Looking for a Husband to Confine Me - Chapter 12
Chapter 12
“Alright, I’ll do it.”
“It wouldn’t be good for you if rumors started circulating, would it?”
Hector looked at me with a questioning gaze. His eyes seemed to be asking, “Rumors about what?”
“She might misunderstand,” I said, indirectly referring to Vivian.
Hector’s face hardened for a moment, then he seemed to recall me seeing them both at the banquet. It seemed I wasn’t even on his mind. I realized then that I wasn’t even receiving that level of attention.
“Don’t worry about that. She understands everything about our relationship.”
“Everything…!”
What in the world was this new nonsense?
How could she possibly understand? And what kind of thinking led her to understand?
It was something I would never be able to say. I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even speak.
I had so much I wanted to say to Hector. But I just opened my mouth and then stopped.
“What’s wrong, Amelia?”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t have been able to understand. But it doesn’t matter anymore.”
He blinked slowly at my words.
Right, it wasn’t important if I understood or not. It was their business. Although in the original story, Hector realizes his feelings late, and there are all sorts of things that happen, right now I just wanted them to be happy.
I have no intention of waiting until he came back.
I have no intention of forgiving his betrayal.
“Hector, is that all you came to see me for?”
“No, it’s not.”
I thought what he was going to say next was the real reason he came to see me. But he remained silent, lost in thought. He created a dramatic atmosphere, but instead of continuing, he checked outside the carriage window.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“What?”
“It seems we’ll be arriving at the palace soon.”
I was about to tell him to just say it, because I didn’t want to see him again.
But I had to keep up the appearance of our relationship, for now at least. Thinking about my parents and the Hazel family, I felt even more compelled to do so. If our engagement was officially broken, they would immediately send me somewhere under the guise of marriage.
Instead, I decided to ask Hector a question.
“I have something I want to ask you. Will you answer me honestly?”
“What is it?”
“When and how did you meet her?”
In the novel, they met during the war that broke out because of Bashar Kisha’s death. It wasn’t just once. Vivian appeared like a miracle every time Hector was in danger. He thought it was fate.
He believed that the irresistible feeling of fate, the desire to protect someone, was love. And for the first time in his life, he was driven by instinct and slept with Vivian. Even though he had a fiancée, Amelia.
‘And then, ta-da! They had a baby that day.’
After the war ended, Hector declared his second engagement to Amelia. He loved another woman, slept with her, and even got her pregnant, all while he was engaged to Amelia. It was a shocking revelation, not one, but three shocking revelations.
Amelia, unlike the first time, had no choice but to accept the engagement this time. She realized that she was an obstacle to them and that she had to disappear.
Yes, in the original story, the war and the pregnancy led to the engagement being broken. That’s why I was going to stop Bashar from being poisoned! If that happened, then Hector wouldn’t meet Vivian during the war, and he wouldn’t betray me by sleeping with her.
But somehow, before Bashar was poisoned, Hector had already met Vivian. He had even already done the deed.
I had been curious ever since Hector asked me to break off the engagement. How did he meet her?
“Vivian…”
He couldn’t answer right away. He stared at me, as if asking if I was really curious.
‘Yes, I’m curious. I’m curious. I’m dying to know how you met Vivian before the war!’
I wanted to grab his ears and shout at him, but I didn’t do anything.
“You didn’t seem interested in liking someone.”
“I certainly didn’t expect it.”
So, what’s the answer? Are you not going to answer?
I wanted him to recall someone’s face with a faint smile when he was alone.
“Vivian is a distant relative of Luke’s. I met her by chance last year, when I was with him.”
“By chance?”
“Yes. Luke said he had something important to tell me, so I visited his mansion and met her.”
“Aha.”
I forced a smile and gritted my teeth.
“So what was this important thing about me?”
“It wasn’t that important after all. To be precise, your father came to borrow money, and Luke asked me if he was trustworthy.”
“I see.”
Yes, I see. I clenched my fists and nodded. So Vivian was a distant relative of Luke’s. I didn’t know that because it wasn’t in the novel.
‘This is really happening. Hahahaha.’
