Episode 179. I Decide
It was the next day in the afternoon when Maria came to visit.
Because of the man standing guard outside the door, she was in a situation where she could not take a single step out of the mansion.
She was already worried because she had been dragged away so suddenly that she hadn’t been able to say anything to the Bailey couple.
Knock, knock.
Startled by the sound of knocking on the door, she looked back and saw Maria entering hesitantly into her field of vision.
“Maria!”
Deborah got off the bed in a single bound and walked over to her.
Discovering Deborah inside, Maria’s eyes widened greatly, as if she was also surprised.
“How did you get here?”
That was the very first thing that came out of her mouth.
Judging by his actions, it certainly seemed like he would lock her up here and not let her meet anyone, but…
It was a question asked out of sheer wonder as to how Maria could have made it all the way here.
At that question, Maria’s gaze began to waver back and forth for a moment.
“That is, actually… the atmosphere that day was so unusual… that I went to the cabin thinking something might have happened… but, well, the door was open and the inside was completely empty…”
Maria, who was rambling on, suddenly stopped talking and bit her lower lip tightly.
At that strange behavior, Deborah quietly called her name.
“Maria?”
Even at the sound of calling her, she kept her mouth shut tightly for a long time, and then, at some point, she suddenly squeezed her eyes shut and opened them.
And then, she tightly grasped Deborah’s two hands.
“I’m sorry, Deborah.”
At the sudden apology, Deborah lost her words and blinked her eyes.
“My husband, that day… in front of the Duke, accidentally made a slip of the tongue… I’m truly sorry.”
“…”
Seeing her apologizing repeatedly while not knowing what to do, only then did Deborah understand the whole situation.
To be honest, it was something she had guessed.
A person who said he was leaving this place to go elsewhere had suddenly burst into the cabin and asked about the child.
Naturally, the fact that the Bailey couple was behind it was something anyone could figure out with just a little bit of thought.
Of course, if she said there was no resentment toward them, it would be a lie.
Because of that incident, everything had been completely ruined, so she was somewhat angry at that carelessness.
However, even so, she could not blame everything on the Bailey couple.
In the first place, she was the one who made those two lie.
Deborah tightly held Maria’s hands in return, as Maria could not even lift her head out of apology.
“No, I was the one who asked for a difficult favor from the very beginning.”
“Deborah…”
At the words that she didn’t need to feel sorry at all, Maria finally lifted her head and quietly stared at Deborah’s face.
“I… actually don’t understand it well. Why the Duke locked Deborah up here…”
“…”
“Deborah, perhaps… if by any chance the Duke is forcing Deborah right now…”
Speaking up to that point, Maria’s lips closed again.
Somehow, Deborah felt like she vaguely knew what kind of misunderstanding Maria was having right now.
Words that were so terrible that she couldn’t dare to bring them out of her mouth.
Since she knew Jade as her husband—meaning the father of the child in her womb—this situation would naturally look strange right now.
Could it be that the Duke, with the power he possessed, was coveting another man’s woman, and a pregnant woman at that…
Naturally, she must have had such a horrible thought.
Indeed, looking at it from the perspective of someone who didn’t know the prior circumstances, it was a situation that looked exactly like that to anyone.
It was already the full second day since she had been locked up here.
What kind of thoughts Maria must have had during that time while blaming herself… she could tell without even needing to hear it.
Since the situation was like this, she could no longer deceive her with a lie.
“Maria…”
Maria quietly listened to the softly flowing words with a face full of tension.
“I… lied…”
“A lie… what do you mean by that.”
As if catching her breath for a moment, Deborah stopped talking and quietly looked down at her belly.
“The father of this child… is not that person you saw back then…”
“…”
“It is, Duke Cheister… him.”
After Deborah’s words ended, a very brief silence flowed for a while.
And a beat late, a gasping sound of drawing in a breath was heard from Maria’s mouth.
Even though it wasn’t an unexpected reaction, she couldn’t dare to lift her head in front of her.
Maria’s gaze swept through the air once, and then wandered across the floor again.
Only after her gaze moved like that a few more times did she seem to understand the whole situation.
Why Deborah had come all the way to this place where no one was while being pregnant.
What Lea’s request—imploring her never to pry into the details since there were circumstances she couldn’t speak of—was all about.
And what the Duke of Cheister’s incomprehensible words and actions during that time were for, all of it.
Maria’s gaze directed toward Deborah’s belly once again.
As if examining something, what came out of Maria’s mouth after staring intently for a long time was a short, single exclamation.
“My goodness…”
It was a sound just like an exclamation that burst out involuntarily after learning an immense truth.
