My Ex-Husband Came Back Crazy - Chapter 74

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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 74
Chapter 8. Awakening (4)
She doubted her own ears.
Like a withered branch caught in winter wind, the air that had been trembling moments before froze solid in place.
The man who’d spoken those words—sweet yet somehow dangerous—was Lucius, and they stood in the House of Brickwell’s grand hall, and she was not the only one who heard his whisper slip free.
“Lucius?”
As Celia’s head creaked around, Lucius softened the cool rigidity that had seized his eyes.
The tight boundaries of his pupils eased, and warmth brushed across her back. Heat spread down her spine, and her posture straightened of its own accord.
“What are you saying—”
She’d heard something enormous, she was certain of it.
She faltered, unable to continue. Under normal circumstances she would have kicked his shin without hesitation, but the shock of his words left her floundering in confusion.
“You bastard…!”
And as luck would have it, there was someone present to shatter Celia’s shock.
Lucius’s head tilted slightly over Celia’s shoulder just as Evandor, wearing the same dazed expression, suddenly roared.
Evandor’s eyes flushed red with fury.
He reached out again, wrenching Celia from Lucius’s embrace with brutal force.
“Keep your hands off her, you empty-headed fool!”
As he yanked her toward himself with sharp curses, the collision of both men’s strength sent Celia’s body twisting helplessly.
“…!”
Her right arm bent backward. The bone running from shoulder to elbow screamed in white-hot agony, and her vision went blank with pain.
“A Windmere dog setting foot in Brickwell.”
Evandor poured out his rage at Lucius, not even aware that Celia had been hurt by his own carelessness.
Celia’s brow twisted instantly as her breath caught short against the pain.
“Celia—”
Before Lucius could notice her injury and move, she was faster.
Clutching her injured arm, she steadied her wavering frame and brought her heel down hard and mercilessly on Evandor’s instep.
“…!”
Lucius’s hand froze in midair, and Evandor’s back heaved sharply.
Yet he did not cry out.
Tough. Stubborn. A bitter bastard.
Celia glared at him while nursing her arm. Evandor turned to her with furrowed brows.
“Let go.”
“…You should have some sense of proportion, sister.”
Evandor ground through the pain and tightened his grip on her wrist. His voice dropped to a bitter whisper between his teeth.
“Have you lost your mind? Or have you gone mad along with that bastard?”
In his grip, Celia’s trembling arm convulsed as she tried to twist free. But Evandor remained unmoved as stone.
She wielded the only weapon still at her command.
“Shut your filthy mouth!”
“And whose mouth is filthy? Now is the time to be angry with me?!”
The siblings snapped at each other with equal venom.
Lucius stepped forward and pried Evandor’s hand away.
Evandor’s eyes twitched, but Lucius’s attention remained only on Celia.
“Are you hurt?”
“Don’t… don’t touch it.”
“Just let me see. Yes?”
He shielded her from Evandor’s sight with his own body, then slipped the fabric of her dress down from her shoulder. Even Celia was startled by the gesture.
Lucius’s face crumpled at once. Her white shoulder was grotesquely swollen with an angry red flush.
His eyes—so composed and gentle a moment before—flashed with cold, lethal intent in an instant.
He spoke with chilling precision.
“We’re leaving.”
“We’re in the middle of a conversation! Don’t go trying to leave on your own!”
“A conversation? So that’s what Brickwell calls this. It’s not called that in Windmere. I’m taking Celia away—my wife, whom you’ve injured.”
“That was…! An accident! She’s my sister. Let her go.”
“My wife, as well.”
Evandor reached for Celia again, but Lucius sharply batted his hand away.
A loud scraping sound echoed through the vast hall.
“I don’t trust anyone who wounds under the guise of mistakes.”
“Rich. Being lectured by you about handling my sister carelessly.”
“…I, at least, don’t behave as you do.”
“Can you promise that?”
