My Former Lover Didn't Die And Came Back - Chapter 31

“When you were actively running your trade, your strength was in intelligence. Plus, you’re now an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So you must have immediately known about my promotion during the war. Then, you must also know that I now belong to a family connected to the imperial family.”

The beautiful man stretched his reddened lips. Blood was smeared on his white teeth as well.

“Should I mention the pitiful younger brother who’s striving to save his older brother?”

He didn’t want to resort to such lowly threats. Adrian answered immediately.

“……I don’t have a hobby of forcing myself on women who dislike me.”

Cedric stiffened as he gripped Adrian’s collar, focusing on the words of the man he wanted to kill.

“I didn’t lay a hand on her even on the first night. I didn’t want to touch a woman crying over an old lover, saying she couldn’t forget him. I waited until she opened her heart.”

“……”

“……She asked to be registered as a merchant. Said she wanted to earn the money she sends to her parents’ house herself.”

“……”

“I don’t think that a lady shouldn’t work. I’m not such a narrow-minded husband.”

Cedric listened without breathing.

“……I am an affectionate husband.”

Adrian added.

“……But the day I found out she was using the trading company to snoop around the passenger lists of slave ships, I lost it.”

“……”

“She struggled so much that the strength that came from such a frail woman was unbelievable.”

“……”

“But she quieted down when I whispered this in her ear.”

Cedric listened without blinking. Adrian briefly pulled his red lips into a smile and continued.

“‘Oh, Blair. It’s natural you found nothing. With your capabilities, you could only search the eastern coast. Cedric Peterson boarded a ship from the Litunia line. The ship he boarded was at Litunia’s port on the day the war started.’”

“……”

Cedric’s golden pupils shook. He tried to forget, but memories that refused to be forgotten replayed by themselves.

Adrian’s story was accurate. The ship he boarded was docked in Litunia and took a direct hit from the bombing that signaled the start of the war. Painful memories surfaced. He cut off the chains on his feet with an axe that was hanging on the ship’s wall. It was fortunate he was able to swim well. He escaped from the shattered ship and swam with all his might to the coast.

The lips of the man, who knew much, moved.

“……I whispered the truth. That your ship turned into rags under the bombardment, and everyone onboard drowned.”

“……”

“Then she quieted down.”

“……”

Cedric’s face turned stone-like and remained that way. Silence filled the gray room for a moment.

“……After that, I never touched her.”

Thump!

When Adrian finished speaking, Cedric hit his face once more. Clatter! The old wooden chair rolled across the room.

“……You bastard!”

Cedric shouted as he lifted Adrian by the collar. His flashing golden eyes were filled with murderous intent.

“You think you’re any different?”

Adrian retorted. His lips split again, and a streak of blood flowed down. Cedric’s fist, holding the collar, trembled. He was furious that there was nothing he could say in rebuttal.

“Ha-ha, you can’t refute that.”

“……”

As Cedric clenched his molars, the muscles around his jaw bulged out.

“Where is she now? Have you locked her up in your mansion? Do you force yourself on her at night?”

Adrian asked with a sneer.

“……Shut up.”

Cedric, who had issued a warning, regained his composure and asked again.

“……So then, you locked her up?”

“Aah. She talked about divorce the next day.”

“……”

“I locked the bedroom door.”

Gritting.

He felt like his molars would wear down to nothing.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t keep her locked up for long. It didn’t even last a month.”

“……”

“……She hanged herself on the bedpost.”

“……”

Ah.

At that moment. Expressions washed off Cedric’s face like a sandcastle swept away by the waves. The shirt collar he crumpled sprang out as the brute force in his hands loosened.

“……I called the doctor right away and saved her life, but she had a fever for quite a while.”

“……”

“When she woke up, she didn’t remember anything.”

Adrian spoke to Cedric, who was staring blankly into space.

“Didn’t you find it strange? She likes fancy things, but she never wears a necklace.”

“……!”

Cedric’s eyes widened. That’s right. Blaire liked wearing rings and bracelets but never necklaces. And even in this cold weather, she always wore outfits with necklines plunging to her chest. Cedric had always thought it was her husband’s preference.

Adrian drove the point home to Cedric, who was lost and staring into space.

“I’ve been quietly staying in jail until now as my own form of penance.”

It was unbelievable.

“What……?”

