“You couldn’t have forgotten, could you? He’s your savior, the one who saved your life, Duke. Joseph’s father, Arthur! He will be watching over you from heaven.”

Jeksi clasped her hands tightly together. And she tilted her head back, revealing her neck line, to gaze at the ceiling.

As if longing for Joseph’s deceased birth father, her eyes looked quite pitiful, but it was all an act.

Cain saw through her act.

“Cut out the despicable act.”

Jeksi laughed and unclasped her hands. She brushed her hair back and turned to look at Cain. Then she smirked.

“Was it obvious? Anyway, I can never deceive you, Duke. Try to be fooled, even if forcibly. You have to.”

Jeksi narrowed the distance between her and Cain. She stopped just a span away from him and placed her hand on Cain’s chest.

Cain’s eyebrows twitched.

“Then you’ll be less stressed. We have to live as a married couple from now on.”

“Married couple?”

Cain was dumbfounded. It was so absurd that laughter almost burst out. Cain shook his head and grabbed Jeksi’s wrist.

In an instant, he twisted her arm behind her back and pressed the back of her hand against her back, as if subduing a criminal.

“Ack!”

Jeksi screamed and bent her waist sharply.

“Let go, ugh, let go, I said!”

Jeksi hit Cain’s thigh with her free hand. The more she did so, the more force Cain applied to the hand gripping her wrist.

“Jeksi, you must not distort his will. What he asked for was support for a comfortable life for you and Joseph. I have provided that support more than enough.”

“Ugh, let go and say it, my arm will break!”

The back of Jeksi’s neck turned bright red.

“I’m dying! Please!”

She writhed in pain at even a small discomfort. It was a pain that was not even a fraction of what Joseph’s birth father had endured.

It was indeed unpleasant. Cain shook off his hand as if Jeksi were trash.

Unable to withstand the force, Jeksi crumpled forward and buried her face in the sofa.

“Ugh.”

For a while, she only let out agonizing groans while rubbing her face against the sofa. Disgusted even by that sound, Cain took out a cigar. Soon, smoke rose from the end of the cigar.

Cain ridiculed the ornament sticking out between her pockets and gave her time to catch her breath.

He didn’t want to deal with Jeksi, but he exercised patience to drive her out as soon as possible, even for a minute or a second.

She was a bug-like woman. She was worlds apart from Jane.

Every time he dealt with Jeksi, he felt like his own blood was rushing in reverse, so how would Jane have felt?

Thinking about how rudely Jeksi must have behaved, he reached the point of praying for her gender to change.

If she were a man… you wouldn’t have to hold back, right?

It was when Cain was making tsk, tsk sounds with his fingers.

Jeksi, who had barely caught her breath, lifted her upper body. She stared at Cain, who was smoking a cigar, and then sat on the sofa.

“Give me one too.”

“I don’t have any cigars to give you.”

“You’re so stingy to the child’s mother. The house is nice. Why did you run away from such a nice house 6 years ago?”

Cain let out a hollow laugh. He held the cigar between his fingers.

“What are you trying to do? Why did you come here?”

“I came to find my place.”

Jeksi tapped the crumpled hem of her dress with her hand. She seemed to be trying to remove the wrinkles, but it only made dust fly off.

Cain’s face crumpled.

“Your place… Are you referring to that place?”

Cain pointed to the ceiling with the hand holding the cigar. The ash fell, unable to withstand the weight.

Cain thought, if only the falling ash were Jeksi’s neck.

“I do want to kill you, but you’re not worth dirtying my hands for. So just get out now.”

“You owe Arthur a debt, Duke! You have to pay that debt to me at least, don’t you?”

Cain’s eyes changed in an instant. Jeksi’s breath was caught in her throat by the overwhelming force he exuded.

“How dare you utter his name with your mouth? How dare you?”

Deep wrinkles formed between Cain’s eyebrows. His eyes shone darkly. It was an aggressive light, as if he would tear out the prey’s neck at any moment.

“Di- did I say something I shouldn’t have? I was just calling the child’s father’s name…”

Cain approached Jeksi without a sound. And he roughly pulled her hand.

Jeksi, who was forced to stand up from the sofa regardless of her will, was dragged all the way to the door. This too happened regardless of her will.

Jeksi, who was arrogant but had a sense of the situation, did not resist. If she opened her mouth wrong now, she might die. An emergency bell kept ringing in her head.

Only when he reached the door did Cain let go of Jeksi’s hand. A red handprint was left on Jeksi’s wrist.

“Don’t come near me. Next time, it won’t end with a warning.”

His glaring eyes were full of murderous intent. Goosebumps rose all over Jeksi’s body.

