Chapter 363
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
“That was your doing.”
A flicker of dismay crossed the Marquis’s face. It lasted only a moment before he straightened, putting on a confident expression again, trying to bury one exposed lie beneath another.
‘He’s a pathological liar.’
Looking at him now, I realized he was far more skilled at lying than he appeared. He was so skilled that he might even be deceiving himself, believing his own fabrications.
“You loved me, you just don’t remember.”
“Stop lying. I remember everything. And in my memories, I never loved you. I only endured you because I loved Killian.”
The Marquis clenched his teeth and smiled at me, glaring. Despite the murderous edge in his eyes, I didn’t back down.
“Accept it. I will never love you, and I will never live as your wife. You admitted you deceived me. If you have even a shred of conscience, let me go now.”
“Conscience?”
He let out a loud, derisive snort.
“I admitted I deceived you. I never said I was sorry.”
“Then why go as far as kidnapping me to create this situation? I don’t see why you’d dig the pit any deeper.”
“I tried. You refused. This conversation is over.”
Then what was he planning to do to me?
He set his wineglass down with a sharp clink and stood. As he approached, I backed away instinctively, knowing he had no intention of letting me leave quietly.
“I don’t actually need your love. Fine, our feelings are over. But the marriage isn’t. I won’t end it. And if I won’t, how do you plan to?”
A sudden warning flared in my mind: Don’t mention annulment here.
“An annulment?”
But he had already read every card in my hand and laid them out himself.
“If our marriage were to be annulled, it would be because we never consummated it.”
“—!”
“That’s easily remedied.”
“Let go of me!”
He twisted my wrist viciously, as if to crush it, and dragged me into the hallway. He was taking me to the bedroom, to r**e me.
“No! Do you think this will make me give up? I’ll never live as the wife of a man like you!”
I struggled, collapsed, fought back, but I couldn’t overcome his strength. I was dragged along the floor, then finally hoisted over his shoulder like luggage. Of course, no one we passed tried to help me.
That demon of a grandmother smiled with satisfaction and personally led him to my bedroom, she even opened the door for him, saying,
“For tomorrow’s sake, please break her spirit thoroughly, Marquis.”
Tomorrow? What was she planning to do tomorrow?
Terror flooded me as the door slammed shut behind us. My world flipped as he threw me onto the bed.
He began unbuttoning his vest. I scrambled up and jumped off the other side of the bed, but—
“Ah!”
I hadn’t even taken a few steps before he grabbed my hair. I clung to his leg, begging as he dragged me back.
“I might be pregnant with Killian’s child.”
He laughed in disbelief. I thought the excuse that had worked before wouldn’t this time. But then he released my hair. When he shook his leg to fling me off like a leaf stuck to his shoe, I let go—
Thud! He kicked me hard in the lower abdomen.
“It’s gone now.”
I learned then that when pain is overwhelming enough, you can’t even scream. I couldn’t breathe. Still gasping where I’d collapsed, I was seized and thrown back onto the bed.
This time, he didn’t tear my clothes. He tried to bind me.
“No. No, please…”
“Stay still.”
He forced my arms apart and tied my wrists with his necktie. Noticing the abrasions left by the rope, he muttered,
“I’ll have them put you in long gloves tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. Whatever it was, something was planned. Something that required me to be docile, my injuries hidden.
“What happened to the wedding ring?”
He asked as he bound my left hand. Knowing I’d provoke something worse, I answered anyway.
“I threw it down the drain.”
His heated face went cold in an instant. The heirloom he cherished most, rotting in sewage and filth.
“You’re lying. Tell me the truth.”
“I threw it away.”
He let out a strangled, inhuman scream and grabbed me by the collar, shaking me violently. As if that would bring the ring back.
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