Episode 20—Pick One.
They were admission papers for a mental hospital and an application for a mutual divorce. Looking at the face that had gone pale with disbelief, he explained calmly.—If you do not wish to divorce, you do not have to. However, if it comes to that, I cannot simply abandon a lunatic of a wife who has been hysterical, unfaithful, and even attempted suicide.
He had put it delicately, but it was a threat: if she did not divorce him, she would be locked away in a mental hospital for the rest of her life.
While his counterpart's lips trembled violently, Killian's face did not change a single shade of color as he glanced down at his wristwatch. For a man who moved by the minute, humoring such a mad farce was no different from throwing time into a garbage bin.—If it is difficult to choose right this moment, let me know through your lawyer.
With a bored expression, Killian stood up and turned around. The two documents he had held out flew behind him. He tried to leave just like that, without a care, but a name he had forgotten caught him by the ankle.—Roweena Philone…… —……. —Were you this cruel to that woman as well?
It was a name he had not recalled in the past five years. A woman he had discarded long ago. He should have ignored it. Yet for a moment, he could not move. Killian furrowed his brow slightly at an inexplicable unpleasantness.—What nonsense. —Don't think to deny it. You called out that name in your sleep from time to time! You've been hiding her from me, haven't you? That's it, isn't it? —…
Paranoia too. As expected, she was not of sound mind.
Called out a name? In his sleep?
It was nonsense no longer worth entertaining. He turned the doorknob. Before he had taken a few steps out of the bedroom, his vision swam.
“Your Grace!”
An attendant rushed over and grabbed his arm.
That was when it began. He suffered from dizzy spells and headaches that struck him incessantly.—You too will one day receive exactly what you have given.
The face of his former wife, who had muttered with a face twisted in malice, was now blurred too.
Roweena Philone.
He tried his utmost to erase the name that clung to him like a curse. Around that time, Jenok made a suggestion.—Would it not be better to see her once more? —Who are you referring to? —Miss Philone. If you were to see her again, might not the headaches cease as well?
The headaches had flooded in when he heard that name again after so long. It seemed a reasonable story. Before returning to Eselwood, he sent Jenok ahead first.—As a result of inquiries, I have found a clue. She had settled in a remote city with nothing but a few factories. A doctor named Philip found it suspicious and tailed her, discovering the home of a woman who works at some textile factory. It seems she has twin children, and her husband is abroad.
Twin children. A husband.
It felt as if someone had bludgeoned the back of his head with a blunt weapon. An inexplicable fury and murderous intent dyed his vision crimson.
She had married? He had certainly killed a man named William Jennon. Had she set up house with another man in the meantime?
She was his mistress, even if he had discarded her long ago. He had given her plenty of money because he had not wished for her to live miserably, but he had not wished to see her happy either.—I must see for myself.—Your Grace……?
Anger flared at the woman who rummaged through his mind and tangled his heart. The memory that he had thrown money at her and discarded her without a shred of attachment was completely erased from his head.
Shrugging off the restraining hand, he knocked on the door himself. He clicked his tongue at the house that looked ready to collapse at any moment, but the door opened shortly after.
But the woman who opened the door was an entirely different woman.—W-who are you? —Your Grace!
The moment his cold eyes recognized she was not Roweena, an attendant spotted the knife in the woman's hand and drew his gun. The woman collapsed in shock at the sight of the barrel.—Kyaaaah!
Death had been imminent. The woman, hands wrapped around her head, trembled violently as if standing before a snake's gaping maw. From behind, children's voices calling for their mother could be heard.
At the attendant's questioning look of what to do, Killian helped the woman to her feet.—M-Mr. Gillitus… is it? I knew it, Rebecca owes a debt, so you've come to seize her…….
Without even properly seeing Killian's face, Harriet stammered the question. Listening to her voice trembling with fear, a strange light flickered in Killian's eyes.
He read the misunderstanding that filled the woman's mind. Gillitus was Jenok's family name. It was also a name put forward as a front because he could not openly step into the underworld with the title of Duke.
Rebecca was likely Roweena's alias.
Having quickly grasped the situation, Killian tugged the corners of his lips up faintly.—Rather, I should say it is the opposite. —Yes……?
