Prologue
“Didn’t I say I’d go to hell?”
In stark contrast to his fierce gaze, he sauntered toward her with an air of nonchalance.
She instinctively stepped back. A dangerous scent, something like musk, drifted from him.
No—perhaps it was because the cold barrel of a gun was pressing into her soft skin.
“That was when nothing had happened.”
Even to her own ears, her trembling voice sounded desperate.
Back when she knew nothing. When she didn’t yet know that her father had died because of him.
“Nothing… happened?”
He echoed her words.
Unlike her, who was shaking, he looked utterly cold, as if he had no awareness of any wrongdoing.
How could he be so shameless after committing such evil?
Even now, as she tried to beg for forgiveness, his gaze bound her like that of a judge, and it was she who looked away. The gun barrel tucked between her garter belt shifted, scraping again against her tender skin.
“You seem uncomfortable.”
As if he knew exactly what troubled her, he tilted his chin.
“Even if you’re leaving, wouldn’t it be better to rest a bit first?”
He smiled as he stepped closer. It was a smile like a ray of sunlight falling onto a field of pure white snow.
Sephine stepped back again, but she couldn’t overcome the man who quickly reached out and seized her wrist.
He wrapped an arm around her slender waist. Afraid he might discover the gun she had secretly taken, Sephine dropped the bag she was holding between them.
“Let go, His.”
“No. I don’t know how to let you go. Don’t ask me to do something I don’t know. I can’t.”
His words, whether mocking or sincere, brushed against the tip of her nose.
After a deep breath, he lowered his face. With no way to avoid him, her lips were crushed against his.
“Ah…!”
When his hand slid down her back and beneath her hips, Sephine twisted her body. Whether it was the damp kisses trailing along her neck or the cold metallic touch against her inner thigh, soft moans kept escaping her.
“I can leave whenever I want!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
As he spoke, he released her wrist. Freed from the tension, her body wavered for a moment.
The bag caught between them fell to the ground. Sephine quickly picked it up and turned away.
“My child might be in that womb, and you expect me to just stand by while it’s driven into danger because of a foolish mother?”
“That’s… not true.”
Startled, Sephine shook her head. She had never even considered a child. She had been meticulously taking medication she didn’t fully understand, so it seemed impossible.
“Someone who has nothing—someone who’s never had anything—when they finally gain just one thing, they’ll risk their life to protect it, Sephine. I’ve gained something like that as well.”
His gaze dropped to her lower abdomen.
“So why not endure it? It may be filthy and dreadful.”
In a gentle tone, he whispered words that sounded like a curse.
“Stay by my side. It would be better than a fallen noble, unmarried, bearing and raising a lowborn child.”
As if he were painting a future that was already decided.