☆☆☆
Another few days flew by swiftly after Maria’s visit.
During that time, there was no one passing in and out of the bedroom where Deborah was locked up, except for the woman who brought her meals.
She tried to step outside the door several times, but the only response that came back was still that she couldn’t leave a single step without his permission.
Right at that moment, while tedious time flowed by where she did nothing and just ate up the meals that came in regularly.
Finally, he showed his face after a few days.
While locked up here alone, Deborah thought that when such a moment came, she should persuade him well.
She was planning to say that living locked up like this was not a good thing for the child either, and that she wouldn’t run away, so to at least let her return to the cabin to live.
However, before she could even bring up those words, she ended up hearing something incredibly absurd.
Raymond looked down with indifferent eyes at her pupils, which were wide with absurdity as to what on earth she had just heard.
“There won’t be anything to prepare, but just keep that in mind for now.”
Ending with the words thrown out as if delivering a notification, the man immediately turned his body around.
As if he had come only to deliver those words.
Only then did Deborah’s senses snap back.
“W-Wait a moment.”
At the urgently calling words, the back of the turning man paused for an instant.
A face slowly turning around again.
Seeing his slightly furrowed brow, Deborah quickly brought out her words.
“Returning to Elfengreen… what on earth does that mean?”
It was nonsense.
How could she go back there again…
No, to be precise, it wasn’t just Elfengreen.
Deborah didn’t have a shred of desire left to return to the capital, Denver.
With what kind of heart had she left that place…
With what kind of heart had she come here…
The sound of dragging her back to Elfengreen when she had barely managed to find stability now was suffocating just to hear.
The man, who had consistently maintained an unfeeling attitude as if reciting the breakfast menu, showed an attitude that was not a single bit different this time either.
“Just as you heard.”
Words spat out roughly.
At the words spoken like a command, as if not even a minimal explanation was necessary, something hot surged up instantly.
“I am not going.”
At the firmly spat out words, his eyebrows twitched for a moment, and then a low laugh leaked out of his mouth.
“Whether you go or not is for me to decide.”
Raymond cut Deborah’s words clean off as she tried to fight back immediately.
“You should think carefully about whether you are in any position to say that kind of rubbish right now.”
At the action of gesturing toward Deborah’s belly while telling her not to misunderstand, the resentment she had held back finally exploded.
The thought of trying to have a calm conversation if she met him had vanished into thin air somewhere along the way.
“I think the one misunderstanding is you, Duke.”
“…What?”
“You do not have the right to give me such a command, Duke.”
It was an obvious statement.
Now, Deborah was neither a housemaid relying on Elfengreen, nor a servant or slave subordinate to the Cheister family.
No matter how much of a Duke of Ruvake he was, it meant he could not do as he pleased with her, who held a free status.
He couldn’t be ignorant of such basic things, so she could not comprehend the reason why he was acting so recklessly like this.
An attitude that suddenly transformed as if he were a completely different person from the way he used to act like a gentle lamb.
At that, Raymond’s lips, which had hardened for a moment, began to curve into a bizarre shape at some point.
Though she had questioned him confidently, Deborah felt an unknown anxiety at the man’s relaxed laughter.
“Of course I don’t.”
“…”
“Since I don’t, that must be why you are able to walk around perfectly fine like this right now.”
She could understand what those words, spoken slowly as if whispering, meant.
If he had such a right, back then.
It was a chilling threat containing the meaning that he would have wrung her neck long ago on that day when everything was exposed.
Raymond’s gaze slowly shifted from Deborah’s face down below.
The place where that gaze stopped was above her swelling belly.
When his gaze, which had been thoroughly scanning for a long time as if flaying her with his eyes, rose again, a unpleasant smile had settled around his mouth before she knew it.
“But, how about that child.”
At his words as he laughed while raising one eyebrow, Deborah’s expression began to harden gradually.
“That child inside your womb.”
“…”
“Who holds the custody over that child—no matter how stupid you are, you would obviously know that much.”
At the face turning pale white, Raymond noticed only then that the opponent had understood the meaning of his words.
“Then, you must also know well by now that you should never let that kind of nonsense out of your mouth again.”
“…”
“Unless you want to be kicked out without even being able to see its face right after giving birth.”
Thud!
She couldn’t know precisely whether the threat he made was simply to break and suppress the opponent, or if it was truly a thought he harbored in his heart.
However, if it was the former, it was an excellent choice to the extent that there could be nothing more effective than that.
Because with that single sentence, Deborah’s heart plummeted to the floor in an instant.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
