If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 206

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

Agatha wondered if the distant, tragic version of Cain she had seen not long ago had been just a dream. Seeing him now shamelessly boasting with such a bold face.

When she told him not to call her “wife,” he used her name; when she told him not to call her by name, he went back to “wife”. Agatha didn’t know what to make of this man. She looked up at Cain’s face.

<I’m not asking you to understand me. I just want you to know that I alone bear full responsibility for the mistakes I’ve made.>

Half-asleep, she heard his words. At first, she thought he was trying to excuse his behavior, but the deep, hidden emotions beneath his words unsettled her.

She understood, at least, that something had happened between him and her father. But that could never justify taking it out on her, and that belief didn’t change before or after hearing Cain’s words.

Yet his mother…

Because she too had lost family, Agatha could feel the despair in Cain’s confession. While her own pain could not be said to be lighter than his, the fact that he had hidden his origins and identity, lived under another’s name, and spent his whole life searching for a family whose fate he didn’t even know.

She could hardly imagine what it must have felt like for him to witness with his own eyes the miserable fate of the family he had searched for all his life.

What exactly was the secret this man carried? How deeply was his sorrow soaked in grief?

The wounds Cain had inflicted still lingered inside her, causing pain, yet the new feeling of pity she found herself feeling confused Agatha.

Was it truly pity?

She didn’t know how to define this contradictory and complex emotion that welled up whenever she looked at Cain.

She hated him so much, yet at the same time, a sort of sympathy that she couldn’t understand. Afterwards it was followed by a confused wish that he might just disappear forever from her sight.

Either way, being with Cain never made her feel good. Whether because of hatred or mere confusion, she couldn’t say.

She feared that her unstable emotional state might negatively affect the child she was carrying.

When she first found out about the baby, Agatha hadn’t felt joy, she was only confused and sometimes despair. A child with a man she believed no longer loved her, a man she had resolved to leave. Since she had never imagined herself giving birth or becoming a mother, it all felt even more overwhelming.

There had been a brief moment when Liana, passing by, had mentioned something about the heir during the first night she slept with Cain, but Agatha had dismissed it as someone else’s problem.

She pondered deeply whether it was truly right to pass on an imperfect family to her child. As Esther had said, she briefly considered that perhaps she herself was more important than the unborn baby.

But the life stirring inside her eventually moved her heart, and Agatha—who had felt a profound loss from the absence of family since childhood—slowly began to feel encouraged by the idea of having a family all her own.

If this had been the old Agatha, she might have fallen into utter despair, but now she was prepared to give her child the very best, even on her own.

She didn’t need a husband or anything like that. She vowed to pass the world on to her child, all by herself.

Then, unexpectedly, Cain came to her and began apologizing for his mistakes. The same man who had so often wounded her heart with cold words and an icy expression…

“Oh.”

Agatha, lost in her thoughts, gasped in surprise and quickly placed her hand over her belly.

“Is something wrong?”

“The baby…”

She felt the baby move. Cain’s gaze followed Agatha’s hand as it gently caressed her stomach.

“The baby…”

As if knowing that she was thinking of it, the child inside began to kick vigorously. Tap, tap-tap. It felt like bubbles bursting deep within, or something softly bouncing inside.

Though she had experienced it a few times already, feeling another life growing inside her never ceased to be wondrous.

Each time, Agatha responded eagerly to the baby’s movements with surprise and joy, stroking her belly attentively. This time she was moving her hands too…

“Is your belly… uncomfortable?”

A worried voice stopped her hand. So focused on feeling the baby move, she had momentarily forgotten Cain was right beside her.

“It’s not uncomfortable.”

Agatha hesitated for a moment. She wondered if she really needed to tell him. That her baby was alive and growing strong inside her

She had tried to erase him from her life… Yet still, her hand rested silently on her belly as she looked at Cain.

“Why do you look at me like that?”

Cain said nothing, just stared back in confusion. Worried she might be in discomfort somewhere, he seemed anxious and even considered calling Charlotte and was about to leave.

“It’s not that. It’s just that I can feel the baby moving.”