The rain that had been falling since early last evening gradually intensified. By morning, it was pouring down as if a hole had opened up in the sky.

As if a storm was about to hit, Adeline’s eyes opened involuntarily to the sound of the heavy rain beating down.

The window hinges rattled as if overwhelmed by the downpour.

‘I wonder if this house will be alright?’

Even if it had been neglected, wasn’t this still the Duke of Torpeo’s villa?

Just yesterday, she had thought it would be fine even when seeing the falling rain.

‘Surely the Duke of Torpeo’s villa won’t collapse.’

But with the ominous downpour, Adeline began to worry.

Just looking at the windows rattling in the wind made it seem like something was bound to happen.

And not long after, her worries became reality.

With a thunderclap, a flash of lightning struck, followed by the sound of something splitting.

“Wh-what? Oh!”

Adeline approached the window in shock at the tremendous noise and couldn’t hide her astonishment.

The old tree just below the window had been struck by lightning and split in two.

“What’s the matter, Del?”

The Duke rushed over to her, alerted by Adeline’s scream.

She urgently pointed to the window for the Duke.

Beyond the window, half of the split tree slowly began to tilt towards the mansion wall.

It happened in an instant. The fallen tree broke through the window and passed into the mansion.

Without either moving first, Adeline and the Duke’s gazes met in midair.

“…What should we do?”

“My. The window is properly damaged.”

Adeline sighed in disbelief at the current situation.

And it was then, as she was stamping her feet, not knowing what to do.

Once again, the sound of a tremendous noise shook the mansion. This time it was from the room next door, not where they were standing.

“That sound! Isn’t that the study window?”

The two quickly left the bedroom and headed for the study.

Sure enough, the study window was miserably damaged from the impact with the tree.

Glass shards were scattered on the floor, and rain was fiercely pouring in through the open window.

“Goodness.”

Adeline let out a despairing sigh.

However, standing around like this wouldn’t solve anything. As Adeline stepped forward to pick up the glass shards one by one.

The Duke, who had been watching her, approached and stopped Adeline.

“You’ll hurt your hands. I’ll do it, so step back.”

At the Duke’s restraint, Adeline took a step back and looked at the window.

In Adeline’s view, she saw a window barely held by a single broken hinge.

‘How can we repair that?’

Looking at the window that could fall at any moment, Adeline decided to remove the hinge.

As she approached the window, the rain poured in more fiercely, instantly soaking Adeline.

Adeline, undeterred, tried to tear off the hinge with her bare hands.

The Duke, who had almost finished clearing away the glass shards, noticed Adeline’s dangerous action and shouted.

“Del, let’s call a repairman! The rain is too heavy, we can’t do this ourselves.”

“No.”

Adeline said as she tore off the hinge.

“Don’t do that, let’s call a repairman.”

It was when the Duke stood up and grabbed Adeline’s wrist to stop her.

“I said no!”

Adeline violently shook off the Duke’s hand and shouted without realizing it.

If that incident happened at the clothing store, what if a repairman was carelessly called and realized this man was the Duke of Torpeo?

But not knowing Adeline’s thoughts, the Duke couldn’t understand her.

How could the two of them repair this huge house?

“Del! Why are you being so unreasonable…”

It was when the Duke tried to stop Adeline from removing the hinge once again.

“Ah!”

Adeline lost her balance and fell from the window frame.

At the same time, the sharp edge of the twisted part of the hinge tore through Adeline’s palm.

A groan escaped from Adeline. Red blood that had seeped from Adeline’s palm now dripped onto the floor.

“I told you not to do it!”

Seeing the blood flowing down Adeline’s palm, the Duke’s anger boiled over.

He knew she was originally a stubborn woman, but he didn’t know she would be this reckless.

He had been on edge the whole time watching her try to repair while precariously leaning against the window.

And now an accident like this had happened.

“Why are you being so stubborn?! Let me see where you’re hurt.”

The Duke’s brow furrowed deeply as he lifted Adeline’s hand to look at her palm.

“Ha, it’s badly cut. Hoo, wait. I’ll bring some medicine.”

He disappeared with a bang of the door. Only then did Adeline sit down, holding her head.

“Hah…”

Nothing was going right.

She didn’t think she could fix the broken window herself either.

But since they couldn’t call a repairman in the current situation, she had tried to fix it somehow.

‘I didn’t want to get hurt like this either. I’m the one who’s hurt, so why is he angry.’

Just as Adeline’s emotions were welling up, the Duke returned.

He was silently treating Adeline’s hand.

Adeline’s gaze fell on his back.

Throughout the treatment, the study was getting soaked by the heavily falling rain.

“We should block the incoming rainwater…”

At Adeline’s muttered words, the Duke’s gaze shifted.

After looking around the study once, he pointed to a piece of furniture and said.

“For today, let’s block the window with that furniture. It looks easy to move. And tomorrow we’ll call a repairman.”

Adeline gasped when she saw the furniture he was pointing to.

It was the furniture that had been covering the passage connecting to the basement.

“No!”

She couldn’t show the passage leading to the basement. Adeline had no choice but to keep shouting.

“Why not?”

The Duke’s brow furrowed.

His voice sank infinitely low as he questioned the stubborn Adeline.

“No repairman, and not that furniture either.”

Adeline became a person who only repeated that it wasn’t possible.

