Chapter 185. You’re quite resourceful.
For a while, a suffocating silence flowed between the three people.
The fire within her flared up at the man’s behavior of uttering vulgar words without hesitation, but she could not step forward to refute him either.
If she did, that anger might extend to Jade as well.
Therefore, Deborah chose to swallow her rising anger and keep her mouth tightly shut as she was told.
Raymond, who had been staring blankly at that sight, soon brought up the next words.
“If you understand, go back to your room now.”
“…….”
At the words ordering her exit, Deborah’s gaze naturally turned to Jade’s face.
A face that was still stiffly frozen.
Seeing the person who was undergoing a humiliation he didn’t need to experience solely because of her, her heart became heavy as if pressed down by a boulder.
Jade’s face, noticing such a sign, soon began to slowly loosen up.
“Go on up ahead.”
The words telling her to go up quickly because he was fine.
Seeing him nod slightly as if to reassure her, Deborah’s heart sank even more heavily.
Toward such a Deborah, Jade continuously sent glances saying he was fine, and that appearance finally fueled Raymond’s anger.
Taking a stride forward, he suddenly grabbed Deborah’s arm as if snatching it.
“Ah-!”
A short groan burst from the startled Deborah’s mouth, and at that sound, Jade rushed in front of him in an instant.
Jade’s hand holding Raymond’s wrist, which had gripped Deborah’s arm.
Between the two closely confronted men, blue sparks began to fly.
The one who stopped that touch-and-go moment was Deborah.
“Jade, let go of that hand.”
“…….”
A voice entirely embedded with anxiety.
Even though he must have clearly heard that sound, Jade did not make a single move as if he had no intention of backing down.
“Jade.”
Only after she called out again as if coaxing him did Jade finally let go of his hand and back away.
Sighing a sigh of relief, Deborah this time coldly stared at the man who had gripped her arm.
“Please let go of my hand.”
“…….”
Not long after the low voice rang out, his hand also broke away.
While wrapping her aching arm with her hand, Deborah left the garden just like that.
After Deborah’s figure completely vanished from the two people’s sight, the first person to open his mouth was, surprisingly, Jade.
“By any chance, do you intend to take only the child?”
Seeing him treat the woman carrying his child like that, it was clear that he had not fully accepted Deborah in his heart.
Even so, the reason for locking her up like that and keeping her unable to budge must be because he had other thoughts.
For instance, just like what Deborah had written in the letter, the thought that he might really take only the child and kick her out.
However, even while asking those words, he did not think the opponent would answer easily.
Just like it always was.
As expected, the brows of Raymond, who looked back at Jade, furrowed fiercely.
“Where do you dare, a thief who climbed over the wall without the owner’s permission.”
“…….”
He must not be ignorant of the reason why Jade was able to enter all the way here, yet a hollow laugh burst out momentarily at the behavior of treating him as a thief until the end.
Anyway, if no matter what he did, he would only be seen in his eyes as a thief who coveted another’s thing for the rest of his life, there was no longer any reason to walk on eggshells.
Despite the worsening atmosphere, Jade opened his mouth again.
“How cruel it is to separate a biological mother from her child- you must not be ignorant of that either.”
Raymond stared silently for a long time at those blue eyes that looked straight at him and said what they had to say.
And then, he soon moved one step forward, narrowing the distance between the two tightly.
“It seems you have forgotten because it was too long ago-”
“…….”
“Think carefully about what kind of woman the woman who gave birth to you was.”
“…….”
“And after that, see if those kinds of words still come out in front of me.”
An appearance entirely different from that brutal behavior just a moment ago.
The spine felt chilly instead at the gentle tone as if kindly informing him.
At the appearance of becoming quiet again as soon as his mother was brought up, Raymond took a step back again as if satisfied.
Pulling his disheveled frock coat tautly with his hand, Raymond turned his body.
Of course, before leaving, he did not forget the warning to the opponent either.
“If you loiter around that woman like this once again, we will both have an unpleasant experience.”
Thus, a chilly warning not to drool over someone else’s thing.
Ending with those words, Raymond turned his body and left the garden.
***
Slam-!
At the tremendous sound as if it would break, Charlotte flinched in surprise and looked back at the door.
“Oh, you’re he-”
“Step outside.”
She quickly bowed her waist at the sight of the Duke striding across the room, but that greeting was utterly and ruthlessly cut off by the cold energy.
But how could she dare to say anything in front of him?
Charlotte quietly closed the room door and disappeared.
After she went out, the inside of the room was instantly engulfed in silence.
A stillness that settled down so much that even the sound of breathing could not be heard.
From the moment he opened the door and entered, Raymond’s gaze was fixed solely toward one place.
At that brazen face sitting openly on the bed even while knowing he had entered.
“You’re quite resourceful.”
At the heavily twisted tone, Deborah’s gaze, which had been directed elsewhere all along, only then slowly moved toward the direction where the man was standing.
The moment their gazes met at a close distance, Raymond’s brow distorted into a bizarre shape.
“The resourcefulness to bewitch men.”
“…….”
