Dirty Heart - Chapter 14

Alex Lanchester’s appearance was unexpected.

He was a knight who had guarded Lionel’s side since childhood, but he wasn’t a character with much narrative importance.

However, to Courtney, he was no different from a villain. On the day of the heart transplant, when Courtney realized Lionel’s betrayal and attempted to escape, it was that very man who dragged her back into the operating room. Afterward, when she learned the full truth from the Duke, that Lionel would die if she didn’t give up her heart, Courtney ultimately chose to sacrifice herself willingly to save the man she loved.

After initiating the “Dirty Heart” project, Courtney devised a plausible plan. First, to become the most promiscuous woman in the Empire, it was unavoidable that she would need to form relationships with multiple men.

But she couldn’t simply pick just anyone. She carefully selected men who met her own standards.

As a result, the stablehand Billy and the gardener Martin became the final candidates. Both worked as servants in the ducal household, making them easily accessible, and they were reasonably attractive.

However, the results were repeated failures. Whenever she tried to even start a conversation, they reacted with horror and fled, as if she were a walking plague.

Well, it wasn’t hard to understand. A woman who had always been quiet and inconspicuous suddenly approached them with wide eyes and attempted to seduce them. Suspicion was only natural. Especially when that woman was the Young Duke’s mistress.

“…Do you know who I am?” Alex asked, clearly flustered by Courtney recognizing him. He never expected her to know anything about him.

“How could I not? You’re always beside the Young Duke.”

She shrugged casually, then got straight to the point.

“More importantly, you’ll keep what you saw earlier a secret, right?”

“…Excuse me?”

“The fact that I was flirting with men other than the Young Duke.”

Alex parted his lips dumbly. He expected her to plead desperately for secrecy, but her bold confidence left him more confused than anything.

“Why are you suddenly acting like this…?”

She quickly examined the man before her. His curly hair and round, gentle eyes reminded her of a retriever. Compared to Lionel, he seemed far easier to handle.

“To be honest, I’ve grown a bit tired of the Young Duke.”

“…!”

With every step Courtney took toward him, Alex’s pupils widened dramatically.

“You know what Lionel is like. Sometimes, he really makes people sick of him.”

“I can’t deny that….”

He agreed almost immediately. After all, he’d observed Lionel’s difficult personality closer than anyone else.

But he quickly came to his senses and tried to remind himself of his duty.

“…Reporting everything that happens around the Young Duke is also part of my responsibility.”

“Hm, is that so?”

Before he realized it, she’d already stepped within arm’s reach. Her long, slender fingers reached out and gently traced his chest, firm like armor. At that instant, a shiver ran through Alex’s entire body.

“Go ahead and report it if you’d like. Then I’ll tell the Young Duke this instead.”

She brought her lips close to his ear and whispered seductively. Each time her sweet breath brushed against his ear, his throat bobbed visibly.

“That Sir Alex Lanchester violated the Young Duke’s one and only mistress. And that he fabricated lies to cover it up.”

“…!”

“What will you do?

Alex’s gentle eyes drooped helplessly. In all his life, he had never faced this kind of threat before. It was outrageous and infuriating, yet strangely, his heart pounded wildly.

‘What is this…?’

Alex stared blankly at Courtney. Only now did he truly see the face of the woman he’d always dismissed as nothing more than a shabby maid.

Her amber eyes shimmered brightly, her skin was pale like porcelain, her delicate nose begged to be nipped, and her small lips were irresistibly soft-looking. Now that he looked closely, there wasn’t a single part of her that wasn’t beautiful.

“Ah… so that’s why the Young Duke….”

So this is why he could never escape this woman.

A brilliant flash ignited in the heart of a man who had never once held a woman’s hand in twenty-three years.

It was his first love.

***

On a windless afternoon, a large carriage stood parked for quite some time in front of a luxurious dress shop in the capital.

Shhhk-. With the sound of curtains being drawn aside, Charlotte stepped out, dressed in a vivid red velvet gown.

