However, there were times when he needed to pretend to be angry. At those times, Christoph would suppress the opponent with silence instead of shouting. And in those confrontations, Christoph always won.
Marianne looked around at her opponents with a light smile. Wondering which of the four to choose, she targeted Maksim first. He seemed to be the one leading the atmosphere.
She stared at Maksim without a word. Catching Marianne’s gaze, he narrowed his eyes. As if threatening, he leaned his upper body forward, looking as though he might charge at any moment.
“…….”
“…….”
Despite that, Marianne did not back down at all. Marianne’s smile was solid, and Maksim’s anger was precarious. Eventually, with a low groan, Maksim slammed the desk.
Bang!
“Damn, do as you please!”
Unable to contain his anger any longer, he stormed out of the office. The winner of this silent duel was Marianne.
Goodness. To think that she would have something to be grateful to Christoph for in her life.
Marianne, brimming with energy, turned her attention to the remaining three and flashed a smile. Her voice flowed, sweet yet firm.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Marianne Habeck. Please, just call me Marianne.”
She cast her eyes on the two men in turn, as if waiting for their greetings, gracefully.
At that moment, Nicholas realized she was not as easygoing as she looked. The other two men also opened their eyes wide in surprise.
The man with the pale complexion turned his head with a grimace, and the man in suspenders seemed unsure what to do.
“Hmm.”
After seeming lost in thought, Nicholas pointed to the mountain of documents on the desk.
“Alright, Marianne. In honor of becoming colleagues, I’m asking you to sort these documents. Sort those reports by case, and by time.”
Impossible!
Barely suppressing a scream at the sight of the precariously piled stack of documents, Marianne nodded her head with an air of composure, as if this was a piece of cake.
“……Yes, Chief Nicholas.”
She exaggerated a bit, pretending the documents were as tall as her. The palefaced man chuckled, and the man in suspenders cast a worried glance.
Marianne, clenching her fists, walked briskly to the desk. It was not yet time to get back at Nicholas. The opportunity would come again.
(This is a time separator.)
Martin hated this moment that had been repeating for days. It was the honest feeling of the butler, who wanted to avoid it if he could.
Swallowing dryly, he knocked on the door of his office. Permission to enter was granted. Only after taking another deep breath did Martin go inside.
“…….”
Though it seemed impossible, the room felt as if winter had returned. Outside the window, warm spring sunshine poured down, and birdsong could be heard, but inside the office, a barren north wind blew.
Sitting at his desk, Christoph slowly lifted his eyes. Yet Martin could read the impatience and urgency in them.
It was quite a fresh experience. His master never showed emotions, and even Martin, who had served him since childhood, often couldn’t read what was inside him.
“What happened?”
Christoph, unable to wait for the short time it took for Martin to walk to the desk, threw the parched question. That, too, was an unfamiliar sight.
Was the man before him truly the patient Christoph?
Martin realized only after Mrs. Schneider had disappeared that she had been quite a remarkable person.
Especially when Christoph, known as a workaholic, said he would no longer take on a case, even Martin could not help but be surprised.
“I’m sorry.”
Martin bowed his head with a somber expression. Ha, Christoph, bursting into a sneer, looked up at the ceiling. His eyes became cold.
Martin, looking at his face, which had become haggard in just a few days, quietly continued speaking.
“None of the taxi drivers in front of the department store had picked up your wife. We’ll have to expand the search to the horsemen, but that will take some time. The number of coaches is incomparable to that of taxi drivers.”
“Marianne disappeared, and nobody saw her? She either shot up to the sky or sank into the ground. Did she become a magician?”
Christoph sneered in an icy voice. Martin, having gained nothing, seemed to have ten mouths but no words, as he lowered his gaze.
Christoph unconsciously clenched the armrest tightly. He exerted so much force that the joint popped out, and the bones of the back of his hand turned white.
“Marianne.”
Christoph murmured her name. Just as he had done so many times before.
His gaze was drawn to the divorce papers on one side of the desk. At the same time, Christoph’s eyes flashed sharp as a razor blade.
Marianne’s escape was never an impulsive act. She had planned it meticulously and ultimately succeeded.
In other words, she had contemplated escaping even while meeting him and chatting with him as usual, even at the moment when Christoph had trusted her love without doubt.
Tight.
The hand gripping the armrest tightened further. For a moment, his eyes seemed to waver.
“Why.”
Christoph repeated the question that had never left his mind in recent days. But even now, the answer remained elusive.
Veronica Cloje.
Suddenly, his sisterinlaw’s name came to mind. He remembered Marianne’s face as she insisted that her sister’s death was not a suicide.
Then, what had he said?
He probably made a rather annoyed face. According to the case report he had scanned, it was clearly a suicide.
―It’s clear suicide, Marianne.
―No, Christoph. She, Veronica is…….
―You don’t know anything about the investigation. There was no doubt about that case.
Only now did he remember the face Marianne had made then. From a face filled with sorrow, the expression gradually faded, and in its place, deep despair and resignation settled.
Grinding his teeth, Christoph clenched his jaw tightly. His chin stiffened rigidly. The muscles tensed.
At that moment, he noticed a bouquet on the desk. It was a bunch of buttercups.
Pride.
“Ha.”
At last, it seemed he understood the message she had left.
An Indifferent Woman is the One Men Desire the Most
One-line summary: The female lead is actually cold-hearted and extremely rational. She has stage-by-stage relationships and won’t two-time, but there will always be someone who secretly likes her.
This novel has the following triggers, so if you’re sensitive to these, please don’t read:
1. The female lead has had many relationships, but she treated each one seriously and broke up properly.
It’s just that the men unilaterally pestered her incessantly. For the female lead, when she doesn’t like someone anymore, she simply doesn’t like them.
(This applies to her relationships with Male Lead 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well, but she’s loyal in each 1-on-1 relationship!)
2. In this novel, Male Lead 2 and the female lead kiss in a car, and Male Lead 1 sees it and beats up Male Lead 2.
The female lead calls the police and sends both Male Lead 1 and 2 to the police station! Male Lead 1 begs the female lead not to break up with him.
3. Male Lead 1 has a gentle appearance but an obsessive personality.
Male Lead 2 has a delicate and soft appearance, slightly green tea-like (two-faced).
Male Lead 3 is a youthful college student and a smart person who has secretly liked the female lead for a long time.
Male Lead 4 is the female lead’s father’s special assistant, a business elite with deep, hidden thoughts.
4. At the beginning of this novel, the female lead has already broken up with Male Lead 1 (Chapter 4) and gotten back together with Male Lead 2 (ex-boyfriend).
5. Enter with caution if you have triggers!!!
