My Perfect Omega - Chapter 116
“Haah, just thinking about it makes me want to see her again.”
Every time Lucas looked directly at Leila, it felt awkward, yet he had the urge to take her right there and then.
Perhaps the aftereffects of suppressing his rut with inhibitors caused this reaction.
How could just meeting her eyes arouse him so much?
Lucas, thinking that alphas were more like beasts than humans, spoke to Philip.
“The dirty plan is progressing perfectly, right?”
One of the orders he had given Philip involved a very dirty and despicable strategy. Unlike Leila, who sought the truth with evidence and witnesses, Lucas had no such reservations.
Living upright and fair wasn’t easy as a duke, and he didn’t believe in the ideal that everyone could be equally happy. Of course, he wouldn’t maliciously frame unrelated people, as that would prick his conscience and hurt his pride.
But the Este family was different.
“Everything is prepared. But Your Grace,” Philip said.
“What is it?”
“It’s about the Countess of Este. It seems she’s already been punished.”
“What do you mean?”
Usually, one would welcome news that the person deserving punishment had already received it, but Lucas felt differently. He was irritated that Sara had been dealt with before he could enact his own retribution.
“She has burns covering half her face. Even if left alone, it seems likely the Count will abandon her.”
“Tell me more.”
“Well… though they’re called burns, it seems more like the skin is distorted.”
“A burn leaves such scars, doesn’t it?”
Lucas thought they were the same thing, but Philip explained in a low voice.
“In truth, it’s the velvet shadow spider’s venom. It causes a feverish reaction, right? It doesn’t just happen when ingested. Even contact with the skin can cause heat and leave burn-like scars.”
Lucas recalled Leila. He had heard about what happened that day but didn’t know the details.
“Hmm.”
He hummed and then got up, humming a tune. He now had an excuse to see Leila, whom he had been thinking of and missing. He handed the remaining documents to Philip and quickly left the office.
On his way downstairs, he stopped to ask a servant,
“Where is Leila?”
“She’s by the apple tree in the back garden. I just served her tea, Your Grace. Should I bring more?”
“Hmm, make it Darjeeling tea.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
He headed straight to the apple tree. From a distance, he saw Leila and Anna. He watched them for a moment, standing under the apple tree, sharing freshly picked apples. The gloomy, indifferent air she once had was gone.
Just as he thought how he wanted to see her smile, always, a maid approached Leila, looking around nervously.
Lucas sensed something suspicious and hurried over, but the maid acted faster. She knelt before Leila and began to beg.
“My lady, I fear I may have caused you trouble…”
Leila, despite her blindness, could tell from the voice that she didn’t recognize the maid.
“You seem unfamiliar… How could you have troubled me?”
“I, I…”
The maid’s face contorted with distress as she explained.
“My childhood friend kept pestering me about wanting to see the duke’s estate. She’d mentioned it before, but that day she was unusually persistent. She insisted it had to be that day.”
The person the maid described seemed to be the one who took Leila out that day. She had been so kind and gentle that Leila hadn’t suspected her at the time, but in hindsight, many things were strange.
The maid had managed to smuggle Leila out of the strictly guarded estate with apparent ease, as if it had been planned all along. She knew the layout of the vegetable cart and the shop where the goods were to be delivered right after leaving the estate.
Finally, when Leila had asked for her name, the maid had intentionally not answered, wishing her “good luck” instead. At the time, Leila thought it was a simple farewell, but now she realized the maid knew all along that Sara would be at the abandoned house.
