived.
Vanessa opened the terrace doors and lowered the heavy braid of fabric into the darkness. She secured the end to the stone balustrade and began her descent.
The wind howled, buffeting her body and threatening to tear her grip from the cloth. Fear turned her face ashen, but she gritted her teeth and lowered herself until her feet touched the terrace below.
She slipped through a broken window and into the silent room. It felt like a tomb—a place where time had stopped, preserved in its own wreckage. She had never asked Declan about this room, sensing even then that it held memories he preferred to leave buried.
[Vanessa] “...”
She forced the thoughts aside.
She scrambled across the floor, searching beneath the ruins of a broken bed. There, she found the neatly folded uniform and a coarse wig. She stripped off her silks and pulled on the rough wool.
As she fastened the final button, the reality of her actions crashed over her.
I’m running away.
I am actually leaving Declan.
She had once believed she would never leave his side. She had thought that even if he grew tired of her, she would remain his shadow. But that was before the blood.
She remembered the day she had first taken his hand, believing he was her savior. Now, that choice felt like a fatal error—a mistake she was finally trying to correct.
She squeezed her trembling hands into fists and turned away from the bed.
A cracked mirror on a vanity caught her reflection. A woman in a drab dress with common brown hair stared back.
But even the disguise couldn't fully mask her features; her face was too striking, too memorable for a mere servant.
Vanessa had worried about this. She had asked Sophie for a veil or a hood, but the maid had only managed the wig.
Her beauty, once called a gift from the gods, was now a curse that drew every eye. She pulled the bangs low, shielding as much of her face as possible, and crept out into the hall.
Every time a servant passed her, Vanessa hunched her shoulders, cold sweat slicking her spine. Her heart hammered against her ribs so loudly she feared it would give her away.
Whenever a stray glance lingered too long, she tightened her grip on her own hands, praying for invisibility.
The suspicious looks eventually softened into indifference. No, it couldn't be, they seemed to think.
Finally, she crossed the threshold and stepped into the night air. The moment her boots hit the dirt outside the castle walls, her lungs expanded. She felt like a fish returned to the water, finally able to draw a true breath.
But she couldn't linger. She hurried toward the side gate Sophie had mentioned—the one used by the staff.
[Sophie] “My Lady!”
Sophie was waiting, pacing frantically. She let out a sob of relief when she saw the shadowed figure approaching.
[Sophie] “Here.”
[Vanessa] “Thank you, Sophie.”
Vanessa took the small purse of coins and, in exchange, pressed a handful of heavy, jeweled ornaments into the maid’s palms. They were worth a fortune—enough to buy a new life ten times over.
Sophie gasped, trying to push the jewelry back.
[Sophie] “No, no! I didn't do this for money. I can’t take these.”
[Vanessa] “If you don’t, my heart will never be at peace. Please, Sophie.”
[Sophie] “...You knew my name?”
The girl’s eyes went wide. Vanessa didn't answer with words, only a faint, sad smile.
Sophie’s face softened into that youthful, bashful expression Vanessa had come to cherish. In another life, they might have been friends.
The moon climbed higher, illuminating the path ahead. Vanessa bit her lip and straightened her posture.
[Vanessa] “Sophie, listen to me. If they catch you, if they question you... tell them I blackmailed you.”
She gripped the girl’s shoulders, making sure she understood.
[Vanessa] “Tell them the Grand Duchess threatened your life and your livelihood. Tell them I forced you to do everything.”
Sophie looked as though she had a thousand things to say, but her throat remained tight.
Vanessa knew the girl’s position was precarious. She had done enough. If things turned sour, she wanted Sophie to throw her to the wolves without a second thought. There was no room for guilt in a house of stone.
[Vanessa] “Before I go... can I ask you one thing?”
[Sophie] “Yes, My Lady.”
[Vanessa] “Why? Why did you risk everything for me?”
In her heart, Vanessa hadn't expected the girl to follow through. Declan had taught her, through bitter experience, that kindness always carried a price tag.
Sophie blinked, looking like a startled rabbit. She toyed with her apron for a moment before whispering her answer.
[Sophie] “Because you didn't look happy.”
[Vanessa] “...”
[Sophie] “You’re the Grand Duchess. You’re elegant and noble—someone like me shouldn't even dare to speak to you. But even up there, on that high throne... You looked so miserable.”
A bird in a cage.
Sophie had often thought of that metaphor when she looked at Vanessa.
The cage was magnificent, draped in silk and filled with every comfort imaginable. But a cage was still a cage. You could tie ribbons to the bars and hang flowers from the ceiling, but it didn't change the fact that it was a prison. Sophie had found a strange, intoxicating joy in being the one to turn the key.
Vanessa turned the answer over in her mind, a wave of unnameable emotion swelling in her chest.
The moment of peace was shattered by a sudden commotion from the manor. Shouts echoed across the grounds. A cold shiver raced down Vanessa's spine. They knew.
[Sophie] “Go! Quickly!”
Vanessa looked at Sophie one last time.
[Vanessa] “Thank you.”
She turned and sprinted through the gate. Her body felt heavier than usual—a weight she knew was the precious life she had sworn to protect. She wouldn't let them take her precious. She couldn't.
[Knight] “Return to the manor, Your Grace.”
Despite her desperate flight, the knights had found her. They surrounded her in the dark, their armor gleaming like predatory eyes.
She was back in the cage.
Vanessa ran her hand over the familiar silk of her bedchamber, her heart cold. She looked into the shadows and found her husband watching her.
[Declan] “You will never leave this place without my permission.”
The words were a noose, tightening around her throat.
Her bare feet, bandaged by the physician, throbbed with a dull heat. But the pain in her heart was sharper.
Her love was shattered, yet the shards still lingered in her soul. Perhaps that was why she had hesitated. Perhaps those tiny fragments of affection were the reason she hadn't spit in his face every time he ignored her pleas for a divorce.
But looking at him now, she realized he understood nothing. He didn't even want to try.
[Vanessa] “I don't need your permission.”
The memories of her submission flashed before her eyes—the times she had begged for his love, the times she had molded herself to fit his world.
She wasn't his pet. She wasn't a doll to be kept on a shelf.
[Vanessa] “I am going to leave this place. I will not stay by your side. Not ever again.”
His attempt to chain her only served to incinerate the last of her affection. The fragments of her love were gone, burned into black ash that quickly hardened into hatred.
[Vanessa] “Because I no longer love you.”
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