First Love Never Lasts

The reality behind a “romantic story of marrying your first love” was cruel.
The Duke of Western, considered the noblest bloodline in the empire after the royal family, openly showed he could not forget his previous wife. The servants constantly belittled her, saying she wasn’t born of noble blood.
So Maia decided to get a divorce.
She no longer wanted to cling to a first love who gave her nothing in return.
“Don’t you understand? You will never escape from me.”
“You are the Duchess of Western forever. There is no life for you outside of being the Duchess.”
But the moment Maia finally gave up on everything, her first love, far too late, tried to hold her back as she was leaving.
Telling her she had nowhere else to go.
That the place she belonged was by his side.
She didn’t know why her resentful first love was acting like this now.
“Your Grace. The moment I wanted you to stop me was when I handed you the divorce papers, not now.”
And the answer Maia would give him was already decided.
“So, let go of my hand, Your Grace.”
“I never loved her. The only one I have ever loved, in the past and in the future, is you alone.”
It was already over.
“Please, come back to me. Without you… I can’t live.”
Why are you acting like this now?
“Your Grace, do you know how first loves usually end?”
Maia let out a hollow smile.
Even if your first love was me—
“They don’t come true.”