I Wish You Well In Your Next Love, My Love - Chapter 88
Gerard had told me not to bring anything and only to dress warmly, but the closer the promised time came, the heavier my bag grew.
I took my portrait out of its frame and rolled it up. It was something he had spent a full three months working on. I had heard that when he was young, he had briefly received private art lessons, but his skill was first-rate.
On the other hand, the portrait of him that I drew, claiming I would repay him…
“Should I not take this.”
It was practically an insult.
Though Gerard, the person concerned, had been satisfied with it. I spent days stopping him when he said he would bring it to his office.
If I didn’t take it, Gerard seemed like he would be disappointed, so in the end, I rolled up the one I had drawn as well and shoved it into my bag.
Rain was pouring down in torrents.
I had brought an umbrella, but I went outside prepared to get completely soaked.
‘Will today be the last time I step on these iron stairs too?’
Right before I could sink into sentimentality, I pulled myself together.
When I reached the end of the alley, I saw the carriage Gerard said he had called. I climbed in quickly without even greeting anyone and simply hugged my bag to myself.
Dark clouds lay low, making the boundary between the sea and the sky hazy. Beyond the harbor, high waves surged.
When I got out of the carriage with a tense heart, my eyes met someone holding a black umbrella. At the same time, he acknowledged me.
“Please come this way.”
Was this person also someone Gerard had sent?
Without introducing himself one way or another, he hurriedly grabbed my wrist and pulled me along.
Staggering, my foot stepped into a puddle. My shoes became completely soaked, but without even a moment to compose myself, I was dragged along blindly.
I was bewildered, but I thought it could be that way because the matter was urgent.
Inside the carriage, there were two other men sitting besides me. I had not expected this, so I froze for a moment.
‘…Something is strange.’
An instinctive sense of danger swept down my spine. The moment I drew back the foot I had been about to place inside the carriage and tried to run with all my strength.
Thwack—!
Something heavy struck the back of my neck.
* * *
When I came to, I had been dragged to some mansion.
“Hmm.”
Searching eyes examined my whole body piece by piece.
From the shabby clothes I had layered only for warmth without caring about appearance at all, to the mud-spattered shoes.
I hid my hands with their ragged hangnails.
Madam Marcella’s gaze lingered especially long on my face.
“Are you certain you brought the right one?”
Her voice sounded as if she found it hard to believe.
“Yes. I have witnessed the young master meeting with this person.”
Marcella laughed as if dumbfounded.
“Did I make him work too much from such a young age? Just what in the world did he lose his heart to?”
We had been found out.
My romance with Gerard had been discovered by the very person who must never discover it.
My shoulders stiffened with tension. Should I have listened when Gerard told me we should move?
No, in the first place, it would be stranger not to be caught after a romance that had lasted as long as seven years.
Gerard and I had both been too complacent.
“Open it.”
Madam Marcella lightly jerked her chin.
The sturdy men who seemed to be guards suddenly snatched my bag away.
“Wait, why are you doing this!”
No one listened to my cries. My bag was likewise handled recklessly.
Clatter. Everything inside spilled onto the floor.
The aides spread them out on the floor so that Madam Marcella could check the contents easily. Among the shabby things, the two portraits lay side by side.
Madam Marcella pointed directly at them and flicked her hand.
A guard picked up the drawings and handed them to her.
“He even knows how to do cute things like this.”
The elegant signature at the bottom of the portrait was unmistakably her son’s handwriting.
Now that even evidence had come out, I could not even make excuses.
It’s all ruined. What do I do. What should I do?
My mind began to go blank.
Gerard would be waiting for me at the harbor. He had used his ability to make it look as if a monster had appeared, but with a formless monster, the other Awakened would soon begin to question it.
‘I have to go to Gerard.’
I obsessively gathered up the things scattered across the floor.
“Did my son not even buy you a single set of clothes?”
“……”
“He’s not a stingy child by nature. Since you were seeing him anyway, you should have acted charming and asked him to buy you this and that.”
Rumble. Lightning struck beyond the front window, and soon after, thunder followed, shaking the sky.
The fierce, ominous downpour showed no sign of stopping.
‘Gerard.’
Everything before my eyes was bleak.
I could not even dare to guess what you would feel as you waited for me when I did not come.
