There Is No Paradise Where I Ran Away To (14 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 29

The Duke left Rodinia and headed for Perrington. Though merely knowing he wasn’t at the mansion made her feel free, Vivian tossed and turned in the dark, unable to sleep.

Behind her tightly shut eyelids, in that inner darkness, flashed Sir Corbin’s face from a few days ago. At that, Vivian slowly opened her eyes, which she’d been forcing shut in an attempt to fall asleep.

“Sir… Corbin? It feels like I’ve heard that name somewhere before…”

She couldn’t clearly recall whether his appearance had seemed familiar—only his thick beard remained in her memory, thanks to her nervousness and trembling at the time. She couldn’t remember anything: not the shape of his eyes when he’d bowed to her, nor his nose, nor his lips hidden beneath that beard.

“Corbin, Corbin…”

She repeated his surname, trying to dredge up deeply buried memories, but nothing surfaced.

Eventually, Vivian got out of bed and walked to the window. Through the door Sophie had flung wide open came the cool breeze of an early summer night.

Knowing this joy wouldn’t last long, she consoled herself by thinking her sleeplessness tonight was simply so she could savor this fleeting pleasure.

Vivian hoisted both legs up onto the windowsill and sat down. The height, glimpsed briefly downward, made her dizzy. She quickly averted her gaze and looked toward the horizon, seemingly endless.

From that pitch-black horizon, the sun didn’t seem likely to rise at all. Trapped in the suffocating gloom, she felt she could never escape—and her chest tightened with longing for Lake Lanua.

Vivian pulled her legs tightly to her chest and buried her face in them.

Father, you’re still alive, right?

She hoped for an answer to her question.

Mother, have you read my letter?

She wished, even for a faint glimmer of hope.

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