Chapter 89
“I wanted to invite you most of all, but the doctor said it still wouldn’t be good for you to get any outside air. Besides, tomorrow is a day when visits are prohibited……”
“I completely understand. But a wedding is such an important day for a woman. Is it really all right to do it in such a rush?”
“For now, because I kept begging and insisting, we’re holding a simple ceremony first. Later, we’ll have a proper one again. It’s just too hard to wait even a single day. When that time comes, please be fully recovered and sit in the very front row.”
“Yes, of course. I’m so happy.”
Tears gathered faintly in Loren’s eyes.
“What about Damian? Does he know?”
“Not yet. I’m going to keep it a secret for now, in case it shocks him.”
Cedric wiped the tears from her wrinkled eyes and kissed her briefly on the forehead as a sign of affection.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“All right.”
With that farewell, Cedric turned and left the hospital room. Damian, who had been waiting, took his hand.
“We’re going to the park today, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m so excited! I haven’t really gone out since coming here.”
At the words that stabbed his heart, Cedric stopped and knelt down. Meeting those bewildered eyes, he placed his hands on the boy’s small shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Damian.”
“For what?”
“For you being tossed around by the circumstances of adults.”
“I’ve already mastered that.”
“……
You know difficult words like that too?”
“I’ll have you know, I’m the son of a novelist.”
Ahem, Damian said, placing both hands on his hips and playfully lifting his nose high. At the sight, Cedric burst into laughter, lightly hugged Damian, and stood. Before long, the carriage carrying the two of them rolled away toward the park. A dark shadow watching the shrinking carriage silently disappeared.
* * *
Cedric headed to the park because of the ceremony that would take place the next day. Avoiding people’s eyes, he had chosen and rented a small chapel on the outskirts of the park. It was generally a place where young lovers who had not received permission held their weddings, and the priest he had found after asking around was also a tight-lipped man.
When he opened the chapel door, an elderly man greeted them.
“Mr. Cedric Godwell?”
“That’s right, Father.”
With a faint smile, Cedric took the priest’s hand and pressed his forehead to the back of it as a sign of respect.
“Before we discuss the details of the ceremony……”
Cedric turned his gaze to Damian, who was blankly looking at the two of them, and bent down for a moment.
“Damian. Would you play nearby for a little while?”
“Why?”
“I have something to discuss with Father for a bit. It won’t take long, so kick around the ball you brought, somewhere around here. Don’t go far. All right?”
“Okay!”
As soon as permission was given, Damian nodded vigorously and shot out of the chapel as if releasing his restless energy. After confirming through the window that he was staying nearby, Cedric turned back to the priest.
While the two men discussed the ceremony for the next day, the ball Damian kicked rolled into the bushes.
“He told me not to go far…… but it should be fine, right?”
After hesitating for a moment, Damian slowly made his way toward the bushes.
The instant he stepped out of the sunlit area and into the thick shade of the trees, the shadow that had been waiting for its chance in the darkness flashed its eyes. Just as the shadow reached out toward the child.
Sensing a presence behind him, Damian abruptly stopped and turned around. Then, seeing the man standing a short distance away, he rubbed his eyes.
“……
Ghost…… mister?”
“Damian.”
“How are you here……”
“Damian.”
As if he could say only one word, Killian repeated only his name as he strode over, gathered Damian, who stood still, into his arms, and lifted him up. Held so tightly he could barely breathe, Damian stammered in bewilderment.
“M-Mister?”
“Damian……”
Burying his face in the small shoulder, Killian savored the warmth of the small, living child. When an adult far bigger than himself embraced him as though clinging to him, Damian blinked his round eyes for a moment. It was suffocating and uncomfortable, but for some reason, he felt he should not push him away right now.
“I missed you.”
At the words he poured out with all his heart, Damian somehow felt his throat tighten and his eyes grow hot. It was the inexplicable longing and affection he had felt from the moment he first saw this man. Before, he had not known what that emotion was, but now he knew for certain. Damian quietly let himself be held and held back his tears.
“Are you hurt anywhere? Injured?”
Only after a long while did Killian let Damian go, and he brushed his hand again and again over the face that looked exactly like his own.
When he had heard the news that the ship had capsized and both Rowena and Damian had disappeared, what had filled his mind—shamefully, toward his son—had been Rowena alone. Without any room to think of anything else, he had roamed the sea like a madman wandering the vast ocean in search of a single needle.
Seeing the son he had half-madly forgotten again, he felt sorry, and at the same time, he was moved and proud of how Damian had grown. His one and only child. His one and only son. The treasure Rowena had borne for him.
“No…… What about you, mister? Your face……”
His features, handsome enough to draw admiration, remained the same, but his face looked thinner and more haggard than before. Damian asked back in a tearful voice.
