Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 225

The room they were left alone in was silent, filled with an almost palpable stillness. A warm spring breeze brushed against the window but lost all its strength the moment it drifted indoors. It felt as if the late spring air had suddenly plunged to freezing temperatures. Cecilia pulled the shawl around her shoulders tighter, instinctively seeking warmth.

The man who usually appeared calm reacted unexpectedly to this small action. The shawl Cecilia wrapped around herself was the very cloak that Nigel had tossed her with a hint of disdain. She’d forgotten it was his, to the point where it had become nothing more than a piece of fabric to her.

But, that was from her perspective. It was all too obvious how it would appear to others—an audacious girl who disrupted a noble lady’s birthday party, wearing another man’s cloak in front of her fiancé. It would certainly raise eyebrows.

“So, it was Nigel Rosencrantz after all.”

“Did you come here without knowing who was involved?”

“Aren’t you going to ask why I’m here?”

“Normally, that would be the first question,” Cecilia replied coolly, “but it seems you already know.”

“There aren’t many people aware I stayed behind. The Heens family has taken all the scandal onto themselves for today.”

“Then, how did you find out, Lieutenant?”

Logan interrupted her before she could finish.

“I found the invitation suspicious.”

“…Suspicious?”

“Someone I wouldn’t expect to invite me… Why would they call me on such a day? That thought struck me suddenly, so…”

He smiled slightly.

“I did a little digging.”

Cecilia hadn’t found it odd that Count Heens would invite Logan. After all, Logan aligned with the Count’s goals.

But people’s perceptions are often different from reality, and Logan knew just how uneasy the Count’s social circle felt about him.

“And… did you find anything?”

“I learned that it was the Marquis’s son who instigated the whole thing. One of the servants informed me briefly.”

Nigel inviting Logan? That was unexpected. Logan had no connection with Guinevere, let alone Ulysses, nor did Nigel have any reason to be interested in him.

“But why…”

“Why?”

Logan gave her a cold, sardonic smile.

“If I were your lover, I would have acted the same way. Watching my lover with an official fiancé would be difficult to bear.”

“……”

‘If only you knew the truth about my relationship with Nigel.’

It would make sense if they were actually lovers. But she and Nigel were merely in a temporary, transactional relationship.

While she still couldn’t fully grasp Nigel’s actions, Cecilia chose to stay silent. A misunderstanding in this pretend situation was, after all, quite convenient.

Logan continued,

“I should have realized when you said you didn’t even want to be in a relationship. I was slow to catch on.”

A trace of bitterness hovered on his elegantly upturned lips.

“Now that you know, perhaps it’s time to…”

“It does make me feel a bit foolish, fighting my way here after seeing your family on the guest list.”

“……”

“I knew it was a trap from the start.”

Logan walked over, pulling back the curtain and opening the window wider. As he leaned by the window, a cigarette between his lips, he looked both familiar and unfamiliar. He hadn’t smoked in front of her in a long while.

“…I thought you’d quit.”

When she murmured quietly, he exhaled a trail of smoke and turned his face toward her. His expression was frigid—brutally indifferent, detached, and cool.

Cecilia found it oddly reassuring. This was the Logan she knew, the one she was familiar with. She had always hoped he’d continue to see her with this kind of detachment, rather than giving her false hope.

She had no regrets about today. She knew she wouldn’t regret it in the future, either. She’d always felt guilty toward him, but now she understood even that was misplaced.

Logan had despised her without any reasonable cause.

Why? She didn’t know, nor did she care to investigate further.

‘That life ended back then.’

Even so, the weight of the cloak on her shoulders felt burdensome. Not because of this man before her, but because she’d so easily accepted Nigel’s scent clinging to the fabric.

With a sudden, instinctive and emotional impulse, Cecilia tossed the cloak to the floor. There was no calculated thought behind it.

Logan’s gaze shifted abruptly from the window to her, settling on the discarded cloak. He stubbed out his cigarette in the crystal dish and turned his attention to Cecilia.

“Honestly, I never understood it.”

His well-built frame shifted as he directed his focus squarely on her.

“I hate even looking at myself sometimes. So why do I willingly subject myself to this?”

Cecilia furrowed her brow at his unexpected words. She’d been prepared for him to suggest ending the engagement once and for all or even to insist they never see each other again.

Rather than moving away, he was steadily closing the space between them, erasing the distance step by step.

“To be honest, it doesn’t suit my temperament or personality. Why am I doing this? Why do I… love you? And on my own terms, no less… It’s honestly quite rude, isn’t it?”

Marmalade:

THE WAY I ALMOST FLIPPED MY TABLE???? AAAAAAAAAAAA

A confession already???? From a stoic ML candidate / unfeeling former husband ???? alkjfhlsdakjflksdjhflkjsdf guys I can’t breatheeee

I doubted my eyes for a second there but it’s unmistakable, he really said the word LOVE lakjfldskjfldjk not just ‘like’, literally 사랑 sarangggg