And the words he spoke were a proposal to break the engagement.
“What are you saying right now…”
On the outside, I wore an expression of uncontrollable shock, but on the inside, I was cheering in joy, thinking that I had finally done it.
To give you an idea of how I felt, I had to consciously stop my body from trembling with excitement.
However, from now on it was truly important, so I must not let my guard down.
I had to be extremely careful with every answer, action, and expression to ensure my acting was never discovered, yet still achieve
my goal somehow.
“Are you saying we should break the engagement just because I put a measly bottle under your bed? Do you really think breaking an engagement over such a thing is even plausible?”
“I have found someone I love.”
“Pardon?”
I looked at him with a confused expression, as if I had heard something impossible.
“Duke… I misheard you, didn’t I? Right?”
Kane remained silent.
“This makes no sense. I must have misheard. Or it’s a dream.”
I continued to pretend to deny reality, letting my body tremble slightly.
‘Wow, my acting is really on fire.’
Even I thought my current appearance looked real, not like acting.
“Lady Hates.”
“I can’t do this. I’m too tired and I don’t want to be here anymore. I’m going home.”
Saying that, I even performed the action of covering my ears to signify I didn’t want to hear any more as I headed toward the door.
However, my walking speed was not fast at all, and internally I was desperately screaming for him to please catch me.
“The conversation is not over yet.”
Phew, thank goodness.
Kane reached out to catch me so I couldn’t open the door. Then, he quickly withdrew his hand and stood blocking the door.
‘Does he hate me that much?’
He seemed to truly loathe me to the point where even a brief touch was repulsive.
‘Well, that’s for the best.’
Anyway, I was also tired of coming here every day, and every single day was a waste of time.
And thinking that I wouldn’t have to see that face again after today made me feel naturally better.
“How, how can you do this to me?!”
Therefore, I had to end the whole situation within today.
So, I decided to push him even further.
“You know my heart. It’s already been over ten years since I held you in my heart, Duke. But how… how…”
“From the very beginning, I had no feelings for you, Lady.”
Good, good. More, do it more.
“I knew… I knew. That you didn’t like me, Duke… That only I, only I held you in my heart. Still, I’m fine. I can endure and bear it all! As long as you stay by my side as you do now, Duke, I don’t care. So—.”
“Lady, we are finished now.”
We never even started, so what do you mean finished.
“Is it Lady Adela Bayon? The person you say you love?”
I barked the question at Kane, my eyes blazing with anger.
Whether he didn’t know I was aware of the female lead’s existence, a flash of shock crossed his eyes for a moment.
“How did you know?”
“I know everything about you, Duke. The people you meet, the places you go, even what you ate today, what time you woke up, and what time you went to sleep.”
Kane frowned as if disgusted by my words, but since it was what I wanted, I didn’t care about his expression at all and continued speaking.
“Duke, it’s common for married nobles to see mistresses. I’m not that narrow-minded a person. It’s just an affair. A momentary fling. You’ll come back someday. So, I can wait until you return to me again, Duke. Because your end belongs to me.”
Someone who is obsessed should at least recite lines like these.
Moreover, if I treat the person he loves like a mere mistress, wouldn’t that spark anger where there was none?
Recalling the countless novels I had read, I recited the lines I had prepared one by one to make him even more sick of me.
“So please, just take back the words about breaking the engagement. Please? Duke. I love you. I love you so, so much. I will love only you until the day I die. No, if you happen to go first, Duke, I will follow you and be buried alive by your side.”
‘Was being buried alive a bit much?’
No, I have to go this far. Only then will he be truly disgusted.
Sure enough, as if the expression ‘buried alive’ had worked perfectly, Kane’s expression distorted as if he had heard something horrific.
I approached him little by little while giving a desperate, obsessive confession of false love.
Because there would be nothing worse than having someone you dislike approach you.
Then, as if he noticed my intention, Kane raised his hand and blocked me.
“Do not come any closer.”
“Duke…!”
