Chapter : 148
Ares’s gaze would not leave her name.
Grace Taylor.
The elegant yet razor-sharp name resembled its owner frighteningly well.
She had called him as she pleased—and now, she had left him just as she pleased. Without even looking back, she must have departed Richmond. The image of her doing so formed vividly before his eyes.
Without realizing it, Ares crushed Grace’s letter in his fist, then clenched his teeth hard before slowly unfolding it again. He pressed the letter into his chest, which felt as though it had been hollowed out.
The sharpest blade to guard a secret.
The bedrock that would support me….
Ares’s black eyes shook violently.
That was not what he truly wanted from her.
“Then you shouldn’t have run to me like that.”
You shouldn’t have looked up at me with eyes filled with love.
You shouldn’t have wrapped your arms around my back, taken my hand—
Only to leave so cleanly afterward.
How am I supposed to endure that?
Ares barely managed to release an unsteady breath and closed his eyes.
＊ ＊ ＊
Inside a dimly lit carriage.
“You ungrateful, vulgar wretch.”
At the voice dripping with malice that pierced her eardrums, Grace lifted her eyes. Duchess Emma Taylor was glaring at her as though she might tear her apart at any moment.
“Do you know how long we played the role of your parents? And you dare repay us like this?”
After Emma, Duke John Taylor sneered viciously.
“Eliza Richmond. Did you really think that hiding behind that senile old man and Walter Richmond, who does nothing but swing a sword, would keep me from dragging you back?”
“Ridiculous. Abandon the delusion that Walter Richmond will come to save you.”
Grace, who had remained silent the entire time, replied for the first time.
“I never thought that.”
Emma’s eyes flew open.
That damned girl was calm even in this situation. A face utterly devoid of fear or shame made Emma’s insides boil over.
Grinding her teeth, Emma swung her hand at Grace.
Smack!!
Before Grace could even regain her senses, a fierce hand swept across her other cheek.
Smack!!
Grace took the blows without resistance. Feeling the impact echo through her palm, Emma’s madness erupted. Her frenzy was a twisted blend of long-festering inferiority and rage over her daughter’s death.
Smack!!!
Every time Grace’s head snapped to the side, Emma felt an inexplicable sense of release. The violence escalated.
“You should have died with your parents, you bitch!”
Smack!!!
With each blow, Grace’s consciousness grew hazier, but she clenched her teeth and endured.
Emma’s violence only stopped once the carriage came to a halt.
“Get up.”
Emma roughly yanked Grace by the arm as she lay collapsed on the carriage seat.
“Y-Your Grace!!”
Lady Cornwall, standing outside the carriage, gasped and reached out when she saw Grace being dragged out by Emma. But Emma coldly slapped her hand away, as if she would tolerate no interference in this moment.
“Silence. Step back!!”
In such a short time, she had been beaten so badly that Grace’s appearance was beyond miserable. Her once neatly styled hair was a tangled mess, both cheeks were swollen red, and blood pooled at her split lips.
The knights who had come with them clenched their teeth and lowered their heads. Jessie trembled violently, fists tightly clenched.
But none of that registered with Emma or John. Dragging Grace along, Emma headed toward the chapel of the Taylor ducal residence.
The eyes of Count and Countess Sachsen, along with Jack Sachsen, who had been waiting in the chapel, widened when they spotted Grace being hauled in by Emma.
“Oh my—kukh… ahem.”
After letting out a small exclamation, the Countess of Sachsen hurriedly covered her mouth and erased her smile.
Jack Sachsen also covered his twitching lips with his hand, yet he couldn’t hide the way his eyes curved. His gaze followed Grace as she was dragged along by Emma.
Only when they reached Rosette’s coffin did Emma release her grip on Grace’s arm. She then said to her,
“Atone.”
“……”
“Apologize. Repent.”
Looking at Rosette’s coffin, Grace thought—
Atonement. Apology. Repentance.
The faint scent of burned incense lingering throughout the chapel revived memories of that unforgettable day.
The devil’s whisper that if she didn’t live quietly, merely breathing, she would end up like her parents.
Atonement, apology, repentance—those words did not belong to her.