She didn’t particularly have any special expectations, but at that exhausting denunciation that still continued, Deborah momentarily felt sick and tired.
“From the guy who picked you up saying it was fine even when you were rolling in another man’s arms, to this time, even a guy sticking around saying he likes your pregnant body.”
“…….”
“What on earth did you do for them to follow behind you like crazy like that…… I suddenly became curious, you see.”
“…….”
She did not want to hear any more vulgar words to the point that she wanted to wash out her ears.
Deborah turned her body and lay down on the bed.
“Please leave now. ……I am tired.”
The silence that visited once again.
Even without looking, she could tell from the stinging gaze piercing into her back.
With what a fierce momentum he would be glaring at her right now.
But she wasn’t pretending; she was truly tired.
As much as her raggedly ground spirit, she felt her entire body drooping and slumping.
It was a state where not even a shred of leeway remained to calmly listen to his sharp criticism.
The gaze that had been felt for a long time was finally withdrawn only when the sound of receding footsteps reached her ears.
With the sound of the door opening and closing as the last thing, Deborah’s consciousness slowly sank into the pitch-black darkness.
Feeling a throbbing, tightening pain, Deborah thought.
That everything would be fine after sleeping just a little…….
That just like always, her heavy body and exhausted spirit would also feel much better.
Like that, a death-like sleep blanketed Deborah’s consciousness.
***
It was from the moment she woke up from sleep that she felt her body was strange.
Even though it seemed she had slept for quite a long time, far from being refreshed, her body felt even heavier.
No, honestly, her mind was so hazy that the boundary felt unclear to the point of wondering how many hours she had lain and slept like this.
Raising her body which was heavy as if hung with a boulder, Deborah’s gaze immediately headed outside the window.
A scenery as dark as a night sea.
It was when she was staring blankly at that sight as if possessed for a long time.
Knock, knock.
At the suddenly echoing sound of a knock, Deborah’s body flinched momentarily.
The person who opened the door and entered was none other than Madame Charlotte.
Seeming momentarily surprised at the sight of Deborah awake, she soon quickly managed her expression and walked over to the bed.
“I thought about just letting you sleep, but still, I thought skipping meals would not be good.”
At the words explaining the reason for entering, only then was the context vaguely conjectured.
Thinking that she must have come to wake her up several times, but turned back unable to bring herself to wake her upon seeing her sleeping frantically.
“I will tell them to prepare something easy to swallow, so wait just a moment.”
At the softly echoing sound, Deborah nodded weakly.
Honestly, she didn’t have the mind to eat anything at all, but it was out of the thought that, just like her words, skipping meals would not be good.
And she also felt sorry to Madame Charlotte, who had made futile trips several times for nothing.
No matter what it was, let’s try swallowing it into the mouth for the sake of the child- Deborah thought so.
The meal came up not long after Madame Charlotte went out.
What came up supported on a silver tray was oatmeal thoroughly boiled with savory milk, baked beans, and warm milk.
Deborah stared blankly at the foods in front of her for a long time, then weakly picked up the spoon.
The exact moment she scooped up a bite of oatmeal with the thought of quickly eating and getting rid of it.
At the sudden sensation of her stomach turning upside down, dry retching rose up her throat despite herself.
She tried to calm it down by thumping her throbbing chest with her hand, but it was all in vain.
In the end, Deborah had to send the food brought by the maid back just as it was, without being able to swallow a single thing.
Madame Charlotte visited the room again and said she would prepare it with something else, but Deborah shook her head.
It would only make innocent people suffer for nothing.
Thinking that it would get a bit better after a day passed, Deborah laid her exhausted body back on the bed and fell asleep.
Without knowing in the slightest what kind of thing was waiting at the end of it.
***
The next day, Deborah’s expectation that she would be fine once she slept and woke up missed the mark completely.
Because the same symptom was repeated once again in front of the food that came up as breakfast.
Of course, the degree was not as severe as last night, but still, it was the same that she could not swallow the food.
In the end, after trying several times, Deborah had to turn away the meal this time as well.
When the same situation was repeated a total of three times, adding breakfast, lunch, and last night, Madame Charlotte finally recognized that the situation was serious.
Whether some words had gone in, the menu continuously changed afterward and food came up.
However, she wasn’t doing it on purpose to tease them, yet among those many foods, there was not a single one that could be swallowed into her mouth.
In the end, only after the 4th tray went out of the room did the person bringing the food change.
Just by the sign of roughly flinging the door open, she could tell who the person entering the room was.
Deborah, who was lying down in an exhausted state, slowly raised her body with a long sigh.
As expected, the face of the man standing while holding the tray containing food came into her field of vision.
Seeing that stiffly frozen expression, she could roughly guess what he would be thinking.
He probably thought she was doing this on purpose.
Well, honestly, even she couldn’t understand this situation, so how much more would it be in other people’s eyes?
It was when she exhaled a long sigh again while having such thoughts.
Abruptly, the tray came in front of her eyes.
And-
“Eat.”
From the mouth of the man who was exuding a blue momentum, words like a command finally dropped down.
