Hiding My Identity From My Husband - Chapter 44

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 44

He began to share his breath with me slowly, ever so slowly.
Warm oxygen entered through the seal of our lips.
I caught my breath, gripping Rue’s shoulders.
But this was only a temporary measure.
The water kept rising, and soon we would be trapped beneath it.
When that happened, our lives would end.
And yet……
‘I’m grateful we’re together,’ I thought.
I felt lucky that the last face I would see before dying was Rue’s.
I didn’t know what name to give this feeling, but in this moment, my heart had found a strange peace.
Warm breath entered once more. Rue’s lips were soft and burning hot.
Crash—! The water’s surface convulsed like a wave.
This is it, I thought. The very end.
But then a small shadow moved beyond the window.
Everything looked slow and murky underwater, yet someone was definitely there.
‘……Pinky?’
That’s right—I’d left a letter at the Abandoned Warehouse. Instructions to come to the Harbor the moment he found it.
Past me, you did well!
———!
Pinky raised his gun to the window. Then—Bang!—a thin crack spider-webbed across the transparent glass.
Crack!
Another shot. Fractures spread like a cobweb across the glass surface.
The despair that had gripped me moments before suddenly exploded into heat. But there was no time to think.
Bang!
The window was now on the verge of complete shattering. Rue and I locked eyes, then immediately began swimming toward it.
Crack!
The cracks in the window burst apart. The sudden pressure differential pushed a surge of seawater at us, and I stumbled, but Rue caught me and kept me from being swept away. We hurried up toward the surface.
“Gasp!”
Breaking through the water, I drew in ragged, desperate breaths.
Wet hair clung to my forehead, and salt-laced seawater traced down my cheeks.
My entire body was heavy with water, but right now, simply being alive felt like a mercy.
Breathing hard again, I wiped my face with the back of my hand.
If Pinky had been even a moment later, I would have drowned.
“Are you all right?!”
Pinky swam over urgently and asked. I laughed loudly, ruffling his hair.
“You beautiful fool!”
“Ow! Please don’t!”
Pinky flailed and shot me a resentful look.
“Aren’t you grateful I had a Waterproof Pistol? But really, how on earth did you end up in such a predicament?”
“I know. I still don’t understand how this happened……”
Then I felt a strange sensation running down my spine.
This wasn’t mere cold or fatigue. A keen, sharp awareness brushing across my skin.
‘This is……’
Someone was watching us.
My chest tightened and suddenly I couldn’t breathe again.
I turned hastily and scanned the surroundings, but found only endless sea and a quiet Harbor—no trace of another soul.
Yet I was certain: someone was watching me from somewhere.
This was no chance meeting of gazes.
It was a gaze thick and precise, as if I had been observed for a very long time.
“Rue.”
So I quickly called out to him.
“Do you feel it too?”
But there was no reply.
Worried he might have gone under again, I turned to look.
But something was wrong with Rue’s face.
“Lu?”
Her face was ashen, her eyelids trembling. And…
“Why is the water red?”
Blood spreading across the surface.
Could that deafening sound from before have mixed with gunfire?
She’d been shot and yet said nothing this whole time?
“Lu!”
I swam toward her urgently and pulled her into my arms.
Her head lolled against my shoulder, limp and unresisting.
“Are you—are you all right? Wait, you were shot, weren’t you? Where? Where did it hit?”
“It’s nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious? What do you mean nothing serious!”
There were many reasons why blood didn’t flow immediately after a gunshot wound, but when blood came pouring out suddenly like this, after considerable time had passed, there was only one explanation.
The bullet was still lodged in her body.
Her back? Or her shoulder?
Regardless, we had to reach safety and summon a physician immediately.
“Pinky. Get her other arm. We need to move, now.”
“Yes, at once!”
Pinky and I each took one of Lu’s arms and began to lead her along.
As she was dragged between us, slick and half-conscious, Lu let out a hollow laugh.
“I never thought the day would come when I’d have to lean on Charles.”
“Be quiet. You’ll tear the wound open!”
“Let me say just one more thing.”
Lu turned her head toward me.
“We’ll choose the dress and tuxedo next week.”
“You…!”
“You have to wait until then. You must.”
After those words, Lu’s voice fell silent.

* * *

“The bullet was lodged quite deep,” the Physician said, examining Lu’s body.
The Physician who had examined Lu spoke.
“Fortunately it missed the major vessels, but the muscle tissue suffered severe damage. Had it penetrated any deeper, it could have been life-threatening.”
Clink. The blood-soaked bullet rolled inside its box with a sound that rang out like thunder.
“The muscles in her right shoulder are torn. She’ll have difficulty using that arm for some time. Complete rest is absolutely necessary.”
Of course, this was not directed at Lu to hear.
Lu remained unconscious, so the Physician spoke to Mardi and me.
“A moderate fever is normal, but if a high fever persists, please contact me at once. It will mean infection has set in.”
“If infection sets in, what… what happens?” Mardi asked.
Mardi asked the question.
What happens if infection sets in?
“…The wound can become gangrenous and putrefy.”
There existed the possibility that we might have to amputate the arm.
“So you must watch the patient’s condition as carefully as possible, and contact me immediately if anything goes wrong. Do you understand?”
The Physician, wrapping the wound with Bandage, drove the point home like a nail. Both Mardi and I nodded in unison.
“Yes. I’ll give you the medicine now, so please wait a moment.”
“All right.”
Mardi sniffled and followed the Physician out of the room.
Click.
Once they had gone, only Lu and I remained in the room.
Though Lu lay on the bed, breathing softly and evenly.
I sat beside her, gazing down at her intently.
Her pale complexion looked so fragile it might stop breathing at any moment, and her swollen lips bore witness to the tremendous pain she was enduring.

—I… you…

What had Lu been trying to say then?
Without thinking, I touched my lips.
My lips, where Lu’s warmth had lingered, where her breath had rested.

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