To the One Who's Only Cold to Me - Chapter 110

Aisha didn’t say a word, even as Ian looked at her with desperate eyes. Watching her remain silent, Ian realized he was reaching the limit of his patience. Holding back his urge to demand an answer, he turned his eyes to the rain pouring outside the window. Then, kneeling on his other knee, he slowly rested his face on her lap, on her thigh.

Through the soft fabric of her dress, her familiar scent and her warm body calmed his anxious heart a little. Still in that position, Ian reached out and held Aisha’s cold hands tightly.

“At first, I wanted revenge on you too, along with your father. You’re the child of my enemy. I thought you were living in luxury while my parents’ blood had been spilled.”

“Do you know how hard I tried to hate you? How I struggled to look away from you, even though my eyes kept following you How I fought to stop my heart from reaching out to you?”

Thinking Aisha was tired of looking at him was just a misunderstanding Ian created himself. Looking back, he had never truly looked away from her. He had only forced himself to believe it, thinking he had to do so for the sake of his parents.

“I admit I hurt you a lot. I know how many tears you cried because of me. But Aisha I couldn’t help it. I had to do it. If I didn’t keep telling myself I hated you, if I didn’t hurt you to deny my own feelings, the guilt would have suffocated me.”

“I’m sorry for treating you so badly all this time. But I’ve only recently been able to admit it. That I care about you too much to let you go even though you’re the daughter of my enemy.”

Ian’s confession and excuses flowed along with the sound of rain. Aisha blankly stared down at Ian’s blond head resting on her lap.

“I love you, Aisha.”

“If I hadn’t hurt you all this time, you’d still love me too. No, you still do. You’re just hiding it denying it because you’re angry, just like I did.”

“I ask for your forgiveness for all the pain I caused. If you want, I’ll get on my knees and beg for that for the rest of my life. But in return…”

Actually, she couldn’t even fully understand what Ian was saying. More precisely, she wasn’t even listening. All she could hear over and over again was the first shocking thing he had said:

“Abandon your father. And marry me.”

Aisha finally came back to her senses after Ian said she should abandon her father. She moved her lips slightly and tried to pull her hands away from his. Ian raised his head in surprise at her sudden movement.

“I even thought of giving up revenge for you. But I can’t do that. I’ll let your other family members go because of you. But not your father. The Count must pay for his sins.”

“Aisha. Just say okay. Or just nod once. Then we can go back to how things used to be. You know how much we loved and cared for each other, right?”

Ian begged her to choose him over her father. But behind his gentle words, Aisha saw cruelty.

‘No. Ian really means to hurt my father.’

He truly meant to kill her father. Realizing that brought her fully back to her senses. Aisha tightened her trembling hands.

“No.”

“My father isn’t that kind of person.”

“You’re wrong, Ian. My father cared about you so much. He was heartbroken over your parents’ deaths. I know. You misunderstood. You’re the one who’s wrong, Ian.”

Shaking her head, Aisha spoke in a trembling voice, completely losing her calm. She didn’t believe Ian. No, she couldn’t. Because if she did, then his revenge might be justified. And if it was, then her father would surely be killed by Ian.

That’s why she desperately denied his words. The more panicked Aisha’s voice became, the more Ian’s expression faded. The light of trust in his eyes quickly turned dark. He let go of Aisha’s hands as she shook her head, crying, and bit his lip so hard it bled.

“So you’re choosing your father over me?”

“Ian, calm down!”

Suddenly, Ian stood up. His face twisted as if he had been stabbed. He grabbed Aisha’s shoulders and pushed his weight onto her. Overwhelmed by his strength, Aisha’s vision spun, and her back hit the seat of the couch, not the backrest.

“Fine. Let’s say I was wrong. But what if I wasn’t? What if your father really killed my parents? If that’s true, then what will you do? Will you still choose him? Or will you choose me?”

