Liar.
She took a step back. “Father?—”
“You have lost the right to call me that.” He raised a hand, silencing her. “My plan is that I will stop seeing other women. I will fix things with your mother, and I will restore order to this household.”
Theodora was stunned. She expected something more sinister, but this seemed like good news.
“You will stop having your affairs?”
“Yes,” he said, as though he was granting a favor. “But under one condition.”
Her hope was quickly dashed.
“I will not let you live under my roof anymore,” he continued smugly.
“What?” Theodora gasped.
“You have become a liability,” he said coldly. “A distraction and a source of shame. I had considered sending you to a convent, but then—” He lifted the notebook slightly. “—the solution presented itself when I broke open that drawer of yours.”
Theodora’s blood pulsed loudly in her ears. “What are you going to do to me?”
He strode across the library slowly and placed the notebook on the desk. When he looked at her again, his eyes shone and he smiled devilishly at her.
“The solution is simple. I am going to marry you off to the Duke who ruined you.”
His words felt like a punch to her gut.
She stared at him, unable to speak. “You… you cannot be serious.”
“I am entirely serious,” he said confidently. “You have already compromised yourself with him. You have been meeting him in secret. Writing about him. Allowing him to touch you. Therefore, you will marry him, and this scandal will be contained.”
Theodora felt her knees weaken. “I did not—you are twisting everything?—”
“I am correcting everything you have ruined,” he snapped. “You will marry this man, and this family will be saved.”
Saved? How will this save my mother?
She shook her head, utterly horrified. “You cannot force me into marriage.”
“I can,” he said. “And I will.”
“How can you be so wicked?” Theodora’s voice trembled.
Her father’s expression hardened. “Do not speak to me of wickedness when you hide behind your studies to act as a common courtesan to Dukes. You should be grateful that I am arranging this!”
She wanted to scream but before she could respond, a knock sounded at the library door and a footman stepped inside, bowing quickly.
“Lord Dowell… a visitor has arrived.”
Her father frowned. “At this hour? Is it an important guest?”
“Yes, sir. It is?—”
“Send them in!” Lord Dowell waved him off and the footman scurried away.
Theodora had too much on her mind to wonder about the guest.
Her father’s eyes narrowed in her direction again. “You will prepare yourself for marriage, and once you leave this house, I never want to hear from you again.”
