20

As her anger toward him grew, Elsia struck Adrian’s chest with her fists repeatedly.

He simply watched her actions, saying nothing.

There seemed to be sadness in his eyes, but that didn’t matter to Elsia now.

“How could you pretend not to know me? If you’d just told me, I wouldn’t be this angry. How could you do this to me? Was it fun to toy with me?”

“I’m sorry. But I had no choice. The Earl didn’t want me seeing you. He restricted your outings so I couldn’t meet you. I had no choice. I had to ask Richel for help….”

“Richel?”

Hearing an unexpected name from his lips, Elsia gasped and asked again. The air between them suddenly turned cold.

Adrian’s eyes widened, and he closed his mouth, looking troubled, as if he’d made a mistake.

He seemed to think Elsia knew everything and had come to him.

It looked like there was more she didn’t know.

If Adrian was telling the truth, Richel and Adrian also knew each other….

But Richel had never mentioned it or shown any sign.

Elsia’s heart sank again.

She thought her heart couldn’t break any further after what Adrian had done, but she was wrong.

To hear the name of the friend she trusted most from Adrian’s lips… Elsia couldn’t believe the situation.

‘Come to think of it, Richel gave me the necklace, and Richel took me to the secret club. So maybe meeting Adrian wasn’t a coincidence after all.’

As Elsia retraced everything, she wondered if her meeting with Adrian had been planned from the start.

Doubting the first meeting made her suspect everything related was false.

‘Was the necklace fake too? Did Richel set up something so the color would change in front of Adrian, not by chance?’

Her suspicions kept growing, and she started doubting her feelings for Adrian.

Did she really love Adrian? Or had she fallen for Richel’s scheme, mistaking it for love?

“Then the necklace? What exactly is the necklace?”

Elsia decided to ask about the necklace first, wanting to confirm if it was real.

“What necklace are you referring to? Richel did hand me a necklace….”

But judging by Adrian’s expression, he seemed to know nothing about the necklace. That meant the necklace was all Richel’s doing.

Elsia never imagined Richel would betray her. She thought Richel was her closest friend—how could she do something so cruel?

“No, it can’t be!”

No matter how she thought about it, it didn’t make sense. Richel wouldn’t deceive her. She couldn’t accept it.

Elsia wanted to believe she’d misunderstood Richel’s name. Her closest friend wouldn’t have deceived her. She didn’t want to admit it.

“It’s a lie, isn’t it? You and Richel planned together to deceive me. That doesn’t make sense. Why? Why?”

“Because I wanted to meet you.”

Adrian’s voice trembled.

Why did Adrian go so far as to deceive her just to meet her? Why? Elsia felt as if she was standing at the edge of an endless cliff.

‘Where did the two of them start deceiving me?’

Elsia was so confused, feeling played by both of them, that she clutched her head.

She felt suffocated and didn’t want to talk to Adrian anymore. She had to escape.

Before another shocking word could come from his mouth.

Elsia thought she had to go to Richel immediately. She felt she could finally breathe if Richel told her it wasn’t true.

“Please listen to me.”

Adrian grabbed Elsia as she tried to leave for Richel.

“Let go!”

Elsia didn’t want to hear him. Her heart felt torn, and she couldn’t bring herself to talk to him, so she shook off his hand.

“Don’t ever think of seeing me again! Just looking at your face is disgusting right now.”

Elsia shouted at Adrian.

He looked hurt by her words.

‘Who hurt whom first, and why does he look like that?’

Elsia was even more dumbfounded. After all the resolve she’d made to be with him, how could the two of them deceive her?

Elsia ran straight to Richel.

Richel greeted her with a smile, but seeing Elsia’s furious face, her expression hardened.

“Richel, I heard something strange. That you and Adrian know each other. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

Elsia asked Richel, hoping it wasn’t true.

She hoped Richel would laugh and ask where she’d heard such nonsense.

Only then would the stifling feeling inside her be released.

Elsia looked at Richel with pleading eyes, hoping for a light laugh as usual.

But Richel couldn’t meet Elsia’s gaze and looked away.

“…Sorry. I did deceive you.”

Richel answered hesitantly.

Elsia was filled with disappointment, her chest turning cold, and an overwhelming feeling threatened to swallow her.

It was so absurd she couldn’t even speak. Elsia forced herself to ask Richel,

“So… all of it was a lie? Even the necklace?”

“Yes… The gemstones I gave you were a set. When they meet, both turn white. One was for you, and the other for Adrian. When I first took you to the secret club, I told Adrian in advance. If he kept the gem on him and waited, you would seek him out.”

“Ha… So you enjoyed making fun of me? How foolish I must have looked. How much did you two laugh at my reactions. Haha.”

Confirming everything was a lie, Elsia felt not anger but laughter rising up.

She felt as if all her emotional circuits had broken.

“No, it wasn’t to make fun of you. It wasn’t to make you a fool. There were reasons, Elsia. Please listen to me.”

“I don’t want to hear it! How could you do this to me? I thought you were my closest friend!”

Elsia suddenly started to cry as she laughed. All her time with Richel now felt like a lie.

“Sorry… Adrian came to me and asked for help. He said he wanted to meet you. His feelings are sincere. You need to know that. He always liked you.”

“You deceived me—how can I believe that? Would you believe it if you were me?”

“Everything was for you.”

“If it was for me, you could have just introduced us from the start. Why did you make it seem like a coincidence?”

Saying it was for her, after deceiving her, made Elsia furious.

“I’m really sorry for deceiving you with the necklace. If I’d known it would turn out like this, I should have told you from the beginning. Whenever you tried to recall the past, you’d get headaches. Sometimes you’d even faint.”

As Richel said, Elsia would feel painful headaches when she tried to recall the past. That’s why Earl Portman and Richel had always watched her carefully.

“Now that you’ve heard Adrian was your childhood friend and haven’t fainted, I realize I was wrong. I should have told you earlier… I’m really sorry.”

“If that’s so, you shouldn’t have played with the necklace. I asked you many times if it was real. You told me it was.”

“I wasn’t playing a trick. No… yes, the necklace was my fault. I thought the boy in your dreams might be Adrian, and I wanted you two to meet. I wanted Adrian to ease your pain. In fact, after meeting Adrian, the number of your nightmares decreased. So please understand that my intentions for you were sincere.”

Just as Richel said, the child in Elsia’s dreams did seem to be Adrian.

That’s why his eyes didn’t feel unfamiliar the first time she saw them. It was true that after meeting him, she had fewer nightmares.

“Adrian liked you from long ago. He always wanted to meet you, but Earl Portman prevented it. The Earl thinks Adrian caused you to lose your memory, but I don’t think so. The Adrian I know would never hurt anyone.”

Thinking about Richel’s words, Elsia realized something was strange.

If Adrian had caused her trauma, wouldn’t her nightmares have gotten worse?

If the memories were so painful, why did the nightmares decrease after meeting Adrian? As Richel said, maybe Adrian wasn’t the cause of her nightmares.

Elsia also felt Adrian wasn’t someone who would hurt others without reason.

But now that all trust was broken, she wasn’t sure she could think that way.

“You still don’t seem to believe me, so think about it. Your feelings for him weren’t because of me. I only arranged the first meeting; after that, I did nothing. You were the one who kept asking to see him. I was shocked when I found out you and Adrian had become so close.”

Seeing Elsia’s disbelief, Richel spoke firmly, her face tense.

Honestly, Richel was right.

Richel had teased and provoked Elsia, but after meeting Adrian, it was Elsia herself who wanted to see him again and sought him out first.