“What do you mean we wouldn’t be here if you only cared about the family? What does that mean?”

Jane’s eyes shot upward.

Cain was seething inside at Jane ignoring his words. Meanwhile, Jane’s heart turned ice cold.

When their gazes met, sparks flew. It was due to their emotional temperatures being polar opposites.

The atmosphere became tumultuous, as if ice had been dropped into boiling oil.

“Jane, why are you wasting that good brain of yours?”

Cain thrust his face right in front of Jane’s nose.

A heavy scent reminiscent of a forest after rain tickled her nose.

With their noses nearly touching, Cain tilted his head slightly to the left.

As Jane lowered her eyes as if avoiding his blatant gaze, Cain opened his mouth.

“Was it really helpful for the family for you and Joseph to use the Hastings name? Think about it, Jane.”

Though a suggestion, his tone was arrogant enough to sound like an order.

“I’ll think about it, so move aside.”

An icy gaze swept across her face as if licking it.

“Shall I give you a hint?”

Cain grabbed Jane’s chin. The spot he touched felt burning hot, causing Jane to raise her eyes.

Cain’s handsome face was reflected in her emerald-like green eyes.

Though his expression hadn’t changed, Jane could tell.

He was angry.

It was the first time seeing him angry this close. Jane was dumbfounded. She was the one who should be angry.

He had arbitrarily canceled Jane and Joseph’s plans, treating their existence like baggage.

She wanted to harshly slap away the hand holding her chin and hurl cutting words at him, but she couldn’t.

Because what he said about Jane, if not Joseph, was true.

She was not helpful to the Hastings. Recalling that fact, her anger subsided. Jane lost the will to fight with him.

“I’m sorry. I overstepped my bounds.”

“Is that all?”

Cain’s spear-like gaze held Jane’s eyes.

“What else is there to say? It’s true that I’m a troublemaker for the Hastings. But Joseph isn’t. Please don’t do this to the child.”

One of Cain’s eyebrows raised. He let go of Jane’s chin and stood up.

He looked down at Jane with one hand on his waist.

A suffocating silence passed.

“Speak.”

It was an authoritative command. Jane turned her head away.

“What did you hear and where?”

Jane sighed. If she didn’t speak, he absolutely wouldn’t leave tonight.

Since long ago, Cain never held back his curiosity about Jane.

‘Or rather, he can’t hold back.’

Still, she didn’t want to speak.

Jane deliberately ignored him, counting the patterns woven into the carpet on the floor.

“I’ll have to wake up all the servants then.”

Jane suddenly raised her head.

“What are you going to do?”

“Since you won’t speak directly, I’ll have to make them talk. About what they’ve been gossiping in front of you.”

“Cain, it’s the middle of the night.”

Jane rushed to stop him from pulling the bell cord. Jane grabbed Cain’s wrist. No, Cain allowed himself to be grabbed.

He had given Jane a chance to speak. Jane bit her lower lip.

“Do you want to split your lip? I can do it for you right now.”

Cain cupped Jane’s cheek. At his words forecasting a violent kiss, Jane released her bitten lip. And she painfully opened her mouth.

“I heard the Rose Faction has been gossiping about me and the Hastings.”

“Skip the unnecessary details.”

“…I heard His Majesty is pressuring you.”

She wanted to speak as rationally as possible. But her voice kept trembling. Jane grasped her right arm with her left hand.

“You’re worried about me.”

“I know. It’s presumptuous concern.”

Jane spoke in Cain’s place, anticipating his response. It was a kind of defense mechanism to avoid getting hurt.

“So you were going to the zoo? To meet His Majesty who’s pressuring me?”

Jane nodded.

“And then?”

“Pardon?”

“What were you going to do after meeting him? For my sake.”

Jane blinked. The conversation was flowing differently than she had expected.

Cain waited for Jane’s answer with his arms crossed.

Jane keenly observed Cain. His eyes, which had been like eternal snow, took on their own temperature.

But he didn’t seem likely to grant her a reprieve from answering.

“…I was going to beg.”

“…”

Cain stared at Jane with an indescribable expression.

“Don’t.”

After a long while, he spoke as if throwing the words, and wrapped his arms around Jane’s shoulders, pulling her in. Jane resisted, not wanting to go to him, but it was futile.

Jane rested her forehead against his chest, as solid as a castle wall.

“You are a Hastings.”

