We're Married, After All - Chapter 65
I was granted permission to walk after five days of eating nothing.
Granted permission—what a despicable phrase. Yet there was no better way to describe it. I had no other choices.
During that time, the rumors about me worsened. The stories Danel must have spread quickly took root in the estate. Everyone treated me as a severe case of nervous exhaustion. Even confining me to my room and chaining me was seen as a necessary treatment.
So, I stopped eating. I didn’t even drink water. The intense thirst tormented me, but after five days, I had grown somewhat used to it.
It might have been a week instead. With no sunlight entering the bedroom, I had no way of tracking time. I only estimated it had been about five days by counting the number of times the maid had brought food.
Occasionally, Danel had personally fed me. Like forcing feed into a beast, he would pry open my mouth and push the food inside. He’d even cover me with kisses until I swallowed a small piece of finely chopped cabbage.
Every time, I spat it out in defiance. I vomited up everything that entered my mouth until, eventually, not even bile remained. After that, Danel no longer tried to make me eat.
On what I guessed to be the fifth day, Danel entered the bedroom again, carrying a plate. The rich aroma of butter filled the room.
I looked at him weakly. I didn’t feel hungry—only wondering if I had enough strength left to throw it all up again.
Should I just spit it out?
Of course, Danel could read my thoughts. In a gentle voice, he whispered, “I’ve prepared a small area for you to take walks.”
I turned my eyes to meet his. His violet gaze locked onto mine, as if he had already noticed the faint flicker of interest in my reaction.
“If you eat everything on this plate, I’ll take you there. If you don’t skip your meals tomorrow, you may go again.”
“What about the days you’re not here?”
Hearing something pleasant immediately sparked distrust. It was almost reflexive after the past few days.
“What will you do on the days you can’t watch me all day? Put me on a leash or something?”
Even the way I was confined to my room revealed that Danel no longer avoided doing things that might earn my hatred. If necessary, he didn’t shy away from actions that would provoke my resistance. It seemed that something had shifted after he took me beside Petios.
So, naturally, I doubted his sincerity. After confining and isolating me like this, he wouldn’t simply grant me freedom.
Predictably, Danel’s response was brutal. It was so wretchedly honest that it almost felt reliable.
“I’ve installed a fence. Even if I’m not around, you’ll be free to walk inside it.”
“First a shackle, now a pen? I really feel like livestock about to give birth.”
Danel gave a faint smile. His gaunt face, which had grown more haggard in recent days, seemed to regain some vitality. He didn’t care about the barbs in my words. He only seemed pleased to hear my voice after two days of silence.
Even so, it had been a while since I’d seen an expression on his face. That faint smile, even now, still appeared beautiful. It was infuriating.
At least I understood his intentions. He must have decided that a small concession was better than losing me or the child. Compared to being confined to a room where I couldn’t even perceive the passage of time, feeling the wind and grass inside a pen might be better for my sanity.
Danel didn’t try to persuade me further. He simply placed the plate on the small table beside the bed and spooned some of its contents. He seemed confident that I would eat it.
In the end, I accepted the food he offered. It was a thin soup with no solids. The buttery, celery-infused flavor filled my mouth, though it didn’t stir any appetite.
As I swallowed the tasteless soup, I thought about the first thing I would do once outside: find out the time. I needed to know whether Danel’s visits were during the day or night to calculate when he might be absent.
I had to find a way out of here. If I couldn’t escape the estate, I needed a way to inform someone about the situation—before Danel went so far as to kill his brother. Before he willingly walked into hell to possess me.
When I woke up again, I was in the bedroom. I wasn’t sure whether I’d just dozed off briefly or slept through the night until morning.
All I could see was pitch-black darkness.
Some time ago, I’d told them not to light the room. It had been an offhand comment born of boredom, but eventually, I grew used to it. It even made waking up feel bothersome. As a result, I’d started sleeping much more and dreaming frequently.
Recently, my dreams have become sparse and mundane. Perhaps because my life had become monotonous, my dreams were neither extravagant nor surreal—just endless repetitions of the events that led to my confinement here.
In truth, I wasn’t sure if those memories were from recently. All my waking moments blurred together, making it impossible to tell what had happened when. The only way I could measure the passage of time was by observing how Danel’s face became more emaciated each day.
I reached out, feeling the empty space beside me. The bed was unoccupied. Even in the pitch-black darkness, I could sense Danel’s absence. On a hunch, I lifted my leg—there was no shackle. That meant Danel was still in the estate.
I cautiously got out of bed. As I placed my bare feet on the floor, a cool sensation and faint vibrations reached me.
In the silent room, where neither light nor sound entered through the heavily barred windows, my heightened senses detected changes through means other than sight or hearing. For instance, the vibrations on the floor—despite the thick wooden panels over the door—still hinted at movement within the estate.
Since it’s impossible to stop the vibrations from being transmitted.
