We're Married, After All - Chapter 62
When I came to, I found myself in Lapecia Castle. I was lying on the bed, and Danel was nowhere to be seen.
A whirlwind of unease filled my dazed mind, and the first thing I noticed was that I had no sense of time. All the windows were shut tight with heavy shutters. Not even a sliver of light or sound seeped in.
Then I noticed something else.
Clink.
When I moved my leg, the heavy clanking of metal echoed in the room. I stared blankly at the shackle around my ankle and the chain attached to it. I couldn’t begin to process what I was seeing.
I don’t know how long I sat there. Eventually, the door opened, and Danel entered with a tray of food in his hands.
Instead of taking the plate he offered, I knocked the entire tray to the floor. The expensive dishware shattered with a sharp sound as it tumbled across the floor, but neither of us paid it any attention.
“What the hell is this?”
“Insurance. You’re still far from being in a stable condition.”
“So you chain me up like an animal?”
“I understand it’s uncomfortable. I’ll make sure to remove it when I’m with you, so please bear with it for a little while.”
“You mean I’m supposed to wait like a beast when you’re not here.”
“Can you promise you won’t try to run while I’m gone?”
“…”
“You can’t, can you?”
I glared at Danel. While I couldn’t understand his reasoning, a part of me found it oddly logical.
But I couldn’t accept it.
“Do you think I could ever forgive you? For what you’ve done to me? For everything you’ve done just to have me? And for everything you’re planning to do from now on?”
At my words, Danel let out a small laugh.
His large hand slowly slid over my belly, gently stroking the curve of the fabric over the swell. In a soft voice, he spoke.
“I have spent my entire life loving you. Twenty-four years of loving a woman who is indifferent and unmoved by everything. Do you know what that means?”
“…”
“It means that even a tiny fragment of you in my grasp is enough for me to live on for the rest of my life. Even if it’s something you didn’t willingly give me.”
I didn’t say a word as Danel caressed my stomach. Instead, I kept glaring at him as if he were my mortal enemy, my expression surely as fierce as it felt. But he didn’t seem to care. If anything, he smiled—like a man savoring the sweetness of newlywed bliss.
When he leaned down to kiss me and then turned to leave the room, I finally asked the question burning in my mind.
“Is this what you wanted?”
Danel froze mid-step.
I waited for a while, but no answer came. Instead, I watched the broad line of his back tremble faintly.
“No.”
His voice came out strained, like he was forcing the words through clenched teeth. Harsh breaths seeped out between his twisted lips.
“This was the last thing I wanted to do.”
With that, Danel left the room.
I sat in silence, replaying the turmoil, regret, and sorrow in his voice, dissecting each emotion one by one. But what lingered most was the weight of his most overwhelming feeling—a love so deep and toxic it had festered for years.
I grabbed the vase sitting next to the bed and hurled it at the door he had just closed.
“Crazy bastard…”
