Please Forget Me - Chapter 324

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

I was terrified, pale with shock, thinking my husband might have discovered my adultery.

So why does all of it feel meaningless now? What changed in me as I listened to that man’s story?

“Dana. Tell me, he must have demanded it, didn’t he?”

“No.”

In any case, the idea that he was someone else’s husband exists only in my thoughts. The reality is that he is my husband. If so, I should be trying to salvage this ruined marriage somehow, so why does my mouth keep dragging everything toward destruction?

“Don’t lie.”

“I asked first.”

Maybe I really am stupid. I loathe Killian’s lies, yet I’m not clever enough to lie myself. Choosing an uneasy conscience over a peaceful marriage. If that isn’t stupidity, then what is?

“Stop lying. Why are you protecting that filthy lecher?”

“I’m not lying. I thought he was my husband, so I asked first.”

“You? The woman who refused even her husband’s advances?”

The moment he said that, his ashen face turned red. It must have been humiliating to admit, out loud, that his wife had once refused to sleep with him.

I’d never slept with this man and by saying that Killian was my first, Killian himself had confirmed it as truth. Why did that realization bring me relief?

“You said it wasn’t the time for a child, that we should wait until we returned to our homeland….”

As if trying to convince himself that I hadn’t rejected him out of dislike, the man rattled off a pitiful excuse.

“Someone so cautious and virtuous asked first? Do you really think that makes sense?”

“Married couples naturally sleep together, and I wanted a child…”

“I told you to stop lying!”

Bang.

He slammed his fist down on the table. Startled, I reflexively reached into my skirt pocket, but the revolver wasn’t there. I should never have let him take it at the inn.

‘K–Killian….’

I even found myself instinctively looking for a man who wasn’t here.

“Why are you covering for that bastard, even lying for him?!”

Only then did my head clear a little. With no weapon and no man left to protect me, what nerve had I had to behave however I pleased?

“So it was that good with him?”

It’s true that being with the man who wasn’t my husband had been pleasurable. But I didn’t answer.

It wasn’t only because I’d decided to be more careful now. If I said it was good, he would think I was siding with Killian purely because I’d been seduced by pleasure. I hadn’t taken anyone’s side, I’d only told the truth.

“Y–you had another woman. Was it go–good with her?”

The expression on his face at that moment confirmed that this, too, had been one of Killian’s truths.

Then… were all the rest true as well?

“Hah… so you slept with him to get back at me, is that it?”

That wasn’t it, but since I’d decided to guard myself, I didn’t bother correcting him. After all, once I threw his infidelity back at him, his aggression noticeably waned.

“You really did lose your memory, didn’t you?”

“I’ve been recovering bits of it lately. I remembered that you’re my husband early this morning.”

“Haa….”

After that, he just sat there seething in silence. I thought the barrage of questions was finally over, but then—

Rustle.

He pulled a letter from his jacket and unfolded it, holding it up.

You are my soul. Without you, stripped of my soul, I was doomed to wander foreign lands until this hollow shell wore away into dust…

“You know what this is, right?”

The distant land I wander will become your home. Wherever you breathe and live is home to me. Even if it is hell. Even if my body is in hell, as long as you are there, my heart will be in paradise.

A love letter Killian had written to me.

I nodded.

When this man burst into our inn room before, the luggage we’d been forced to leave behind had contained the letters and sketches Killian had carefully saved for me. He must have searched through them and found this one.

“Killian Ackroyd, he wrote this, didn’t he?”

I nodded again and waited for the next surge of his anger.

But instead, why is he smiling?