“You’re the one who killed Rosette, Grace. If you hadn’t acted so ungratefully, Rosette wouldn’t have died. So atone. Repent. Apologize, I said!!”
“I killed Rosette?”
Grace turned her head and stared straight at Emma.
“Do you truly believe that?”
Emma did not hesitate for even a moment before slapping Grace again.
Smack!!
Her head snapped to the side, yet it didn’t hurt at all.
No—she felt like laughing.
From the moment she entered the chapel, she had seen the Count and Countess of Sachsen and Jack Sachsen. They were clearly smiling. And yet, with those people standing before her daughter’s coffin, they demanded atonement and repentance from an innocent person.
“You’re laughing?”
“Have you ever thought about it? Even once?”
“What?”
Grace continued, her gaze shifting past Emma’s back to the Sachsen family, who were watching the entire scene with keen interest.
“Why the Taylor dukedom came to you. Was it coincidence? Or fate…?”
Her green eyes returned to Emma.
“Or was it someone’s choice?”
“…What?”
“And if it was someone’s choice—”
“……”
Grace once again looked beyond Emma’s back, toward the Sachsen family, enunciating each word with deliberate meaning.
“Was that ‘someone’ truly just one person? Or several?”
The Count and Countess of Sachsen, meeting Grace’s gaze, swallowed hard as a chill ran down their spines.
But Emma brushed off Grace’s ominous words and stepped closer.
“So you’re finally revealing your true nature. Yes, that’s what you’ve always thought, isn’t it? Instead of being grateful to us for raising you in place of your parents—!! You believed you were sitting in a position far above your station, and looked down on us for it, didn’t you?!!”
“……”
“Listen carefully! The Taylor dukedom coming to me was destiny. From the very beginning, everything of Taylor was mine!! Not your parents’, and not yours!!!”
She then grabbed Grace’s shoulders tightly and spat a curse at her.
“You will live your entire life in pain. The word ‘vulgar’ will follow you for as long as you live, and you won’t even be respected by your own children. You’ll always be persecuted, living with such shame that you’ll wish you were dead.”
Perhaps just imagining it pleased her—Emma’s lips curled upward with a sickly grin.
“Offer your suffering to Rosette. I, too, will live off your pain. So you—atone by suffering.”
Emma then shouted sharply toward Lady Cornwall.
“Lock Grace up! Until I permit it, she is not to be given even a sip of water! Lock up Jessie Morton as well—the one who followed Grace—and give her not a single drop of water either!! Jessie Morton will be punished the moment we return to the duchy!”
As Lady Cornwall hurried forward, Emma flung Grace away as though discarding something filthy, then turned toward Rosette’s coffin.
At Lady Cornwall’s signal, several knights stepped forward and surrounded Grace.
Grace moved as Lady Cornwall and the knights guided her away, while Emma dropped to her knees before Rosette’s coffin.
“…Did you see? I brought back Grace—the one who caused your death.”
She slowly stroked the coffin, whispering tenderly.
“Grace will never be happy. Your mother will make sure of it, so do not feel wronged.”
Duke John Taylor also stepped beside his wife and gently touched their daughter’s coffin.
Meanwhile, Jack Sachsen, who had been watching Grace the entire time, quietly began to move. His face was filled with ecstasy.
Never in his life had he felt such joy. To think that they had maneuvered Duke Taylor into pulling Grace out of Richmond!
When Lady Cornwall and the knights ahead glanced back at him, Jack Sachsen gestured as if telling them to carry on. And in the end, he followed all the way to the solitary cell where Grace would be confined.
＊ ＊ ＊
Grace entered the solitary cell without resistance, and Lady Cornwall turned to Jack Sachsen.
“Viscount Sachsen.”
But Jack Sachsen’s eyes were fixed on Grace with an obsession that sent chills down the spine. Even in the dim cell, her hair shimmered gold. Like a gargoyle obsessed with anything that sparkled, Jack Sachsen walked toward her as though possessed.
“Viscount Sachsen…!”
Lady Cornwall and the knights tried to stop him, but Grace signaled them with her eyes to stand down.
Grace calmly stared at Jack Sachsen as he approached with gleaming eyes. The ecstasy rolling off his body was unmistakable. That ecstasy solidified her suspicions into certainty.
“It was you.”