Why? It was a chance encounter between Hector and Vivian, but why did it feel like it wasn’t a chance encounter? It felt like Luke’s plan, but maybe it was just my imagination.
And he had been lending money to my father, Count Frad, since Luke was twelve years old, but now he was asking Hector if he was trustworthy?
It was ridiculous.
‘Luke Randy. You’re finished, you bast*rd.’
And then he pretended not to know at the banquet?
Luke didn’t seem like a suitable husband candidate after all. When I got home, I was going to burn the paper with Luke’s information on it. I would hold a bonfire and burn it. I would even pour oil on it.
I gritted my teeth hard.
***
I remained silent, calming my emotions until the carriage arrived at the palace and came to a stop. Thankfully, Hector was also quiet, staring out the window.
Hector, who stepped out of the carriage first, extended his hand towards me. I ignored his gesture and stepped out of the carriage.
Unnecessary kindness.
At this point, it felt more like arrogance than kindness.
“Thank you anyway. For bringing me here.”
“Then I’ll see you again, Amelia.”
“….”
I didn’t respond to Hector’s words.
I was about to turn my back on him and go my own way before he even got back into the carriage. If it hadn’t been for someone’s firm, broad chest right in front of me.
“Ugh!”
Startled, I stopped in my tracks. I almost bumped into him head-on.
But the chest felt strangely familiar. I suddenly recalled a time when I had bumped my nose against a similar chest, leaving it stinging.
Could it be…
“…Damian?”
“You finally got my name right.”
I heard Damian’s playful voice.
I looked up and saw his familiar face. Even though I’d only met and spoken with Damian a few hours ago, it felt like I’d known him for a long time.
Perhaps because the time we spent together was so intense.
“What are you doing here?”
Damian, who had been looking down at me with a smile, lifted his head and gazed over my shoulder. Apparently, Hector hadn’t left the palace yet.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard the carriage depart.
As Damian watched, Hector seemed to be looking this way too. I felt his gaze on me.
“What about you?”
“I’m here because of what happened at the banquet. Are you here for the same reason?”
My response met Damian’s gaze. When our eyes met, the corners of his lips curved upwards. Unconsciously, I smiled back, mirroring his languid smile.
“…Maybe?”
If it is, it is, and if it isn’t, it isn’t. What does “maybe” even mean? I still wasn’t used to Damian’s ambiguous way of speaking. And he was still using informal language. It felt like it was getting more informal with each passing moment.
‘It probably is. We were together that day.’
Especially since Damian and I were together when the poisoning incident occurred, they wouldn’t just summon me. We were also closely associated with the princes.
‘They must be investigating those directly involved with the princes.’
Hector, who had attended the banquet, hadn’t received a separate summons.
“Did your conversation go well?”
Damian’s question made me tilt my head up in confusion.
He shifted his gaze back over my shoulder. He was talking about my encounter with Hector. I could still feel Hector’s gaze on my back. What was he doing, still not leaving?
Instead of turning around, I grabbed Damian’s wrist.
“Huh?”
“Are you going to stand here forever? Let’s go.”
I continued walking, still holding Damian’s hand. I hadn’t noticed during the banquet because I was so flustered, but his wrist was thick.
‘Why didn’t I notice?’
Languid, strange. That was my impression of Damian at the banquet that day. He was definitely a mercenary, but his actions made him seem drunk. His languid atmosphere, his occasionally deep voice, and his lighthearted demeanor made me forget that he was a mercenary.
‘Come to think of it, his chest was surprisingly firm.’
That was what I felt when Damian had practically embraced me or when we bumped into each other.
“So?”
“Huh?”
“Did you have a satisfactory conversation?”
Damian asked as he walked beside me. He seemed to be trying to get me to talk to Hector last time, and he was curious about it again today. I felt it then, but he seemed to be very interested in my dealings with Hector.
I narrowed my eyes and stared at Damian.
‘Is he trying to find out Hector’s weaknesses?’
He had suddenly appeared two years ago, and everything about him was shrouded in mystery: who he was associated with, where he was born, and how he managed to enter high society.
So, he could be working for someone, uncovering the weaknesses of the nobles…
