A Summer With Bitter Rivals - Chapter 86
Chapter 86: Of All Contradictions
Emeline, who had sat frozen for quite some time, slowly inhaled and exhaled.
For a while, she had even forgotten to blink, causing her eyes to sting. Her heart pounded wildly on its own, beyond her control.
Even so, Emeline, who had been sitting in a daze, snapped out of it at Angel’s voice.
“Emeline, what’s wrong?”
“Ah…”
Not knowing how to respond, Emeline only moved her lips silently before handing the extra edition she had been holding to Angel.
As Angel read the newspaper passed to her, her eyes gradually widened.
By the time she reached the end of the article, her eyes were so wide they looked as though they might pop out.
“Emeline, could the person he’s talking about be…”
“…Who knows.”
She gave a vague answer, her emotions tangled.
It might have sounded evasive, but in truth, it perfectly reflected how she felt.
Sometimes, she trembled endlessly thinking he meant her, but then fear born of uncertainty made her thoughts swing in the opposite direction.
‘Maybe… I really do need to go back and have a proper conversation with him.’
But how easy could that be, when it was only right that they keep their distance?
Emeline couldn’t be certain about anything regarding her situation.
Could she even allow herself to do that? Was she really the person Zenon Trancium was referring to?
Her head was a mess.
Thinking back, all Emeline had done was gather fragments of evidence—she still didn’t have an answer to the question: Did Zenon Trancium truly abandon her and leave?
Wasn’t she one of the women mentioned in his past scandals, too?
What if there was someone entirely new—someone she knew nothing about?
If not, why had he never replied to her letters for years?
Why was there so much inconsistency in the letter he sent when they reunited?
Why had he treated their promise like it was meaningless and gone abroad?
Why had he thrown such cruel words at her when they met again?
Why had Labore, four years ago, gone to Zenon—not Allen—and clung to him?
With all these rising questions, Emeline felt a splitting headache.
She couldn’t tell what was truth and what was lies.
‘If he was going to publish an article like that, he might as well have included the name.’
Emeline remembered the newspaper company behind the article. It was the one Zenon Trancium had reportedly acquired.
In other words, both the extra edition and the interview were deliberate and voluntary acts.
After agonizing for a long while, Emeline excused herself from Angel and left her seat.
There were too many thoughts swirling in her head—she couldn’t sit and enjoy tea any longer.
Though Angel had offered to share her burdens, Emeline couldn’t exactly say she was considering meeting her ex-lover while still engaged.
And what about the fact that she still hadn’t gotten over him—worse, had kissed him just a few days ago?
Back in her room, she let out a deep sigh. Then someone spoke beside her.
“Um, Miss…”
Emeline lifted her head from where she had been slouched on the sofa. Benica was still by her side.
Though she felt miserable, she forced a smile.
“Yes, what is it?”
Benica hesitated—very unlike her.
Should I say this? Isn’t this too presumptuous?—those concerns flickered across her eyes.
But she couldn’t keep her mistress waiting any longer, so she cautiously opened her mouth.
“He… seems to be waiting for you.”
“……”
As expected, Emeline’s expression froze again.
Benica had worked at the Delzeier mansion even four years ago, when Emeline had gone through her ordeal.
She couldn’t possibly be unaware of the rumors that had swirled around the second son of the Marquis of Trancium and the Young Lady of the house.
Because of that incident, Emeline had spent over two years confined within the mansion. Back then, Benica had often been tasked with delivering her meals.
She still remembered the lifeless look in her mistress’s eyes.
The once graceful, quietly kind noble lady—who had treated her servants with detached warmth—had looked like she could die at any moment.
She had refused food for days, barely drank water, and her frail frame was pitiful to behold.
So Benica had always thought poorly of the Duke who had imprisoned her and of the young master who had supposedly toyed with her.
But now, after running errands on Emeline’s behalf, Benica had seen something in Zenon Trancium.
And after reading the extra edition on her way back, she had grown even more certain.
“Every time I went on errands, he asked. Whether you were coming…”
His eyes had looked so lonely when he asked that. So she told him gently that her mistress likely wouldn’t be visiting for a while—and Zenon Trancium had replied with a powerless smile.
The emptiness and sorrow she had felt from him were overwhelming.
“Wouldn’t it be good… to go see him one more time? The person he mentioned in the interview really did seem like you.”
After a long silence, Emeline finally spoke, “…Are you seriously trying to give me advice right now?”
