The smile I had been holding back disappeared in an instant.

But that was only for a moment, as Jenald raised his voice indignantly.

“What are you saying? Who said that? There’s no way the engagement certificate could be forged.”

Jenald’s eyes were fixed on the distant clock tower as he frantically made excuses.

Once it was known that the document was fake, Jenald’s actions were all too obvious.

Trust had been shattered.

Jenald was no longer the kind person he had been to me. He was just someone who had approached me to extort money.

Looking at the clock tower was an attempt to confirm that the city hall’s business hours were over.

As if to prove my thoughts, Jenald, having finished checking the time, boldly led me by the hand he had grabbed.

“Let’s go. Let’s go to the city hall right now. I’ll have them verify it for you. That’ll settle it, right?”

I said nothing, and Jenald’s words gained strength.

“This is fake? Forged? Which bastard said such nonsense! How can the city hall not properly verify this? Don’t worry, Latieana. I’ll go right now and…!”

Jenald grabbed my wrist once again, and I forcefully shook off his arm.

“Let go.”

“Latieana…”

“I said let go of this.”

The pain in my wrist from when Hillstain had grabbed it still lingered, and Jenald’s rough grip several times made it unbearably painful. My face, which I had tried to keep composed, crumpled.

Even if Jenald didn’t love me, if he had just the feeling of ‘liking’ me as he said when we got engaged, he would have noticed.

That there was a bandage wrapped around the wrist he had just carelessly grabbed.

But Jenald never once asked about it. Why my hand was bandaged, or what had happened.

He probably didn’t even realize how tightly he had been holding my injured hand.

“Why couldn’t you tell your friends earlier that we were engaged?”

“That’s…”

“It’s because you never thought of me as your fiancée from the beginning, right? Be honest. Is this what you were after from the start?”

As I continued to look at Jenald’s face, pretending to be naive, my patience ran out. My voice rose without my realizing it.

“Damn it.”

Jenald lowered his head and took a deep breath, then ruffled his hair with his rough fingers.

“It’s damn hard to keep up this act.”

When Jenald raised his head again, his expression had completely changed.

“How many times do I have to say it’s not true? Just because your face got a bit prettier, you think you’re all that now?”

With a completely unfamiliar face, Jenald wore a sardonic smile. Then he took a step closer and gripped my shoulder tightly with his right hand. It hurt so much that I involuntarily let out a groan, but I endured it and looked at Jenald.

“Let go of this.”

“What if I don’t want to? What are you going to do? Hit me?”

“Why? You think I can’t?”

I meant it sincerely, but Jenald burst out laughing as if I were ridiculous.

“Fine. Hit me. Hit me and give me the money.”

“What?”

“You’ve saved up some money, right? The castle owner pays well, doesn’t he? Feeling cheated and wronged? Then I’ll let you hit me once, so hand over all the money you’ve saved.”

The real Jenald who revealed himself was no different from a thug.

“Don’t you have any conscience? Shouldn’t you at least apologize for being sorry!”

The transformed Jenald raised one corner of his mouth in a vile smile, as if he no longer had any intention of hiding.

“Hah! Why should I apologize to the likes of you? Latieana. You have no one else but me anyway, right? You’re just a lonely orphan who doesn’t know anyone.”

Was this his true nature? Jenald began to mercilessly stab my heart.

“You should have known better when I was being nice to you. Why did you have to check the documents? Didn’t you trust me that much? You said you wanted to go to another country. I was going to play with you for a while since you got pretty after so long, but then dump you. Why did you have to be so nosy?”

“Are you… done talking?”

“Not yet. You said you’d give me a birthday present. Hand over all the money you’ve saved right now. I’ll send you to another country like you wanted. Old men are lining up to pay a high price for someone like you…”

Before he could finish speaking, I struck Jenald’s cheek hard with my arm that wasn’t being held by the shoulder.

Though lacking in strength, Jenald’s cheek was left with scratches from my nails. I had deliberately hit him with my fingertips raised to leave a mark.

His face swung to the side for a moment, but Jenald quickly straightened up and glared at me.

“Have you lost your mind? I told you to hit me and you actually did? Are you crazy? After all I’ve done for you!”

As Jenald shouted angrily, I glared back at him with wide eyes and spat out my words.

“What have you ever done for me? Besides forging documents to deceive me and trying to extort my money, what have you done? Oh, picking wildflowers for me? Or buying me flowers just now and acting all generous? Or maybe sending letters to ask about my well-being for months while planning to extort money from me? Which of those actions was truly for my sake!”

“You little…!”

As if my words had hit a nerve, Jenald tightened his grip on my shoulder.

That’s when it happened.

“Jenald! What are you doing here!”

