Revenge Comes with Interest - Chapter 48

Lea was taken to the city police by the guards.

No matter how desperately Pauline ran after them and tried to argue, it was useless. They simply repeated that they were following orders from above.

Pauline began to cry as she watched Grace being pulled away, but Lea tried to calm her.

“This must be a mistake. Please tell Terran.”

“Yes, I will… I promise.”

Pauline nodded through tears and climbed into the carriage, heading straight for the Duke’s estate.

Lea, on the other hand, was taken away in a guards’ carriage to an unfamiliar place. It was dark, damp, and nothing like anywhere she had ever thought she would see in her life.

A tall red brick wall surrounded the area, with rough barbed wire tangled along the top. It was likely to prevent prisoners from escaping.

Me, arrested for attempted murder? What in the world is going on?

No matter how she tried to make sense of it, it was absurd.

But once they stepped into the dark and narrow hallway, fear began to take over.

A few flickering lights dangled dangerously from the ceiling, as if they might fall at any moment.

There were so few lights that she had to stay close behind the officer in front of her or risk getting completely lost.

“Please, there must be some mistake. I’ve never tried to hurt anyone.”

Lea’s voice trembled with fear as she repeatedly tried to explain, but the officer remained silent and walked ahead without even turning around.

Even though she was wearing a thick coat, she was shaking so badly her teeth chattered. The chill inside was colder than outside, a kind of damp cold that came from places long hidden from sunlight.

Suddenly, the officer stopped walking and opened a cell door at the end of the hall.

“Step inside.”

He gestured toward the open cell.

Lea stared at it in shock. It felt like a monster with its mouth wide open, waiting to swallow her whole.

The room inside was completely dark, with only a few dim candle sconces fixed to the wall. Even the small window that let in a little light was blocked by thick iron bars.

“You mean… in there?”

Lea could not believe it. Had she committed some terrible crime to deserve this? No matter how she searched her memory, nothing justified it.

“Please go in.”

The officer responded with a cold, mechanical tone.

Lea dragged her heavy feet into the cell. The moment she stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind her, and she heard the lock turn with a loud click.

“What?”

She rushed back to the door and began pounding on it.

“Please, let me out! I am not a criminal!”

Her voice echoed through the hall as she cried out in fear, but no one responded.

At that moment, a rat scurried across the corner of the cell and stared at her.

“Ahh!”

Lea screamed and pressed herself tightly against the wall, as if she had seen a monster.

Only then did she really see the room. It was so small that there was barely space to move. A single wooden plank with one thin blanket was all she had.

Suddenly, her father came to mind.

Is Father locked up somewhere like this right now?

Her mind snapped into clarity. Maybe someone had put her here to remind her not to lose sight of her goal.

A while later, she heard movement outside. Several footsteps approached and stopped right outside her cell.

Who is it?

The sound of keys turning in a lock echoed loudly through the corridor. The door slowly opened.

Lea instinctively clutched her coat tightly.

Standing in the doorway was Terran. He wore his uniform with a black cloak, his figure filling the entrance completely.

“Terran…”

Lea called his name in a dazed whisper. Tears welled up in her eyes, full of fear.

Terran looked only at Grace as he walked slowly into the cell.

“Was it fun, running away from me?”

His voice was cold, like the damp chill that clung to the prison walls.

“I didn’t run away. I came back, didn’t I?”

“And you thought you could just leave me behind like that?”

His anger was overwhelming. He no longer seemed like the man she had known. In the flickering candlelight, his dark eyes looked as if they were burning with rage.

“Did you ever stop to think about how betrayed I felt, Grace?”

This side of him was completely unfamiliar. In this moment, Lea truly believed he might kill her with his own hands.

“You were relaxing at the hotel in Brassel, dining at a banquet hosted by Allen McDowell. Even though I was in Galdensia, you sat with him, laughed with him, and shared a meal.”

Terran described it all as if he had been right there, watching everything.

He had me followed.

Of course, Terran would never let things go so easily.

She had been uneasy when he didn’t chase after her. Now she realized he had found another way to keep watch over her.

“You were spying on me?”

“Not spying. Protecting.”

At that moment, Lea began to understand the situation clearly. The person who had locked her up was none other than Terran himself.

“You were angry with me, so you did something this outrageous?”

If that was true, then Terran was not in his right mind.

