At this, Blake flinched, then shook his head with a regretful expression.
“No, that’s not it, Miss Carta. You misunderstand…”
“Not all atonement leads to forgiveness. Ask the princess. If she accepts, I’ll try to forgive you, too.”
Blake’s expression became desperate, and he couldn’t say anything with his head bowed deeply. His shoulders trembled slightly. Only after a long while did he simply murmur, “Your Highness.”
But before Natalie could say anything, Leon, whose mouth had been freed when Blake knelt, shouted:
“Natalie, Isabella! You said you loved me! You said you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me!”
Natalie tilted her head.
“Oh? When did I say that? And who is Isabella? Leon, did you dream this? It wouldn’t be strange. There are many people here who’ve had long dreams that felt real.”
When Natalie completely ignored him, Leon shouted toward Bella this time:
“Bella! I only gave you what you liked! Just as you begged for while crying, hmp!”
“Shut up.”
Everitt, who had approached without notice, gagged Leon with a bridle, his anger reaching the top of his head.
“Your speech is over. I won’t give you another chance to beg for forgiveness. If I let that filthy tongue wag any more, I might want to carve a scar on the other side of your face as well.”
“Mmph!”
“If you want humane treatment as a prisoner from me, you’d better behave. Negotiations are still possible even with a few limbs missing.”
Florian, who had been quietly listening while fidgeting with the end of his braid, opened his mouth toward Bella.
“How can I earn your forgiveness?”
Bella looked at Florian with disbelief, tilting her head.
“I didn’t come here to forgive.”
She came to say goodbye. It was for herself.
She didn’t want her last memory with the male leads to be that day in summer or the chaos from just a few days ago. She wanted to end with a human conversation, not s*x. Even if the conversation didn’t go as intended, this way she could remember them as people, not beasts.
Despite her saying she had no intention of forgiving, Florian showed no signs of disappointment or regret.
“I didn’t dare ask that hoping for forgiveness. Even if you were to kill me, I would have nothing to say. Please dispose of me as you wish.”
Florian knelt before Bella, swallowing his next words.
‘Even that would be sweet to me.’
He would never regret embracing her. Although it meant burying even the slightest possibility of winning her in the mud, Florian was happy to have held his princess. Anything more would just be greed.
“I have no regrets now.”
Bella looked down at the sickly young man kneeling before her. Once, she had felt such pity for this man. His status, his life, his short lifespan—all of it had made her heart ache.
But now she felt little emotion looking at him. It was the same with the others. She neither wanted to love him nor hated him enough to want him dead. Florian was now just a stranger to her.
She spoke to him as if addressing someone of no consequence.
“That’s enough, go find the medicine as you were told. And once you take it safely, leave me alone for the rest of your life.”
Then Bella turned her gaze to the others.
“I’m going to live without all of you now. You can forget me, or suffer because you can’t forget, or even keep me buried in your memories and occasionally take me out to reminisce—it doesn’t matter to me. You all mean nothing to me now. Whether you make me your princess or use me as a substitute for the real princess, do it only in your own heads from now on.”
The expressions of the male leads varied widely. But whatever expressions they made, whatever answers they gave, it no longer mattered to Bella.
With only one exception.
Bella deliberately avoided looking in Everitt’s direction.
“Goodbye, everyone. Let’s never meet again.”
***
Bella returned to her room and sank down on the bed. Her remaining emotions were far from refreshed. There was still much to resolve.
She still didn’t even know where to go.
Natalie had suggested they travel together, saying Bella didn’t know how enjoyable travel could be, but Bella just smiled and asked for some time to think. She wasn’t really in the mood to travel around.
Why? Where should I go now?
As she let out a deep sigh, someone knocked on the door. Bella looked at the door, startled.
“Bella.”
It was Everitt’s voice. Bella opened the door, relieved.
“I’d like to talk for a moment, if that’s alright? I’ll leave the door open. If you don’t want to, I’ll leave.”
Natalie’s room was right next door. She would come immediately if anything happened. But since it was Everitt who knocked, nothing would happen anyway.
“Come in.”
Everitt sat in the only chair in the room, and Bella sat on the bed opposite him. Everitt looked at her for a moment before speaking.
“I heard roughly from Natalie about where you’ve been and how you’ve been living.”
“I see.”
“You were staying right around here, I hear. Right inside my country. In the coldest part, at that.”
When Bella nodded, Everitt sighed.
“Why here of all places?”
“I thought if I hid in the Grand Duchy, the Grand Duke wouldn’t be able to find me.”
Everitt stared at her with his mouth slightly open, then rubbed his face.
“All this time, I was afraid you might have come to harm or were suffering somewhere strange…”
He couldn’t continue for a while. Then, burying his face in his hands, he said in a trembling voice.
“Or that you might have returned to the world you originally came from…”
Something seemed to well up in him, and after taking several deep breaths, he raised his head. His expression was complex.
“So you just wanted to avoid me.”
“You said that in the snow, one could forget anything.”
At that answer, Everitt was at a loss for words. He rubbed his brow and murmured.
“…So you remembered that.”
“At that time, those words were my only hope.”
Bella observed Everitt as she answered with words that were true in the past but no longer. Watching him struggle and carefully choose his words, she felt a tickling somewhere in her chest. It seemed almost enjoyable.
Unaware of Bella’s thoughts, Everitt began to share his feelings with difficulty.
“Bella. I didn’t ask for your forgiveness earlier. It’s not because I didn’t do wrong. Despite my wrongdoing, I didn’t want to ask for forgiveness in that way. I… could understand Prince Leon’s feelings on this one point.”
Everitt looked into Bella’s eyes and said quietly.
“I don’t want to be forgotten by you.”
The moment she heard those words, Bella’s heart sank.
“It’s impossible for me to forget you. There was a passage in the letter you left. You told me not to be trapped in the past summer and to live freely, unbound by anyone… That’s impossible. I am bound to you more than anyone else.”
Everitt’s two red eyes burned quietly like ripples on water.
“Don’t ask me to untie these bonds. That would be like telling me not to breathe. Yes, without you, I can’t even breathe properly. Whether my eyes are open or closed, your face is always floating before me.”
“….”
“And I dare to hope… that you would remember me too. I want traces of me to remain in your life. Even if they’re blemishes.”
Everitt let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, steadying his breathing. The prominent Adam’s apple below his masculine jawline caught Bella’s attention. Bella quietly bit her lower lip. Had they put too much fuel in the fireplace? She had been feeling hot and her heart had been racing for a while.
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Zahi
Es que en este punto es irremediable todo lo que hizo Everitt, y aunque lo perdonara Bella, no necesariamente tendrían que tener una relación. ¿Cómo Bella podría estar con su abusador sxx?