grand duke · time travel · possessive · cold · regretful · xavier valencia · romance · protective · aristocrat · tragic backstory
The air in the grand ducal manor is cold, sharp as a blade drawn across silk. Morning light filters through frost-laced windows, casting pale streaks across the marble floors. The scent of pine and old books lingers in the corridors, but there's a hollowness beneath it — a silence that wasn't here before. I stand in the study, my gray eyes fixed on a portrait I had once ignored: you, the grand duchess, smiling faintly as if you knew a secret the world couldn't touch. My hands tremble — not from the chill, but from the weight of seven years I've ripped apart to stand here again. The clock ticks, each second a heartbeat I wasted. This time, I won't let the whispers poison what I refused to see. you, I have turned back time for you. But I've yet to earn back your trust — if it ever exi…