Evandor’s eyes narrowed sharply, his mouth twisted in a bitter smile.
It was Celia who could no longer bear it.
“Both of you, shut up!!”
“….”
“….”
She shoved against Lucius’s chest, breathing hard.
“I’m going back, and Evandor, you stop talking right now.”
“Sister…!”
Evandor called after her urgently. Celia turned her back on him coldly. She also refused Lucius’s offer to help her as he hurried to follow.
“I don’t need support. It’s my arm that’s injured, not my legs.”
“…Celia.”
The plaintive tone of his voice held no power over her.
‘This is my problem—what are you two doing about it?!’
With one final sharp, cold glance at Evandor, she crossed the hall in long, determined strides.
***
Celia rested her forehead against the carriage wall, absorbing the full force of its rocking vibrations.
Sharp, tingling pain scraped at her nerves.
“Have you lost your mind?!”
“….”
“Lucius Windmere!”
Instead of answering, Lucius pushed her deeper into the carriage. His hands were so careful not to brush against her injured arm that her irritation only grew.
“Why did you come to that place!”
“You speak as though I went somewhere I shouldn’t have.”
It was far worse than somewhere he shouldn’t go…
That place was filled with sharpened blades, all aimed at his death.
Surely he hadn’t missed the servants’ piercing stares in Brickwell—yet Celia regarded him with narrowed eyes.
“I have no intention of letting her go.”
At the same moment, his earlier words echoed in her mind.
That sticky, persistent, possessive declaration. Coming from Lucius, she couldn’t dismiss a single word of it.
“…If I’d known you’d fight with Evandor like that.”
“Still, I was happy you chose me.”
It was absurd.
He answered brightly, unaware of how troublesome and vexing Evandor became once he sulked. Only then did she realize the responsibility for all this lay with her, and she pressed her palm to her forehead.
She could have soothed Evandor and followed Lucius afterward.
But she hadn’t, mainly because she couldn’t bear to watch his neck snap. For him to walk willingly into her father’s territory…
Memory loss was this terrifying.
Celia sighed. It hadn’t been this bad when Evandor rushed into Windmere alone last time.
Lucius called her softly, gazing down at her shoulder with pity.
“Celia.”
His green eyes held her like a deep, still pool.
“Shall I stop the Marriage Engagement Proposal between Brickwell’s prince and the Marquis of Larendel’s daughter?”
“What?”
Celia’s eyes widened round with surprise at the unexpected question.
“Why would you?”
He tilted her chin up slightly, making her meet his gaze.
“If you don’t wish it, I’ll work to prevent it.”
“…I don’t wish it, certainly.”
Given Evandor’s temperament, she couldn’t imagine he and the Marquis of Larendel’s daughter would live well together.
As her eyes rolled, he exhaled softly between his teeth.
“That answer is enough.”
His thumb brushed gently across her lower jaw.
The ticklish sensation made her neck shrink back, and he drew nearer. His warm breath approached so close it was almost against her lips.
“I’ll solve whatever troubles you.”
Why was he doing this all of a sudden? Again.
She couldn’t fathom what drove him.
‘Just because I wish it?’
A Duke was pushing forward this marriage proposal, no less. The complications that might arise in the process went without saying.
“So, Celia.”
He murmured while stroking her injured arm.
“If you handle this matter well, you must reward me later.”
His voice was rough enough to scrape her throat, and something inside her itched. She curled her hand, which rested on the seat, into a fist. As she leaned back to escape his approach, the back of her head struck the carriage wall, and she had nowhere left to retreat.
“A reward…for what?”
Lucius rubbed against her like a cat.
“Your love?”
And before she could react in any way, Lucius closed his eyes and pressed his lips to her palm.
“Joking.”
Then he whispered something she couldn’t comprehend.
“Instead, forgive me once, no matter what mistake I make.”
I hope you never become disappointed in me, he murmured under his breath. Celia could only tilt her head.
She nodded as though losing to his gaze, but…

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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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