Chapter 15
Anne quietly released Logan’s arm. He was already busy exchanging meaningless conversation with the crowd anyway. She hurried toward her friends, when Catherine’s voice suddenly came from behind.
“Annie, greet these people as well.”
“Yes, yes!”
After that, she was dragged around by the duke and duchess, greeting people without a moment to breathe. She was hungry and her feet hurt. Her friends, no, more than that, where had Logan gone? Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen him for quite some time.
Slipping out of the crowd, Anne wandered through the garden looking for Logan. There, in the distance, she spotted a crow. He probably wouldn’t welcome her, but she should at least pretend to look after him.
Out of courtesy, Anne picked up two glasses of champagne and started walking.
Then she saw a piece of pink cotton candy beside the crow. Anne stopped in her tracks as if she had seen something she shouldn’t.
Logan and Marilyn were standing side by side, talking. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they looked like a perfectly matched pair, like a painting. The water-blue dress and the navy formal uniform. A combination that looked like fate itself.
Back then, in her previous life, whenever she watched stories, she had hated supporting characters who barged in without knowing their place. And now, Anne herself had become exactly that kind of person. An out-of-place extra who couldn’t tell where she did or didn’t belong.
‘I didn’t really want to be involved either.’
If she could, she would connect the two of them right now and step aside. But she had already damaged the male lead far too much. His personality, his t******e, and several other things.
Wouldn’t it just look like she was dumping a burden on Marilyn. And it didn’t seem likely that Marilyn would be drawn to a Logan like that.
While she hesitated, their conversation seemed to end. Marilyn stepped away from Logan. Anne approached him and held out a glass.
Logan only stared silently at the champagne in her hand. Anne shrugged and spoke first.
“I didn’t put anything in it.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Only then did Logan bring the glass to his lips. Anne stood beside him, facing the garden. In the distance, Marilyn could be seen returning to her friends.
“Pretty, right?”
Logan looked down at Anne quietly. His expression was as if she had suddenly said something absurd. Did he think she was praising herself? Even if she were, it wouldn’t be wrong. Anne gave a small nod toward the front.
“Marilyn, I mean.”
“Ah, well.”
Logan gave a vague answer. Anne raised her brows slightly in surprise. Then again, he had eyes. There was no way he wouldn’t know Marilyn was beautiful.
The garden was noisy, but between the two of them there was only silence. For people who had been engaged for so long, they had nothing to say whenever they were alone. Their married life would probably be just as dry.
They called it ‘responsibility’, but was it really right to go through with a marriage neither of them wanted. Anne still couldn’t find an answer.
Suddenly Logan spoke.
“Did you tell her to do that?”
“Tell her what?”
“No, never mind.”
What was that supposed to mean. Anne swallowed down the irritation rising inside her. There were two ways to anger someone. The first was to start speaking and then stop midway.
Logan recalled what Marilyn Bohr had said to him earlier.
‘Do you… love Anne Agnes?’
If he didn’t love her, was she telling him to let her go?
But love or not, his marriage had never been his decision to make. As long as his mother wanted the daughter of Avery, he couldn’t refuse. Unless Anne Agnes herself asked to break the engagement.
Logan looked down at the small woman standing beside him. From their first meeting until now, she had done nothing but give him pain, both in his head and elsewhere. Rather than lovable, threatening would be the more accurate word.
Now that she had come of age today, it was time for him to make a decision as well. But before that.
“Come to think of it, I didn’t say this earlier.”
“Yes?”
Anne looked up. The moment he met her raised face and green eyes, Logan unconsciously frowned. The memory still hadn’t faded. It really was the worst first meeting imaginable.
Still, he had to say it. Logan lightly tapped his unfinished glass against hers and spoke.
“Happy birthday, Anne Agnes.”
Anne stared blankly. Words she had heard at least a hundred times today. He had arrived first, yet this was the last congratulations he gave. It was such a small thing, yet her expression looked as if she hadn’t expected even that.
Seeing that, Logan pressed his lips together.
For his sake, and for hers.
It was time to make the right choice.
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