“…But you said I’m not helpful to the family.”

“That…”

Cain’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down greatly.

“Is true.”

He couldn’t lie. It’s certain that Jane’s existence, her family, is a burden to the Hastings.

But there isn’t just one truth. If one wishes, new truths can be created.

“From now on, it will be different.”

Cain’s large hand cradled the back of Jane’s head.

“You’re saying difficult things today. A person who hates being asked twice, why do you keep making me ask? What does it mean?”

Cain’s hand that had been stroking the back of Jane’s head moved down to her shoulders, then her back. And he took her arm resting at her side and placed it on his back.

Jane hugged him, pretending to give in.

“I don’t know either. It’s a thought that just came to me.”

When you said you would kneel for me, I remembered the time I knelt for you.

How ironic that even the other person is the same.

The wretchedness from back then still flows in my blood.

I don’t want you to feel the same as I did.

But only up to that point.

Cain didn’t want to think any further than that.

Right now, satisfying his already clear desire was more urgent than clarifying his thoughts shrouded in fog.

“Can you feel it?”

Cain pressed his body tightly against Jane’s.

“This is what we should be doing now.”

Cain whispered in Jane’s ear. Jane’s body hair stood on end.

* * *

Jane opened her eyes to the sunlight flickering across her face. And she was startled to see the arm heavily resting on her stomach.

Cain was still beside her in the morning!

Though she had already experienced this at the Delfion Hotel, it was her first time greeting the morning with him at Somnium House, and in the Duchess’s room at that.

Moreover, they had a severe argument last night. And there were still unresolved issues between them.

But right now, there was something she wanted to do before dwelling on that.

Jane turned to her side to gaze at the defenseless sleeping Cain.

Would she have another chance to see him sleeping?

Even if there were, it wouldn’t be many. Thinking she should take advantage of this opportunity, Jane openly admired him.

Deeply asleep, he made breathing sounds that didn’t match his usual image.

Snore, snore, wheeze.

Jane couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

At that, the light-sleeping Cain stirred.

Jane held her breath, and only relaxed when his slightly furrowed brow smoothed out.

And she continued to observe.

His pretty lips that didn’t match his harsh words, his clean white cheeks that made her want to draw on them.

Jane gently raised her hand towards Cain’s cheek, then stopped just before touching.

The moment her hand made contact, Cain would wake up.

Jane hoped he would sleep soundly. She had heard he hadn’t been sleeping well lately due to being busy.

Come to think of it, perhaps him staying by her side until morning wasn’t his intention, but an unavoidable circumstance.

‘Did he pass out?’

Jane erased the thought that had suddenly occurred to her.

Whatever the reason, it was fine as long as he could rest.

As she gazed at him, the hurt feelings from last night, the unresolved resentment, gradually melted away.

Is this why they say married couples’ fights are like cutting water with a knife?

Though nothing had been clearly resolved, she didn’t want to raise her voice at him.

There was just one thing she wanted to ask.

His feelings towards Joseph.

Cain had said that neither Jane nor Joseph were helpful to the Hastings.

Even if that was true for her, it was unfair to say that about Joseph, his son.

Did he truly love Joseph?

“…It’s hot.”

A low voice broke Jane’s reverie. Cain’s eyes twitched as if about to open.

“Shall I close the curtains?”

Is the sunlight hot?

As Jane tried to get off the bed, Cain grabbed her wrist.

To grab her hand without missing once, without even opening his eyes – should she call it impressive?

“You instead of the curtains.”

Before she could ask what he meant, Cain lifted Jane’s body and sat her on his waist.

Her long red hair cascaded down beside Cain’s face, creating a shadow.

“That’s perfect.”

Cain’s lips stretched into a horizontal line. Muttering with a faint smile, he was drifting back to sleep.

Suddenly, Jane had a vague thought that she might be able to hear the truth now.

“Cain.”

“Mm.”

Cain responded with a rumble in his throat.

“Who is Joseph’s birth mother?”

Cain opened his eyes. His pupils were clear, as if he had never been asleep in the first place.

“Why do you ask that?”

The conversation paused for a moment.

Jane realized in that instant that she had made a mistake.

She suspected that Joseph’s mother’s identity could be Cain’s sore spot.

Her mood soured to an indescribable degree.

No, Jane disliked herself for getting in a bad mood. And for her lips that had opened on their own.

“Did you love Joseph’s mother?”