“I can’t stand having anything Mother touched in my house for even a moment, Mother.”

“Astaire!”

“Please leave. This is my final warning.”

And.

“From now on, we’ll never see each other until we die.”

“Astaire!”

“Don’t even say my name!”

Daniela Seyfried clutched her head like she’d faint any moment. Regardless, her own son Astaire looked down at his mother with utterly cold eyes.

“Don’t call my name anymore.”

“How, how can you do this!”

“Leave my house immediately. Go back to your villa!”

Cold flames.

That’s what defined Astaire’s emotions right now in one phrase.

Astaire turned away. He closed his eyes briefly, clenched and unclenched his fists, calmly settling his emotions.

But thinking of the humiliation inflicted on Daphne in front of him by his mother, his fury only intensified rather than fading.

“If I keep looking at Mother now, I don’t know what I might do…”

“How, how can you say such things!”

The Grand Duchess swayed like she’d collapse.

The head butler and servants standing around them reached out to support the Grand Duchess, then all backed away hesitantly at Astaire’s razor-sharp gaze.

The head of the family.

And that head’s mother.

In this storm-like fight they couldn’t interfere with, no one dared step forward rashly.

Astaire looked at the servants and said, “Escort the Grand Duchess to her carriage.”

“Astaire!”

“This is my final warning! Didn’t I tell you not to call my name!”

The servants hesitated, then began moving. This was a first for them too. Escorting someone from the ducal family out like a criminal.

“How can you do this to me!”

The Grand Duchess screamed at her son even as the ducal servants dragged her out.

Though he was the son she’d birthed, he was a son she could never feel affection for.

How could he do this?

To the mother who’d suffered to give birth to him, how could he!

The Grand Duchess trembled with betrayal.

Finally she surrendered.

“Son, I was wrong!”

Regardless, Astaire never once looked back at his mother.

The Grand Duchess’s heart felt torn by her son’s coldness.

She struggled desperately to somehow remain in this estate. Her grip as she clung for dear life was tremendous—it took five male servants to escort the Grand Duchess out.

“Please come back!”

The Grand Duchess screamed until her throat bled.

Begging him to return to being the good son who obeyed her every word in childhood.

When had it started?

When had Astaire begun defying her and acting on his own?

“I was wrong, all wrong. So, so please… forgive me, son!”

It was a pitifully desperate cry.

Yet the cold-blooded son Astaire never once looked back.

The last time he saw his mother was—

When the Grand Duchess being dragged by servants completely exited the estate’s front gate.

“Please leave safely, Mother.”

He murmured in a voice as desolate as a winter sea.

It was essentially a warning.

A warning never to appear before him or his wife again.

At her chilling son’s behavior, Daniela couldn’t continue speaking.

When she was practically forced into the carriage and the carriage door closed.

When the Grand Duchess’s carriage completely left the estate.

Only then did peace come to the estate.

A suffocating peace that strangled everyone around.

“……”

And Daphne had heard the entire situation from the first-floor stairs.

Her heart pounded crazily like it would burst through her skin any moment. She squeezed her eyes shut and raised her hands to cover both ears.

Though no sound reached her, it still wouldn’t leave her ears.

Astaire’s desperate scream.

The Grand Duchess’s cry asking how he could abandon her and cling to a “dog.”

Strangely, Daphne felt like she was the criminal now.

They say the relationship between parent and child can’t be severed no matter what.

A connection like a tough thread.

Just like how no matter how much her father couldn’t escape gambling, she could never completely sever ties with him.

Yet Astaire had accomplished that difficult thing. Because of her, he’d severed ties with the birth mother who bore him.

Rather than feeling satisfied, she felt uncomfortable.

This very house standing on two legs seemed to choke her breath.

“Sniff, sob…”

For some reason, tears flowed endlessly.

When the salty tears touched the wound on her cheek where the Grand Duchess had struck her, the injured area burned.

Still, Daphne kept crying without noticing the pain.

She collapsed right there. Bent her knees and wrapped her arms around them.

Cried endlessly like that.

How much time passed?

She wished the world would just stop like this.

And when she truly felt everything had frozen—

Daphne suddenly raised her head.

And.

She met eyes with Astaire looking down at her with indecipherable eyes.

The deepest shadows hung under the man’s eyes.

Was it her imagination?

Somehow, Daphne thought he was crying inside. Just like her right now. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t pass by Astaire.

Daphne slowly reached her hand toward the man.

Naturally, her hand couldn’t reach someone standing while she sat.

But she’d already exhausted too much strength to stand up.

Her weakly extended fingertips trembled. The hand struggling to reach the man finally drooped.

Just then.

Astaire grasped her hand and carefully helped her up.

“Ah…”

Wasn’t it strange?

Standing on her own two legs was difficult, yet strangely when she entrusted her body to this man, her legs moved immediately.

Daphne was confused by this change.

“Is your face okay?”

Astaire whispered, cupping her cheek.

Even his hot breath made her skin so hot her face naturally scrunched up.

“…I’m fine. This much is nothing.”

