Her Graceful War Song by Summer's Blaze

Thomas met Zoey's gaze, feeling a knot in his throat. It was a matter of a man's dignity, and he wasn't sure how to articulate his thoughts.

"Do you know everything?" Zoey asked, studying his expression.

"I can't say I know everything." He sighed deeply before asking outright, "After I left for the Southern Frontier, did she develop feelings for my cousin? Did they exchange tokens of affection?" "Tokens of affection?" Zoey wasn't aware of that detail.

Thomas stood and walked to the drawer behind his desk, pulling out an emerald pendant. "I found this under the bed where she used to sleep. It was wedged between the foot of the bed and the wall. I recognize it. It belongs to my cousin." He laughed bitterly.

"It was under her bed. She must have taken it out at night to look at as she thought about him. When did she start liking my cousin? I always thought we had a loving marriage, but it seems she was hiding someone in her heart all along. You knew about this, didn't you?" Hearing him speak like that, Zoey felt a pang of bitterness. Here was a man so pure-hearted, he couldn't even bring himself to consider the darker implications of finding that pendant. He could only imagine Viola had pulled it out during a sleepless night. He was a man who had escaped captivity and helped build a spy network-someone who had fought through hell. He should have been capable of the most meticulous and skeptical thinking about everything.

Yet, he had never once questioned Viola.

Zoey didn't dwell on the sorrow in his eyes. She took a deep breath, and laid it all out.

home and knelt before my mother-in-law. She said she wanted to stay at Silverstone Estate for a month. At the same time, she asked for medicine to induce a miscarriage." The

rest in her room. Your cousin was also present at the residence at the time. He had gotten drunk as well, and accidentally

mistook him for you.

what she told us."

blade, which was why Zoey chose not to share them. When Viola returned, she hadn't divulged the specifics either. She had just given a

the alcohol clouded her judgment. She had seen Silas' handsome face and had drunkenly tumbled into his arms,

mind went completely blank, and for a long moment,

only tightened the ache in Zoey's chest. Yet, some truths had to be spoken boldly, or they would fester in silence and become even harder to

said a word. Do you know she returned to Silverstone

tell you-if there's no hope from your end, she won't

with the abortion."

was in shock, unable to comprehend what he had just heard. He stared at Zoey; he opened his mouth several times, but was unable to form any words. It