Chapter 47
I couldn’t even make an excuse and just opened and closed my mouth soundlessly. I wished I could tell him it was all a misunderstanding, but what he’d seen was true.
“Let me explain. Please loosen your grip first.”
“Does this even need an explanation?”
I had been about to try lying anyway, but Kyle cut in with a mocking laugh, turning my useless attempt into nothing.
Kyle shook off Rihardt’s grasp, but even as two guards held him firmly by the shoulders, Rihardt didn’t suppress his aggressive energy.
“You used your position as warden to forcibly steal a kiss, didn’t you?”
It was true that things had started with force, but I couldn’t say I resisted him until the end.
“No. Kyle and I were just talking. Please calm down.”
He didn’t believe my lie at all and stared at me with resentful eyes. He was convinced something had happened, but since he hadn’t seen it directly, he couldn’t outright call me a liar.
Rihardt didn’t know exactly what Kyle and I had done in the room. He could only assume Kyle had forced himself on me.
Even if it was true, I didn’t want to be caught kissing another man when I had a lover. Desperately, I shook my head.
“Don’t you trust me?”
At that moment, the ferocity on Rihardt’s face softened all at once. He looked at me with confused eyes. Keeping my regretful expression, I tried once more to persuade him.
“You promised—promised you’d trust me.”
Remembering our last promise, Rihardt’s body relaxed. He lightly shook off the guards’ hands as if to show he had no intention of attacking. But the fierce light in his eyes as he glared at Kyle didn’t fade.
“Would you take Sir Aberdeen to a cell on the first floor?”
The guards only blinked, waiting for the warden’s instructions. Kyle just quietly watched Rihardt and me, his expression unreadable.
I couldn’t let this standoff go on any longer. If I left first, maybe Rihardt would follow me, and this scene would end.
I decided and took a step to leave the hallway.
Whoosh—
A gust of wind blew in through the bars, brushing my fine hair back off my shoulders. Feeling a gaze, I couldn’t keep walking.
Rihardt’s red eyes were fixed on my neck. At that instant, a memory flickered in my mind—
Kyle kissing my neck.
Up until now, my long hair had hidden it, but when the wind blew it back, my neck was exposed.
I realized instinctively—I’d been caught.
Rihardt’s eyes trembled as if shaken by an earthquake, the sound of shattering glass echoing in my ears like the sound of his trust breaking.
All that was left now would be betrayal and distrust. Our eyes met, and with a blank expression, Rihardt moved his lips.
His face said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing even with his own eyes.
“……!”
“Now you see?”
Kyle’s voice cut in, breaking the moment. With a tug on my wrist, he pulled me to stand beside him. Kyle wrapped an arm around my back as though holding me close.
“Veronica enjoyed it with me. It wasn’t something I forced on her.”
He smiled darkly, a seductive curve to his lips. Rihardt looked completely stunned.
“Veronica chose me of her own free will.”
Kyle spat out the cruel words. I felt a sinking sense of irreversibility from Rihardt.
Kyle pulled me closer against him. Rihardt stared only at me, as though asking if it was true.
“Veronica chose you?”
The air around the frozen Rihardt sharpened, like a blade being honed. The more the tension rose, the more anxious I became. Would Rihardt actually rush at us barehanded?
In the end, I decided to plunge the knife into his heart.
“Yes. I’ve decided to accept Kyle’s feelings.”
“Ve…Veronica… why…”
Seeing him deny reality and cling to me desperately made my own heart ache. He threw away his pride and begged me.
“That’s a lie, isn’t it? The warden threatened you again. What did he use this time to blackmail you?”
“No. I’m not being threatened.”
“Then why… don’t you love me anymore? Please, don’t leave me.”
“……”
He started to step closer, but the guards blocked him, forcing him to stop.
“Veronica, come to me.”
He stretched his hand toward me as if to pull me back, his trembling fingertips heavy with unease.
I wanted to take his hand, to tell him it wasn’t true, to comfort him.
But I turned my head away from his desperate gaze.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Veronica!”
“That’s enough. Take him away now.”
At Kyle’s order, the guards each grabbed one of Rihardt’s arms and dragged him. I instinctively started to step toward him but stopped myself.
If I showed any lingering attachment to Rihardt here, Kyle wouldn’t believe in my supposed change of heart.
With a heavy expression, I watched Rihardt. He resisted the guards, refusing to be dragged, and stared at Kyle with eyes burning with fury.
“Don’t you dare lay a finger on my lover. I will never forgive you!”
Kyle dropped his façade of calm and glared at Rihardt with contemptuous eyes.
“She was mine before she ever became your lover. You’re the one who intruded where you don’t belong.”
Rihardt bit down hard on his lower lip. Unable to resist the guards’ pull any longer, he stopped glaring at Kyle and turned his eyes to me.
His gaze held a thousand unsaid words, but I couldn’t give him any answer. He opened his mouth as if to call my name but closed it without speaking.
He couldn’t understand why I was abandoning him and was lost in confusion. The questions and resentment in his eyes felt like they were desperately clinging to me.
I immediately regretted coming out to the lawn for my walk. Rihardt was already there waiting ahead of me.
I tried to turn straight back into the building, pretending not to see him, but he followed and caught me.
“Why are you avoiding me?”
I had wanted to avoid a conversation because Rihardt seemed overly emotional…
He caught my hand. Even though I didn’t turn to him, he wouldn’t let go.
Slowly, I turned back. The damp shine of Rihardt’s eyes showed how deeply he’d been hurt.
“Have you… come to hate me now?”
Should I tell him right now that it was all a lie, that I still liked him?
“You said we’d escape together. That even after we left this place, we’d be together, that you’d think about accepting my proposal.”
His voice trembled with tears. My heart ached so much I couldn’t bear to look at him.
“I have nothing to say. Please stop bothering me.”
Silently apologizing in my heart, I replied coldly. To deceive everyone, I had to deceive Rihardt too. He was too honest, not skilled at lying like I was.
As harsh as it was, only if Rihardt reacted with real anger and grief would Kyle believe my change of heart. Kyle was a difficult opponent even for me, who lived by tricks; a half-baked act wouldn’t fool him.
Another emotion flickered faintly across Rihardt’s sorrowful face.
“You really decided to be that man Kesnis’s woman?”
“My goal has never changed from the beginning until now.”
I hated that I had to hurt him. Why couldn’t I be a good woman? And why did he keep trying to hold on to me even at the cost of being hurt? What on earth did he see in me…
“Just let me go.”
“You mean to the warden?”
He no longer sounded tearful. His face was expressionless now, but a chilling light shone in his eyes.
I tried to peel his fingers off the back of my hand, but he didn’t loosen his grip. I gave a small shake of my hand.
He slowly let go, reluctant to the very end, as if each second was dripping with regret.
But his voice when it came wasn’t gentle.
“Is this really your true feeling?”
The last glimmer of hope in his eyes had gone cold.
“Did you ever even have real feelings for me? For you, both me and that man Kesnis were just tools to use, weren’t we?”
That wasn’t true… I had only pretended to accept Kyle’s proposal and to be his woman. But not knowing the truth, Rihardt trembled with betrayal.
Did he really think I’d betray him and take Kyle’s hand? Was it because I’d approached him with ulterior motives in the beginning?
“My feelings for you were just a convenient means, is that it? Did you ever truly like me even for a moment?”
