Chapter 54
“That was because you were young…”
“Right, because I was young!”
Duke Drexton spat the words out as if wailing.
A woman’s marriageable age is the late teens to early twenties. Meanwhile, a man’s marriageable age is socially considered to be the late twenties to early thirties, after he is fully established. In cases like Julia and Duke Drexton, where the woman is older, the window for marriage ends up misaligned by as much as ten years.
So Duke Drexton, simply because he was not old enough, was unable to do anything and lost Julia. And even after that, he was never able to forget her.
That was why he had placed people near Julia and always kept watch on her circumstances.
Julia felt the world around her spinning.
‘He must have known my married life wasn’t very happy either.’
But if he had stepped forward, it would have revealed that he had been watching her. Julia would have felt humiliated and run away. So instead, he had only circled her indirectly, just to hear news of her.
“That man.”
Duke Drexton brought his lips very close to Julia’s. His breath brushed against her at a dizzying distance.
“He took you away from me, and on top of that, he made you unhappy. And I was too stupid to step in. I kept thinking about how you told me not to come to the wedding.”
Duke Drexton gently, impossibly gently, brushed beneath Julia’s eyes.
“How fortunate that he died. A man like that—”
“Edgar.”
At the harsh words, Julia unconsciously cautioned him. Duke Drexton’s face twisted. He seemed extremely displeased at being treated like a child.
“Do you resent that I called you in as a private tutor?”
Duke Drexton drew his hand down from Julia’s cheek. He lightly pressed one side of her swollen chest over her clothes.
“Ah…”
“But if I hadn’t called you as a private tutor, would you have ever thought of me as someone who could do this to you?”
“Wait… ah.”
“Ever since I started having wet dreams, all I ever thought about was doing this with you.”
He gripped her chest painfully. At the sensation of the bud being pressed hard, Julia sucked in a sharp breath.
“Please think about my injustice too, Julia.”
“……”
“I can please you as a man too. If I hadn’t lured you in with money, you would never have given me the chance to prove that.”
Unable to refute him, Julia turned her head away. She twisted her body to escape his embrace, but he was not so easily shaken off. He hugged her tightly from behind.
The hands that caressed her chest, her waist, her hips, slipped between her thighs. Julia reflexively felt her body heat up. Perhaps because it had been weeks since they last slept together, every cell in her body woke up and screamed that it wanted him.
But now was not the time. Not just because of the tangled circumstances, but because inside her now…
“You’re pregnant, aren’t you.”
A low voice whispered sweetly into Julia’s ear. Duke Drexton’s hand was already slowly stroking her lower abdomen.
“You’re pregnant, so why didn’t you contact me.”
‘Cecile!’
Julia screamed inwardly.
‘I told you to keep it a secret!’
True to someone who had conspired with Duke Drexton to hand Julia over, Cecile seemed to have ignored Julia’s request once again.
Julia murmured in a barely audible voice.
“No. The doctor said it’s already been over three months. This is my husband’s child.”
“That kind of lie won’t work.”
Duke Drexton turned Julia around. A sneer played on his lips, though it was unclear whom it was directed at.
“I poured my seed into you like that.”
At the blunt remark, Julia’s cheeks burned hot.
“It’s not your child.”
She wrapped her arms around her chest as if to protect herself. Duke Drexton looked at Julia with eyes where sorrow and anger were woven together like warp and weft.
“So in the end, I can’t beat that old, ugly man.”
Even misery and despair were mixed into his voice.
“Do you know how much that drives me into the ground?”
“……”
“You kept bringing that man up every time you pushed me away. Why. Did he make you feel good in bed? Better than me?”
“……”
“Did you lie there screaming like you do with me? With your eyes completely unfocused?”
No. That couldn’t be. Julia had only ever broken down and felt like that in Duke Drexton’s arms. But now was not the time to be honest.
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