**Chapter 50 — I Finally Found You**
*I Ended Up Living Next Door to My Ex-Husband*
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"We've arrived."
Thompson lifted the curtain just enough to glance outside, then let it fall back into place and turned to face me.
"Don't get out yet. Stay inside until I've spoken with the village chief and let him know you're here."
I nodded. He stepped out of the carriage and headed toward the village entrance without another word.
"Your Highness, are you certain you're alright?"
Mina's question drew the eyes of every maid in the carriage to me at once. Their worry was unanimous and unhidden.
"Those people won't be kind to you."
"No, they certainly won't. We'll protect you, of course — but please don't be too startled by what you might hear."
I smiled, hoping to ease them.
"You're all more nervous than I am. I'll be fine — don't worry so much."
I shifted slightly and lifted the curtain a crack to peer outside.
At the tree nearest the village entrance, a small wooden sign had been nailed:
**[Grey Zone Village]**
Beyond it, through the gap, I could make out the shape of an ordinary, modest settlement. Small houses with their own distinct character clustered inside low walls, and thin white smoke curled from each chimney — breakfast already underway. Children were darting along the paths, ignoring their mothers calling them in, their laughter carrying faintly on the air.
Something in my chest softened at the sight.
I let the curtain drop when I saw Thompson making his way back.
When he finally opened the carriage door, his expression was slightly strained — not quite what I'd hoped for, but not a refusal either.
"I've spoken with the chief and a few of the village officials. You can come out."
We stepped down, and I moved to help the maids unload the luggage we'd brought.
"What's all this?"
Thompson had appeared at my elbow, eyeing the bundles with something between suspicion and curiosity.
"I couldn't come empty-handed."
"That's a great deal for 'empty-handed.'"
He reached out and took some of the load from my arms before I could respond.
"Thompson — I can manage these myself."
His brows shot up as though I'd said something unprecedented. Then his face settled back into its usual severity.
"I've made myself clear. I won't be helping you — whatever happens in there."
He said it like a man reminding himself as much as me.
I took the luggage back from him.
"I understand. From this point on, Thompson, you've made no promise to help me whatsoever."
He gave me a long, unreadable look, then turned and walked toward the village entrance.
I followed.
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We reached the center of the village, and the first person to notice me was a man sitting on a bench, laughing with a neighbor. He glanced over, looked away — then looked back. His brow furrowed. He squinted at my face, apparently thrown by the plain dress and hat.
Recognition arrived slowly, then all at once.
His expression collapsed into something ugly.
"You're—"
And then, one by one, heads began to turn.
"Isn't that the Twins Grand Duchess?"
"It is, isn't it? What in the world is she doing here?"
"The nerve of her. Tsk."
A young man nearby spat deliberately at my feet.
Mina's face went cold in an instant. She stepped forward.
"It's been some time, Roy."
"Mina?" The man's eyes flicked to her, then back to me, his face tightening. "What is going on? Why did you bring *her* here?"
Mina drew a measured breath — the kind that meant she was choosing her next words very deliberately.
"Whatever your feelings on the matter, this woman is the Grand Duchess of the Twins family. The head of our people." Her voice dropped to something precise and cool. "Choose your words with care."
Roy let out a short, disbelieving sound. Then something ignited behind his eyes.
"Our people — right. That's what you'd say, isn't it? You're still with the Twins family." He rose from the bench, his voice rising with him. "I said the same thing once. I defended her. And what did she give me in return?"
He looked directly at me and shouted.
"Contempt. Discrimination. A notice of dismissal!"
The surrounding villagers stirred. Eyes sharpened. A murmur of agreement moved through the crowd.
Mina glanced around and lowered her voice toward Roy, firm and warning.
"We didn't come here to quarrel with our own people, Roy. Mind yourself."
But his expression only darkened.
"How are we supposed to believe that? You walked into our village with *that woman*—"
"She treated us like dirt!"
"Every time the rain comes, the place where I was struck still aches!"
"She has no right to set foot here!"
The circle of hostility was tightening. The maids shifted, moving quietly into a loose ring around me.
Then:
"That's enough, Roy."
An old man's voice — unhurried, dry, and carrying the particular authority of someone who rarely needs to raise it.
The heat in the air subsided slightly.
I turned. A lean old man with a full white beard was making his way toward me through the crowd. He walked slowly but with purpose, and the villagers parted around him without being asked.
Thompson stepped up beside me, almost despite himself.
"This is Devon, the chief of Gray Zone Village. He was head of the household at the Mansion of Light — you may remember him."
I lowered my head in a respectful bow.
"Chief Devon. It's good to meet you."