Jeksi recalled Arthur’s words.

Arthur was wrong. Cain was not a good person.

‘What an idiot.’

Arthur was a man with no eye for people. A man who was of no help to her even in death.

Cain opened the door. Nathan was outside in the wide open corridor.

“Throw it away.”

Not sending off, not even telling him to kick her out, but to throw her away?

Jeksi’s mouth fell open.

That one phrase contained everything about how Cain thought of her.

To Cain, Jeksi was trash.

* * *

As soon as he entered the office, Nathan waved his hands. The office was filled with cigar smoke.

Cain was sitting on the sofa, smoking cigars intensely.

“I’m back.”

Nathan deliberately stomped his feet loudly toward the window, as Cain seemed so focused that he couldn’t even sense his presence.

As he opened all the windows, the view gradually became clearer.

“Where did you throw her away?”

Cain took the cigar from his mouth and put it out. He rested his elbows on his knees and ran his dry hand over his face.

“I dropped her off downtown. She was causing a scene.”

Cain clicked his tongue, dissatisfied. If possible, he wanted to get rid of her outside the capital, preferably out of this kingdom, but it was impossible.

Because of the request of her husband, Joseph’s birth father, and as Jeksi said, his life savior, Arthur.

“What about Jane?”

Cain rested his forearm on his forehead and leaned his head against the sofa. As his neck bent back, his Adam’s apple protruded.

“She’s in the bedroom. Shall I bring her here?”

“Her condition?”

“I asked Hayley on the way, as a matter of fact. She said she appears calm on the outside.”

“On the outside?”

“Yes. On the outside. But she didn’t have dinner either.”

“Haa…”

Cain let out a deep sigh. She had a weak body. On top of that, she worked a lot and always lacked stamina, but to even skip meals.

“Prepare some light snacks. Something easy to digest.”

“Understood.”

As Nathan went down to the kitchen to get food, Cain blankly stared at the ceiling with his hands on his thighs.

I should tell her today.

About Joseph’s birth parents.

Where do I start and how do I say it for you to understand me?

What if you’re disappointed after hearing my story?

Before revealing the truth about the incident 7 years ago, I need to score a lot of points with Jane, but I only lost.

Damn it.

Cain cursed inwardly and got up abruptly. If the inside was a mess, at least the outside should look intact.

Cain rubbed his prickly chin and headed to the bathroom. Taking a bath was the answer to getting rid of the stale cigar smell.

* * *

“Jane.”

“Come in.”

Jane, who had been told that Cain would visit in the evening, had been waiting for him all this time.

While waiting, Jane’s emotions fluctuated.

She was angry at Cain for meeting a woman like Jeksi, resentful of him for allowing her to come here, and confused by her own feelings being shaken by this incident.

And as time passed, she became more and more curious about Cain’s inner thoughts. She wanted to thoroughly dig into his past.

So as soon as he called, she answered as if she had been waiting.

The door opened and Cain entered, pushing a tray with a food tray on it.

Jane alternately looked at the tray and Cain.

“I heard you didn’t have dinner.”

“I didn’t think about it.”

“I didn’t eat either. Let’s eat together.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Don’t act like a child, Jane.”

Jane’s eyebrows lifted.

“Are you criticizing me now? You?”

“Jane, that’s not what I meant… Let’s eat first and then talk.”

Cain didn’t want to fight with Jane.

Hayley hadn’t noticed yet, but Jane’s condition was clearly visible to his eyes.

Jane’s condition was a mess.

Red, bloodshot eyes, lips that looked like they had been chewed several times to the point of bursting with red blood, caught his eye in turn.

Jane turned her head away from Cain’s gaze. She hated the sight of him dressed up nicely in the evening.

By the way, why was he dressed up? As if he was going out somewhere right away, or as if there was someone in the house he wanted to look good for.

Was he going out with that woman named Jeksi?

Jane’s insides burned more and more.

“Jane, please eat.”

Cain, who had placed the food on the table at some point, pulled her hand.

“I said I wasn’t thinking about it. I want to know about Joseph’s birth mother.”

“If there’s something you’re curious about, I’ll tell you. Eat first.”

Cain forcibly put a spoon in Jane’s hand. Jane glared at Cain for a moment and then stirred the soup.

Cain also ate across from Jane. A strange tension hung over the couple’s first meal together in days.

“I finished a bowl. Now tell me.”

Seeing the plate of pea soup that had been cleanly emptied, Cain rinsed his mouth with water.

“Before talking about Jeksi, let me tell you about Joseph’s birth father. Joseph’s birth father is Arthur Fan. He was the spiritual pillar of the Rose faction.”

“…!”

A big ripple arose in Jane’s pupils.