He watched the woman in front of him for a while, breathing out a long sigh. Luke’s lips twisted annoyingly.

“It’s me who’s watching, not you. I hope you don’t get confused.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Ariah chuckled and placed her hand on Luke’s chest, raising her upper body.

Luke roughly brushed off the area where her hand had touched. It was a spasmodic attempt to forget the sensation from a moment ago.

Seeing that, Ariah frowned, but soon walked towards the door without saying anything.

Her slender legs, visible outside the skirt, wobbled a few times, like those of a newborn animal. Her hand touched the spotless white wall.

Luke spoke up, “Are you going like this?”

“Of course.”

It was a sharp response.

“I’m sure there’s a story you want to hear, but I have nothing to say.”

“Due to memory loss?”

Ariah, who was slowly advancing, stopped at his words. Her thin back looked pitiful, as if she might collapse at any moment.

“If you lost your memory, what was that just now? Aren’t you the type whose true feelings come out when you’re drunk?”

“…Was it your intention from the beginning?”

Her voice trembled.

“Yes.”

Luke accepted it without hesitation.

However, the moment Ariah turned around, Luke’s eyes wavered.

“Why…”

He unconsciously swallowed the words he was about to say.

Tears welled up in her large blue eyes.

She briefly looked at him with a pale and disgusted face, then opened the door and ran out.

Left alone, Luke stared blankly at the closed door for a while.

He leaned against the sofa a little later. As he raised his head, the aftereffect of the alcohol he had just consumed made his head spin.

Ariah, who had rushed out, couldn’t bring herself to go back to the room where Bonita was sleeping. She headed to the far end of the mansion where the Duke’s room was located.

Since it was originally left empty, there was no one inside. She immediately locked the door and collapsed onto the bed as if she had fallen.

Her bruised wrist throbbed. However, the emotional pain was more unbearable than any physical suffering.

She thought she had endured it well, but she didn’t know why she exploded like that. Perhaps it was because she drank too much. Maybe she was excited about the possibility of Luke wanting to talk to her again and reconcile, and acted foolishly.

She tossed and turned on the bed in the face of the overwhelming regret and sadness. Her vision spun, and she felt nauseous.

Despite the incident caused by alcohol, being in a state of intoxication seemed welcoming. It would have been unbearable when sober.

The fact that Luke used violence against her was a tremendous shock. Initially, she was angry to the core, but now only the wounds remained.
She tried to understand Luke’s perspective. After her death, numerous people imitated her, and she imagined the pain Luke must have gone through because of that.

Moreover, for Luke now, she might not be his beloved wife but rather a suspicious woman who might have abducted and abused his child… No, practically certain.

So his actions are justified. She should be grateful that it only stopped at gripping the wrist of an unknown woman for Luke. However, she thinks rationally.

But.

Humans are not machines. Unless one is a machine, emotions naturally exist, and that is not an area that can be logically explained.

One thing is certain; the current Aria is deeply wounded. For Luke, it may be just gripping the wrist of an unknown woman, but for Aria, it was Elodie.

Even if Luke doesn’t know that fact, the Elodie inside Aria felt no different than being betrayed by a beloved man.

‘Did he deliberately make me drink…?’

Perhaps that’s the case.

She let slip the fact she had been hiding in line with his intentions, and this is the result.

She covered her face with her right arm, and no more tears came out.

‘Lenn and Bonita were special.’

Ordinary people won’t believe such a thing. Maybe even the acknowledgment of Elodie’s existence by those two is due to the special bloodline flowing in the Viscount Rothwell family.

The blood of fairies that always makes a pink-haired child, no matter who marries and gives birth. It’s an intuition.

Aria thought that if she were a person from about a hundred years ago, it might have been easier to reveal her identity. Even if she was cursed and couldn’t directly speak or write, communicating through Bonita or Lenn might have been possible.

Until about a hundred years ago, people didn’t believe in the existence of mysterious souls or demons.

So Luke too…

Having thought that far, Aria realized how meaningless her delusions were.

Even if the times have changed, some people will never notice. Or even if they do, they would deny it. Aria, who was too close to Elodie, would not be believed even more.

Being close also means that it’s easy to imitate. In fact, Aria knew most of Elodie’s daily life.

Thanks to that, taking Bonita away was easy for her.

That too very…

Aria closed her eyes and held her breath. It seemed she wouldn’t be able to return to Bonita’s room tonight.