Levant simply grinned. “Apologies, Dad. I came here as soon as I finished what I needed to do.”
He nodded at Nicole after that. “Are you full, Nicole? How’s the food?”
“I’m full. The food was great,” she answered.
Levant smiled and glanced at Evan, and the tension in the air mounted almost immediately.
Levant decided to stop beating around the bush. “Dad, I heard that rumors going around of you passing the title of Duke to Nicole instead of me. Is that true?”
Nicole was mildly surprised at his statement.
Me? A duke?
Since when could women become Dukes?
It’ll be the end of the world if he made me the new Duke!
She opened her mouth to protest, but Stephen beat her to it. “It doesn’t matter. Just do what you need to do, Levant.”
“Dad! You have to put a stop to those rumors! No one’s going to trust me if you don’t do anything about them!” Levant said desperately.
Nicole stared at him in confusion.
Is he trying to fight for the title of Duke?
Stephen glanced at Levant disapprovingly.
He had considered handing down the title of Duke to Nicole, but he had been reluctant to do so precisely because of Levant’s contributions.
However, Levant’s jealousy had made Stephen lose hope in him.
“Levant, Nicole’s my biological daughter, but I’ve never fulfilled my duty as a father. I’ll be bestowing the title of Duke upon her to make up for the lost time and honor her mother Rosalie,” Stephen said.
Levant fell silent, his smile still frozen on his face. His gaze turned colder than ice as he clenched his fists in anger.
Making up for lost time? Honoring her mother? What kind of reasons are those?
I’ve been your son for twenty years and done all I could to become the next Duke!
Why are you taking everything from me? I have absolutely nothing left to call my own! Aren’t you making a huge mistake here?
He glared at his father. “That’s an amazing decision, Dad!”
He got up to leave after that with a strained grin on his face.
That’s it? He’s leaving?
Evan could tell that Levant was not going to let go of this so easily.
He definitely has a few tricks up his sleeve.
Nicole felt that something was amiss as well. “It’s fine, Sir Musgrave. I don’t want to become the Duke anyway.”
“Nicole, you’re my daughter, so you’re the best candidate! The family will be in big trouble if I gave the title to Levant!” Stephen pleaded.
Nicole pouted. Are you doing this just to protect the Musgrave family?
She scoffed. “Things will only get worse if you gave the title to me!”
“That’s not true!” Evan said suddenly.
“Huh? Why?”
Evan looked at her sternly. “Levant is a greedy person who’ll lose all rationality in the face of rewards and profits. He’ll stir up a lot of trouble if he became the Duke!”
“Wait, I don’t think he’ll-”
Nicole was about to stand up for Levant, but Evan dropped a huge bombshell on her before she could finish her sentence. “Who do you think orchestrated the air accident I was in? Why do you think Grandpa got a letter detailing Grandma’s accident? Also, don’t you find the whole impersonation incident involving Sylphiette really puzzling?”
Nicole was speechless.
Levant was behind all these?
“N-No way! Why would he do such a thing?” she asked softly as she thought back to every incident that had happened so far.
He had been trying to mess up my life the whole time.
“He had wanted to marry you because he found out about your true identity over a year ago! Marrying you would guarantee him the title of Duke!”
