Chapter 301
Looking into Dehart’s eyes that seemed as though they might overflow with tears if she rejected him, Sebelia felt a gentle tickle in her chest.
She struggled to suppress her laughter and tried to gently twist her hand free from his grasp. Dehart’s face crumpled in dismay, but he didn’t insist on holding her any longer.
Reading his dejected expression, Sebelia spoke in a lightly teasing tone.
“Come here.”
“Huh?”
“If you stay kneeling like that, your knees are going to give out. From now on, kneeling in front of me is forbidden. I won’t even talk to you unless you sit beside me.”
Dehart tilted his head in confusion like a puzzled puppy, but quickly caught on to her words and immediately took his place at her side. Sitting so close, he nearly pressed up against her, making Sebelia feel that tickle again.
Honestly…
Despite Dehart’s assumption, Sebelia knew the figure who’d appeared in the old Hillend Hall attic wasn’t just an illusion. After all, it had truly been her.
I always thought it was just a nightmare.
After faking her death and running away, she’d dreamed often of waking up in that familiar room, living out a normal day—until fire and smoke suddenly filled the scene.
She recalled calling out Denisa’s name, urging her to escape, and then, faintly, hearing someone calling her name in return.
So, it was you…
She remembered having many odd dreams since then: the annex where she’d lived after being banished from the main house, the old greenhouse at the end of the creaky corridor, and the man standing alone inside it.
You were there, too.
What could he have been thinking then? How had their dreams become intertwined?
These questions crowded her mind, but all of them faded away the instant she felt Dehart’s warmth as he gently leaned his shoulder against hers.
“Don’t go.”
“….”
“….”
Sebelia felt his arms slide softly around her, encircling her back with cautious care, and she bit the flesh inside her mouth. The sound of his voice against her ear made her eyes sting and her throat burn with emotion.
Whatever had been stuck in her chest threatened to burst out, and she forced herself to exhale slowly, lips pressed tightly together.
At some point, Dehart lifted his head. Their eyes met now only a palm’s breadth away. Sebelia couldn’t breathe—maybe that’s why, maybe it was the heat that flooded her whole body, or maybe because all the swirling thoughts in her mind had simply evaporated.
“My father killed your parents.”
The worry that had sunk to the deepest part of her heart rising abruptly to the surface.
“And you act as if it means nothing?”
By the time she realized what she’d said, it was already too late to take it back. Dehart’s lips parted in shock.
“Bella, what are you…Haa.”
Seeing him trailed off with a deep sigh, unable to continue. Sebelia felt what it means for your heart to hit the floor.
“I-I spoke out of turn. That wasn’t what I meant to say—”
“The one who first suggested sending Silas Wheddon to Lockwood was me.”
“What?”
Sebelia blinked at the sudden turn in conversation.
“It would have been far too easy for him to simply be executed for all he’d done. No, in Lockwood, he’ll spend the rest of his life in a cell without a single ray of light, slowly dying in agony. Shadows will claw at his skin, gnaw at his soul, until he goes mad.”
“Oh…”
“Now let me ask you something.”
Dehart said softly, after a moment.
“I’m the one who made you lonely, who drove you to the point of faking your own death just to escape. As if that wasn’t enough, I’m also the one who decided to exile your father to a strange land, where he’ll die far from home.”
He gently lifted Sebelia’s hand and pressed his lips to her knuckles, whispering,
“What about you? Do you hate me? Are you afraid of me? Do you find me so disgusting you can’t bear to look at me?”
It was a foolish question. A worthless, unnecessary question. But because of that, Sebelia suddenly realized her own worries were just as pointless.
“Tell me, Bella. Why aren’t you angry at someone as awful as me? How can you even think about keeping me by your side?”
She held her breath as she looked into his sun-bright golden eyes, and the answer finally came to her, a faint smile curling on her lips.
There was never any reason to struggle with this after all.
“Haa.”
With a slow exhale, Sebelia whispered,
“There’s so much I should forbid you from doing—besides kneeling.”
Seeing his puzzled look at Sebelia’s eyes, she continued,
“Say something else.”
“…”
“Not those words, but the ones you really mean. The ones you’ve wanted to say all along. The feelings you’ve been hiding, dressing them up as requests for me to stay by your side. That’s what I really want to hear.”
Perhaps she’d endured everything up to this point just to hear that single, heavy word. The kind that could be lost on a breath, but carried the weight of the world.
“Ha…”
The request was so sweet it threatened to melt her heart.
With a trembling smile, Dehart bowed his head.
“I love you.”
The warmth that spread from their joined lips was a kind of happiness she’d never known in the north.
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