Chapter 15

“What is it?” I looked up at him.

“Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

‘He is so persistent. Hmm, who does he take after to be this suspicious?’

“For your health?”

“Stop spouting that nonsense.”

“I mean it, sincerely.”

“Really?” He looked at me doubtfully. “You? for me? Is that true?” he looked as if he misheard my words.

‘Well, I would feel the same. It’s understandable. I can’t believe I’m using the word ‘sincere’ to convince someone who knew the real purpose of why I came into this mansion.’ However, I heard that we should act brazenly in this kind of situation. “Then let me ask you this. Why can’t you believe me? Why do you distrust me so much?”

“I know what kind of contract you have with mother to enter this family. There’s no use trying to appeal to me now.”

Since I started living in this mansion, I learned how to react insensitively towards insulting remarks. Now, I couldn’t even afford to feel offended anymore. So, I just listened to his harsh words without batting an eye. ‘How far does he know? Did he know the whole content of the contract, that was even notarized by a lawyer?’

“You know everything? About what?” Oh, what did you know? Did you personally read the contract, which was full of disadvantageous clauses? Suddenly, I was so curious. “Do you really think you know everything?”

“Didn’t you marry me, a man who may die soon, to get paid for bearing my child like a breeding mare?”

“…” I was speechless for a moment. It was quite shocking since there was nothing wrong with what he said.

Amoide didn’t stop talking even when he saw my shocked face. “It’s disgusting to see you pretending to be close all of a sudden. Even if you do this, you won’t bear my child.”

‘What a nice thing to say at such a romantic place.’ The day was clear. The air was fresh. From time to time, the chirping sound of birds could be heard while looking at the breathtaking scenery. ‘It’s such a perfect day except for his verbal abuse.’

And it wasn’t over yet. He continued to speak in a relatively quiet voice. “Of course, it’s none of my business whether you’re blinded by money or being called a surrogate mother.”

At that moment, I heard a “ting” sound and a thought popped into my head. I realized it now. ‘Ah…was it because of this? The reason why Selena killed her husband. The reason why Selena even used the poison to kill her husband, who would die soon anyway even if she didn’t do anything.’

Until now, I was so confident that there was no way I would do that. It must’ve been either a conspiracy or a false charge. But now, I finally understood how the original Selena felt. How did I endure such verbal abuse in the past? It was a miracle that I didn’t kill him earlier.

“…You speak so nicely.” As I kept listening to him, I got emotional and suddenly started replying to him.

“…” Surprised by my reply, he narrowed his eyes while staring at me.

“Your body is not sick, but your heart. You’re sicker here.” I said as I tapped my temple with my index finger.

His eyes were shaken as he stared at my finger.

“When someone says something, try to listen! Just listen! I told you that it’s for your health! Did I even tell you to make a baby with me? I never want to have a child with a jerk like you!”

Oops…I hurriedly covered my mouth to hold myself from spilling all my real thoughts. However, it was too late. Seemingly stunned, he just stared at my lips with his blue eyes wordlessly. ‘Err…is it too shocking for you?’ I slowly crept back. Things didn’t look good.

“Stop there.” A stern voice stopped my clumsy attempt to escape.

Sweeping the pillar of the gazebo with my hands, I tried to explain myself, “I- I mean…don’t be too hard on me. Isn’t it all good for you to be healthy again? Don’t misinterpret my sincere intention…”

“Sincere?”

When he emphasized that word again, I realized that he really despised it, so I just bit my lips lightly. ‘Please… Please just listen to me first…’

“Yeah right, a really sincere intention. For misunderstanding such a sincere person, I must be the bad one…” Instead, Amoide continued his words in a sarcastic tone and suddenly blinked rapidly. Then, he started rubbing one of his eyes with his hand.

“What’s wrong? Are you in pain again?” I was surprised by his action and examined his condition. ‘Is he going to have seizures? Did I drag him around too much? What if he suddenly collapses?’ I was scared out of my wits as I rushed to him.

“Is it hard to breathe? Do you feel cold? Do you feel like losing your strength all of sudden?” All kinds of ominous thoughts came to my mind. ‘What if he collapses now? Why did I even ask him to take a walk? Why does my life never work out the way I want? Why?!’

As I was engrossed in blaming myself, Amoide quietly said, “Shut up.” He reached out to his bloodshot eye.

