The Duke Replaced His Brother at the Altar — And the Bride Said Yes to the Man She Secretly Loved

Chapter 2

One month earlier, I had stood barefoot at my bedroom window, watching the autumn fog curl across the gardens of Whitmore Manor like a ghost seeking shelter from the dawn. Beyond the stone wall that separated our lands from the Harrington estate, the Duke’s residence rose against the pale morning sky — cold, silent, unreachable.

He lived there. Sebastian Harrington. The man who had never once treated me like a child, and never once allowed himself to treat me like anything else.

I had known the Harrington brothers my entire life. Julian and I had climbed trees together, argued over books, laughed until we could not breathe. He called me “Pepper” because I had once thrown crushed peppercorns at him during a childish quarrel, and the name had stuck like glue through every season of our lives. He was warmth. He was safety.

But Sebastian was something else entirely.