Dirty Heart - Chapter 18

“Si-sister…! Sister Courtney! P-please save me!”

Liam’s desperate voice echoed throughout the reception room.

“I want to stay with you, Sister…! I don’t want to go back to the orphanage. Sob… hic…!”

His tiny hands flailed helplessly in the air, trying to grab onto Courtney’s skirt, but Charlotte pulled him away without hesitation.

“Young Duke. Please, can’t you help Liam?”

Courtney looked at Lionel, clinging to her last hope. Watching Liam collapsed on the floor, crying and thrashing in despair, made her heart feel like it was tearing apart.

“Please. Liam is a smart child. If you give him a job, he’ll do anything well. He’s begging you to save him like this.”

Her voice broke pitifully as she pleaded, but Lionel never opened his mouth. He only remained silent, his face cold and expressionless.

“Sister… please, okay…?”

“Oh my, what is wrong with this child? He kept crying and begging to see you, Courtney, so I brought him here as a special favor. Hey! What are you standing there for?”

As Liam continued to resist desperately, Charlotte’s attendant stepped forward and slung the child over his shoulder like a sack of grain.

It was an unmistakably violent scene, but what was even more horrifying was that no one except Courtney found anything strange about it.

Bang-.

With the sound of the door finally closing, Liam’s cries gradually faded into the distance.

Courtney stood frozen in place, feeling the blood drain from her entire body. She couldn’t let Liam be sent back to that hell.

“Liam!”

The moment she tried to run toward the door, a large hand suddenly seized her wrist.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Let go! I have to go get Liam back!”

Courtney struggled desperately, but Lionel’s grip was far stronger than she expected.

“Please… please….”

“I don’t understand. Why are you crying like that?”

Lionel asked, twisting his lips. His eyes showed genuine confusion, as if he truly couldn’t comprehend the woman sobbing before him.

“Shouldn’t you be thanking me instead?”

It was a sincere question. That boy was merely returning to where he originally belonged. Why was it such a big deal?

Moreover, he’d just paid an absurd amount of money for the sake of a mere maid. And yet, instead of gratitude, he was met with tearful resentment.

“I really can’t stand you….”

She lowered her head and muttered quietly, like a sigh.

Naturally, she didn’t possess a single memory of Liam. She hadn’t even properly remembered his existence at first.

And yet, why was she crying like this? Even she couldn’t understand her own emotions.

But soon, she realized the truth. Instinctively, she was projecting herself onto Liam.

The anxiety that no matter how desperately she struggled to survive, nothing might change. The fear that she might be used up like a disposable tool and ultimately discarded.

‘…In the end, I’m going to die too. Of all things, I possessed the body of a woman who loves this piece of trash!’

All those negative emotions overlapped with the child’s desperate cries, weighing heavily on her heart.

“You’re the worst! You’re not even human! You’re irredeemable trash!”

Courtney’s furious scream rang loudly throughout the reception room. Her entire body trembled uncontrollably with rage and grief.

“How can you not even blink when a child is begging for his life like that? You monster without a shred of compassion!”

Her body collapsed weakly. Courtney sank to the floor and began sobbing uncontrollably.

“Sob… sob…!”

Meanwhile, Lionel quietly looked down at Courtney, whose body trembled as if she could barely breathe.

Watching the tears streaming endlessly down her cheeks, his hand moved without him realizing it.

“….”

But in the end, he couldn’t wipe away Courtney’s tears. It was because an unfamiliar emotion, one he had never experienced even once in his life, brushed against a corner of his heart.

***

“Miss Courtney…?”

He heard raised voices from the reception room, and soon Courtney came running out in tears. Alex, who happened to witness this, clicked his tongue.

“Ha, seriously! Why are you making a woman cry like that?”

Having already grasped the situation from what he overheard inside, Alex strode forward with an angry expression. He had pitied Liam, who was dragged away as if being pulled against his will, so his words came out even more bluntly.

“With that kind of rotten personality, how could Miss Courtney not get sick of you?”

At that moment, he fully understood why Courtney was looking at other men. If it were him, he would have run away long ago, unable to endure the Young Duke’s temper.

“Young Duke! What exactly did you do to Miss Courtney?”

Bang. Alex flung open the reception room door and shouted furiously. But,

“….”

The moment their eyes met, his voice died instantly. The killing intent lurking within Lionel’s icy blue eyes pierced straight through his bones.

“Haha, well, lovers are allowed to do certain things. Then I’ll be going now….”

“Alex.”

At the low voice calling his name, Alex froze in place.

“Yes…?”

“Go after her.”

“Me…? If you’re that worried, shouldn’t you go yourself? A grown man unable to do even that… I’ll go right away.”

Another murderous glare landed on him, and he immediately lowered his head and hurried out of the reception room.

“With that small body, where could she have gone?”

How many times did he circle the vast ducal residence? He searched every place Courtney might be, from the garden paths to behind the fountain, even the abandoned greenhouse, but he couldn’t find even her shadow.

Just when sweat soaked the soles of his feet from wandering so long, he finally spotted Courtney crouched beneath an old tree.

“Ahem….”

Alex approached her slowly and cleared his throat deliberately to announce his presence.

“Um… Miss Courtney? Are you alright?”

He called her name several times while standing there, but Courtney didn’t move at all. Her despair seemed so deep she couldn’t even hear sounds around her.

“I saw you crying earlier and followed you. The Young Duke told me to check on you.”

When she still gave no reply, Alex let out a small sigh. Then he took out a handkerchief from his pocket and gently placed it beside her.

His mother always told him that a man should carry a clean handkerchief at all times, so he could wipe a woman’s tears whenever necessary. Alex had faithfully followed that teaching ever since.

However, because he spent so much time at Lionel’s side, his handkerchief always carried a faint medicinal scent. The bitter smell of the Young Duke’s medicines had seeped into his clothes and even into the fabric.

“It’s not a particularly pleasant scent, but still… I’ll leave the handkerchief here. It’s clean, so please don’t hesitate to use it to wipe your tears….”

Seeing Courtney remain motionless, as if cut off from the world, he swallowed dryly. For some reason, a dull ache began to spread through his heart.

“And… I kept my promise. The Young Duke still knows nothing. I swear I will keep this secret until the day I die.”

After hesitating briefly, he continued with a serious expression. The tear stains covering her cheeks looked so unbearably pitiful that he felt he had to say this.

“This may be presumptuous, but… if possible, don’t stay with a man who hurts you. Miss Courtney,  you are not someone who deserves to be treated like that.”

His voice grew stronger as he continued his confession.

“You are a truly charming woman, Miss Courtney! Ah…!”

The moment the words left his mouth, he snapped back to his senses. What outrageous thing had he just said?

‘Damn it, I let it slip.’

She was the woman of the master he served. Guilt over committing such an immoral act made his heart pound violently.

“I-I’m sorry! Please pretend you didn’t hear that!”

His face burning bright red, he hurriedly fled the scene. His footsteps were so loud and frantic that Courtney’s brow twitched slightly as she stirred from her daze.

“…Hm? It feels like someone was just here.”

Courtney slowly lifted her head and looked around with unfocused eyes. She was certain she sensed someone’s presence, yet now the surroundings were eerily quiet.

“Was I dreaming? What was that…?”

At that moment, her gaze fell upon the handkerchief lying beside the tree. She carefully picked it up, and the familiar medicinal scent drifted faintly from the fabric. It was a smell she often noticed on Lionel, and an instinctive curse slipped from her lips.

“…Bastard.”

The neatly pressed white cloth crumpled mercilessly within her small hand.