The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 28

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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 28
Davion could gauge the depth of Blake’s anger from the sound of her breathing. Had she been there in person, he would surely have taken a slap to the face.
“If you’re curious about my condition, Mother, I’ll tell you. I don’t see what meaning there is in living like this without Cecilia. Lately I’ve thought that if I can’t be with her, I’d rather be dead. If there’s a doctor who can fix this, introduce me at once—I’m losing my mind.”
The morning sun dipped lower, light falling across his office. On a warm breeze came the chirping of birds.
This silence was unusually long and heavy. Shifting the receiver to his other hand, Davion glanced at the last letter envelope sitting forlornly in the tray.
‘This is…….’
Just as a deep furrow formed between his brows, Blake spoke again.
―You’re determined to disappoint this mother of yours all over again.
In an atmosphere brittle as thin ice, she thrust the blade of her words softly forward.
―I should never have accepted that girl from the start. Your father, Theodore, you—none of you have any sense.
Then the line went dead.
Beep, beep. The monotonous mechanical tone repeated. Davion calmly set down the receiver and unplugged the cord.
He didn’t think he’d made a mistake. It was something he would have had to face eventually in the search for Cecilia. For now, his attention was fixed on the last letter in the tray rather than on Blake.
The crude envelope bore the “Removable” stamp of Coltbridge Prison.
It was from Theodore.
* * *
Brother I don’t particularly love,
I didn’t go to my sister-in-law’s funeral on purpose.
When I see you, who failed to protect her, I feel like I’d kill you.
If you weren’t going to protect her, you should have let her go free.
You bastard.
* * *
The handwriting was as beautiful as a painting, belying the crude content. Wherever the pen had pressed down hard, the paper was indented and worn.
Davion’s lips curved slowly upward. He could almost see Theodore vividly in his mind’s eye—cursing in a cramped prison cell, pen scratching out words.
He drew out parchment paper and drafted his reply in handwriting as beautiful as his brother’s.
* * *
Brother.
Cecilia is alive.
That doesn’t mean she’ll ever be yours, but I thought you should know.
.
.
.
“How does it look? Natural?”
Cecilia turned and showed the face wearing the wig.
With a black bob wig and faux pockmarks on her face, she was completely transformed into someone else. Arcan rounded his lips in admiration, then gave a thumbs-up.
“Wow, wigs used by professional actresses really are different. It’s rare to get such a perfect fit.”
“True. That wig you wore before would come right off if you moved even a little…….”
“Wait, hold on!”
Arcan went pale and hurriedly covered her mouth.
The incident when he’d done drag was firmly cemented as one of his dark histories he wished to forget. Cecilia shrugged with a straight face, and he groaned softly before releasing her.
“I’ll pick up hair dye on the way back. I can’t keep using something I borrowed from someone else.”
“Hair dye? The smell alone would be harmful to animals……”
“I’ll find one with the weakest scent possible. Oh, did you bring the knife I gave you?”
When Cecilia pulled out the pocket knife from her handbag, Arcan nodded with satisfaction.
They were having their final disguise check near the rear exit of the Theater.
On days when Arcan was seeing her off, they couldn’t use the front entrance. His appearance was so striking that patrons often mistook him for an actor and asked for his autograph.
“Your husband must be quite a high-ranking person, it seems. Most ordinary office workers couldn’t dream of getting away on a weekday afternoon.”
When Arcan asked, Cecilia shrugged once more. It was her habitual evasion whenever questions about her husband came up.
She’d said he was military. If he could spare time on a weekday afternoon like this, he had to be at least an officer…….
Now that he thought about it, there was a possibility they’d crossed paths in Kalita during deployment. The threads leading to Cecilia’s husband were beginning to come together. Yet strangely, Arcan couldn’t shake the feeling that he was still missing something crucial.
Setting aside his doubts, he waved to Cecilia as she headed into the Theater.
Only after confirming that Cecilia had safely entered the Theater did Arcan leave his post.
Beyond the firmly shut glass door, Cecilia quietly watched Arcan’s retreating figure grow distant.
She still hadn’t brought up the proposal to leave for the south. She’d rehearsed everything she meant to say, yet standing before Arcan, her mouth wouldn’t open.
There was reason for it. Arcan and she had been together for only three months—they were still strangers. Having refrained from curiosity out of respect for boundaries, there was much they didn’t know about each other.
She hadn’t found Ruby yet, and if she asked hastily, things might become awkward, mightn’t they? At least until she found Ruby, she needed to maintain her relationship with him.
Since she couldn’t leave right away anyhow, the proposal could be postponed.
“Strangers Beneath the Sun” began at one o’clock in the afternoon.
The Theater was quiet now, but around lunchtime it would fill with crowds. Davion would be among them.
There was something she absolutely had to do to avoid meeting him by chance.
“What? You want to swap positions?”
Cecilia deliberately widened her eyes and nodded with exaggerated enthusiasm.
True to her word, Esmeralda had written down the performance’s start and end times, including the curtain call. Now all that remained was for Cecilia to exchange places with a colleague who cleaned the less-trafficked areas.
The colleague who covered the corridor connected to the side entrance was remarkably broad-shouldered—a detail that had lodged itself firmly in Cecilia’s memory.
“Wait, who were you again……?”
The woman squinted at the wigged Cecilia, unfamiliar at first, then let out a small sound of recognition. Among the cleaning staff, Cecilia was remembered less by name than by the distinctive pockmarks that scarred her face.
“Sorry. Which section were you responsible for?”
“Behind the stage in the Grand Theater Hall. More specifically, cleaning around the lift controls and the actors’ waiting rooms.”
“I don’t mind swapping—I’d get to watch the show, and I’m grateful for that. But why would you give up such a good spot?”
“I’m not feeling well today. With such an important performance, I don’t want to risk making a careless mistake if I push myself.”
“Well, if that’s the case……”
The colleague, scratching the back of her neck, fortunately accepted the explanation quickly. Cecilia, braced for another lie, exhaled inwardly with relief.
“Oh, but there’s something you need to watch out for when you clean around the side entrance. Come on, I’ll show you.”
Her colleague gathered the cleaning supplies and gestured for her to follow as she left the break room.
Passing through a shortcut reserved for Theater staff, they soon reached a dimly lit corridor.
The most forsaken corner of this enormous Theater. In other words, a place where she would absolutely never encounter Davion.
In the hallway, frequented by neither actors nor even the cleaning crew, an eerie silence hung heavy in the air.
Because the corridor faced away from the sun, a chill emanated from the row of windows lining its walls. Even though it was March, Cecilia’s breath misted with each exhale, and she found herself genuinely unsettled.
As she scanned her surroundings, her colleague knelt at the corridor’s edge and spoke.
“See this? Signs that vagrants have been through here.”
In her gloved palm lay a shard of broken glass from a bottle.
“Because of where this is, there’s quite a bit of this kind of thing. It’s dangerous, so never touch anything with your bare hands.”
Only then did Cecilia’s gaze catch on the debris scattered throughout the corridor’s recesses. Not just broken bottles, but also food wrappers and syringes lay scattered about.
Now she understood why so few people came here……. Taking the gloves her colleague offered, she swallowed down her rising tension along with a dry gulp.

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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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