They didn’t exchange a single word for a while after getting in the car.

Ansi swallowed a breath that was stiff with tension. It took several more days for Damion to be released even after finding a witness and securing their testimony. It was due to the time taken for the police investigation.

Ansi examined Damion’s face. The man was staring out the window with indifference. His face, which used to be filled with a playful and relaxed light, was now filled with a quiet darkness.

Ansi knew very well that it was because of her.

So she couldn’t bring herself to speak.

She knew that Damion wouldn’t be pleased with her coming to find him at the police station either.

Even though she thought it was a selfish decision, she came here because she felt like she had to see his face.

They arrived at the mansion and climbed the stairs together. Ansi, who hadn’t said a word until then, finally broke the silence and opened her mouth when they reached the front of the master bedroom on the second floor.

“Make sure to… eat your meals.”

She said those words because it seemed like she wouldn’t be facing him like this for a while, until whenever Damion wanted to. She couldn’t bring herself to look into his eyes, so she stared at the edge of the floor.

“They said they made a lot of your favorite foods. Sleep well, and put ointment on your lips…”

“Ansi.”

Damion cut off Ansi’s words. He reached out his hand. Rough fingers touched her soft chin. He lifted Ansi’s face.

“You should look at me and talk. Like you always do.”

“…”

Ansi shuddered at the chill conveyed in his low voice. Damion’s violet eyes were sunken deep.

Since when did looking into his eyes become such a difficult task?

The man’s eyes, which resembled the night sky, enveloped Ansi as if they were a huge net. His composed gaze strangely strangled her entire body.

Ansi wanted to escape from it. She didn’t know if she wanted to run away from the man altogether, or if she wanted to fall into his arms instead.

“…I’ll tell Elma about the ointment. She’ll bring it to you.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll go to the room I used to stay in. Or… to my mother’s house…”

Ansi trailed off. Both this house and that house were places Damion had prepared. She suddenly realized that the entire environment she had been living in as a matter of course was all arranged by him.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful not to catch your eye.”

In the end, this was all Ansi could come up with. To say that she would hide herself well, out of his sight, in his space.

However, what Damion wanted was different from Ansi’s expectations.

“Come in.”

Damion said as he opened the door.

Ansi stared at Damion blankly. Her round eyes were filled with questions about whether he really meant for them to enter the same room.

She didn’t understand Damion’s decision. How could he say he would enter the same room as her now?

Nevertheless, a faint hope rose in Ansi’s heart. Even though she thought she was brazen and pathetic, the realm of emotions was something she couldn’t block with her will.

As Ansi stood there in a daze, Damion pulled her in. Ansi staggered inside. At the same time, the door slammed shut.

“Ansi.”

Damion’s voice rang out in the quiet room. In their own space, separated from the outside, Damion held Ansi’s shoulders and bent down to meet her eyes.

Then he spoke firmly.

“Say it’s not true. Say it was a misunderstanding, that you didn’t know.”

“…”

Ansi felt her heart sinking. Her eyes trembled.

“Say that you really wanted to spend time with me at that hotel. But you don’t know why this happened.”

“…Damion.”

“Hmm? Ansi. If you say that, I’ll unconditionally believe you.”

“I…”

Ansi’s lips quivered.

How futile a thing belief was.

Ansi had deceived Damion, who believed in her, and lured him to that hotel.

Damion already knew that fact, and he must have been devastated in the face of the clear truth that Ansi had betrayed him and led him into a trap once again.

Even so, what was the point of lying now and saying she didn’t know anything?

She had been deceiving Damion all this time. In the end, it was always Damion who got hurt.

It was the same now. Saying she didn’t know to get through this moment was no different than covering a festering wound with a damp sheet.

Eventually, Ansi opened her mouth. Looking at herself trapped in the man’s eyes, unable to go anywhere, she said,

“I knew. That Damion would fall into a trap.”

