Chapter 47 🔞
It hit her like a blow to the head — a staggering shock that nearly knocked the breath out of her.
Swallowing down the rising nausea, Evelyn clenched her teeth. And for the first time, a thought she had never once entertained began to form: Perhaps death… might be easier.
If there was truly no escape from this man, wouldn’t it be better to choose death? What was the point of staying alive, shackled in a world so twisted?
Or maybe… she simply wanted to forget everything. Like Prince Adrian, who had forgotten the pact. Like Laura, who remembered nothing, always adrift in her own empty gaze. Perhaps it would be easier to become a fool without will, without memory.
“My wife.”
A soft touch grazed the swell of her brxxst. He lifted it, pulled, and kneaded — and her damned body responded instantly to the familiar touch. Fingers slid around her now-hardened nxxple, gently pressing.
Tracing the scar over her left b****t, the duke murmured:
“Eve.”
His mist-like caress began to drift lower. His body was warm and unmistakably alive, yet it felt cold against her skin. Maybe it was just her imagination.
“Is there anything else you still want to try?”
Evelyn clenched her fist at the amusement in his question.
The way everything had clicked into place — it had unsettled her. And now she knew why…
“…The Dalebury Record was fake.”
The old hag from the night market and the scrawled phrases had all been meaningless. There had never been a way to kill him.
Or maybe… all of it was just a dream. Maybe she had only dreamed the moment she so desperately wished for. And Calix, as always, had made it into reality.
“What are you thinking about?”
Calix was staring intently at Eve’s face. The piercing blue of his eyes met hers, and Evelyn despaired all over again.
It wasn’t a dream. This man had come back to life. Again.
In that brief shift from the warmth of spring to the lushness of summer, Evelyn had become all too accustomed to despair, frustration, and resignation. She was exhausted beyond words.
With a voice drained of all strength, she said:
“…I have one last request for you.”
Slowly opening her eyes, Evelyn forced down the unease and raised her head to meet his gaze. That beautiful face of his wore a chilling smile.
“A request?”
His blue eyes gleamed strangely. He tilted his head, looking puzzled that she would utter such a word.
The duke was horribly obsessed with her. There was no way he would grant her wish if she asked him to kill her. So the only option left was…
“Erase all my memories. Or better yet, alter them however you like.”
Just like with Laura or Prince Adrian, her memories could be altered as the Duke Calix Brumfield wished.
Not as Evelia Locke, the infamously bloodstained killer, but as royal-born Evelyn Dalebury, Duchess of Brumfield.
Just as he had once controlled her mouth in the dungeons of Lovent, he could just as easily manipulate her memories.Then the world would be perfect for everyone: Evelia Locke would vanish completely, as good as dead, and Calix Broomfield would have the wife he wanted without resistance.
But the duke’s answer shattered that illusion.
“That’s not possible.”
Devastatingly, he even shook his head. With her final plea rejected, the emotions Evelyn had kept buried exploded upward, and she screamed.
“Why! Why not! That’s your specialty, isn’t it?!”
“Eve.”
“Fxck off! Shut up! Don’t call me that! Aaargh!”
As she screamed, filled with rage and grief, her hair tumbled over her face.
The man embraced his despairing wife as if to comfort her, pulling Evelyn into his arms. Gently, he tucked her disheveled golden hair behind her ear, meeting her gaze.
“It’s because you’re my wife.”
The senselessness of it all deepened the despair in Evelyn’s green eyes.
Still smiling, he lowered his head and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. Chup, a light kiss that traveled from her forehead, down to the bridge of her nose, and finally to her lips.
With his lips still touching hers, he murmured:
“I can’t read your thoughts, or tamper with your memories, Eve. You’re the only one like you in this world. My perfect, one and only wife.”
The final words came broken and slow, like drops of poison.
“Ha…”
Tension drained from Evelyn’s body. Her stiff limbs slackened, as the realization set in. There was truly nothing she could do. She was helpless.
She didn’t want to believe him.
But… there was no reason for him to lie.
“Ha ha…”
A hollow laugh escaped her dry lips.
Discussion
2 Commentshiraheth
pickle3