I Wish You Well In Your Next Love, My Love - Chapter 89
Had the fishing boat that failed to take me departed? Or was it still tied up, trapped by the downpour and unable to even think of crossing the sea?
I hoped this rain would buy time.
Wait.
If the escape plan had been exposed, Gerard might have been caught like me and kept from going to the harbor.
I clutched my wet skirt with both hands.
“…Did you know everything?”
“What?”
“……”
Her brows, stretched straight in a clean line, twitched upward.
My gaze settled on her lips, beautiful as pomegranate flowers.
“How did you know that I was going to the harbor?”
“Was that so surprising?”
“…Did you perhaps kidnap Gerard, your son?”
Marcella suddenly burst into laughter. It was an elegant, beautiful voice, but to my ears, it sounded like nothing but mockery.
Her aide handed her a handkerchief from beside her.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you laugh like this, Madam.”
“Has it? There hasn’t been much to laugh about. The Grand Duke also had paintings made of my smiling face and hung them everywhere they could be seen. The things he does are exactly like his father. Creepy.”
From her words, I could not feel even the slightest affection toward the Grand Duke. Rather, only hatred and malice seemed to remain.
After Madam Marcella gently pressed the handkerchief to the corners of her eyes, she let out a long breath. It seemed the afterglow of laughter still had not faded.
I could not understand what about my words had made her laugh. I didn’t want to understand either.
“Kidnap, huh.”
Marcella muttered as if it were absurd.
“To think you could be so ignorant about my son after dating him for seven years.”
“……”
“It seems Gerard wasn’t just amusing himself by waiting on you, but also putting on a detestable act.”
Foolish and pitiful thing. Madam Marcella was looking at me with exactly those eyes.
But I was not curious in the slightest about what that gaze meant. I let the ambiguous words meant to shake me pass in one ear and out the other.
My heart was not here. I was only worried about Gerard.
Rather than wasting time on a battle of nerves where I would not even be a match, it was wiser to say what she wanted to hear and quickly get out of this place.
I knelt on both knees.
The chill of the marble floor ran up my knees and dizzily all the way to the crown of my head.
“I’m sorry. Madam, I think I must have lost my mind for a moment.”
For the first time, the smile vanished from her relaxed face.
“Even though I was of lowly status, I misunderstood Lord Castion’s kindness because he cherished me without discrimination. I wondered if perhaps I could become the lady of House Castion. But that is absolutely not more important than my life. If you forgive me just this once, I will live forever as if I were dead. I don’t have money right now, so I can’t move houses immediately, but if you could give me just a little support… no, no, I’ll just live as a wanderer without a home.”
I spoke as earnestly as possible in a trembling voice. Revealing the sordidness that it had not been because I loved him, but because I desired wealth and power.
From her position, was money not the easiest problem to solve? All she had to do was hand over a pittance and cut off one troublesome lump.
But there was no truth in the words I had spat out.
In the first place, I had not met Gerard hoping for anyone’s understanding or permission.
How much worse could my life become if I betrayed Madam Marcella? I had nothing to lose anyway. I only had to leave with Gerard.
For me… as long as I have Gerard, that is enough.
“……”
But even after a long time had passed since I finished speaking, no sound came.
A chilling silence settled.
I was so tense that I could feel my heart pounding through every blood vessel. When I slowly lifted my head, my eyes met Madam Marcella’s directly.
“Those with little learning and little money are bound to change their words however they please.”
When Madam Marcella lightly gestured, the guard waiting nearby placed paper and a pen in front of me.
“I’ve suffered much at the hands of many people, so unless I receive something like this, I can’t feel at ease.”
“……”
“Write down what I say.”
