A Contract Marriage with My Child’s Father - Chapter 74

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 74

A dark alley where streetlight illumination flickered dimly.

Cain pulled Viola into his arms and held her captive.

“Ugh…”

The woman trembling in his arms groaned like someone being strangled, then wrapped her delicate hands around her own throat.

The sound of her labored breathing transmitted directly through his chest.

This was the first time he had seen Viola trembling in such desperate fear.

He examined Viola’s face revealed under the dim light. Her already pale face was completely drained of color, ghastly white.

“It’s okay.”

Cain instinctively comforted her.

Viola, who had been breathing pitifully, gripped Cain’s clothes tightly with trembling hands.

“Viola.”

“Huu…”

As if trying to escape from the frightening reality, she burrowed even deeper into his chest.

Her small, thin body was completely hidden behind Cain’s broad back, becoming invisible.

But the woman was still afraid.

Cain wrapped his hand around Viola’s pink head and imprisoned it against his solid chest.

Her small head, small enough to fit in one hand, nestled against him.

Lovely pink curls scattered between the smooth texture of his silk gloves.

Even so, the breathing he felt through her clothes remained precarious.

She was crying.

“No one can see.”

So it’s okay.

Cain whispered low over her head once more.

Before long, her trembling subsided somewhat.

In case she might become frightened again, Cain completely trapped her between the alley wall and himself.

So that no one in the world could see her. So that whatever made her tremble with fear could never find her.

Cain’s eyes grew cold as he held Viola for a long while.

She in his arms now looked more pitiful than anything in the world.

‘I thought she was a woman who knew no fear at all.’

Because she always acted boldly in any situation.

Because she was the kind of woman who acted fearlessly even toward him, whom the whole world feared.

Yes. She was certainly such a bright woman.

What on earth could make her collapse like this?

Cain’s gaze turned to the two people passing through the alley.

Next to a woman with brilliant blonde hair, a brown-haired man was glancing in their direction.

It might have simply been turning his head because he sensed someone’s presence.

But something seemed amiss. The man’s gaze didn’t easily leave the direction where Viola was hiding.

Could it be…?

Was it because of that man?

If it was simply seeing someone she didn’t want to encounter, avoiding them would be enough.

But Viola’s reaction was too intense to be mere dislike.

It was more like a much deeper reaction, closer to fear, as if something had touched a trauma carved in the deepest part of her soul.

Suddenly, a conversation he’d had with her flashed through his mind.

“Then who exactly is the child’s father…”

The sad expression Viola had made the moment he asked that question.

The woman who always smiled brightly had, in that moment alone, eyes that were indescribably sorrowful and mournful.

Those eyes that were both longing and terrified.

At the same time, Conrad’s voice from his past report overlapped.

Viola’s former lover who had disappeared without leaving a trace.

That man who was Melody’s biological father.

Could that man from years ago still hurt Viola this much?

He couldn’t know the exact details. But whoever it was, whatever it was, it didn’t matter.

Cain was terribly displeased by that fact.

He embraced Viola even tighter.

So she would no longer be afraid, so no one could frighten her, he pressed her closer into his arms.

As if he would hide her from the world and have only him see her.

His embracing touch was relentlessly persistent.

* * *

I came to my senses quite some time later.

While I was floundering in a state of panic, Cain had apparently moved me into the carriage at some point.

I couldn’t even remember when we came here or when we got into the carriage. I must have really lost my mind.

“I, I’m sorry… for suddenly showing you such a state.”

Now that my reason had returned, I apologized to him with drooping eyebrows.

“…I thought I saw a familiar face, but I must have been mistaken.”

How flustered he must have been.

We had come out after a good meal and were walking cheerfully when I suddenly couldn’t breathe and collapsed into his arms.

Despite the commotion, we could have ended the day peacefully with that pleasant meal. I felt like I had completely ruined it, so I couldn’t lift my head at all.

When I stole a glance at his clothes, they were a mess.

The hem of his coat, which was always impeccably neat, was wrinkled from how tightly I had gripped it, and there were clear tear stains on his chest proving that I had cried while being held.

‘Ugh, I’m such an idiot.’

Just then, when only the clattering sound of the carriage filled the silence, Cain’s low voice was heard.

“That’s enough, lift your head.”

“…Yes.”

Though I was embarrassed to show my swollen eyes, I slowly lifted my head as he said.

“Are you calm now?”

“Yes… Thanks to you. Thank you.”

When I nodded slightly, Cain turned his gaze toward the window as if that was sufficient.

He probably noticed I was embarrassed and deliberately showed consideration.

He didn’t ask me why I had acted that way or who those people I saw earlier were. I felt even more sorry because of that delicate, grateful, and warm silence.

And thanks to that, I was able to organize my thoughts calmly.

‘…I should have held onto my reason a little longer.’

Now that I had calmed down, I finally began to properly perceive the situation.

Thinking coolly, that person earlier wasn’t Shurin.

Even setting aside the fact that she had no connections to the north, that person absolutely could not have been Shurin.

‘Because a lot of time has passed since then.’

The Shurin who always tormented me in nightmares was always in the form of a young girl, but time in reality hadn’t stopped.

Certainly, that person’s clothes and appearance were remarkably similar to Shurin from childhood.

She resembled the Shurin from my dreams so much, but paradoxically, that’s precisely why she absolutely couldn’t be the person herself.

By now, Shurin would have become quite a mature woman as the years passed.

A problem I could have figured out quickly with just a little thought.

However, just facing an appearance identical to her from my nightmares completely shut down my thought processes.

‘I thought I had overcome it all… but I hadn’t.’

The price of arrogance was painful and harsh.

To collapse like this just from seeing one similar face.

What would have happened if it hadn’t been Cain.

If I hadn’t been completely hidden within his broad embrace, I would never have been able to calm down in that place.

Before I knew it, the carriage had reached the familiar manor.

“Sweet dreams.”

Normally we would have parted in front of the main building, but he brought me right to the front of the annex before quietly offering his evening farewell.

“…May you have a peaceful night as well, Your Grace.”

With my greeting concluded, he disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

Inside the carriage, Cain had agonized over it countless times.

Whether or not to ask her for the truth.

Whether past connections truly remained so painfully etched in her heart that they could still drag her into such a mess.

He was dying to know the truth, yet at the same time didn’t want to confirm it.

He wanted to know while simultaneously not wanting to know. It was contradictory, but that was his honest feeling.

Cain couldn’t understand this fickle emotion even himself.

A very simple and short question.

Just by asking, Viola would surely tell him the truth.

Yet strangely, despite being aware of this fact, he couldn’t bring himself to ask her anything until the very end. As if he lacked the courage to do so.

All he could do was choose silence and escort her to the front of the annex.

In the end, he chose not to confirm the truth.

No, it would be more accurate to say he couldn’t.

With a heavy heart, he headed to his study out of habit. His face was coldly hardened as if reflecting his mood.

“You’ve returned. I’ve confirmed the matter regarding Winterwald’s monsters—”

“Never mind that. More importantly.”

“Yes.”

“There should be another report I ordered.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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