Ian’s hope was clear. But Aisha couldn’t say she would choose Ian. Even if it was true, how could she abandon her parent? Her father had always been warm to her. Even in an empire where daughters were often overlooked, he gave her as much or even more love than her brothers. And now she was supposed to choose a man who wanted to kill that father? It was impossible.

“Even if it’s true, I can’t abandon my father. You want me to watch you kill him? I can’t do that. And like I said, it must be a misunderstanding. I know my father well. Ian, you must be wrong. So”

“Ha!”

Ian let out a bitter laugh and covered his eyes with his hand, shaking with betrayal. Aisha tensed up, unable to see his face.

A flash of lightning filled the room, stealing her sight for a moment. After a while, Ian lowered his hand. His face was filled with anger, resentment, hatred, and every bad emotion.

He gritted his teeth and grabbed the couch with one hand and Aisha’s chin with the other.

“You hate me that much? Just because I treated you a little badly for a few years, you… you can’t trust me at all? Not even a little hesitation before choosing your father?”

“That’s your fault, Ian!”

Unable to hold back anymore, Aisha shouted at him. Yes. She couldn’t trust Ian at all. Unlike her father, who gave her complete trust, Ian had spent the last few years destroying hers. That’s why she didn’t hesitate to choose her father over him.

“For three years, I didn’t even know why you hated me. If you hated me for being your enemy’s daughter, you should’ve just ignored me. But you Ian, you never treated me like an equal.”

“You told me every day how annoying I was, how sick of me you were. Then you should’ve just looked away. But what did you do? You played with me. You put me in your hand and toyed with me. You kept changing your words and actions, trapping me so I couldn’t do anything.”

“And that’s why I gave you the reason! Because of your father! But even after hearing all that, you still”

Ian’s anger boiled over. He couldn’t accept that Aisha had chosen her father over him. That she had abandoned him so easily.

If she had at least shown a bit of hesitation, he wouldn’t have been this angry. If she had at least pretended to be open to seeing the proof he promised to show her. But Aisha didn’t hesitate at all. She didn’t believe Ian one bit and chose her father. That fact snapped the last thread of Ian’s reason.

“No. The problem was that I expected anything in the first place.”

As he tightened his grip on her chin, Aisha began to struggle. Seeing her try to escape made Ian even more twisted inside. He pressed down on her with his full weight.

“Like father, like daughter. You share the same blood. I had the wrong expectations.”

“It hurts.”

“Thinking about it now, I dragged this out because of you. If I had given up on you earlier. If you hadn’t blinded me, the revenge would’ve been over by now.”

“My stomach, mmph…”

“The time I wasted because of you was such a loss. I’m an idiot for even proposing to someone like you.”

Her lower abdomen had been hurting since the banquet. Now, crushed under Ian’s weight, it hurt even more. Aisha, unable to even scream, tried to push him away. But a loud thunderclap drowned her out, and Ian, not hearing anything, continued to speak with bitterness.

“Still… thanks for helping me wake up, even if it’s now.”

“L-let go. Let go of me, Ian.”

Normally, Ian would have noticed how pale Aisha’s face was getting. But now, consumed by anger, he took comfort in her pain. Because he was hurting, he wanted Aisha to hurt too.

In the end, Aisha gave up resisting. She let her limbs go limp, tears and cold sweat mixing on her face. Ian stared at her pale face, then bit down on her lips like he was devouring her. With a cruel smile, he whispered:

“Aren’t you curious what I’ll do to you next?”

“First, I’ll destroy your father. Then I’ll ruin your family. And after that, I’ll keep you as my slave. You know, right? That nobles secretly keep slaves. I’ll have one too.”

Keeping slaves was illegal in the Caesar Empire. But unlike dangerous drugs banned long ago, the anti-slavery laws were new and lightly enforced if the number was small. So many nobles and rich people still secretly kept slaves.

But illegal was still illegal. Aisha’s eyes went wide with shock. She could barely even say the word “slave.” And now Ian was saying he would kill her father, destroy her family, and make her his slave. She looked at him with disbelief.

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