“Lilian’s heart, what exactly is it?”

Rebecca’s eyes didn’t waver in the slightest.

“Can you… tell me about it too?”

Meanwhile, Cedric was inwardly perplexed by the situation.

‘I can’t believe Rebecca is directly mentioning Lilian’s heart.’

Throughout their married life, Cedric thought she was pretending not to know about Lilian’s heart.

He also believed that Rebecca’s change in attitude after the divorce was because she had finally given up on obtaining Lilian’s heart.

‘If that’s not the case, no matter how much her affection has cooled… there’s no way she could have divorced so easily from a man she was once obsessed with.’

But now, Rebecca was acting as if she truly didn’t know the identity of that object.

Not only that.

Her following words were enough to surprise Cedric once again.

“Duke Bold has threatened me several times. He said I must obtain that object from you.”

“…!”

Huge ripples formed on Cedric’s blue eyes.

Rebecca, who wants to gain the power to control him through engraving.

And Duke Bold, who wants to get his hands on Lilian’s heart by using his own daughter.

That was the fundamental reason why Cedric resented and distanced himself from Rebecca throughout their married life.

But to see her calmly admitting that fact like this.

Rebecca, who had been staring at Cedric’s face frozen in shock, eventually let out a soft laugh.

“Contrary to what you know, the relationship between my father and I is not very good at all.”

“……”

“No, it’s hard to even see it as a father-daughter relationship. To my father, I am merely a tool to be used to satisfy his greed.”

“So that means…”

…Could it be that all of it was done out of necessity due to the pressure from her father?

As that thought crossed his mind, Rebecca in front of his eyes began to look different once again.

He had only thought of her as a woman who was desperate to use him by joining forces with her father.

So for all those long years, he had resented and hated her.

‘But if in fact, Rebecca had been lonely all this time, being neglected by both her father and her husband…’

A dull sensation slowly spread around his heart.

What had he been doing while his wife was receiving such cruel treatment from her own father?

He cruelly pushed her away again and again.

The invisible door of the heart.

As if punishing her, he drove her out beyond that door and thoroughly turned a blind eye.

What feelings must Rebecca have had, always left alone on the other side?

“……”

Once he finally switched positions and tried to fathom her feelings, he couldn’t continue speaking.

A life where no one wants you, where there is nowhere to rest your heart.

The desperate feeling of having to gasp and constantly gulp down seawater, knowing it will eventually kill you.

All the emotions she must have felt belatedly became a dagger, sharply cutting through Cedric’s heart.

How did that small woman endure that long and miserable time of loneliness?

It felt like if he parted his lips even a little, an uncharacteristically choked sound would flow out.

He thought while trying to clear his tightening throat.

Her actions, which he had only regarded as obsession and viciousness.

Perhaps all of that was…

Her desperate cry for him to see her properly.

Rebecca, who had been waiting endlessly for an answer that never came, eventually became distorted and broken.

‘…If only I had reached out to her first even once back then.’

His indifference back then, never once looking back at her.

That indifference of his now began to sting to the bone.

It made it even more difficult to break the current silence.

He felt guilty for even casually speaking to her.

Silence lingered between the two for a long time.

Finally, Rebecca’s voice broke the sunken atmosphere.

“I guess you can’t tell me after all.”

At her calm tone, Cedric slowly raised his head and looked at her again.

And he barely parted his lips.

“It’s not like that.”

“……”

“…I was just belatedly realizing that I have never properly seen you all this time.”

Rebecca, who had been quietly looking at him, slowly opened her mouth again.

“But you still can’t see me properly even now.”

Her tone as she said that felt cold enough to be considered indifferent.

“Perhaps your desire to regain my heart is just,”

Rebecca then showed a faint smile.

“…a fleeting breeze.”

“Rebecca, that’s not…”

“Ah. The woman who acted like she couldn’t live without me, why is she acting like this? Suddenly letting go, feeling empty, feeling regretful…”

“……”

“Something like a light wavering, that’s all.”

Rebecca, who had cut off Cedric’s words, spoke as if affirming it.

As if she couldn’t bear this moment without doing so.

Cedric was resentful of Rebecca for denying his feelings.

However, he also knew that even feeling a bit of disappointment towards Rebecca was a shameless thing to do.

The reason his sincerity was being denied right now was ultimately…

A punishment given to him for never responding to her heart until the very end.

“Although we couldn’t be together until the end, I was still grateful that you invited me today.”

“Rebecca…”

“I’ll get going now.”

With those words, Rebecca stood up from her seat.

Cedric also stood up to follow her, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop Rebecca, who was leaving with a resolute shake of her head.

She walked out just like that for a long time.

“…Actually.”

Rebecca’s red heels paused for a moment at the door.

“That ‘heart’ you want to regain is no longer here.”

“……”

“So even if I wanted to return it to you, I can’t.”