At the incomprehensible words, Harriet slowly raised her head. When he removed his hat, for some reason her pupils shook uncontrollably.—I should like to make you a fine proposal, Mrs. Dickinson.
What followed went smoothly. Everything was proceeding according to plan. The headaches that had tormented him incessantly also subsided considerably after he returned to Eselwood and learned of the woman's whereabouts.
All that remained now was to gather the pieces he had laid out.
“Y-Your Grace!”
It was when the carriage stopped in front of the hotel. One of the attendants on horseback urgently knocked on the carriage door.
“What is it?”
Panting for breath at Jenok's question, the attendant reported.
“The woman who sold a ring at the jewelry store… was found dead!”
Roweena was in danger.
It was one of two things. Either the Queen had already caught wind of it, or there was an enemy within. Killian, biting down hard, kicked open the carriage door and mounted the horse the attendant had just ridden.
“Your Grace!”
Jenok hurriedly followed after him.
* * *
“Roweena.”
His mind went blank. Never in his life had he been so desperate. He called out to the woman once more as she backed away as if she had seen a devil.
“Roweena.”
The closer he took one step, the farther Roweena moved two steps away.
She had grown somewhat haggard, but she was the very face from his memory. Beautiful golden hair flowing down to her waist and white skin. Large green eyes that seemed to have gathered all the freshness of the world, a pert nose. And red lips.
“It can't be… no…….”
For a moment he had busily traced the woman's face with his eyes, but at the murmured words, his heart that had been racing violently as if about to burst sank heavily.
He had forgotten his initial thought of using Harriet Dickinson first to let her stay in a safer place and approaching slowly.
Unable to even imagine that this woman had grown cold toward him, he had raced here like a madman, yet to this woman he was merely a devil, a reaper. It felt like yet another betrayal. Anger flowed out through his lips as an indifferent voice.
“I gave you plenty of money back then, yet you've lived quite squalidly.”
The uninvited guest had barged in right after she returned from Harriet's house. At the sound of knocking, the moment she opened the door, the man's face revealed before her made Roweena's heart stop.
Her mind was white as if bleached. Now that the nightmare she had feared and dreaded for so long stood before her eyes, she felt the blood drain from her body from the tips of her toes to the top of her head.
Unlike the homeowner who looked ready to collapse at any moment, the uninvited guest strode directly into her and her son's home. His eyes swept through the narrow interior as if looking at a garbage dump, tearing her heart apart. Roweena bit down on her lower lip and bristled.
“…
Watch your words. I don't know what reason you've come all the way here for, but.”
Killian, who had barged in without even the courtesy of changing into slippers, plopped down on the couch. He rummaged in his breast pocket, drew out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and spoke point-blank.
“Start over.”
…What?
Her mind went white as if bleached. Roweena, blinking her eyes wondering what she had just heard, opened her trembling lips.
“You…….”
“…….”
“Don't you remember throwing money at me and throwing me away?”
“That's precisely why.”
“……
What did you say?”
“I threw you away, so I must pick you back up.”
Killian replied matter-of-factly, crossed his long legs, and leaned comfortably back against the cushion.
While she was frozen stiff by the uninvited guest who had appeared without any warning, he lit the end of his cigarette. She felt suffocated by the acrid spreading smoke.
“That, right now—!”
It was the moment Roweena, coming to her senses belatedly, roughly snatched the cigarette away.
Squeak.
An old door opened from inside.
“Damian!”
“Mommy…?”
“Close the door!”
Roweena shouted at the barely visible child and moved toward the door as if to protect her son from him, glaring fiercely at the intruder.
“G-get out.”
Roweena swallowed dryly. Her heart raced steeply and her hands trembled violently.
Had he seen the face? Had he noticed that the boy resembled him?
While she was pale blue like a prisoner awaiting execution, a short, gloomy laugh dug into her ears.
“Haha!”
“…
Killian.”
“I had not expected you to live chastely, but I hadn't thought you'd have grown a bastard in the meantime.”
His lips were smiling, but the gaze holding Roweena was menacing. He shook himself and stood up, revealing his full desire to break down the door right that instant and drag the brat out of the room.
“I see you met a man in the meantime?”
As if swapping masks, the Duke quickly erased his killing intent; he was still elegant, still perfect. Roweena backed away to avoid Killian, who strode toward her.