Perhaps because she had taken such meticulous care of herself despite her age, her slender and elegant silhouette shone even more brilliantly beneath the chandelier’s light.

“My, Director. You look absolutely stunning.”

“Hm… This should be enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the noble ladies of the capital.”

“Of course. You look far more refined and elegant.”

The shop assistant offered endless flattery with a gentle smile, and Charlotte, examining her reflection from every angle in the mirror, soon nodded in satisfaction.

Meanwhile, Liam, who had followed Charlotte, sat quietly on the sofa, waiting for her fashion show to end.

Compared to his appearance at the orphanage, the boy now looked incomparably neat and clean, but the cigarette burn mark on one cheek still remained vivid.

“What a well-behaved child. What’s your name?”

The shop assistant held out some sweets to Liam. He carefully accepted them and whispered softly.

“…Liam.”

“But how did you get that wound on your face…?”

At the question, Liam’s small shoulders trembled.

He turned his head slightly to gauge Charlotte’s reaction, and his eyes met hers directly in the mirror.

“…I got hurt while playing by myself.”

The lie flowed easily from the boy’s mouth. He could feel Charlotte’s silent warning in her gaze not to say anything foolish.

He knew better than anyone that something terrible would happen the moment he revealed the truth.

Once, there was a child who couldn’t endure Charlotte’s abuse any longer and ran away from the orphanage.

The child barely managed to reach the city guards and exposed everything, but before long, he was handed back over to the orphanage. Charlotte had bribed the guards with a large sum of money.

“Abuse? What nonsense. The child has been rebellious lately, so I disciplined him a few times out of love, that’s all.”

At Charlotte’s explanation, the guards immediately withdrew their suspicion. Before overwhelming wealth, justice was powerless, and the pleas of a poor orphan held no weight.

That evening, under the pretense of correcting his behavior, Charlotte took the child to the special supervision room.

About a week later, the child returned as a cold corpse. Only in death did he finally find freedom.

That incident became a clear example for the other children. Even when beaten half to death, even when starving to the brink of collapse, they kept their mouths shut and endured the horrific abuse. Simply to survive. Only to survive.

“Oh dear, that must have hurt terribly. Be more careful next time.”

With a sympathetic expression, the shop assistant gently stroked Liam’s head. At that warm touch, the boy’s face instantly crumpled as if he might cry. Ever since Courtney left the orphanage, he couldn’t remember receiving such kindness from anyone.

“Thank you for helping with the fitting.”

“Oh my, thank you so much, Director! You truly are as benevolent as the rumors say!”

“Please visit us often, Director!”

With her chin held high, Charlotte tossed tips to several employees. Wearing her glamorous dress, she looked every bit like a true noble lady.

“Well then, shall we get going again? Liam, take Mother’s hand.”

Charlotte extended her hand to Liam in a gentle voice. True to her title of ‘Mother of Pitiful Children,’ her affectionate attitude toward the boy drew yet another wave of admiration from the staff.

However, the moment they stepped outside the dress shop, her demeanor changed completely.

“That’s enough. Let go.”

As soon as she coldly shook off the child’s hand, Liam was dragged toward the luggage compartment of the carriage by the coachman.

Curled up inside the narrow, foul-smelling space, it became difficult even to breathe. Each time the wheels rattled violently, the compartment shook so hard it made him nauseous.

“…Sister Courtney. I miss you….”

Liam closed his eyes as he touched the cigarette burn mark in the middle of his cheek.

“If you saw this… you’d be sad….”

Even so, he couldn’t bear the longing for her. In that moment, even the thought of her sorrowful face felt desperately precious.

Liam unfolded the worn blanket he had brought from the orphanage.

It was nothing more than a tattered piece of cloth, frayed and unraveling everywhere, but because Courtney had given it to him, it was the most precious treasure in the world.

Even in the suffocating stench, hugging the blanket tightly made warmth bloom softly in his chest. The familiar scent of laundry soap that always clung to his sister allowed him to forget this hopeless reality, if only for a moment.