For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 21
Lavelier approached menacingly, brandishing the cane stained with the blood and flesh of my childhood.
“Why don’t you take the beating for your master again this time? Your master seems to cherish you dearly.”
Seeing my trembling eyes, Lavelier shot a sinister smile at Declan.
Fwick—.
Even so, she swung the cane relentlessly. My shoulders flinched reflexively every time the thin rod cut through the air.
As Lavelier took a step closer, Declan, who was hidden behind my back, tried to move forward.
“No.”
I tightened my grip on his arm to stop him, and he gazed at me with a resolute look. His red eyes, which I met for a moment, were deeply sunken.
“It’s okay. I’m more used to being beaten.”
It wasn’t the innocent, childlike face he only showed in front of me, but the expressionless face he had when he first came to this house. Declan slowly rolled up his pants to reveal his calves.
There, scars I hadn’t known about were densely packed. Long scars, as if slashed randomly with a cutter knife.
‘So that’s why he’s used to being beaten….’
Facing the cane that had drenched me in sudden fear, I was honestly grateful that Declan was blocking me. I wished he would take the beating in my place.
That was what my heart was truly saying.
When that cane was swung, when it missed its mark, the fear remembered from experience came vividly back to engulf me.
That’s why I couldn’t easily stop Declan from stepping forward.
But seeing his calves, so filled with scars that it was hard to find unblemished skin, I realized how shameful my thoughts were.
…I realized.
With that, I mustered the courage to step in front of Lavelier’s cane.
“Declan. Stay out of this.”
“What a tearful love story.”
Lavelier swung the cane fiercely, and without blinking an eye, I raised my hand to catch it in my palm.
“…You!”
A cane so slow… I had feared it my whole life. This thin, insignificant stick.
“Hah.”
It felt like something that had been stuck inside me burst open.
Old emotions that had been dammed up for a lifetime flowed out like a waterfall the moment a small stone was dislodged.
The suffocating feeling that rose to my throat made me laugh.
“What’s so scary about this….”
When Lavelier pulled with all her might to retrieve the cane from my grip, I let it go.
Lavelier, unable to overcome her own force, fell, and I burst into laughter at her pathetic state. Truly, you were an insignificant human being.
“Why don’t you stop here, Lavelier?”
“You….”
As Lavelier, who had fallen awkwardly to the floor, gritted her teeth and tried to get up, I stepped on the hem of her dress.
Thud! Lavelier fell again.
“If you don’t stop here, I’ll go and tattle to Father about one of the misdeeds you committed… the ones that would really make him furious. The ones you fear the most.”
“Ha. Ha! Hah! Listen to this wench! Tattling? Go ahead and try. Father loves me, so that kind of tattling won’t work!”
Lavelier, who finally crawled up from the floor, now held a whip and ordered me to roll up my pants again.
She seemed tireless.
“Hurry up and roll that dress up!”
“Are you sure about this? Even if I tattle? Today, my calves might get bruised, but tomorrow, your head will roll when Father finds out.”
Lavelier, blinded by rage and unable to see clearly, trembled at my voice, which seemed to sink to the floor.
Seeing my yellow eyes, different from theirs, inherited from my lowly mother, Lavelier’s lips quivered in fear.
“What kind of—what kind of great secret do you think you know to act so boldly?”
Lavelier, brushing her hair back in a fit of wounded pride, suddenly gaped as if she had seen a ghost.
It was because of one word I uttered.
“Tony. You killed him.”
I whispered to her like the serpent that tempted Eve.
“Tobelino. Don’t you remember?”
“You… you.”
She dropped the whip and stumbled back. The situation had turned in an instant.
“Tony… he was Father’s most cherished friend’s only son, wasn’t he? I heard that the shock still prevents him from producing an heir.”
“You….”
“While you were experimenting with the poison you intended for me…”
“Stop it!”
“No, listen till the end.”
Lavelier’s face turned white, even beyond pale.
“You told Tony to drink it first.”
“But all he complained about was a stomachache! I didn’t kill him!”
“The poison was the start. Tony languished and died afterward. You know it was all because of you.”
At that time, Lavelier was also young.
Though she didn’t value life, she had never killed anyone before.
She committed her first murder.
She had planned a prank to poison me while locking me in a wardrobe, with Tony by her side.
As I brought up that long-hidden incident, Lavelier shook her head wildly, tangling her hair.
“No! I didn’t kill Tony!”
At that moment, the door opened, and a large man entered.
“What are you saying? Who caused Tony’s death?”
A voice like a crack of thunder pierced the room, and my head turned toward the door.
It was the Margrave.