Could it be……

“Did you think her parents sold you into slavery?”

His golden eyes shook uncontrollably.

“Those people were just an ordinary couple who were worried about their daughter’s well-being. They didn’t like the man their only daughter was seeing, but they didn’t know how to deal with it.”

Cedric recalled Blaire’s father. The Viscount Seymour, who had nothing but his pride. He definitely lacked tact.

Cedric spoke with a trembling voice.

“……So it was you.”

All the puzzles fit together.

Ha, I was so astonished I couldn’t speak properly. Everything I had done to Blaire flashed before my eyes.

“……But why confess now?”

“I’ve felt sorry for you in my own way. So I wanted to stay in jail for as long as you were on the battlefield. I was going to last three years.”

“But you couldn’t stand it……?”

Cedric asked with a sneer.

“Look at this. This is how much space is given to each prisoner. I’d go mad before spending three years here. Even if I get out after three years, I won’t be sane.”

Adrian said as he spread his arms inside the small room.

“……The slaves on the slave ship are given even less space.”

Cedric spat out the words with his teeth clenched.

“You were only a slave for a short time, weren’t you? The war broke out soon after. Thanks to that, you were able to rise to your current position, so it wasn’t all loss for you, was it?”

“……What do you want?”

Cedric asked Blair’s shameless husband. Hearing those words, Adrian’s face changed. The playful look vanished from his face.

“……If you let me out of here, I’ll keep your secret for life.”

“What secret?”

“That I was the one who trapped you, not her parents.”

“……”

Cedric couldn’t say anything.

“You’ll never be able to confess to her for the rest of your life. Isn’t that right?”

The blond man said with a bright smile. It was a radiant smile that seemed to bring sunlight into the entirely grey room.

Cedric silently stared at Adrian. He was doing his best to resist the urge to twist Adrian’s white neck.

A storm was raging in his head. His unfortunately good memory brought back everything he had said to her, everything he had done night after night without fail.

The moment of their first reunion.

「……It’s all my doing. Everything was my doing.」

She said, kneeling down. But before saying that, she had looked around at the bodies of her maids scattered in the reception room. ……Out of fear. She lied out of fear that he might kill her parents, just like he killed her maids.

The soldier’s fist, as he stood still like a tree, tightly clenched.

What did he do next? There was a time he wanted to have her on the dining hall table. Knowing well that the modest her disliked having sex outside of bed.

It was the day he heard the news of Adrian’s brother appealing. He returned home early, irritated, and upon seeing her in a thin dress, he suddenly grew excited and laid her on the table. When she resisted, he threatened to bring in his men. As the argument continued, he scared her by mentioning brothels.

What did she say that day?

「…My parents were the ones who sold you as a slave. I didn’t know anything. I only found out after it was all over.」

Why did she feel like confessing such a closely guarded secret that day? She was afraid he might really sell her off as a prostitute.

……Haah. His mouth keeps getting dry. What did he respond at that time?

「Do you think I can trust you?」

In his memory, he had snapped at her coldly. Her face froze at his icy voice.

Sometime later, after she had narrowly escaped death, she tried to speak calmly.

「……I lied from the beginning. I said I did what my parents did because I thought you would kill them.」

What did I respond again?

「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?」

…Ah. Cedric touched his mouth as he finished reminiscing. Adrian did not take his eyes off Cedric.

Since he’s shameless and quick-witted, he probably knows what memory I just recalled.

The blond handsome man’s lips parted as he sat back down on his chair.

“……Are you willing to make a deal?”

“……If it’s about keeping a secret,”

Cedric lifted his head to look at Adrian.

“There’s also a way to keep it—by killing you.”

Cedric coldly spat out.

“Her innocent husband died in prison, wrongfully accused. She would be sad.”

“……”

“She would hope that no more people related to her would die.”

It was true. She was the kind of woman who would say that the death of her innocent maids was enough.

Cedric briefly looked at the wall.

“……”

Blaire thought of Adrian as a good husband. Regardless of the truth, if she found out that the person closest to her had been deceiving her for a long time…… It would surely hurt her deeply. Above all, she was in a precarious state now. She had been locked up for too long.

Cedric slowly opened his mouth.

“……Your trial is in a month.”

Adrian nodded.

“I’ll get you out of here……”

There was no change in the expressions of the two men.

“Keep your promise.”