My Former Lover Didn't Die And Came Back - Chapter 29
“…….”
“……I’m fine now. I’ve fully recovered. So, there’s no reason for me to stay in this mansion anymore.”
As she brought up her prepared statement, urgency appeared on Cedric’s face.
“……That’s not possible, Blair.”
“What do you mean it’s not possible? Are you trying to imprison me again?”
“It’s for your health. This place is in the center of the capital, so it’s easy for doctors to come,”
“Lies……!! You’re just making excuses to lock me up again……!”
Smack!
The newspaper she threw hit Cedric’s face and fell to the ground. The servants inside the mansion gasped.
Cedric paused for a moment and then rubbed his chin. He glanced at the butler, who quickly ushered all the servants out of the hall.
“……I want to go back to my home. It’s my husband’s trial. I need to be there.”
After finishing her words, the woman turned towards the mansion door, but Cedric immediately reached out and stopped her. Blair spun around, and Cedric grasped her shoulder.
“……I said I would do anything!!”
Cedric shouted at Blair.
“……!”
Startled by his desperate voice, she looked up to see the man who was holding her, his face filled with despair. His grip on her tightened.
“……You said you would grant me whatever I wished for. You clearly said that.”
The man repeated himself.
“……Yes, that’s right.”
The woman responded.
“So stay by my side. That’s what I want.”
“……But didn’t I also say this?”
Blair’s voice turned cold, making the man flinch.
“……I did nothing wrong. It was all my parents’ doing.”
She tried to sound as calm as possible, but her voice trembled slightly at the end.
“……I lied from the beginning. I said I did what my parents did because I thought you would kill them.”
She spoke with difficulty, choking on each word. Her eyes tried to smile, but her lips did not.
“……You really don’t believe me.”
“I do believe you, Blair.”
“Then…….”
“Yes. I believe you. Everything was done by your parents.”
Her eyes wavered.
“……Really?”
For a moment, a hint of color returned to the woman’s voice.
“So? What difference does it make?”
An icy voice escaped from the man’s lips.
“…….”
Blair’s face went as pale as a corpse.
“You’re the daughter of the perpetrator. In the end, it’s the same as your family pushing me into hell. What difference does it make?”
The man’s words stabbed her like a dagger.
“……Cedric, it was my parents who did it. Not me.”
She said in a voice of disbelief.
“I don’t see what’s so different. Blair, can you replace every single drop of blood in your body? If so, I’ll acknowledge it.”
“……”
At that moment, all expression vanished from Blair’s face. A chilling silence swept through the mansion.
“……Ha.”
Blair slowly pulled away from Cedric’s embrace. Even that brief movement made her stagger.
“……You. Words don’t get through you.”
She recalled their first day of reunion. Blair felt tremendous guilt while hearing his story of being captured on a slave ship and dragged through battlefields. The part where he was kidnapped without any explanation and only got beaten made her feel as if her heart was being ripped open. How scared he must have been. How deeply he must have hated the perpetrator.
That was why she endured being treated like a prostitute in the Cavendish mansion. Because she was the daughter of those who had sent him to hell, she bore some responsibility for the misfortune that befell him.
But there was a big difference between how she felt and how he took it for granted. Above all, she was tired of being confined.
“……I think I’ve already repaid my debt over the past few months. So, let me go now.”
Blair stated her opinion calmly. But as soon as she uttered ‘let me go’, the man’s gaze turned icy.
“……”
“I have to watch my husband’s trial. Let me fulfill my duty as his wife.”
“……Do you think that will work?”
Blair felt the air he exhaled turning unusually tense.
“……”
The two stared at each other silently for a moment. She was the first to move.
She quickly turned and ran towards the mansion door. But he was faster in grabbing her forearm.
“……Ah!”
“Listen, Blair.”
Cedric said with difficulty.
“Let go! I’ve paid you back enough. I almost lost my life over it……!”
“……It’s not enough for me.”
The man looked at the woman he was holding with a blazing gaze.
“You almost killed me, Cedric. Is this place safer? Ha, far from it! It was your men who tried to pounce on me.”
“Stay here. Do you want me to put shackles on you?”
“My husband’s trial is happening. I need to be there for him.”
Couples have the duty to stand by each other in their toughest moments.
“……”
She anticipated his grip on her shoulder to tighten, but surprisingly, nothing happened. Looking ahead, she saw him gritting his teeth, seeming to be enduring something.