One slap wouldn’t kill her.

She answered resolutely, but at Daphne’s nonchalant attitude, Astaire seemed to have much he couldn’t say.

“I’m tired.”

She whispered, truly exhausted now.

“So, will you let me go?”

She was already too tired.

Tired of, sick of, fed up with this d*mn Seyfried ducal family.

“I, I…”

Strangely, tears came.

She bit her lip until it bled to hold back tears.

“You don’t need to hold back.”

Whoosh—Astaire pulled Daphne in without warning.

“You can cry.”

He held her in his arms like he’d never let her go no matter what.

“Let me go.”

Astaire expressed refusal through silence.

Tears endlessly soaked Astaire’s shoulder.

Somehow, Daphne felt like the top of her head was also getting wet from the man.

* * *

That night.

Daphne suffered the most severe illness she’d ever experienced in her life.

Her whole body burned hot like a furnace. Like she was ablaze.

She exhaled roughly.

“How is the Duchess’s condition now?”

The ducal family’s physician who’d set down his stethoscope remained silently quiet. His silence explained much.

Slowly, Daphne’s eyelashes began trembling. Her eyelids convulsed like they’d open any moment.

“Daphne!”

Seeing this, Astaire grabbed her hand and shouted.

Daphne did her best to hold onto her fading consciousness.

A man calling her so desperately like that.

Such a person couldn’t exist in this world.

Before losing consciousness, Daphne sneered one last time.

“Daphne!”

She couldn’t believe the voice echoing in her ears at the end was Astaire’s.

“What’s happening! Doctor!”

Astaire now completely lost his reason and shouted. If there weren’t watching eyes around, he looked ready to grab the physician by the collar immediately.

“The Duchess is…”

The frightened doctor hurriedly answered. His voice came out severely trembling.

“Well! What happened!”

“She’s fallen asleep.”

“What?”

The doctor’s single statement led Astaire from hell to heaven.

Astaire examined Daphne once more.

Her sweat-soaked forehead and brown hair stuck there.

He unconsciously reached out to brush that hair away.

But Astaire knew.

He had no right to do so.

They’d come too far to untangle their thoroughly tangled relationship.

The man quietly closed his mouth.

Looking down at his wife all night.

That night.

Daphne had a dream.

It was so absurd and unrealistic that she immediately realized this wasn’t reality but a dream.

“Daphne.”

Astaire would never call her name so affectionately and warmly.

Especially not when alone together, not in front of others.

She realized that moment.

That this was an absurd dream.

“What are you thinking about so intently?”

Saying this, Astaire brushed past one of her cheeks.

A touch like stroking the small head of one cute bird.

Daphne flinched unconsciously.

“Do you dislike me?”

Vivid green eyes imprisoned Daphne.

Eyes she’d once loved madly.

Cruel eyes that never looked at her no matter how much she screamed for him to look.

Contrary to the past, Astaire was now looking only at Daphne.

Strangely, her heart throbbed.

Like someone sprinkling salt on an old wound.

That’s right.

This man, Astaire, was now poking her wound once more.

“This doesn’t make sense…”

Daphne murmured quietly.

“What doesn’t?”

Slowly, the hand caressing her cheek completely cupped one side of her face.

Then pulled her toward him. Daphne was dragged to Astaire.

The light sensation of soft flesh met her lips.

Like he’d thrown a stone into a calm lake, ripples spread.

Suddenly, her heart ached again.

“This is an absurd dream.”

“A dream, what are you talking about?”

The Astaire in the dream was saying this wasn’t a dream. With a face enchanting enough to fool even Daphne.

“This is reality, Daphne.”

No. That couldn’t be.

The fake Astaire lied while looking straight into her eyes.

This man was bewitching her now.

Daphne didn’t forget that fact and quietly clenched her fist.

“Let’s say this is a dream like you said.”

Then Astaire spoke again. “They say dreams are byproducts of desire.”

The man whispered in a wonderful voice like being in a deep cave.

A familiar scent came from Astaire close by.

A refreshing, cool scent resembling a summer forest.

Though she’d always smelled his scent, she’d never once felt this scent was hers.

“You love me, Daphne.”

Astaire said once more.

Was it true?

No, it couldn’t be.

Daphne shook her head violently.

Then Astaire’s eyes changed immediately. From tenderness to fury. Daphne was confused by that sudden emotional change.

“You love me, Daphne.”

No.

I don’t love you, Astaire.

“You must love me.”

Why should I?

Daphne shouted that.

But this man in the hazy illusion distorted his face and kissed her roughly.

“Mmph!”

An endlessly rough, selfish kiss like he didn’t want to hear her answer.

“Let go, let me go…”

Daphne said desperately.

Regardless, the man pushed her endlessly. The man’s hands gradually moved downward.

Like that night.

“No!”

Daphne screamed with all her strength and bit his hand hard.

That moment.

The distorted Astaire before her eyes gradually lost form.

As expected, this was a dream.

Watching the man completely disappear like smoke, Daphne exhaled roughly.