Seeing the shadow fall over Emeline’s face, Benica quickly bowed her head. “I’m sorry. But… I really felt I had to say it. I’m terribly sorry for overstepping.”
“Haa…”
Emeline sighed and pressed her forehead. After sitting in silence for a while, lost in thought, she told Benica that it was enough and to leave the room.
She had never once intended to punish her.
Emeline stared at the door through which Benica had exited after leaving a polite bow.
The things she had said about Zenon Trancium continued to echo in her mind. Emeline sat there a long while, retracing it all and imagining his expression.
Eventually, she slowly let go of the tension in her body. Her mind was starting to clear.
‘Right. If I’ve started digging, then… I have to see it through to the end.’
From the moment she first sowed seeds of doubt about their past, from the moment she went looking for him—this had already been decided.
She had to meet him again and ask.
About every contradiction that existed between them.
She instinctively felt that the truth she uncovered through him would guide the course of her life.
***
After that day, Emeline shut herself in the house for several days.
She blankly stared out the cloudy window. The sky was dark and heavy—rain looked like it would pour at any moment.
On one side of the windowsill table, a tall pile of newspapers had built up, all published after that incident.
With a flickering scented candle lit beside her, she stared at the gloomy sky. It looked like one of those summer storms from four years ago.
Today didn’t feel like the day.
It didn’t feel like the right day to go find Zenon Trancium.
Sighing, Emeline sank into her chair.
‘It’s already been days. And I still haven’t gone to see him.’
Truthfully, she’d wanted to go to the hospital the very next day after the article came out—but realistically, that wasn’t possible.
Because along with Zenon Trancium’s revelations, and his first statement regarding the scandals, the public’s attention had exploded.
His former fiancée Labore Fendine, and her lover Allen Trancium, were publicly humiliated.
The Marquis, upon reading the article, had reportedly cut off all allowances to Allen in a fit of betrayal and exiled him to the countryside.
Rumors even spread that the two had severed ties completely.
Labore Fendine, having been publicly dumped by Zenon, became the target of scorn across the social world.
Apparently, she hadn’t left the house since.
Given the close ties between the Marquis of Trancium and the Count of Fendine, she must have also faced her father’s wrath.
For a while, the entire kingdom had been in an uproar over the news.
And there was another headline that had rocked high society.
The identity of the person Zenon Trancium truly had feelings for.
Because of that buzz, Emeline couldn’t recklessly go looking for Zenon.
Journalists were visiting his hospital room daily. If she went herself, it would be like publicly declaring, “I’m that person.”
As she absentmindedly reached for a paper, Emeline froze when she noticed a letter tucked among the stack.
It had already been opened.
A letter from Mathis Renier, sent after Zenon’s statement had been made public.
He had written that he wished to meet and talk.
But Emeline had declined, citing poor health—even though she knew exactly why he had reached out.
Even if he was a partner in a political marriage, she couldn’t bring herself to face him in the current situation.
Not until she had learned the full truth. Only then could she face Mathis—
Whether to break off the engagement, or to proceed with the marriage as it stood.
‘I really need to get this over with… Why today of all days does the weather have to be like this.’
She had considered sneaking off to see him today.
But with this weather, Emeline scowled up at the sky in frustration.
Then she heard hurried footsteps approaching from outside. Sensing the movement, Emeline turned toward the door.
A moment later, there was a knock, and Benica announced herself.
Since the day she’d brought the extra edition, Benica hadn’t appeared in such a rush, so Emeline calmly let her in, wondering what this was about.
“What is it? Oh—come to think of it, you just came back from the hospital, didn’t you?”
She had still been sending Zenon flowers and fruit every day.
Fortunately, the journalists seemed to assume the maid frequently visiting his hospital room was a servant he had brought from the Marquis’s estate.
Emeline paused what she was doing and turned to properly face the maid, wondering if there was news.
Then, at Benica’s next words, her expression hardened.
“Yes, miss. But… it seems he was discharged just before I arrived.”
“…What?”
“I asked the nurse, and it sounds like he’ll be recovering at home from now on…”
Emeline forgot her composure and shot up from her seat.
If he had returned to the Marquis’s estate—and would be recuperating there for a while…
Would she no longer have any way to meet him?
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katheeey13
When I read their problems on their letters, misunderstandings and some circumstances. I remembered the one movie I always watch before; “THE NOTEBOOK”.