“You called this outrageous?”

Instead of calming down, Terran raised his voice at Grace. She flinched at the sudden anger.

“I nearly died because of you.”

She froze.

That was the reason he had imprisoned her under the name of attempted murder. Terran stepped forward and gently held her face.

“You probably don’t believe it, do you?”

“Believe what?”

“That I was in so much pain because of you, I thought I might die.”

“I’m sorry. After I met the Empress, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I forgot you were still unwell.”

“I don’t care about being sick. But forgetting me? Leaving me behind? That nearly killed me. Don’t you understand? My heart burned to ashes, screaming for you.”

Terran’s face was filled with rage, sorrow, and a desperate, aching kind of love.

But Lea couldn’t help crying. He was only talking about his own pain. As if hers didn’t matter.

“Do you not remember how badly you hurt me? You stood in front of me and confessed your feelings for the Empress. When I asked her for help on your behalf, do you think I wasn’t breaking inside?”

She shoved his hand away. If they were going to talk about who was hurt more, they needed to start at the beginning.

“The Empress is just a friend to me. Nothing more. Our parents talked about an engagement when we were kids, but it was never what I wanted.”

“You said she was your first love.”

“When I was eight. What does that even mean now?”

“Still, you called her Vivian all the time. You missed her. It was obvious.”

Tears streamed down Lea’s cheeks without end. Seeing her like that, Terran suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace.

No more tricks. No more games.

“I did it because I wanted to know how you felt about me. If you got jealous, it meant you had feelings for me.”

She laughed bitterly inside.

All of this, just to test me?

Lea tried to push him away, furious, but she couldn’t break free. Her strength was no match for his.

The more she struggled, the tighter Terran held her. Then, without warning, he said something that shattered everything.

“I love you. No matter what you look like. Even if you weren’t in this body, I would still love you. I don’t want your body. I want your soul.”

Lea stopped moving.

She had wanted to hear those words so badly, but she never imagined she would hear them like this.

Until now, being loved as the fake Grace had always felt like a burden. A constant, gnawing guilt.

But now, he had said it clearly. He loved her soul, not just her appearance.

The confusion that had clouded her heart vanished in an instant. All the blame and resentment she had carried toward him melted away.

“Terran, is it really alright for me to love you? Can I love you without guilt, without fear, without holding back?”

Terran’s chest ached at her words. He didn’t understand why she had ever felt guilty or afraid, but he hated that she had.

Maybe she still hadn’t forgotten how cold and heartless he used to be.

“You have to love me. If you don’t, I won’t let you out of this cell.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I can do worse. I almost died because of you.”

Tears glistened in Lea’s pale violet eyes, making them shine like jewels. Her lips trembled, and after a deep, shaky breath, she spoke.

“Kiss me, Terran.”

The woman who looked at him with those radiant, mysterious eyes was so beautiful it felt unreal.

Terran kissed her immediately. As her arms wrapped around his neck, they drew closer, pressing into each other.

The kiss was long, fiery, and filled with all the longing and pain they had carried for so long. Lea finally understood.

Love isn’t something you can suppress or ignore. It burns through you no matter how hard you try to resist it.

I love your soul too.

He was wounded, twisted, and sometimes too extreme. But she loved him all the same.

Terran kissed her like a starving child desperate for warmth. It wasn’t just desire. He wanted to say I love you. But he held it back, as if trying to protect what little peace they had.

He had never been given a life filled with joy. He had always heard that fate was jealous of happiness and took it away when you least expected it. So, he would treasure this moment while he could.

When the long kiss finally ended, they let themselves enjoy the soft, lingering emotions that followed.

“Please don’t test me again.”

“I won’t.”

He felt embarrassed by how childish he had acted, all because of advice he once took from Luke.

“Do you think we can hold onto this feeling from now on?”

Lea’s heart was so full that she felt a little afraid.

“We have to. No matter what.”

He used to believe people only died from war, famine, disease, or poverty.

But now he knew that love could crush a soul, that longing could make someone sick, and that heartbreak could destroy a person from the inside.

Because he had lived through it himself.

“Grace, if you want to live, then you have to love me.”

He was never the romantic type. He was clumsy and rough. But she loved him for that.

I want to live too. I don’t know how long this happiness will last, but I’ll hold on with everything I have.

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