Interest Compounds on Revenge (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 16
Late at night, Lea came to the church—the very place where her own funeral had been held. Wandering alone on the streets at night was practically suicide, so she sought out the safest place she could find.
Since people came to pray even before dawn, the church doors were never locked, allowing Lea to step inside.
Lea closed her eyes, her hands clasped together.
‘Why did I even leave the Duke’s mansion?’
Her plan had fallen through, and the burning desire for revenge that had filled her chest had vanished like smoke. She should have seized that momentum and gone straight to Galdensia.
‘Would everything truly end if I died alongside Allen?’
Lea began to doubt her own quest for vengeance.
She questioned whether this was truly the revenge she had wanted.
Shouldn’t she expose Allen and his accomplices’ schemes to the world, reveal the truth, and clear the Hamilton Trading Company’s name?
‘Killing Allen is only natural—but what sin has Grace’s body committed?’
She had promised Grace she wouldn’t tarnish her honor.
‘I think I acted too hastily.’
What difference was there between her and a moth blindly flying into a flame? The news that the Hamilton General Store had been sold had robbed her of reason—that was the root of it all.
‘Allen spent years meticulously working to seize the Hamilton Trading Company.’
Yet, for some reason, she had foolishly believed that killing Allen alone would be enough.
Even if Allen vanished from this world, nothing would change. The Hamilton Trading Company would still be branded as a traitorous house.
‘Why don’t you put in any real effort? What good is it to let your emotions run wild?’
Lea felt ashamed of herself. At the very least, before killing Allen, she should have made him understand why he was dying.
If she went to him in Grace’s body and shot him, he would surely die. But even in his final moments, he would neither realize his wrongdoing nor feel remorse.
‘Is this truly the revenge you wanted, Lea Hamilton?’
Lea wept, her hands still clasped together.
‘Father, I miss you.’
Today, more than ever, she missed him to the marrow of her bones—and felt deeply ashamed. Was this really the best she could come up with for revenge? Borrowing a stranger’s body just to fire a gun?
She didn’t even know how to load a bullet—she had simply let rage consume her and acted recklessly.
‘What should I do now?’
Lea felt utterly lost. Her fiery thirst for vengeance boiled over like lava, yet she had no idea what she could actually do.
Worse still, she couldn’t reveal her true identity to anyone.
Tears streamed endlessly from Lea’s eyes.
‘Father, I can’t live without taking revenge on Allen.’
But she had no idea how to carry out that revenge.
Allen was no longer the impoverished nobleman he once was. He had become a wealthy magnate who now controlled the massive MacDowell Trading Company.
How could a woman like her, with nothing to her name, possibly stand against him? She couldn’t see any path forward.
[This is the timeline separator]Terren tapped his fingers lightly on the desk and glanced at the clock.
Just then, the midnight chime rang out.
He immediately stood up, and Luke brought over his cloak to help him into it.
“If the Imperial Court finds out we sabotaged the railway, there’ll be chaos.”
Luke grumbled under his breath.
Yesterday afternoon, Terren had given him an order so absurd that he was still flabbergasted.
Not only had Terren sabotaged the railway to keep Grace from leaving, but he’d also imposed a city-wide curfew in Lebon.
“If the Imperial Court finds out, it’ll just mean you’re incompetent.”
“How could that be?”
Regardless, the consequences of damaging just a few sections of track had been enormous.
For several days, no trains would depart from Lebon Station—and the same went for carriages.
Terren crossed the lobby to board his carriage.
“Do you even know where the young lady is?”
“Obviously.”
He replied curtly and climbed into the carriage.
Watching Terren leave the Duke’s mansion alone in the carriage, Luke shook his head.
“Why not just keep her here?”
But now he finally understood.
He finally grasped the true nature of Terren’s feelings toward Grace.
And he also realized that when it came to the woman he desired, Terren possessed an unimaginably intense obsession and possessiveness.
Just then, James approached Luke.
“Someone like His Grace only struggles at the beginning. Once he awakens to his feelings, he’ll wage love like a war.”
“That’s right. Ever since he threatened to blow up Rafa’s building, I knew something was off.”
Luke felt sorry for Grace.
Did she even realize? That she’d never escape Terren for the rest of her life.
[This is the timeline separator]When the carriage stopped in front of the church, Terren stepped out without hesitation.
The Grace he knew would never spend the night at a hotel or train station.
Of course, the old Grace wouldn’t have even attempted such a reckless act in the first place.
As he entered the church, he spotted a familiar woman’s back.
Why did she look so fragile and small today? Terren slowly walked toward Grace—but stopped after only a few steps.
‘Is she crying?’
Hearing Grace’s heartbroken sobs, his feet felt rooted to the floor.
He couldn’t understand why she’d tried to leave him or why she was weeping with such deep regret.
It was a profound mystery. It seemed Grace was hiding something.
And his original suspicion surged back to the surface, tearing through his insides.
Was this truly the woman he knew? Or had another soul taken over Grace’s body, turning her into an entirely different person? It sounded absurd—but was it truly impossible?
In truth, he’d cast aside such torment when he’d gone to meet Aiden. He’d decided then to accept her exactly as she was.
He’d intended to make it clear that if he ever saw Grace again, leaving him wouldn’t be so easy.
But seeing her sorrow now made his own heart ache too much to approach her recklessly.
‘This is truly difficult.’
Watching a woman cry—especially the woman he loved—was almost unbearable.