“…”

“I’m sorry for deceiving you. I didn’t know it would be to that extent…”

Damion let out a hollow laugh.

Ansi’s eyelids trembled at the contemptuous laughter.

It was simply ridiculous and infuriating to Damion that the woman, who was always confident in everything, was shaken by such a trivial reaction. Suppressing the anger that spilled out with the laughter, he grabbed Ansi’s shoulders tightly.

Ansi let out a small moan. Her brows furrowed in pain.

“Why?”

The suppressed emotions resulted in a single question.

Damion had thought and thought inside the prison.

About why Ansi had called him out with such a lie.

If there was a plausible excuse, he could understand her. No, he truly wanted to understand her. So Damion was curious. What on earth did she want to achieve by making him out to be the man who killed his sister-in-law?

And the name that came out of Ansi’s mouth was, as expected, his brother.

“…Kardian said he would give me what I wanted.”

“What do you want?”

“I can’t say.”

“Don’t mess with me, Ansi.”

Damion twisted his lips.

A terrible sense of betrayal took hold of him. It was infuriating that the woman kept her mouth shut until the end, even in this situation. The line Ansi had drawn in front of him was something he could neither erase nor cross.

The conclusion Damion had reached about why Ansi had betrayed him filled his mind again.

Her words about forgetting revenge for the time being were all lies. Her words about finding the purpose of life in each other were also purely to reassure Damion. She had merely used Damion to get close to Kardian.

What did Kardian promise to give her? Once Bekishi and Damion were dealt with, would he give Ansi any rights to Orpheus?

So, was that what she wanted to grab and complete her revenge?

“I’m sorry.”

Ansi apologized again.

Damion couldn’t find those words more terrible.

A woman who clawed at his heart while pretending to be honest, yet didn’t show the most important thing.

He wanted to chew up and swallow her voice. He wanted to tightly grasp and shatter her stubbornly and blankly shining blue eyes.

Damion loosened his grip on Ansi’s shoulders. Instead, one hand went to her waist and the other to the back of her neck.

Ansi trembled at the man’s touch that brushed past her slender neck. A strange sensation mixed with ticklishness and chills penetrated her body.

Damion lowered his eyes and tilted his head diagonally. At a distance where their breaths touched, he asked,

“Ansi, do you know what was the hardest part for me inside the prison bars?”

“…No.”

“It was that you weren’t there. My purpose in life is still you, Ansi.”

It could have sounded sweet in some way, but not now. Perhaps it was because of his chilling tone, or because of the man’s grip that held her in place, unable to move anywhere.

But Ansi was sad. His loneliness and despair alone in there, and his unusual expression and tone now, all made her sad.

Tears welled up in her eyes. Even that seemed like deceiving him, so Ansi tried hard to hold back her tears and said,

“I’m sorry. I…”

“Don’t say you’re sorry, please.”

A low, grating voice came out like a growl. The emotions swirling inside finally tore through him.

“You don’t need to use another room or house. I’ll have to keep seeing you. Just as you freely sold me out, I’ll have to freely keep you here.”

Damion’s face was contorted the entire time he spoke.

With a face full of agony and pain, he kissed Ansi.

Her scent entered deep into his lungs. Hot breaths intertwined. Rough and persistent friction continued between the heated, desperate breaths.

Ansi’s hands grabbed and clung to Damion’s shoulders. That contact stimulated him, and Damion drove into her even more.

He resented this woman so much.

But he missed her. He wanted her. What Damion wanted was for them to be together, wherever they were. If he was with her, he didn’t mind being inside the dark prison bars. He could accept being in a foreign country no one knew about.

So Damion had no intention of leaving Ansi alone anymore. If she had to die at the end of that revenge, or if she had to abandon Damion. If their paths diverged as a result, Damion was determined to willingly cut off Ansi’s path.

From now on, she had to exist by Damion’s side.

Even if Ansi didn’t want that.