A familiar voice came from behind me. Jenald and I turned our heads toward the sound at the same time.

There stood the woman who had been chasing after Jenald in an apron just hours ago.

“Damn it!”

Jenald quickly let go of my shoulder. Then he suddenly pointed his finger at me.

As if to show the woman. Wiping away that vile and cunning dirty trash look, and acting with those puppy dog eyes I had known, he said:

“H-honey! Over here!”

What?

More than the incomprehensible actions of Jenald, the words that came out of his mouth felt like lightning striking my head. It was an even bigger shock than hearing that the engagement certificate was fake or the verbal abuse I had just heard. My hair felt like it was standing on end.

Honey? Who? This woman?

I gaped in disbelief, looking back and forth between Jenald and the woman.

The woman, who had somehow approached right in front of me, stood next to Jenald facing me. Jenald hurriedly added an explanation to the woman who was glaring at me.

“Perfect timing! This woman is the stalker I told you about!”

After treating me like he wanted to kill me just a moment ago, now I’m a stalker?

It was unbelievable, but Jenald’s finger was definitely pointing at me, and the stalker he was referring to was me. I could only laugh in disbelief. In the confusing situation of how to deal with the shock, betrayal, and bewilderment, the woman looked me up and down as I stood there perplexed.

“Is this woman really that stalker? If you’re hiding another affair, I won’t let you off easy this time.”

“A-affair? I told you earlier! This woman just came looking for me out of nowhere. Look! If I was having an affair, would I have been slapped like this? It hurts, honey. I’m hurt.”

“…What? You were slapped?”

As Jenald showed the woman the cheek I had slapped, her eyes instantly turned fierce as she looked at me.

“Who are you?”

“Pardon?”

“What gives you the right to stalk someone else’s husband and even slap him? Do you want me to hit you?”

“…”

No. What is this situation really?

I furrowed my brow in disbelief as I looked at the woman and Jenald who was clinging tightly to her side.

Jenald’s hand was very naturally grasping her abdomen and arm as if embracing her.

I put my hand on my throbbing forehead and asked.

“When you say husband, do you mean Jenald?”

“Is there anyone else here?”

“So… are you saying that you’re married to Jenald?”

“What a shameless woman! Can’t you see? We’ve been married for years now!”

“…How many years?”

“It’s been 3 years this year! 3 years!”

A ringing sound echoed in my ears and my heart pounded wildly.

I’m the one who’s been wronged. The shameless one isn’t me, it’s that bastard Jenald.

Marriage fraud, extorting money, planning to sell me off to old men in another country, and now he’s been married too?

I felt dizzy.

Then what have I been doing for the past few months? Was I deceived by a married man who had a perfectly alive wife? I even sent letters thinking we were engaged and received replies? Me? And now I’ve become a stalker?

For some reason, Edan’s words came back to me at this moment.

‘Come back after breaking off the engagement.’

It wasn’t breaking off an engagement, there was never an engagement in the first place.

My shoulder that had been pressed down by Jenald ached. Below that, my wrist throbbed.

As I felt the pain, the gloomy circumstances I had forgotten came back as a cold reality.

“Hey! Are you listening to me? I’m asking why you, a stalker, made my husband’s face look like this! This is assault. I’ll never forgive you! Get ready to be sued!”

Jenald’s wife was screaming at the top of her lungs right in front of me, but I had lost even the will to answer. Everything just felt resentful. Both Jenald for deceiving me to this extent, and my stupid self for naively believing him.

‘It’s all over now.’

As the situation turned out like this, I involuntarily teared up from anger.

It was humiliating and heartbreaking to be scammed by someone I trusted, but I could just report him as that lowly city employee said.

Nevertheless, irritation and anger welled up to the point where I could barely breathe.

I had been desperate, thinking today might be my last chance, and I had some hope.

That I could finally escape.

But I failed again, spectacularly. In fact, today was the worst.

All the situations where I had failed to escape so many times before, the feelings of fear and terror each time, came rushing back. My wrist that Hillstain had grabbed still ached, and my head was confused by Ivy’s unexpected behavior. The most serious was Edan’s obsessive attitude towards me. In the current situation, Edan will absolutely not let me go.

What do I have to do to stay alive? As my emotions crumbled, I felt trapped in a dark maze with no exit.

Tears that had filled my eyes to the point of blurring my vision fell down my cheeks.

And that’s when it happened. A familiar footstep was heard from behind.

Thud, thud.

Leisurely steps approaching unhurriedly. Yet the shadow reflecting on the ground showed the large build of a man quickly approaching.

I could tell who it was without turning around.

“Why are you making her cry.”

Edan’s long leg rose into the air and mercilessly kicked the bewildered Jenald in the stomach.