My Husband Caught Me Having an Affair - Chapter 136

The man limped toward me on one leg. Without even glancing my way, he began inspecting the torture devices.

Torture technicians in novels or films are typically portrayed one of two ways: either as sadistic perverts who derive pleasure from others’ pain, or as emotionless machines.

At first glance, the man before me seemed like the latter. But I knew that wasn’t true.

His name was Toma Reggiani. Originally, he had worked as an agent in Girard’s intelligence division. After losing one eye and injuring his leg during an incident, he changed posts and began handling prisoner torture and interrogations.

The moment Marlon hinted at torture, Toma’s name had immediately come to mind. If I were to be tortured, the odds were high that he would be the one to perform it.

The variable was that Marlon currently didn’t trust his intelligence unit. If he considered the possibility that Toma might also be a mole and assigned someone else to the task, then there’d be nothing I could do.

It was a gamble—but one with good odds. The men who kidnapped Ines had massively failed in the last operation, so it was unlikely they’d be used again. And there wouldn’t have been enough time to recruit a new fixer.

‘All that was left was for Marlon to torture me himself… but realistically, that wasn’t a high-probability outcome either. Torture, after all, requires delicate technique and know-how.’

In any case, the first condition was met. I could also assume the second condition had been fulfilled. I didn’t know exactly where Marlon was or when he planned to come here, but one thing was clear—he wasn’t here right now.

I had to act quickly. If Marlon arrived, the opportunity I had seized might vanish into nothing.

Toma was inspecting the dreadful-looking devices, the purposes of which I dared not imagine.

“Reggiani.”

I called out softly. At that, his hand paused. He turned to me with his good eye—the one not hidden beneath the patch.

“Toma Reggiani, right? I have something to say to you.”

“……”

Toma said nothing. His expression didn’t change either. He simply set down the tool in his hand and reached for another. Apparently, just knowing his name wasn’t enough to make an impression.

That was fine. I had expected as much.

“Eric is still alive.”

At those words, Toma’s hand stopped again, and his eyes turned toward me. This time, I could see a definite flicker of emotion in his faded gray pupils.

“…What did you just say?”

“Shh. Keep your voice down.”

I whispered quietly, gesturing toward the men standing at the door.

“Just keep pretending to inspect the tools. It won’t do either of us any good if we’re caught talking.”

“……”

Toma looked at me with suspicion.

I continued slowly, “Eric is currently working as an apprentice at a carpenter’s workshop. Monsieur Gabriel Blanchard rescued and hid him from the fire that day. Sadly, he couldn’t save Adeline.”

“……”

Toma’s gaze trembled faintly.

In the original story, it had been Gabriel who informed Elodie and Ethan about Toma. He also knew in detail about the wrongdoings Marlon and Girard’s intelligence division had committed over the past decade. That was why I had asked Arthur to find Gabriel.

Toma’s family tragedy was the decisive reason Gabriel became disillusioned with Girard’s intel unit and defected.

Originally, Girard’s intelligence division only recruited people without families. The logic was that loved ones were weaknesses and potential hostages.

But Toma had been an exception. He had originally been the ace of another fixer organization and was recruited into Girard’s intel through scouting.

Toma had been steadily building a solid record at Girard when one day, a fire broke out at his mansion. The flames consumed his wife Adeline and their six-year-old son Eric, who had been home while Toma was away.

An internal investigation later confirmed that the fire had been arson—deliberately set.

The culprits were members of Toma’s former organization. It had been a warning, an example of what happened to traitors.

Enraged, Toma stormed the organization on his own. He killed every last one of his former comrades—including the boss. It was during that fight that he lost an eye and was left with a limp.

But the truth was something else.

“I heard it directly from Monsieur Blanchard. The one who set fire to the mansion wasn’t your former organization. It was the Girard intelligence division.”

At my words, Toma’s eyes widened.

That incident had been orchestrated on Marlon’s orders—to eliminate Toma’s weakness and create justification for getting rid of the thorn-in-the-side organization.

But Marlon had never expected Toma to storm the organization alone. As a result, Toma lost the combat ability necessary to remain active in the field.

So Marlon appointed Toma as the successor to the aging torture technician.

‘He must’ve thought it was an effective way to put Toma’s dexterity and fury to use. And to be fair, it did turn out that way.’

When Gabriel was ordered to set fire to Toma’s mansion, he voiced opposition, saying, ‘Isn’t this going too far?’

But there was no way the intelligence division could refuse a direct order from Marlon.

“Monsieur Blanchard eventually devised a plan to secretly extract your family and stage the scene with different corpses to fake their deaths. Unfortunately, the plan only succeeded halfway… but thanks to it, Eric is still alive.”

Gabriel sent Eric to a remote village far from the capital and planned to inform Toma when the opportunity arose.

But one of the agents noticed what Gabriel had done. Gabriel ended up killing that agent in a struggle.

An investigation began surrounding the agent’s death. Gabriel hurried his plan to defect from the Girard intelligence unit and faked his death during a mission to disappear.

Even after that, the matter of Toma and his son weighed heavily on Gabriel’s conscience. In the latter part of the original story, after collaborating with Ethan to bring down Marlon, Gabriel finally told Toma the truth—that his son was still alive.

Toma shed tears of shock and joy, but said he had committed too many horrific acts to return to his son. He then turned himself in and served his sentence in prison.

“…How do you know all that?” Toma asked in a hoarse, cracked voice.

“I told you. I heard it directly from Monsieur Blanchard,” I whispered softly.

“……”

“The Duke of Girard must’ve ordered you to extract the name of the spy colluding with House Dumont from me, right? The reason I was able to learn the inner workings of the Girard intelligence division in such detail is all thanks to Monsieur Blanchard. He sought us out, wanting to use the information he had as a weapon to make Duke Girard pay for his crimes. He said only House Dumont had the power to make that happen.”

“……”

This wasn’t entirely a lie. The details were slightly different, but it was something that had actually happened in the latter part of the original story.

“Monsieur Blanchard also said that he wanted to tell you Eric was alive. That he was sorry he couldn’t save your wife.”

“……”

Though Toma was visibly shaken, even his breathing uneven, his eyes still held a trace of suspicion as he looked at me.

Which was understandable. It was an utterly sudden revelation, like lightning out of a clear sky.

If I wanted to gain his trust, I needed something conclusive to drive the point home.

“Monsieur Blanchard told me—Eric still remembers that song.”

“…What did you say?”

“He said you used to carry Eric on your shoulders on your days off and go to the market. You’d hum that song along the way. ‘The Knight on the Mule.’ The knight in shining armor is on the march. Swaying atop his mule. Heeyah! Eric still remembers that song.”

“……”

Toma looked utterly stunned, as if his soul had left his body.

That story about the song was the last resort Gabriel used in the original work to persuade Toma. Even then, he couldn’t stop Toma from turning himself in.

I looked straight into Toma’s eyes and said, “Come with me. Let’s get out of here, Toma. And go see your son.”

“……”

Toma’s tightly clenched fists trembled.