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“Yes, father. I am,” she stated blankly.

He smiled a little more. “That is good, Juliet. I am glad. We…I was a little concerned for your well-being. I am thankful to see that you are faring well here.”

A stifling awkwardness in the air made Juliet even more tired than she already was. Juliet felt her patience ebb more rapidly than it usually did.

“Why are you here, Father?” she asked curtly.

Lord Campton looked caught off guard, but he tried to explain himself, wringing his hands like a man who had committed an offense and was begging for a chance to repent.

“I was in attendance at Lord Gainsbury’s ball and saw you there. I wanted to speak with you then, but the crowds made it difficult to approach you. Each time I tried, someone would cover my path, and you were gone by the time it was cleared. It was…”

“Why? What did you need to speak to me about? What is so urgent that you could not simply send a letter and felt it necessary to come all the way here?” Juliet interrupted him.

Lord Campton’s face turned crimson, and he sputtered with indignation.

“I am your father, Juliet, and you are my daughter. My first child. I have every right to speak to you whenever I wish.”

“Oh, is that so? Now that I am a duchess, you finally remembered that I am your daughter? Because you did not seem too interested in remembering me much after you left me in the nunnery to wither away,” Juliet shot at him with a glare.

Algernon did not expect such an outburst from her, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words.

“You are being unkind and unfair, Juliet. I have apologized on multiple occasions. Why must you insist on bringing this up any chance you get?” he retorted.

Juliet scoffed, “I apologize that I cannot be as willfully ignorant as you are. Your apologies do not mean a thing because you have done nothing that proves to me just how sorry you are. Instead, you keep making demands as though I oweyourather than the other way around.”

“That is because…”

“I was a small child! You never stopped to look at me and realize that fact. You never worried about me or tried to help me. I watched my own mother leap to her death, but you never looked at me in concern or asked me if I was all right. You only saw me as a problem you did not want to deal with and worried I would suffer from the same illness she did. So, you locked me away and told yourself that you were the one who had been hurt the most by what happened.

“Yourtruths were all lies, the same lies you allow your new wife to spread about my mother while she holds the belief that I might pass my mother’s illness to one of your new, more preferred offspring.”

Juliet stopped for a moment, inhaling shakily.

“I do not care for what you want or what you feel you are owed. I have stopped caring. I want nothing to do with you or your new family. All I ask is that you let me live my life in peace. I deserve that much,” she finished stiffly.

Lord Campton looked distraught, and he tried to step closer to Juliet.

“Juliet, wait, please…”

“It is time to leave, Lord Campton,” Hector stated, stepping between Juliet and her father.

“Your Grace, please just let me…”

“Do not make me repeat myself. There is nothing for you here, and if Juliet does not want you in her presence, then there is no reason for you to be here. Leave and do not look back. If I catch wind of you causing my wife any further form of discomfort, there will be consequences. It would be light work to ruin your life and your reputation beyond repair until you are reduced to nothing but the pathetic, small man that you truly are. All that you would wish for in the aftermath of my complete annihilation of your family would be the peaceful embrace of death.Do you understand?”

Algernon gulped and nodded nervously, looking like he wished he could disappear. He cast one more look at Juliet, and when he was met with her cold stare, he wisely decided to retreat.

“Of course. My apologies, Your Grace…”

“Save your pointless apologies. Leave my house this instant.”

Lord Campton left with a lingering look of sadness at Juliet. Once he was gone, Hector embraced her, and she let herself lose the ache in her chest in favor of soaking up his warm comfort.

“I am sorry. That was horrible,” she muttered into his neck.

“Never apologize for standing up for yourself, darling. You were brave, and nothing you said was false. If anything, you are the one owed an apology, not the other way around,” Hector told her gently, the warmth of his embrace already easing some of the tension and grief within her body.

She wanted to stay like that in his arms forever and soak up his very essence until she felt comfortable in her own skin again.