Chapter 107
The conversation was over. No sooner had Jenok finished speaking than Damian, who had just woken from sleep, began mumbling and looking for his mother.
Because her son clung to her, refusing to be separated from his mother, Rowena left the hospital then and there. The place she headed was not the mansion, but a small, cozy house. It was where they had stayed briefly before heading to the harbor.
It was small, with no maids or housekeepers to attend them, but it was warm and comfortable, as though it had always been their home. It was also her house, purchased by Jenok two days ago and transferred into Rowena’s name.
“……
and they lived happily ever after.”
“That’s the end?”
“Yes. Now let’s sleep.”
Rowena closed the fairy-tale book and pulled the blanket, which had slipped down to her son’s waist, up over his shoulders. She pressed a brief kiss to his small forehead and was about to rise when a small voice caught her by the ankle.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“Why do the people in stories end by living happily ever after?”
It was a question without any clear direction. Rowena paused for a moment to think, then smiled softly and sat back down where she had just been.
“I wonder. Why do you think?”
“So the readers feel relieved?”
“That could be it.”
“Or is there some other reason?”
“Maybe it’s a reward.”
At her murmur, Damian’s eyes widened. Seeing his face demand an explanation, Rowena stroked her son’s hair with a loving hand.
“Everyone goes through difficult trials and pain. After enduring those painful, agonizing times, happiness comes.”
“How is that happiness different from just happiness?”
“Mm…… maybe it’s more precious and valuable.”
“Then Dad too?”
The hand moving gently through his hair came to an abrupt stop. Damian, not noticing, urged her to answer.
“Will Dad get a reward too? Hm?”
“……
I wonder. When he wakes up, do you want to ask him yourself?”
Rowena deferred her answer and closed her son’s eyes with her hand.
“Now, let’s sleep. Good children go to bed early.”
* * *
Another week passed. Killian showed no sign of opening his eyes, and since she could not keep Damian as he was forever, Rowena, with Jenok’s help, hired one tutor and one maid. Damian, who had stubbornly insisted on going with her to the hospital, fortunately seemed to have discovered the joy of learning and no longer tried to follow Rowena out.
The days that had continued on so precariously, yet so peacefully on the surface, shattered one day without warning.
“Excuse me. Are you Miss Philone?”
As she entered the hospital through the private-room entrance as usual, someone called out to her. At the name she had not heard in some time, she turned her head, and a man with a fedora pulled low over his brow approached. He held a notebook and pen in his hands. Rowena, wary, stepped back without realizing it.
“What is this about?”
“Ah, I’m this sort of person. You don’t need to be on guard.”
Belatedly, the man rummaged through the inner pocket of his jacket and held out a business card. The moment Rowena confirmed the man’s occupation, her pupils trembled. Seeing that reaction, the man’s eyes gleamed, and he quietly opened his mouth.
“The person hospitalized inside is, as expected—”
“So you were here.”
Before the reporter could even finish his sentence, a voice cut in and saved Rowena.
“Mr. Jenok.”
“Let’s go in. I was waiting for you.”
With the face of someone who had met a savior, Rowena nodded. The reporter reached out.
“Ah, wait a moment!”
He tried to follow the two as they turned away, but men who approached silently blocked his path.
Meanwhile, the two who had turned away entered the hospital room with quick steps, without saying a word. As soon as the door closed and he confirmed that no one else was there, Jenok began.
“It is becoming difficult to hide the truth from the home country any longer.”
The vacancy left by the Duke of Devonshire was immense. They had struggled desperately to fill his absence and block the mouths of the press and the people, but they could not cover the eyes and ears of so many forever. They were slowly reaching their limit.
“The worst possible case would be if Her Majesty the Queen notices. She is still sunk deep in grief over the death of her friend, and has closed her ears to worldly news, but……”
If she learned the truth, there was no predicting how she would act. Even if she had softened considerably compared to before, the queen was still the person who stood at the pinnacle of a nation. The queen acted for the benefit of the country rather than out of personal feelings, and treated the duke less as a nephew of her blood than as a tool she could use for the national interest.
“We may have to make an announcement soon. Before they make the first move.”
If the queen learned of it, she might immediately remove the oxygen respirator and announce his death. After that, it would be only natural for her to fold all of Killian’s assets and businesses, which she had long coveted, into the royal family under the pretext of serving the national interest.