Blair glanced at the hand on her shoulder and then met his eyes again.
“……I regret what happened to you.”
She said in a calm voice.
“……”
“No matter the circumstances, I led you to the train station. I felt responsible for that. That’s why I endured these past few months.”
“……Did you sleep with me out of pity? If you’re apologizing twice, I would have you give birth to my child.”
She scowled at his provocation. Knowing full well he was deliberately provoking her with cheap words.
“……Yes. I was sorry. It seems like I had some influence on your misfortune. So, I slept with you. Happy now?”
So she retorted in kind.
“……Ha,”
He chuckled, not expecting her to use the same expression.
“……Just stay by my side like you always do. I said sorry for what my men did to you. Why are you suddenly acting like this.”
Why indeed……
Blair bit her lip hard.
“I’m not sorry anymore.”
Hearing those words, color drained from the man’s face.
“…After visiting the gates of the underworld and coming back, I suddenly feel that way. I’ve paid enough, too.”
“……”
“I put up with you because I was sorry. But now that feeling is gone, why would I want to stay by your side?”
“……”
She laid down on the cold stone floor, waiting for him. It hurt too much to move. Ironically, Cedric was the only person she could think of because her body was in pain.
He used to come every night to bother her, but when she needed him most desperately, he didn’t come.
“……You knew I could die.”
It wasn’t because she liked him that she waited. The slight bit of lingering affection she had for him had burned away to ash.
“I thought it was a minor injury.”
The man made excuses.
……It wasn’t because of any lingering feelings. It was simply because there was no one else who could open that door and save her except him.
“I couldn’t wash or eat because my hand was injured. There wasn’t a single maid to help.”
He killed the maids too. And prevented me from seeing my parents. He cut off everyone who could save me, making him the only one I could think of in that situation.
“I couldn’t come to find you because……!”
Cedric suddenly stopped talking. He looked as if he had been hit in the head with a hammer.
Since the day Blair injured her hand, Cedric somehow couldn’t bring himself to visit her. When his secretary asked why he suddenly stopped going to the Cavendish mansion, he indifferently replied that he just couldn’t bring himself to go.
But he knew the real reason.
After that, he was afraid to look into her eyes.
「……It was my parents who sold you into slavery. I didn’t know anything about it until it was all over.」
……Wondering if that were true.
Cedric was angry at Blair. It was a justifiable anger.
She sold him into slavery and pocketed the compensation money, likely using it as her dowry. She committed a horrendous act against him first, so he had every reason to seek revenge on her, separating her from her husband and taking her body every night.
Cedric’s breath quickened. His gaze lost its direction and wavered.
But.
But what if she was innocent……? If what she said was true, what happens now? Can I ask this woman to stay by my side……?
He couldn’t find an answer to that question, so he avoided her altogether.
“Cedric? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Blair asked the man who suddenly stopped speaking and was staring into space. At her words, Cedric slowly shifted his gaze as Blair looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes.
“……Cedric?”
Blair asked in a hurry.
……What should I say? What can I say?
“Cedric? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
What should I do with this woman?
After a moment, the man, who had been losing focus and looking around in confusion, seemed to make up his mind and opened his lips.
“……Mrs Leana……!”
A loud cry escaped. It was the head maid’s name.
Soon a door opened, and a middle-aged head maid entered.
“Yes, yes……!”
Cedric pointed at Blair with a glance and ordered the head maid.
“……Don’t let her go anywhere except her room.”
Eventually, he chose the method he was most familiar with, and Blair shouted, filled with horror.
“……Cedric……!!”
Cedric placed one hand under her knee and one hand on her shoulder. He then lifted her up and climbed the stairs.
“Let go……! Why won’t you let me go?!”
Blair struggled and kicked wildly, but the man didn’t budge. His body felt as solid as a rock to her fists.
Bang!
Cedric kicked open the bedroom door without hesitation. It was indeed a feat of strength he could do while carrying an adult woman.
Thump!
“……Ah!”
He threw her onto the middle of the bed like he was tossing a piece of luggage. He had never treated her like this before, not even when he was treating her like a whore.
“……Make sure she can’t leave.”
Cedric emphasized again to the head maid.
“……Yes, yes. Understood.”
The experienced woman seemed to be facing such a situation for the first time too. Confusion was obvious on the head maid’s face, her hair growing gray. Cedric then turned around and left the room.
Translator
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ianthe
should probably stop picking up new novels. i'll try.