I could see a small flower spore stuck to his exceptionally long eyelashes. It seemed that his eye was poked by that spore.

“Hold on.” I got closer to him.

He stepped back in surprise.

‘Oh, come on, I won’t eat you.’ I grabbed his shoulders with both of my hands to prevent him from moving. I could feel him froze at my touch.

“Don’t move.” After saying so, I inched my face closer. I could see his long eyelashes fluttering. ‘How can a man have such long eyelashes?’ They were exceptionally long so that they could catch a few raindrops on rainy days, and a little snow on snowy days.

Deeply impressed, I brought my lips closer to his eye. Huuu…huuu… I started to blow his eye carefully. The flower spore, that was hanging at the edge of his eyelash, shook a few times before it finally fell off and got blown away by the wind.

“It’s all done.” I watched the flower spore disappearing into the air for a moment then turned my gaze toward him again. At that moment, I was surprised.

“…”

Because his eyes, which I assumed would be closed, were staring at me silently.

“Huh…?” I was so embarrassed that I lost my balance.

Tuk. A long arm suddenly wrapped my waist as I was about to fall down.

“…”

My inclined body, which was about to fall, stopped in the air. His strong hand wrapped around my waist was like a restraint.

‘Huh…?’ Relying on his arm, I made eye contact with him again. He had such deep blue eyes. I rarely made eye contact with him at such a close distance. ‘Now that I think about it, he often glared at me whenever we made eye contact before. Otherwise, he’ll just ignore me, as though he can’t see me at all.’

It was my first time seeing him looking at me with such a look. Like a helpless animal in a trap, I felt like I couldn’t set myself free at will.

Flinch.

“From now on, don’t do anything useless.” Amoide helped me to stand up in an instant and removed his hand from my waist. Then, without looking back, he just walked out of the gazebo.

I couldn’t take my eyes away until his back was completely out of my sight. ‘What’s this strange feeling?’ I couldn’t explain how I felt at that moment.

Thump. Thump. I placed my hand on my chest. My heart was beating wildly. I gently patted my chest several times to calm my pounding heart. ‘This is not good for my heart.’

Feeling hot all of a sudden, I fanned my face with my hand. “Is it summer already?”

The roses just began to bloom. It seemed that summer wouldn’t be coming soon since it would take some time for the roses to bloom fully. Nevertheless, it was quite hot.

“Milady…” A quiet voice called me out of nowhere.

I looked around confusedly.

“Here, here.”

I almost screamed in surprise when I saw a face suddenly pop out of the bushes. “What are you doing there!”

“I was here first.” Rona lowered her eyes as if she was falsely accused.

“You were here first?”

Rona immediately nodded. “Yes, I didn’t mean to peek, but I saw Master and Milady were spending time together so I hid because I didn’t want to get in the way.”

I didn’t even ask but Rona quickly explained herself.

“Oh…I see.” I tried to respond as naturally as I could. I didn’t persistently ask her in detail about the reason why she came to this remote gazebo alone. I also didn’t point out her flushed face and slightly disheveled clothes. ‘I’m sure that something I didn’t know is going on. Anyway, let’s just leave it as it is.’

“By the way, it was such a romantic scene.” Rona said with her eyes twinkled.

“Ro…what?” Between Amoide and me? Just what in the world did we do that looked romantic?

“I’ve seen it all.”

“What did you see?”

“W-well…th-the kiss…” Rona shyly twiddled her two index fingers.

Looking at her action, I feel somewhat nauseous, as though I just ate raw fish.

“I thought Master and Milady are only romantically hot in the bedroom, but it turns out that both of you express love at a secret place as well!”

“Yeah.”

To deceive the eyes of other maids, I needed to deceive Rona first. The fact that there was no physical intimacy between Amoide and me should just stay between us. So, I didn’t bother to resolve this misunderstanding.

‘No, this could be for the better. If this chatterbox Rona tells the other maids about this, they will be easily convinced that Amoide and I are close.’

“I am so happy that Master and Milady seem to be getting along well.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yes, I still remember when Master collapsed last time, Milady held his hands lovingly and even burst into tears worrying about Master… It was such a beautiful scene.”

“Really?” I asked while looking down at my bandaged hand.

“It is true. The maids were talking about that earlier.”

There was no need for me to obstinately tell her the truth about the pain I felt on that day. I decided to just shut my mouth.