Chapter 90
Blair’s eyes flew open at the sudden kiss. The moment their lips met, Edmund plunged in savagely, giving her no chance to breathe. He forced his tongue in at once and greedily mixed their saliva. Trapping Blair tightly against his large body, he devoured her breath. The movements were no different from those of a beast.
Blair froze, unable to move. What on earth was he doing in broad daylight, in such an open space? It was utterly inappropriate. It didn’t seem like him. Edmund had never treated her like this before. He’d kissed her persistently before, but he’d always given her room to pull away if she wanted. When their breaths faltered, he would pause briefly to gauge her reaction. It meant he’d always kept himself under control.
Only when her breath began to run short did Blair grab his shoulders. But with her feeble strength, she couldn’t resist that overwhelming force.
Blair began to shove Edmund away as if to shake him off. She turned her head to avoid the lips crashing into hers and even stumbled backward to escape, but it was useless. The more she struggled, the tighter the man’s arms wrapped around her. Holding her firmly, Edmund twisted his jaw to deepen the kiss and swallowed her lips. Frightened by the ferocity of his invasion, Blair strained with all her might and managed to twist the angle of her mouth just a little.
“Stop…!”
It came out almost like a scream. That cry, scattering against his lips, finally made the kiss stop. But the distance between them, close enough for their lips to collide again at any moment, remained unchanged. Their chests were pressed tightly together, his gaze boring into her as if to pierce through her, and the grip around her waist still carried relentless strength.
“Stop….”
Left with no choice, she clenched her teeth while still caught in his arms. In contrast, Edmund, whose breathing hadn’t even faltered, asked quietly.
“Why?”
“…What?”
The first thing that struck her was confusion. Why was he acting like this, why was he pushing forward so recklessly? Blair couldn’t understand it.
He had to know himself that he’d lost control. Even so, there was no sign of regret. His voice was astonishingly calm.
“Why are you acting like this?”
“Because this is the only way you’ll look at me.”
Blair swallowed dryly and looked up at Edmund. Unlike his steady voice, his eyes were desperate. She couldn’t tell what emotion lay in them, and she didn’t want to know.
Why are you making that face? A sense of unfairness suddenly surged up. What could a man who had staged such a deception, even posting Rufus outside the bridal chamber on the first night, possibly be desperate about?
“I’m embarrassed, so let go of me.”
“What’s there to be embarrassed about?”
Muttering lowly, Edmund brushed his thumb over Blair’s wet lips.
“It’s not like this is the first or second time we’ve kissed.”
“Do you really think this is appropriate?”
“We’re married, Blair. I don’t think kissing my wife is wrong.”
“Don’t delude yourself. I’m not your real wife.”
Blair clenched her teeth and added, “I’m not a lover you can kiss whenever you want, either.”
“Then does that mean you’re a woman who casually mixed bodies with a man who was neither lover nor husband?”
“…What did you say?”
“If rumors start, you’ll be the one in trouble. Since it’s come to this, why don’t you just stay my wife for life?”
What on earth are you trying to do? Her clenched lips trembled. The sorrow that had been pressing down on her chest gradually turned into anger.
There was no way a man so perceptive wouldn’t notice her shaken state, yet instead of understanding, he responded with cold mockery. Blair couldn’t believe it.
“This isn’t like you.”
Blair glared at Edmund and tried to shake off the hand gripping her. But he covered her wrist with his large hand and tightened his hold.
“You talk like you know me well, so go on. Tell me.”
“Let go of me.”
“What exactly is ‘like me’?”
“I said let go.”
“You think you know me just because we’ve shared a bed and lived together?”
A cold smile settled on Edmund’s lips. In contrast, his eyes burned fiercely as he stared straight at Blair from less than an arm’s length away.
“No. From where I stand, you still don’t know me at all. You have no idea how low I can sink to get what I want, how I’d crawl into the filth at the very bottom without hesitation.”
Blair couldn’t believe her eyes. The man who had always been so proper now looked crazed, his face steeped in madness.
A long silence followed. The emotions that had flared up quickly died down. The man before her felt too unfamiliar for even anger to hold meaning. As Edmund said, Blair didn’t know what kind of person he truly was in this moment. She couldn’t tell whether what she’d seen all along was his real self, or just an illusion she wanted to believe in. Her heart ached with an indescribable sorrow.
Only when the eyes staring up at him began to glisten did Edmund seem to regain his senses. His ash-gray eyes wavered slightly, and the strength drained from the hands gripping her waist and wrist.
“No, Edmund.”
“….”
“I think I understand enough now.”
Blair carefully slipped out of his arms, making sure her voice didn’t trail off. Edmund let her go without resistance, yet his gaze still clung to her.
Blair looked at those eyes for a brief moment, then turned her head away. Without adding a single word, she slowly turned her back and walked off. She knew he was watching her, but she never looked back.
- Irreversible
Click.
The heavy wooden door unlocked and opened. A tall shadow slipped inside. This place, filled with the smell of old paper and leather, was an office only the head of House Libert was permitted to enter. The man’s polished shoes crossed the room with familiarity, as if it were already his own space.
“Haa….”
Before fully stepping into the office, Edmund took a deep drag from the cigarette between his lips and ground it out roughly in the ashtray. After smoking harsh cigarettes all day, his insides felt charred black. Thanks to that, the boiling frenzy had subsided, leaving a cold calm on his face.
The one thing he couldn’t shake was the warmth of a woman still lingering at his fingertips. It irritated him unbearably. As if brushing away that sensation along with any personal feelings, Edmund headed for the desk. Right now, the only thing filling his mind was revenge.
He went back over the documents in the drawers he’d already reviewed, then took out the confidential files from the safe, examining everything closely to make sure he’d missed nothing.
Only after checking again, uncharacteristically thorough, did he let out a short sigh. Then he dropped his father’s documents onto the desk.
He’d vaguely suspected it since conducting a preliminary investigation through Benjamin, but there was no trace anywhere that Isabelle had directly been involved in his mother’s death twenty years ago.
There was no way the former duchess would have committed murder with her own hands, so poisoning was the most likely scenario. She must have obtained the drugs through a physician. However, the attending doctor who had worked for the ducal household at the time had since died of illness, and all of the medical records he left behind had been destroyed. Records, witnesses, and physical evidence, all of it had vanished long ago.
Nevertheless, his conviction grew stronger. Above all, the final words of the dying Duke Libert solidified his suspicion. The will, which left not a single penny to Isabelle or Rufus, reinforced it as well.
But how much weight could the mutterings of a dying man really carry?
Even if decisive evidence were to surface, Isabelle would never be punished. This was a world where money and status could easily slip through the cracks of the law, and no one placed much importance on the long-ago death of a mistress.
Isaac Dorman had aimed a gun at Blair, the fiancée of the Libert heir, and yet he hadn’t even faced proper judgment in court. Edmund knew that better than anyone, and he wanted Isaac to pay the full price for his crimes.
So he’d waited quietly for Nicoletta Underhill to be ruined, in order to bring Isaac and his family down. He manipulated the press to expose the marquisate’s disgrace, and severed their economic alliances one by one so they couldn’t recover. Edmund’s goal had never been legal judgment, but brutal revenge.
The same had to apply to Isabelle as well. Her end had already been decided long ago.
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Daisy110
Thanks for your hard work, I really look forward to next chapters . It’s a good novel .