We're Married, After All - Chapter 58
Danel strode toward me, closing the distance with long, deliberate steps. Instinctively, I took a step back. The man before me seemed eerily unfamiliar, like a stranger in the skin of someone I thought I had begun to know.
“What were you planning to do once you left here?” he asked, his voice sharp and probing. “Were you going to visit the doctor hiding at Ancona Castle and ask him to examine my brother?”
It was as though he could see straight into my thoughts. The accuracy of his guess didn’t even shock me—it was exactly what I had expected him to figure out.
“And after that? What then? Even if this man recovers, nothing will change.”
“At least Petios wouldn’t die at your hands,” I shot back.
“That changes nothing,” he replied, voice calm but resolute.
My back hit the cold, unyielding surface of the wall. I couldn’t move, trapped between Danel’s arms as he cornered me.
His voice, familiar yet chilling, whispered near my ear, “Everything will remain the same as it is now. Even if he were to walk out of this room this very moment, nothing would change. No matter how much you wish to turn things back, it’s impossible.”
The light behind him was obscured, his broad frame casting everything into shadow. Even at this proximity, I couldn’t see his expression.
But his voice… It sounded desperate, like someone clinging to the last remnants of hope, praying to a God who had long abandoned them.
And so, I asked, curiosity overriding fear.
“What…what won’t change?”
The answer was obvious, yet I needed to hear him say it. To confirm the unbearable truth behind his actions and the situation he’d forced me into.
“That I am your husband,” he said softly.
Me. This was all about me.
His shoulders trembled slightly. To have my worst suspicions confirmed by his own lips was unbearable. It wasn’t just a suspicion anymore; it was the crushing weight of reality bearing down on me.
Without a care for my reaction, Danel continued in his calm tone, “Even if the world learns my brother is alive, even if he exposes everything I’ve done and they send me to the stake, I will still be the one you married. I will still be your husband.”
His hand rested on my lower abdomen.
I recoiled instinctively. His touch was shockingly cold—unlike the scorching heat I’d come to expect from his hands.
He seemed oblivious, however, stroking the curve of my swollen belly with the same grace and reverence he always carried.
“Isn’t the proof already here?”
I realized something new in that moment.
Since the outward signs of my pregnancy became apparent, people had started whispering behind my back, assuming I was mentally unwell and refusing to acknowledge the truth. They thought I was delusional.
But not Danel. He knew from the beginning that I wasn’t crazy. He was the one who subtly encouraged others to believe otherwise.
So, what did Danel think was the real reason I was hiding my pregnancy?
“Nothing will change,” he declared. “You will give birth to my child and remain my wife for eternity. No matter what you wish to undo, even if that man comes back, there’s no going back now.”
What… What are you even saying? Undo? What do you think I want to undo?
Before I could comprehend the gravity of his words, his hand yanked at my clothes with such force that the seams ripped apart, leaving my skin exposed.
His lips descended on mine, smothering my protests. His kiss was rough, urgent, and overwhelming, stealing every last bit of air from my lungs.
When the suffocating kiss finally ended, his next words stunned me even more.
“The medicine you hid in the wardrobe… Did that doctor make it for you?”
I grimaced.
I couldn’t believe he knew about the medicine and had kept it to himself all this time. I had assumed that the mere idea of me having the means to end this pregnancy would have driven him to recklessness.
“A remarkably well-crafted medicine,” he remarked, his tone almost admiring. “To think you could create something so effective with such common ingredients. I suppose it makes sense, though—who would understand a woman’s body better than another woman?”
“No,” I interrupted, cutting him off before he could continue. “No, that’s not it!”
I could guess where his thoughts were heading, and I couldn’t let him arrive at that conclusion.
“No! That was never my intention!” I exclaimed, my voice trembling.
An image of how things must have looked to him flashed through my mind: an uncommunicative wife who refused to acknowledge her pregnancy, who secretly kept a drug capable of ending the life growing inside her, who had come to see her former fiancé without a word to her husband. To me, it was an absurd leap, but to Danel, it might have seemed like the most logical explanation.
It was true that I had wavered over the decision to keep the child. There were moments when the idea of ending the pregnancy crossed my mind—moments of anger and frustration, born from his constant evasion of the truth, his way of erasing everything that mattered to me. In those moments, I had considered erasing the pregnancy from existence as well.
But this—this had nothing to do with Petios. It was only about Danel Veloce.
It was then that I realized something undeniable about myself: I wanted him to truly see me. Even if the world denied me, I wanted Danel to be honest with me. To look me in the eye and acknowledge me, no matter what.
“Petios has nothing to do with this!” I shouted, the words rushing out like a desperate plea. “It’s over! It’s over! The only thing I care about is you. How many times do I have to say it?”
The rawness in my voice startled even me. It was the first time I’d ever raised my voice like this.
Danel laughed then, a low, unrestrained chuckle that echoed through the room.
“Ha… you’re angry, Laurea,” he said, almost as if in disbelief.
