My Child's Father is The Emperor - Chapter 10.2
Though she doubted the Emperor would kill her, it could be an assassin he sent.
Adele pretended to be asleep, knowing that moving hastily could be more dangerous when unaware of the intruder’s intentions.
The nighttime visitor moved closer to the bed.
Adele’s heart raced beneath her throat.
‘They are targeting me after all.’
There was nothing on the bed she could use as a weapon.
Just a fluffy goose-down pillow.
With a nervous grip, she clutched the pillowcase, ready to use the pillow as a weapon if necessary.
“Adele.”
The voice she heard startled her.
She felt the bed shift behind her, and her body was gently turned while she kept her eyes closed, pretending to sleep.
“Adele.”
It was familiar. The way he called her name.
Also familiar was the sensation of him kissing her forehead while uttering her name.
Adele felt like her heart was going to burst.
“Will you really not look at me?”
Adele slowly opened her eyes.
“Adele.”
Van smiled painfully.
“I’m sorry. I know you don’t want me here, but I’ve come again.”
Adele was flustered.
‘What are you doing?’
She couldn’t bring herself to ask.
As Adele remained silent, Van buried his nose in her hair.
“…Van?”
Her voice trembled. The day before, Adele had angrily cried and told Van not to appear in her dreams again.
She had said that the Emperor should not come into her dreams.
“Why did you come again?”
She spoke in a tone that implied she wasn’t pleased, and a gentle sigh brushed by her head.
“It’s hard to bear not seeing you.”
He lay beside her, propping his head with one hand while stroking her hair with the other.
“Please, look at me, Adele.”
“Aaah!”
Adele gasped and pushed away his hand in terror.
‘Has he gone mad? Or have I?’
The handsome man appeared hurt by Adele’s rejection.
“Should I not even do this anymore?”
“Don’t come into my dreams… please.”
It was confusing.
In the morning, he had kissed her out of the blue, in the afternoon he had expressed his desire for her to become the Empress, and now the Emperor was pretending to be Van from her dreams.
And he was doing it so naturally, as if he knew Adele’s dreams.
‘Acting?’
Adele tried to calm her pounding heart and looked at him.
‘This isn’t acting.’
It was just Van.
The Van who was always in Adele’s memories.
Van with black hair, dressed in a simple white shirt and pants, always there when she opened her eyes.
He reached out his hand to her cheek with a look of sorrow.
Adele shuffled backward to avoid him.
“Ah!”
Her body almost fell off the bed’s edge.
“Adele. Are you alright?”
In a blink, Van caught her arms, preventing her from falling.
“I’m fine. I’m okay. Let go and we can talk.”
Adele sat at a safe distance from him, about 2 meters away on the bed.
‘This isn’t a dream. It can’t be.’
She hadn’t fallen asleep. She was considering getting up to read a book.
“Adele.”
In no time, Van had approached her again. He knelt in front of the bed where Adele sat, looking into her eyes.
Adele was so horrified to see him kneeling before her.
‘What’s wrong with the Emperor?’
It seemed like Van attributed Adele’s distressed expression to the previous day’s events.
“Adele. I won’t come closer. I’ll leave after you fall asleep.”
Adele quickly laid down in the middle of the bed.
‘So he’ll leave once I fall asleep, right?’
She wanted to get rid of him from her room as soon as possible.
Accepting her action as consent, Van lay down beside her.
Adele exhaled through her mouth. She was so nervous she could hardly breathe through her nose.
‘Maybe it’s a dream. Maybe I fell asleep without realizing.’
Her nerves were on edge, far from falling asleep; if anything, she was wide awake. But she needed to sleep now.
Then she felt the object beneath her pillow.
‘The watch.’
This watch belonged to the Emperor.
In her confusion, Adele clutched the watch tightly.
‘Maybe I fell asleep without realizing, and I’m dreaming and can’t distinguish reality.’
‘If this isn’t a dream, then this man is… the Emperor.’
The fact that she felt no sense of danger or discomfort from Van was profoundly strange.
Adele was nervous. Despite her nerves, tense and resolute, looked directly at Van.
“Van.”
“What’s the matter?”
“You have bad habits with your hands.”
“Not at all. If you dislike it, I won’t do it.”
Van held out his palms to show her.
“I am a man of my word.”
Adele swallowed hard and moved closer to him.
‘This man is Van. He is Van.’
With that thought, she felt able to embrace and kiss him as one would a lover.
Adele kissed Van.
The focus of his attention on her was palpable.
“Do I still only get to look at you?”
Van’s voice sounded strained, as if it was locked tight.
“This is my dream, so I can do this, but you can’t.”
“I wish to invite you into my dream.”
Van responded with disappointment.
Adele pressed her ear against Van’s chest, embracing him.
Click.
Pretending to hug him, she deftly slipped the watch into his trouser pocket, ensuring even the chain wound its way in seamlessly.
Grip.
Under the covers, Van took hold of Adele’s hand.
‘Has he noticed?’
Van’s voice carried a hint of playful expectation.
“It seems you’re the one with bad hand habits.”
“What did I do?”
“First, you said you liked my chest and abs, and now you seem interested in this area too.”
Adele’s mouth fell open.
What was this man implying?
