Ivanka let out a small laugh, this time without any smile in her eyes. "You are naïve if you think the Duke will always take your side."
Valerie nodded faintly.
"Perhaps," she said. "Or perhaps not."
She drew a long breath, then released it slowly.
"But I never asked to be chosen," she said honestly. "I never begged to be here."
She looked Ivanka straight in the eye.
"So if one day I must leave," she said, "I will leave with my head held high."
Silence fell between them heavy, charged with unspoken emotion.
Ivanka stared at Valerie for a long moment, as if only now truly seeing her.
Not as a kept woman. Not as an interloper. But as someone who somehow had not broken despite being pressed down again and again.
Valerie turned her face back toward the door.
"A threat only holds meaning," she said softly without looking back, "if the one who hears it still has something left to fear."
Then she walked away.
