ONE NIGHT STAND WITH HOT DUKE-Chapter 100: Pink door

The tone allowed no argument, not because it was cruel, but because it carried certainty.

Valerie let out a quiet breath. She didn’t smile, but she didn’t protest either. "I understand."

Demian studied her a few seconds longer than he realized. There was something in the way Valerie accepted his decision calm, obedient, yet distant that made his chest tighten uncomfortably.

He stepped closer. "This isn’t a permanent restriction," he added, as if compelled to explain. "When you’re better, I’ll take you myself."

Valerie looked at him, faintly surprised.

"Really?"

Demian did not answer with words. He only gave a brief nod.

And for the first time that night, the weight in Valerie’s chest eased not because of a grand promise, but because for once, Demian had not only decided...he had also considered her.

The days passed in a pattern that was almost the same calm on the surface, yet layered with things left unsaid.

Valerie’s health gradually improved. The nausea eased, her face no longer as pale as before, and her steps grew steadier. The servants still treated her as though she were made of glass too fragile to be handled carelessly but Valerie was beginning to grow accustomed to the attention. Even Demian, for the time being, seemed to restrain himself.

He did not seek conflict.He did not provoke emotion.

Perhaps because he knew or at least sensed that Valerie was more sensitive now than before. Not only because her body was changing, but because her heart was as well.

And today, after several requests weighed down by silence, Demian finally allowed her to go out.

"I won’t be long," Valerie said that morning, putting on a simple coat."Don’t exhaust yourself," Demian replied shortly. "The guards will remain at a distance."

That was all.Yet the permission itself felt like a small, precious freedom.

Valerie walked through the center of the city with a feeling she couldn’t quite name. Her steps carried her past the crowds until she reached the end of an alley rarely used by passersby. The atmosphere shifted there, quieter, narrower, and somehow... different.

That was where she saw it.

A pale pink door.

The paint was not bright, but faded, as if the color had been there for a very long time without ever truly being noticed. There was no signboard. No large windows. Only the door, standing quietly at the end of the lane.

Valerie’s heart beat faster.

She pushed the door open gently.

A small bell chimed.

But what she found was not a frail old grandmother leaning on a wooden cane.

Inside the modest room stood a grown woman, too old to be called a girl, too young to be called elderly. Her hair was long, dark green like wet leaves after rain. Her eyes were pale gray, sharp yet calm, as though they could pierce through anything a person tried to hide.

The woman smiled softly.

"Welcome, good child."

Valerie stopped short. Her gaze narrowed.

"Where is the grandmother?" she asked flatly, not returning the smile.

The woman did not seem offended. Her smile widened instead strange, like someone waiting for a certain reaction.

"I am here."

Valerie exhaled in irritation. "I don’t have time for jokes. The grandmother who’s usually here. The one with the cane."

For a moment, the woman only looked at her.

Then right before Valerie’s eyes. The face changed.

The skin wrinkled. The shoulders stooped. The green hair turned white, the body shrinking. In a single breath, the woman had transformed into the old grandmother Valerie knew so well.

Valerie stumbled back. "A—!"

Before she could react further, the figure shifted again the youthful face returned, the upright posture restored and the woman let out a light laugh, soft yet strangely echoing in the narrow room.

"Your expression is priceless," she said casually.

Valerie swallowed hard, her heart pounding. "What... who are you, really?"

The woman leaned against the wooden counter, studying Valerie with clear interest. "A very good question."

"Why can you turn into the grandmother?" Valerie pressed. "And don’t tell me this is cheap magic."

The woman laughed again. "Cheap? No, no."

She raised her hand and showed it to Valerie.

One of her fingers... was missing.

Not a fresh wound. The scar was old, clean, exactly the same as the one Valerie had once seen on the grandmother’s hand.

Valerie’s breath caught.

"That..." her voice nearly trembled.

"So you finally noticed," the woman said gently. "Now you believe me?"

Valerie stared at the finger for a long moment, then at the woman’s face. Slowly, she nodded.

"You’re... that grandmother?"

The woman smiled this time without playfulness. "In a different form, yes."

"My name is Lena," she continued. "And the old grandmother you kept coming to see... was also me."

Valerie lowered her gaze, her thoughts in disarray. "Why... why are you doing all this?"

Lena glanced at Valerie’s abdomen briefly, yet with meaning then lifted her eyes again.

"Because your life is standing at a crossroads," she said softly."And because the bitter potion you drank back then... is finally beginning to show its effects."

Thump.

Valerie’s heart beat harder.

The room felt even quieter, as though the outside world had stopped moving.

And for the first time in a long while, Valerie realized her meeting with the grandmother, with Lena, and with her own fate... was far from over.

Valerie stared at Lena with a mixture of anger, confusion, and fear she refused to acknowledge. Her hands clenched at the sides of her gown, her breathing slightly uneven.

"So then," Valerie said at last, forcing her voice to remain steady, "what exactly was the potion you gave me back then?"

Lena did not answer immediately. She walked slowly to the wooden shelf behind her, brushing her fingers over small bottles filled with strangely colored liquids, then spoke without turning around."It was a potion meant to change your life."

Valerie let out a short, bitter laugh. "Change my life?" She lifted her face. "Look at me now. Entangled with a man who already has a woman chosen for him since childhood. Where is the beautiful change you promised?"

Lena stopped moving. She turned, her gaze sharp now, stripped of playfulness. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"That is your own fault," she said flatly. "You chose to meet him."

Valerie froze. "What do you mean?"

Lena stepped closer, her voice dropping as if she were whispering a secret never meant for others to hear."That potion wasn’t meant merely to make you likable."

Valerie held her breath.

"It enchants," Lena continued. "Not only ordinary men. Even the wolf who rules the North the one feared, cold, who never allows emotion to govern him was drawn to you."

Valerie’s heart felt as though it stopped.

"That wolf," Lena said softly, each word deliberate, "went so far as to damage his old bond... because of you."