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Dexford threw his head back and barked out a laugh. “You think you are all that, don’t you? But you very nearly married a woman carrying another man’s child.”

“Miss Delaney?”

“Oh yes.” The Viscount’s smile dripped with malice. “She very nearly had you, did she not? Right up to the altar, until that witch threw a wrench into all our carefully laid out plans!”

This one, Ethan had not expected.

He knew that some other man most likely fathered Miss Delaney’s child, but he did not know it was Dexford himself.

“She could have become a duchess!” the Viscount seethed. “And our son would have become the next Duke of Sinclair. Imagine that.”

Ethan narrowed his eyes at him. “Youwere at the party.”

“Yes. Yes, I was…” Dexford cackled. “And so was she.Sheslipped the draught into your drink. Wiped you out for the rest of the night, only to wake up to a warm, naked lady by your side who was conveniently with child…”

“She already knew she was with child at the party?”

The Viscount smirked at him. “What do you think?”

All of it—Miss Delaney and the blackmail, the scandal sheets that harassed Phoebe endlessly… all of it was part of their grand scheme.

“I think it was pretty good right up to the part when Miss Delaney boasted about forcing me to take responsibility for a child that was not mine to claim,” Ethan retorted. “She talked too much.”

Just like what you are doing now.

“And she paid for it.” Dexford shrugged as if they were discussing some random woman and not the one who was currently carrying his child. “Sent to the countryside to keep everything quiet. Her entire family disgraced. You should know, because it was all your doing.”

Ethan smiled coldly at him. “She made one other mistake, you see—she threatened my wife, and I do not take kindly to such threats.”

“And still, you sent her away just because of a scandal sheet. Tell me, Sinclair, what makes you think you are any different from me?”

“Well, for one, I would never abandon my wife,” Ethan drawled. “And for two, I would kill any man who dared to lay a finger on her.”

“You are wrong on that account,Your Grace,” Dexford spat out. “I would never have succeeded if you did not keep pushing her away. That woman was devoted to you, and still, you pushed her away.”

I did not mean to… I thought it was for the best that we maintained a cordial distance between us.

Now, Ethan realized how his own stubbornness had nearly cost them everything.

He grabbed the Viscount by the lapels of his jacket, reveling in the fear that flashed briefly in his eyes before fury took over.

“What the hell, Sinclair! Unhand me!”

“Scared?” Ethan smirked at him. “I could beat you here, and nobody would ever speak for you—thatis power. That is what you do not have.”

As Dexford struggled against his grip, all he could see was how pathetic the man was. For all his schemes, the Viscount was incapable of doing much, and yet he had managed to come between him and Phoebe all because he felt he had been robbed of the opportunity her dowry offered.

“You are pathetic,” Ethan growled. “You couldn’t succeed on your own, so you relied onwomento pull you up. You would abandon your own flesh and blood for your selfish ambitions, but you truly do not have much to offer yourself.”

He threw him off and dusted his hands, as if touching the man dirtied him. Dexford glared at him, growling as he picked himself back up.

“I wanted to hit you—for what you did to Phoebe. For dragging her name in the mud over and over again,” Ethan growled. “But now that I know just how much of a wretch you are, I have lost all appetite for it. You do not deservethatmuch.”

As he turned to the door, it flew open to reveal the Dowager Viscountess, and he looked at her in shock. Considering how much she had fawned over him in the front hall, it was most surprising how she did not even seem to notice him now. Her attention was focused solely on her son.

“You…” she gasped, pointing a shaky finger at him. “You got that young woman pregnant?”

“So what?” Dexford spat out. “She is practically useless. Her dowry is close to nothing! We will end up on the streets if I marry her!”