Devon acknowledged me with a slight dip of his own head — more than I had expected, and perhaps more than I deserved. But even in that small courtesy, his eyes remained watchful and guarded.
"Thompson tells me you came specifically to speak with the people of this village."
At those words, the hostility in the crowd sharpened again. I could see, at the edges of my vision, hands tightening around the handles of farming tools and shovels.
I swallowed once. Held Devon's gaze.
"Yes. I know it may seem unconscionable of me to be here. But I have things I need to say — and I was willing to risk the rudeness of coming uninvited to say them."
Devon's white brows lifted slightly. Something flickered in his expression — the faintest trace of surprise that the woman standing before him was not quite the one he remembered.
His gaze moved briefly to the maids.
"You brought no guards beyond your ladies' maids?"
"No. Just them."
He was quiet for a moment, appearing to reconsider something.
"I'll admit — I wondered if you'd come to make an example of us."
*That would be exactly what the old Rebecca would have done.*
"I thought bringing only my maids might help. I didn't come to fight, Chief Devon."
I looked at him steadily.
"I came to apologize."
Silence.
Then a ripple of stunned murmuring moved through the crowd.
Devon stared at me. The wariness in his eyes had shifted into something harder to name.
"You came... to apologize to us."
"Yes." I let my gaze move across the gathered faces — all of them watching me, some with anger, some with open disbelief. "Sincerely. And beyond that, I intend to restore what I took from you. I want to offer you work — real work, with fair standing."
"Work?" Devon repeated.
"I'm establishing a welfare foundation for mixed-blood demons. It's meant to provide support and proper standing to those who've been mistreated — ignored or dismissed simply because of what they are. I want the people of this village to be part of it, if they're willing."
The murmuring grew. I held Devon's gaze.
"I mean every word of it. So if you would give me the chance to speak — to apologize properly, to all of you—"
I lowered my head.
"Please."
The crowd went quiet.
Not the volatile, brewing silence from before — something different. Stunned. Uncertain.
Then the maids began to step forward one by one, planting themselves in front of me.
"Chief Devon — Her Highness has changed. She is not who she was."
"We have served her closely, and we can say this without hesitation."
"His Highness the Grand Duke himself looks after her now — he cares for her genuinely."
A beat of silence — and then the crowd erupted in laughter.
"The Grand Duke? Caring for *that* Grand Duchess?"
"Ha! Even a passing dog would laugh at that one!"
"Who would believe such a thing?"
The maids' faces went crimson.
"It's the truth! Would you believe it if the Grand Duke appeared here himself?"
And at that precise moment —
From somewhere near the village entrance, the unmistakable thunder of hooves reached us. Fast, hard, and growing louder. A cloud of dust rose in the distance, billowing toward the center of the village.
Every head turned.
As the dust settled in uneven waves, a figure on a massive black horse came into focus — cutting through the path at a speed that left no question about urgency.
I went still.
*Why on earth...?*
Mina's hand closed around my arm.
"Your Highness," she said, in the carefully measured tone of someone trying not to sound as baffled as she was, "that's... the Grand Duke. Isn't it?"
"I... believe so."
But this wasn't the Cedric I knew. The man bearing down on us had none of his usual ease, none of the composed stillness he habitually wore. His face was hard and set, his jaw locked, his eyes scanning the crowd with an intensity that put me in mind of someone running down a fugitive.
I blinked.
*Why is Cedric coming to Gray Zone Village? And like *that*?*
I was still trying to make sense of it when his gaze swept across the crowd — and landed on me.
He went rigid for half a second. Then the horse surged forward, faster.
The black horse came to a halt directly in front of me, hooves throwing up a final spray of dust. The villagers scattered back, coughing, exchanging bewildered glances.
"That man — is that—"
"Your Highness? Here? Without any word sent ahead?"
The shift in the crowd's energy was immediate and unmistakable. Wonder moved through it like a current, replacing hostility. People who had been glaring at me moments ago were now pressing their hands to their mouths, eyes wide, radiating something closer to reverence.
*I knew the Twins family commanded deep respect among the mixed-blood demon community. I hadn't quite understood the scale of it until now.*
I was still taking that in when—
"Rebecca."
Low. Quiet. And carrying the kind of weight that makes a single word sound like considerably more than one.
I looked up.
Cedric looked down at me from the back of the black horse, and the warmth I had grown somewhat accustomed to seeing in his eyes was gone. What had replaced it was something controlled and cold on the surface — and underneath it, very clearly, something that was not cold at all.
He held my gaze for a long, unblinking moment.
Then his lips parted.
"I finally found you."
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