He sat beside Grace and silently watched her for a while.
Lea didn’t believe in God. But in this moment, she desperately wished for someone—anyone—to show her the way.
She lifted her head and gazed at the cross.
Just then, she felt someone’s gaze beside her and quickly turned her head.
“Terren!”
How did he even know she was here?
Lea stared at him in shock, and Terren fixed his eyes firmly on her.
He hadn’t planned to leave her while she cried—but tear-streaked Grace looked as pure and delicate as a flower drenched in rain.
Her weeping face shone so brightly it pierced straight through his heart.
In that instant, his last thread of rationality snapped. Terren cupped Grace’s face and kissed her.
“!?”
Lea struggled desperately to pull away from Terren in surprise.
The more she resisted his kiss, the more trapped she felt, unable to move.
Instead, without even realizing it, she surrendered and slowly closed her eyes to the warmth of his lips.
His kiss felt warm and comforting—as if reaching out a hand to her in utter despair—and gave her immense relief.
Grace’s tears seeped between their softly meeting lips.
When she slightly parted her lips, a surge of fiery passion overwhelmed them. It was an intense, desperate kiss.
His hand caressed Grace’s abundant golden hair, and she placed both hands on Terren’s broad shoulders.
Terren then pulled her closer, ensuring she couldn’t pull away from him.
After the sudden, reasonless kiss ended, they both remained with their eyes closed, quietly savoring its lingering warmth.
Finally, Lea spoke first.
“I hate it when you force yourself on me like this.”
“If it displeased you, I’m sorry. I only wanted to comfort Grace.”
“But that’s…!”
Lea instantly regretted it. She’d been so exhausted and overwhelmed that she’d leaned on him without thinking.
“How did you know I’d be here?”
“Do you really think the Duke wouldn’t know what’s happening in Lebon City?”
Terren avoided giving a direct answer.
‘You trying to leave my side, Grace—that’s simply unthinkable.’
“I see.”
Terren extended his hand toward Grace, who looked as if she might crumble at any moment. He had no intention of revealing the truth of today’s events to her himself.
“We should go back.”
“But I told you I’d….”
She’d demanded their engagement be broken and declared she would leave. Was he really acting as if nothing had happened?
“That was your unilateral demand. I never agreed to break off our engagement.”
“But you told me to go when I said I’d leave!”
“You didn’t leave, did you?”
“There were circumstances.”
“Grace, it seems we have something serious to discuss, don’t we?”
“I’m not worthy of being your fiancée.”
That much was true. Terren knew nothing about the incredible truth that had happened to her.
“Let me ask you this instead—am I worthy of being your fiancé? Of course I am.”
He gave her no room to answer. In that moment, Lea’s eyes sparkled. This man asked a question and then immediately provided the answer himself.
When she’d demanded their engagement be broken, he’d been astonishingly calm—even going so far as to offer her his carriage and telling her to take the train.
At the time, she’d found it strange yet convenient—too convenient, in fact. But the coincidences seemed too contrived to be mere chance.
The train never came, and Lebon City was locked down—as if some farmer were deliberately trapping them to keep them from escaping.
If today’s events were part of someone’s meticulous plan, that person would need tremendous influence.
Someone like Terren Courtois, the First Duke of Rubec, perhaps.
Could it be that he was behind halting all trains and carriages today?
The question was posed, but the answer was already clear. Terren took Grace’s hand, led her out of the church, and helped her into the carriage.
“Was it you? Stopping the trains and locking down Lebon City?”
“Yes.”
“Good heavens!”
She’d never imagined such a thing back then. The fact that he’d halted an entire city just to keep her from leaving left her stunned.
Only now did she finally realize—she was nothing more than a small bird trapped in Terren’s gilded cage.
“Why go to such lengths?”
“Because your intentions were wrong.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you realize it yourself? From the very beginning, both your resolve and your methods were completely mistaken.”
Lea held her breath for a moment. It felt as if Terren had looked straight into her soul.
His next words stripped away the last shred of pride she had left.
“If you’d truly been desperate to leave, you should’ve come back to me and asked for help. The fact that you clung to your pride means you weren’t truly desperate.”
Terren’s words were neither entirely right nor entirely wrong.
If she’d truly been determined to put a bullet in Allen’s head, she should’ve gone to Terren—not to the church—and asked for his help.
She should’ve told him she absolutely needed to get to Galdensia and begged him to assist her.
But she’d lost faith in her own plan before even trying.
Terren didn’t understand—people rarely act so simply.
“Whatever you dream of and whatever you do must all happen within me.”
Terren spoke sternly, as if issuing a warning, and said no more.
Lea asked him nothing else for the rest of the carriage ride back to the Duke’s mansion.
When the carriage finally stopped in front of the main building, Terren looked at Grace with eyes that had changed completely.
His hand cupped her face.
“If there’s anything you want, I’ll grant it. No—I’ll even become your strength. But remember one thing.”
“What is it?”
“I will not break off my engagement to Grace Bizac. In fact, we’ll marry very soon. And….”
“!?”
“There must be no other man in your heart but me.”
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
I don’t understand, if she is trying to save the twins, why is she putting a gun to her head? She needs to be alive for the twins to survive.
This is sounding less like a punishment and more like a privilege.
Sometimes this novel’s inability to reflect anything close to realism frustrates me. Let’s reward arson and attempted murder! (Can’t help but point out the lack of creativity with Mr. Baker’s name.)