“Why have you been so stubborn all this time?”

The Duke, not knowing the inside story, couldn’t understand Adeline’s stubbornness.

“Anyway. If it can’t be done, it can’t be done. Just leave it. I’ll take care of the house myself.”

“Ha! Do as you please. I don’t know anymore either.”

At Adeline’s curt and irritated tone, the Duke stood up abruptly.

Then he strode out of the study.

Adeline approached the window and swiftly drew the curtains.

She didn’t want to see the incoming rainwater anymore.

Both her dress clinging wetly and her throbbing palm were nothing but irritating.

Adeline returned to the bedroom, uncomfortable with her damp dress.

Was the villa originally this big? The bedroom alone today was unusually quiet and dark.

It was just as Adeline brought her hand to the zipper on her back to remove her wet dress.

“…Ah!”

A stinging pain surged from her palm.

Perhaps because it had been cut deeper than she thought, it throbbed with every small movement of her hand.

The zipper’s slider kept slipping. She was struggling to take off her wet clothes when it happened.

– Click.

The sound of the bedroom door opening came from behind her.

Had the Duke returned? Adeline was about to lower the zipper when she turned her head at the felt presence.

Not knowing that Adeline was trying to change clothes, he strode into the bedroom.

As if his anger hadn’t fully subsided, he sat down on the sofa with a thump.

No conversation passed between the two.

Adeline, who needed to change clothes, was dumbfounded by him occupying the sofa.

“I need to change clothes, could you step out for a moment?”

Adeline spoke without even looking in the Duke’s direction.

“Why should I leave?”

Perhaps because of the argument they had earlier, or because of some petty spite that had risen, he seemed to have no intention of backing down.

“Then stay as you are.”

At Adeline’s reply, mixed with a low sigh, the Duke stood up.

Perhaps he had realized his own childishness. He walked towards the bedroom door.

‘What on earth am I doing?’

She was already tired from all the rain, and now she felt like she was wasting emotional energy unnecessarily.

While she could understand his feelings, Adeline didn’t have the strength to explain the details.

Moreover, it was even more frustrating because she couldn’t honestly reveal everything in this situation.

It can’t be helped.

Adeline once again began to struggle to lower the zipper of her dress.

It seemed like her hand would reach if she just stretched a little more. But her hand kept slipping.

Moreover, when she tried to force it, her injured hand stung and ached.

“Hah…”

Adeline’s emotions, which she had been suppressing all this time, welled up.

She had thought her life was always difficult, and then she died in a car accident without ever seeing the light of day.

In this life, she thought it would be different from before because she had a father, but her blood relative was indifferent to her.

A daughter who didn’t matter whether she was there or not.

Even when the Crown Prince, who killed every fiancée he had, proposed, Marquis Credion was indifferent.

Adeline had been desperate until she escaped from the Marquis’s house and came to this villa.

She believed that if she could just save the Duke of Torpeo, she would be saved too.

Nothing was going right.

To the point where she wondered if she should have pretended not to know the Duke and not saved him.

Once the floodgates of negative thoughts opened, they deepened endlessly and soon consumed Adeline.

And they kept pulling her into a deep sea.

As Adeline’s eyes were becoming moist, it happened.

“…So stubborn.”

A monotone voice ringing in her ear. As the startled Adeline tried to turn around, she felt a man’s embrace firmly blocking her back.

It seemed that he, who she thought had left, had returned.

He, who had taken over Adeline’s back, grabbed her wrist and pulled it down, then whispered softly in her ear.

“Stay still.”

The Duke’s hot fingers touched Adeline’s nape, her body having cooled from the soaked dress.

“What have you been doing all this time for your body to get so cold?”

“Ah!”

The sudden touch made Adeline shrink back.

“With your hand in that state, how did you think you could lower this?”

He sighed and then slowly began to lower the zipper of Adeline’s dress.

The time it took for that small zipper to come down seemed not just slow, but to have stopped completely.

As the zipper went down past her back to her waist, Adeline’s white skin began to be gradually revealed.

Then, something soft and warm touched Adeline’s half-exposed shoulder.

Feeling the strange sensation, Adeline tried to turn her body with a start.

“What was that just…”

It was just as Adeline was about to say something.

He grabbed Adeline’s slender shoulders with his large hands, then lowered his head and rested his forehead on her shoulder.

The Duke’s hot breath touched and left Adeline’s lower back.

Adeline couldn’t move, feeling a heat rising from somewhere deep inside her body.

“Del.”

At the Duke’s low, growling voice, as if he was spitting it out, Adeline couldn’t say anything.

After a moment of silence, the Duke slowly turned Adeline around.

His eyes came into view at once. Eyes as red as blood, that is.

At that moment, Adeline unconsciously took a step back.

Eyes so red they could create the illusion of burning.

Adeline unconsciously averted her gaze. His eyes, as if Adeline was his entire world. Whenever she saw herself reflected in them, Adeline couldn’t bear it.

The guilt and tension of deceiving him mixed chaotically and tormented Adeline.

“Why are you trying to avoid my gaze this time?”

“I’m not avoiding it.”

Adeline tried to turn away, pretending not to know.

But the Duke’s large hand, reaching out before her, grabbed both of Adeline’s cheeks.

“Then don’t avoid it.”

Along with the low voice vibrating her earlobe, his face approached.