What would happen to Damian and Rowena in that process was obvious. A woman who had not been acknowledged. A woman who, though it had been annulled, had once been married to another man. And on top of that, an illegitimate child born without standing upright before God.
It would only be a matter of time before they were killed without anyone knowing. Before they realized it, an unseen enemy was tightening its grip around their throats. Just in case, he had placed thorough guards around the house and near Rowena, but they still had to keep the slightest possibility in mind.
“It will all be over if that man wakes up.”
She forced a smile, but the corners of her mouth spasmed.
“Isn’t that all it takes?”
Swallowing a bitter sigh, Jenok heavily closed his eyes.
“It has already been nearly fifteen days. We cannot simply wait forever for him to wake.”
“……”
“As things stand, making that inheritance document public would be the most effective.”
Time stopped. Rowena doubted her ears.
“After making the inheritance document public and having the young master officially recognized as the legitimate heir, the wisest course would be for him to inherit everything that should originally have been his.”
“Mr. Jenok!”
Rowena cut off Jenok’s words with a shrill cry. Making the inheritance document public meant acknowledging his death. He was breathing perfectly well; he simply had not opened his eyes. He was clearly alive. Her mind was so tangled it felt as though it would burst. Rowena wrapped both hands around her head.
“Don’t say something so absurd. My son will not inherit the dukedom. He’ll live with me, just as we are now.”
“Are you saying you will run away?”
Jenok drove the wedge in and pressed her fiercely. An alarm rang in Rowena’s head. Yes. Running away was also an option. Country folk were tight-lipped, and their loyalty to Loren, their lord, ran deep. She could take Cedric’s hand and live in Loren’s mansion as she had before, with their identities falsified. Damian as Cedric’s son, and she as Cedric’s wife.
That was all she had to do. If she simply said she would, Jenok might agonize over it, but in the end he would listen to her. And yet, strangely, the words that had risen to the tip of her throat would not come out.
Killian, who might wander the border between life and death forever, kept weighing on her mind. Jenok quietly broke the silence.
“It cannot remain this way forever.”
“……”
“They say that usually, if a person cannot open their eyes after a month, they are declared brain-dead. There have been no cases anywhere of someone waking afterward.”
There were about fifteen days left. The view before her went dark, and beneath her feet she felt an endless cliff yawn open.
“How can you…… say that so coldly? You are his closest aide.”
“Because I am his closest aide. I say this because this is the judgment His Grace himself would likely make.”
The strength left Rowena’s legs, and she collapsed onto the couch. Jenok watched her with pity, then turned the doorknob.
“There is still time, so please think deeply about it.”
Afterward, nurses and doctors came to the hospital room several times. They checked his temperature and blood pressure, confirmed that there were no abnormalities in his condition, and left. Throughout the comings and goings of the group, Rowena sat half-dazed. The doctor’s words went in one ear and out the other.
By the time it was nearly time for her to leave the hospital, the sun had set.
“……
Damian.”
She had a son she needed to take care of. At the face that flashed sharply through her mind, she picked up her bag and rose. Today, she could not bear to look at his sleeping face, so she turned away and opened the door—only to find someone standing opposite her.
“I’m sorry.”
It was a nurse pushing a cart, as though she had been about to come in.
“It’s all right.”
With a brief smile, Rowena passed by the nurse. She adjusted her grip on her bag and was walking down the long hospital corridor when a strange feeling suddenly brushed coldly down her back.
Something was odd.
“The daytime examination should definitely be over, and it isn’t time for the night rounds yet……”
Realization came in an instant. At the same time, her mind went as white as a blank sheet of paper. Rowena hurriedly turned around and opened the hospital room door before she could even call someone else for help. She saw a hand about to inject something into the IV. Rowena quickly scanned the contents of the syringe. The vivid blue substance looked ominous and dangerous.
“Who are you? Why are you here?”
“I was going to change the IV fluid……”
The nurse awkwardly withdrew the syringe and stammered. Finding her even more suspicious, Rowena sharpened her voice.
“State your affiliation. Now.”
Tch. The next instant, the nurse clicked her tongue and flung off her cap. With terrifying force, she lunged forward. The sharp, pointed tip of the syringe needle was aimed directly at Rowena’s throat.
Bang!