What Remains at the End of Regret - Chapter 29

“I don’t remember well. We were just friends since we were very young.”

From so long ago that she couldn’t even remember.

Hayden Harper had been by Vivian’s side for a very long time.

“I heard he’s getting married.”

Vivian, recalling Hayden’s words about meeting the Duke at the harbor, wracked her brain and quickly added,

“I understand the marriage proposal came after Hayden returned from Lehman.”

Even as she spoke, Vivian couldn’t understand why the Duke was asking her about these things. Nevertheless, she spoke with fervor, hoping to alleviate her guilt and avoid punishment.

And again, she swallowed the uncomfortable silence that followed.

It wasn’t long before the Duke finally spoke.

“Thanks to your clever father, you’ve landed a fiancé who’s too good for you.”

The words, spat out with a hint of mockery, pierced Vivian’s heart once more.

What was that just now?

“He forced you, a mere country noble, onto the son of a wealthy tycoon.”

She tried to hold back.

She wanted to endure it.

She had even felt a glimmer of hope because he had treated her with more respect than she had seen before.

What was I even expecting?

But that small spark of hope quickly grew into a raging fire, tearing Vivian’s heart to shreds.

She could almost hear Hayden’s voice, confessing his love in a sincere tone. That truthful and honest confession. She was willing to listen to and endure any insults she had heard countless times before.

Because she wasn’t without fault. She tried to bear the disrespect directed at her in that way.

But the Duke had trampled even on Hayden’s heartfelt feelings. So lightly, as if it were nothing.

The noble Duke had once again given Vivian the worst day of her life.

Her battered heart was already beyond repair, and the surging sorrow was unbearable.

Even in this moment, she felt an immense surge of anger towards the Duke, who was still watching her with a consistently calm demeanor. Even as she felt such intense anger, the Duke had a terribly indifferent look in his eyes, as if he were watching a play.

She wanted to spew out the overwhelming emotions right away, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Vivian, pushing herself up from her chair to escape the situation, couldn’t control her staggering body and placed her hand on the table.

She didn’t want to be here any longer.

She didn’t want to be with the Duke.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Sit.”

“Haven’t you punished me enough already? In the way you do best, by insulting and trampling on me!”

“I said sit.”

“If you intended to hurt me, you’ve already succeeded! So I’ll be going back.”

“Do you love Hayden Harper?”

In that instant, an unbelievably absurd question flowed from the Duke.

Vivian had to struggle to regain her dazed mind.

Even in this moment, the words he threw to despise her were so contemptible.

Vivian was finally able to clearly realize the confusing emotions she had been pondering until now. The feelings she couldn’t be sure about towards Hayden. Only at the moment the Duke asked about those feelings did she feel like she could say it definitively.

Love.

The Duke, who tormented, mocked, and insulted her.

Hayden, who was kind, respectful, and made every moment happy.

There was no reason not to love him.

“Yes.”

It was definitely love.

She held back the tears that were about to burst out. She bit her lip, clenching her jaw, because she didn’t want to show him her collapsing self.

In order not to give anything to that beautiful and cruel man who was still looking at her like a toy, with a noble attitude.

Just for fun.

She resented and hated the Duke for saying that.

It was her last bit of pride towards the Duke, who readily spewed out hurtful taunts.

Vivian walked past the Duke.

It was that moment.

Time stopped, and the air floated.

Vivian, who was about to turn around at the slow, heavy footsteps approaching from behind, had no choice but to be helplessly caught off guard by the unprepared situation.

Before she could even recognize the cold sensation of a hand gripping her wrist, the Duke, who had pulled up her chin with his fingers, roughly devoured Vivian’s lips.

Hot breaths, unable to be exhaled, flowed between the lips that were pressed together moistly without a single gap.

“……”

Vivian twisted her body to escape from the hands that were wrapped around her head and holding her tightly, as if not to miss even that small warmth. But the struggling movements gradually stopped at the soft sensation that had penetrated the slightly opened crack, not missing the unguarded moment.

“Ugh, ungh…”

The tongue that had penetrated deeper into the perfectly sealed lips created a embarrassingly wet sound. All of the quickening breaths flowed into the other gap that was pressed against hers.

Vivian, who momentarily felt goosebumps at the touch that had gently penetrated her hair, was hitting the Duke’s chest, resisting and begging to be let go. The wrist held by the other hand was soon restrained from moving and shook wildly.

“Hngh…”

Before she knew it, all of Vivian’s breath was being sucked into him. The Duke, opening his jaw and tilting his head deeper, tenaciously savored that moist interior. Slowly, languidly.

The moist sensation that greedily devoured all of Vivian’s faint warmth and hot breath, even the last will to resist, touched and shook all of Vivian’s senses.

The sound of two hearts pounding as if they would burst echoed in the quiet greenhouse.

Tears were flowing from Vivian’s eyes, unable to hold back her moans. It was no use struggling to shake him off. The more she moved her body this way and that to escape, the more fiercely the binding force tightened.

He tenaciously scanned and devoured Vivian until he was finally satisfied.

Edmund, who finally slowly opened his eyes, gently rubbed that slender neck before grasping the small, closed jaw in his hand.

The woman shedding thick tears was finally clearly captured in his eyes.

Those green eyes, glaring at Edmund as if resenting him, contained the blue of summer. Those bright eyes, which always bestowed kindness on everything. Those shining eyes always twisted and turned away only in front of him. His gaze, which had been observing meticulously and delicately as if viewing a valuable work of art, now turned to her lips, which were swollen red. The festering marks remained like a brand.

Edmund finally released the woman who was unsatisfactorily pursing her red lips, all wet and chapped.

The two gazes that met in the air clashed for a moment, each harboring different desires.

“Don’t let me see you.”

It was unpleasant.

“Annoying.”

To the point where he wanted to twist that neck.

Vivian shook off the arm that was wrapped around her wrist with all her might and ran away in an instant.

Out of the greenhouse.

＊ ＊ ＊

She couldn’t understand any of the situations that had unfolded in an instant.

Before she could do anything, the Duke had pressed his lips against hers, and inevitably, hot breaths intertwined in a short amount of time.

Vivian, heading to the carriage to return home, was crying silently. So that the commotion wouldn’t escape outside the garden. She covered her mouth and sobbed quietly, suppressing her breath.

He must have been crazy. How else could he have…?

Vivian’s eyes, blurring with tears as she frantically rubbed her lips, were hazy.

Yes, it was an accident. This was just an unavoidable accident.

Vivian rubbed as hard as she could to erase the unclean traces of being violated by him. She constantly repeated and whispered. It was an unforeseen accident that was difficult to avoid, and all of this was nothing.

Then, she dropped her hand weakly.

She couldn’t even guess where it had gone wrong. The faint sense of guilt completely turned into resentment towards the Duke, dominating all of Vivian’s thoughts.

Regret, going back to that day when she was invited to the Lockberg summer villa and was simply happy, not knowing the terrible things that would happen afterward, passed the day when she refused Varner’s guidance and left the Duke with a burden on his mind for the first time, and slowly continued to the day when she faced the Duke again after time had passed, and the rainy day when she entered the Duke’s space in the worst state.

Every moment was a regret.

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