“Since you already know, then I shall tell you. My feelings for Lady Bayon are absolutely not some passing fling like you say. From the moment I first saw her, my heart was stolen by Lady Bayon. Now, she is my everything. From that day on, my world has revolved solely around her, and I cannot even imagine a world without her. Therefore, there is no space in my heart for anyone else to enter.”
As if countering my confession of love, he poured out his feelings for Adela in exhaustive detail.
He seemed to love Adela so deeply that I could instantly see the ecstasy contained in his eyes as he spoke of her.
‘Look at this devoted lover, just look at him.’
“These feelings will never change in the future. For me, the first and the last is not you, Lady, but Lady Bayon. So, I ask that you let me go now.”
As soon as he finished speaking, I acted as if I had received a massive shock and collapsed onto the floor, pretending my legs had lost all strength.
“You cannot do this… If you had even a shred of respect for me, Duke, you could not do this to me…”
Then, with an expression as if the world were collapsing, I spat out each word in a voice filled with despair.
“Lady, stand up.”
I had wondered, but as expected, Kane only told me to stand up as I lay pinned to the floor; he showed no intention of grabbing me to help me up.
“How can you do this to me?! Duke, what do I lack? What is it that I lack compared to Lady Bayon! Ugh-heuk…!”
I wailed even harder, thumping the floor as if I could not contain my sense of injustice.
However, he still remained unmoved.
I did not give up and continued to mutter in a tearful voice that ‘this cannot be.
Hoping that I looked like someone who had received an incredibly large shock…
However, since a while ago, my hands, hidden by my hair that fell forward as I bowed my head, were moving very busily.
Because this situation itself was an act for me, I wasn’t sad at all and no tears would come, but I had to look like I had cried.
So, I had no choice but to mercilessly poke my eyes out of Kane’s sight to force tears to come.
As more time passed, I felt that I had done enough.
Once a reasonable amount of tears had come out, I decided to get up.
Actually, the real reason I decided to get up was that my feet were starting to fall asleep and sensation was disappearing.
I didn’t want to show the unsightly scene of tripping and falling by walking poorly with numb feet.
I stood up weakly from my spot, still keeping my head bowed low.
As I stood, I didn’t forget to pretend to almost stumble to see how he would react, but as expected, Kane pretended not to see me.
It was a relief that this man was such a heartless and cold person.
If Kane had shown even a hint of lingering pity for Belita, I might not have been able to come this far.
But he was a cold and dispassionate man, just as I expected.
Now it was time to bring the curtain down on this performance.
For a beautiful finale, I changed my expression—which until now had held sadness, despair, and futility—into emotions like anger, fury, and resentment, and glared at him with my eyes wide open as hard as I could.
“Ha! You are truly too much!”
And I let out a hollow laugh along with a very exaggerated gesture.
“I have known for a long time that you are a cold and dispassionate person, Duke, but I didn’t know it was to this extent. To think you wouldn’t even look at me while I was collapsed; have you ever even once tried to truly look at me until now, Duke?”
There was no reply.
“I suppose you don’t even want to exchange words with me anymore.”
With those words, I straightened my body, which I had been deliberately hunching to look withered until just now, into a confident and upright posture.
Then, I erased every expression I had made toward him and lifted my head higher to straighten my aura.
‘It’s finally the end.’
Thinking that, I opened my mouth to say the words that had been my singular goal since coming here.
“Impressive. Fine. I lose. I will break the engagement.”
It was then.
A look of slight surprise and questioning flashed across Kane’s face at my words.
‘Ah, was that too fast?’
Did he think I was giving up too easily?
That couldn’t be it, right?
I thought I had clung to him with just the right amount of effort—enough that the real Belita would have done this much—so as not to give the impression of breaking the engagement easily…
I immediately continued speaking without a break to give him no opening to feel that something was strange about me.
“In exchange, you must provide me with alimony that I find acceptable.”
Hand over the money, Male Lead. You’re rich.
Fortunately, the questioning and suspicion that had briefly lingered on his face disappeared once the issue of material compensation was raised.
And in its place, a sneer spread as if he had expected as much.
“Very well. If you tell me the amount you desire, I will compensate you sufficiently so that you will not feel disappointed, Lady.”
