The Contract Wife Tries to Leave - Chapter 127
Her voice grew smaller towards the end of her words, as she suddenly became timid for no reason. Leonid paused while fastening the last button and gazed silently at Johanna. His expressionless face made it hard to discern his thoughts. Johanna nervously fidgeted with her hands.
“…Take care.”
It was a long time before he finally responded. For some reason, his voice was deeply subdued.
Johanna thought it was unexpected that he allowed her to go, but she sincerely thanked him with a smile. Leonid never took his eyes off Johanna, even for a moment.
Kiara left the room first, and Johanna followed, moving her steps. Just as she was about to step over the threshold—
“Wait a moment.”
Leonid called her to a halt. Johanna, who had stopped in her tracks, felt her heart drop in surprise but ignored it as she turned around. She was afraid of what he might say.
She lowered her gaze and fidgeted with her hands when suddenly a large shadow loomed over her. As soon as she lifted her head, his hand gently cupped her chin. His touch was as careful as if handling a glass artifact.
“…?”
From a distance so close their noses almost touched, he slowly tilted his head. His lips met hers softly. …That was all.
Nothing else happened.
Confused, Johanna unconsciously parted her lips and stuck out her tongue. She thought she should have done this sooner, wondering if she had kept her lips closed too thoughtlessly.
But Leonid’s reaction was different from what Johanna expected. As her tongue touched his lips, he hesitated and then slowly withdrew. There was no deeper kiss.
Instead, he subtly released his pheromones, marking Johanna with them, as if claiming his territory.
“…Go ahead.”
Johanna stared blankly at Leonid as he distanced himself with a calm expression. She couldn’t understand his actions at all, leaving her mind unsettled.
“Have a safe trip.”
At those words, she staggered as if she had been struck on the head.
* * *
Even though Johanna had come to see the art exhibition she had eagerly anticipated, she found it difficult to focus. She wandered through the pieces, feeling like a screw was loose, responding to Kiara’s comments with nods or simple replies, but without any real interest.
She suddenly snapped back to reality when she realized she was being rude to Kiara. Kiara had come along for her sake, and it wouldn’t do to show such a careless attitude.
From that moment on, Johanna tried harder to actively engage with the artwork and have more conversations with Kiara. Kiara responded to everything Johanna said with a smile. She had an exceptionally pleasant personality.
‘They’re siblings, but how can Leonid and Anora be so different from her?’
Just then, Kiara proudly mentioned that she had the best personality in the family, which is why she was her grandfather’s favorite. Johanna nodded, thinking that was certainly true. When Kiara added that Leonid was the grandchild who caused their grandfather the most trouble, Johanna agreed wholeheartedly, nodding vigorously.
“I actually don’t get along well with my mother. She’s a perfectionist and tries to control everything, from A to Z. Isn’t it amazing that I grew up under someone like her but still turned out with such a sunny personality?”
It felt a bit like gossiping, so Johanna could only smile awkwardly. At the same time, she thought she was beginning to understand why Leonid was the way he was.
“Both Leonid and Anora take after our mother’s personality. Though Anora’s resemblance is even stronger. But honestly, her real issue isn’t her personality—it’s her complex. What’s so bad about being born a beta? Whenever I say that to her, she snaps, ‘You wouldn’t understand, you’re a dominant omega,’ with this scary glare in her eyes. Goodness. As if being an omega is all that easy to live with…”
Kiara chattered away endlessly, like a sparrow, which made her adorable and completely captivated those who listened. Johanna felt she could understand why the Duke of Elderique adored Kiara so much. Spending time with Kiara like this made all the complicated thoughts in her head vanish.
“You manifested as an omega late, at twenty, right?”
“Yes, suddenly.”
“You must have been really troubled…”
“I’m fine now, I’ve gotten used to it.”
“Exactly. Johanna, you seem to control your pheromones well. I had to practice a lot. In the beginning, I couldn’t go anywhere without leaking pheromones everywhere—it was total chaos. My mother even locked me up in a room for a week, calling me a disgrace to the family.”
Locked up in a room…? How old could she have been at the time? No matter how much trouble uncontrolled pheromones might cause, imprisoning her own child seemed excessive…
