Chapter 51
As drops hit the floor, he rubbed his tears away roughly with the back of his hand. The careless motion left his eyes bright red.
“When I saw you again, I was just happy. But at the same time, I was so hurt, and I lashed out. Is that it? Were you disappointed in me for getting angry? I won’t get angry again. I won’t shout. Okay? Or… was it because I tied you up?”
He hurriedly crawled on his knees and hastily untied the rope binding Violet.
“This was really just supposed to be for restraint—I must have gone mad. Of all people, I shouldn’t have dragged you here like this.”
As the rope loosened, Violet lifted her hand and gave it a slight shake. Her fingertips tingled from how tightly they’d been tied.
Aldrick watched her silently, then, still on his knees, lowered his face to her legs as if in apology.
“It’s all my fault. So please, don’t say you’re going to leave me. I felt like I was going insane all this time. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. I was sure you’d made a mistake. I thought if I could just find you again, I could fix everything… But if you’re really saying you don’t want to stay my wife…”
“Aldrick, it’s not your fault. This is truly my issue. I’m leaving because I’m not enough for you. You haven’t done anything wrong. In fact… everything you’ve given me has been more than I deserve.”
“Then why are you saying you want a divorce!”
He lifted his tear-streaked face and cried out.
“I told you I’m fine with it. I told you I’d give him that money, that it was nothing to me. So why do you keep saying you want to leave me?”
His sorrow-filled eyes suddenly flashed with anger and suspicion.
“Or do you really plan to set up house with that brat?”
Who?
Violet finally realized he was talking about Joshua.
“Just forget about him. He doesn’t matter. He’s just a kid, not even twenty yet.”
“What does age matter? It was obvious at a glance that he desired you. Don’t tell me you and that bastard already—”
“Aldrick.”
“…I don’t care. I’m not giving you up, Violet.”
Violet was troubled. She hadn’t brought up separation to receive this kind of desperate pleading.
“If you don’t hate me, then how can you not stay by my side? Let’s find a way. There has to be a way. Is it just that Baron Zerotta has to be gone?”
“That’s…”
“Should I go get rid of him right now? I can make him disappear without a trace. Would that be enough, Violet?”
Violet looked into Aldrick’s eyes with a heavy heart. The eyes she had always found beautiful now shimmered with tears and madness. He seemed to mean it.
“…I don’t want to make you a killer.”
It wasn’t that Baron Zerotta’s life was precious.
“These hands have already killed countless people. One more won’t make a difference—”
“That’s enough. Stop it.”
Unable to bear it, Violet cut him off. Then she reached out and pulled Aldrick’s head into her arms, where he still knelt pitifully at her feet.
It was an embrace she had wanted to give since the moment he knelt—no, ever since he had found her at the gates of Saint-Lour.
Aldrick, who had searched for her like a madman, had certainly been frightening.
But at the same time, Violet could read his deepest vulnerability.
No matter how others saw Aldrick, to Violet, he was just a wounded soul she wanted to hold.
She couldn’t just stand by and watch a man who claimed he’d stain his hands with blood just to avoid losing her.
I did something terrible.
It was an undeniable fact.
He was right. Violet had fled in panic, overwhelmed by vague fear. No matter how Aldrick reacted to Baron Zerotta, it was something she should’ve faced alongside him.
Violet loved Aldrick.
But she left him irresponsibly.
That was purely her own fear.
“I was being unreasonable. You were right.”
Aldrick was resting in her embrace as if asleep. It felt like he thought even the slightest movement would make her let go of him again.
“I might be more selfish than you think, Aldrick. Maybe I’m just too undeserving to be by your side.”
At those words, Aldrick, who had been motionless in her arms, suddenly pulled her tightly into his. The strength of his arms around her waist made it hard for Violet to breathe.
“If you say you’re going to leave again—”
“I’m not. I just… I’m confessing the shameful parts of myself to you. I’m a coward. And because of that, I hurt you.”
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Miyamo