Please Forget Me - Chapter 334

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

The Marquis clenched his teeth, his face turning crimson as if he’d bitten into a bug. Like someone had spoken a forbidden incantation and awakened a curse everyone had worked so hard to keep sealed.

My grandmother and the doctor must have been curious about how I’d lived while I was missing, yet neither of them had asked even once. Even if they’d heard something from the Marquis, how much could he really know? There was no way their questions had been answered.

‘Are they deliberately avoiding the topic because they know I lived with another man?’

That suspicion proved right the moment I spoke his name. The calm masks they’d all been wearing shattered at once.

“Why are you all avoiding talking about him? Is it because the papers said he died?”

No one answered. Faces went pale and red by turns, but not a single voice spoke.

Clatter.

My hands began to shake uncontrollably, and my cutlery slipped from my grip and crashed onto the plate. Now even my voice trembled.

“I—I’m asking if Killian is a-alive. Why won’t anyone answer? Wh—why… hic…”

I was so terrified that tears spilled out before I could stop them. At that moment, my grandmother leapt to her feet and reached across the table, trying to shove a hand over my mouth.

“Mother, please sit down.”

Just before her hand could touch me, the doctor’s calm yet heavy voice cut in and stopped her.

“Dana, you too—enough.”

“Is he… dead?”

“Dana.”

“You can just answer me! Is that really so hard? Why is it hard? Because he’s dead, right? Just answer me!”

When I refused to let it go, the Marquis—who’d been glaring only at the doctor and my grandmother as if demanding they silence me—finally opened his clenched mouth.

“If he’s alive, what then? Will you run off to chase that filthy conman? And if he’s dead, are you planning to chase him into hell?”

The doctor glanced at the Marquis’s expression and scolded me.

“Dana, you still seem trapped in your confusion. That man is not your husband. Apologize to your real husband at once.”

“If he’s not my husband, does that mean I’m not even allowed to wonder whether he’s alive or dead?”

I wasn’t asking for anything else, just tell me he’s alive. When I pressed him, the doctor looked startled, then merely apologized to the Marquis instead.

“My apologies. She’s only just returned, that’s all. With time, she’ll recover. Please be patient.”

As if my concern for Killian were a symptom of illness.

“My patience is not limitless.”

The Marquis folded the napkin on his lap and tossed it onto the table like a warning. Perhaps wanting to say that, like this meal, our marriage could end just as abruptly.

“Dana, can’t you beg for forgiveness at once? You know she was never like this, Marquis. Please, for the sake of this old woman, grant us your mercy just this once.”

My grandmother abandoned all dignity and begged the Marquis, but the doctor did not bow.

“Marquis, please don’t forget. Dana followed you into mortal danger to fulfill her duty as your wife, and this is what became of her.”

He was reminding him that it was all the Marquis’s fault that I’d become an unfaithful wife. The Marquis ground his teeth in resentment, but he didn’t deny responsibility.

“Heroes must endure unavoidable sacrifices, after all.”

The doctor seemed to know exactly what kind of man the Marquis was. Being praised as a hero instantly soothed his anger.

“He…”

Enough for him to finally answer my question.

“He went home.”

“He’s alive, then?”

The Marquis glared at me with obvious displeasure, but he nodded. Then, unexpectedly, he went on to tell me about that man’s situation.

“He’s thinking of leaving the priesthood. He became a priest to avoid living as a useless younger son living off scraps, but now that his brother is dead and he’s inherited the family name and fortune, it’s only natural.”

A lie. Killian isn’t that kind of man.

Seeing my expression, the Marquis let out a hollow laugh.

“Did you think I killed him out of revenge? Dana, you must have forgotten this too. Even a Marquis becomes a criminal if he commits murder.”

“…So you’re saying you did take revenge, just not a criminal one?”

The Marquis bared his teeth in a strained smile, suppressing his anger.

“What do you take me for? Fine, I’ll be honest. I was angry at him. But I didn’t retaliate. After all, I should be grateful. He saved your life and brought you back. And believe it or not, I was waiting not only for you, but for him to return as well.”

If both heirs of the Ackroyd family died, the name and estate would pass to some distant relative. While Theodore Ackroyd was dead and Killian’s fate uncertain, their mother—Lady Kathleen Ackroyd—had been on the brink of being thrown out onto the streets with nothing.

“Lady Ackroyd is my aunt. I’m not a man who betrays his own blood.”

A lie. You are exactly that kind of man.