Behind Rebecca’s slightly bowed shoulders, her self-mocking voice seemed to be faintly heard.

“Because I am no longer… the Rebecca from back then.”

* * *

Around the same time, in the drawing room of the Twins mansion.

Bianca, who had finished her dinner, was reading a book while leaning on the sofa.

No, to be precise, her gaze was only fixed on the book.

The pages didn’t turn even once. Bianca was busily repeating the motions of lying down on the sofa and sitting up.

The nanny, who had been watching Bianca, giggled softly.

“My lady, you can’t concentrate at all, can you?”

“Huh? Uh-huh, hehe…”

Bianca, who had secretly closed the book, blinked her round eyes at the nanny.

“Nanny, what kind of conversation do you think the Grand Duke and the Duchess are having now?”

Bianca’s cheeks were flushed as she asked that.

The nanny found Bianca cute and scrunched her nose before answering.

“You asked that question a few minutes ago too. And a few minutes before that, and a few minutes before that as well.”

“Ah! I did, didn’t I…”

“My lady, you really like the Duchess that much?”

“…Yes, very very much.”

Just then, as Bianca was smiling with crescent eyes,

A maid hurriedly entered the drawing room.

“My lady, it seems the Duchess has returned to the Dark Mansion just now!”

“Already?”

Bianca asked, tilting her head.

‘The nanny said the longer the two of them spend a happy time together, the longer the Duchess would stay here. Could it be that they fought again…?’

As Bianca continued her thoughts, she pouted her lower lip but then shook her head vigorously.

“Nanny, I need to go see the Grand Duke right now!”

It was too early to be disappointed.

Bianca immediately ran towards the Grand Duke’s palace.

Finally entering the Grand Duke’s palace, Cedric welcomed Bianca as he always did.

However, Bianca immediately noticed that her brother-in-law’s complexion was darker than usual.

“Grand Duke, did you perhaps… fight with the Duchess again?”

At Bianca’s worried question, Cedric shook his head.

“…No, that’s not it.”

Hearing that they didn’t fight was a relief.

Bianca, who let out a short sigh of relief, continued.

“Then why…?”

At the cautious question, Cedric only let out a deep sigh.

Seeing him like that, anxiety crept back into Bianca’s heart.

“Could it be… that the Duchess doesn’t want to come back here?”

“……”

Cedric’s silence was long.

Bianca was young, but she could tell that his silence meant affirmation.

The child eventually had no choice but to leave the Grand Duke’s palace with drooping shoulders.

Walking like that while holding the nanny’s hand for a long time,

“Nanny…”

Bianca looked up at the nanny with a completely crestfallen face.

Tears began to well up in the child’s large eyes.

“Is there really no way to make their relationship better, Nanny?”

“My lady…”

“The Grand Duke and the Duchess are the only family I have…”

Thick teardrops fell on Bianca’s cheeks as she sobbed.

The nanny immediately picked up the crying child and started comforting her.

“Our young lady has been so heartbroken, haven’t you? I know, this nanny understands your heart completely.”

The nanny comforted Bianca with skillful gestures as always.

She patted the child’s small back and stroked her white forehead, which still had downy hair.

However, this time, the child’s tears wouldn’t easily dry up.

After a long while, the nanny, who finally had a good idea, slowly opened her mouth.

“My lady, I do have a good idea, you see.”

“Yes…?”

Bianca quickly wiped her reddened eyes with the edge of her sleeve and looked up at the nanny.

The nanny smiled softly, looking at the child who brightened her round eyes with curiosity as if she had never cried.

“Actually, I heard a story from the Dark Mansion recently, and that is…”

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Cedric let out a long sigh as he recalled Bianca’s retreating figure.

The sight of that small child leaving with drooping shoulders.

Today alone, it was already the second time he had to face an unpleasant sight one after another, and Cedric was simply troubled.

‘That ‘heart’ you want to regain is no longer here. Because I am no longer… the Rebecca from back then.’

Recalling her last words made his heart feel even more painful.

Of course, he knew that Rebecca no longer loved him.

But hearing that directly from her was more painful than he had thought.

‘This hellish feeling… Rebecca must have felt it thousands, no, tens of thousands of times because of me.’

Thinking that way made this current pain feel somewhat deserved.

At that moment, the doll’s nonchalant voice brushed through Cedric’s mind as he tried to soothe his aching heart.

‘You fool, you can still catch her now if you want to.’

Cedric let out a faint laugh.

‘Back then, I made countless promises to approach Rebecca and comfort her wounded heart, but now I’m getting upset at a single rejection.’

Moreover, it’s not like he didn’t expect Rebecca’s rejection.

Although he couldn’t do it today, he would approach her until his sincerity reached her someday.

A resolution, not quite a determination.

With that, he looked at the Dark Mansion out of habit.

However, in the future, Cedric would bitterly regret this very moment when he had postponed it.

It was right after he found out one early morning that Rebecca had secretly left his castle.