“Are you sick somewhere? Like Aunt Loren?”
“……
I’m a ghost. How could I be sick?”
Killian gave a faint laugh and shook his head. Damian stared at him and abruptly asked,
“Mister, you’re not a ghost, are you?”
“…….”
“Could you be……”
The end of his sentence trembled. He placed a hand over the left side of his chest and parted his lips, but then Cedric’s voice calling Damian came from a distance. Should he go back at once? But what about the mister? As Damian wavered, a large hand stroked his cheek.
“Go back.”
“What about you, mister?”
“I’ll come for you. Not now.”
This was his child. His voice was gentle, but inside his chest, killing intent boiled.
The one who dared call Damian’s name was the man who, not long ago, had said he would stay by Rowena’s side. As if taking Killian’s place had not been enough, now he called Damian without hesitation, as though he were his own son. Killian wanted to pull out his gun that very instant.
But not before the innocent eyes looking up at him.
Anger would be of no help whatsoever in what lay ahead. What he intended to do was rebuild a house, step by careful step, from the framework up, amid ruins that had collapsed without a trace. To do that.
“Mister……?”
While Killian calmly gathered himself, the voice searching for Damian drew closer and closer.
For some reason, Damian had the feeling that he must not let the two men encounter each other, and called Killian again. Seeing his anxious face, Killian faintly raised the corners of his mouth and placed something in his son’s hand.
“What is this?”
“A pendant.”
Tilting his head, Damian slowly opened the pendant. At the small portrait that appeared inside, his mouth fell open.
“This is……”
Outwardly, it was of an ordinary shape, but it was an heirloom passed down from generation to generation to the successor. It had begun with an old superstition that, before coming of age, one would remain safe if one carried a childhood portrait of the previous generation.
Jet-black hair and bright blue eyes. Neat features and an expressionless face.
Damian tilted his head, puzzled by the boy who looked exactly like him but had a completely different air. Killian, his gaze fixed on Damian as though engraving his son’s face into his eyes, spoke quietly.
“I’ll tell you everything later.”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Damian carefully put the pendant into the pocket of his coat and nodded. After stroking the soft black hair one last time, Killian gently pushed Damian’s back. Once Damian had been awkwardly nudged forward a few steps, Cedric, who had been searching for him for some time, came running over.
“Damian! I’ve been looking for you. I told you not to go far.”
“Sorry…… The ball went far……”
Damian turned back hesitantly, but as if no one had ever been standing there, there was no one. As he stared at the empty forest with a hollow feeling, Cedric asked in a puzzled voice,
“The ball? What are you talking about? It’s right here.”
“What? It definitely went that way……”
Equally surprised, Damian turned around again, and Cedric was holding the ball in his hand.
“No. I’m telling you, it rolled over there.”
“Then whose name is written here?”
“What?”
On the ball Cedric pointed to, Damian’s name was clearly written in crooked letters.
“That’s strange……”
There was no way the ghost mister could have given the ball to Cedric in that time. As Damian froze with a bewildered expression, Cedric let out a small laugh and stretched his soft cheek.
“What’s strange about it? You must have mistaken something. Let’s go now.”
“Mm-hmm.”
* * *
The day Cedric had spoken of arrived quickly. Together with Cecilia, with whom she had tacitly come to cooperate, Rowena headed to the meeting place with a tense expression.
After getting down from the carriage and walking some distance into the park, Rowena slipped her arm out of Cecilia’s.
“May I look around the park alone for a little while?”
“Oh my, why?”
“I just want to walk quietly by myself.”
There happened to be no people around, and the weather was good. At Rowena’s sudden request, Cecilia was silent for a moment as if considering it, then readily nodded.
“All right, then. I happen to have something to attend to as well, so let’s meet at the appointed place in about forty minutes.”
“Yes. Let’s do that.”
No sooner had she received permission than Rowena turned and headed toward the outskirts at a quick pace. Because of the trees densely lining the path, she lost her way for a short while, but then an old chapel, brightly bathed in sunlight, came into view.
Cedric, his platinum-blond hair swept back and dressed neatly in a black suit, was waiting for her in front of it.
“Cedric!”
“Rowena.”
When she hurried over almost at a run, Cedric greeted her with a flushed face.
“I’m not late, am I? The carriage was slower than I thought.”
“It’s all right.”
“What about the priest?”
“He’s inside.”
“Then hurry……”
“Rowena.”
As she seemed ready to open the chapel door at once, Cedric caught her hand and placed something over her head. It was a white, sheer bridal veil.
“This is all I can do for now……”
“…….”
“Later, let’s have a proper ceremony with you in a wedding dress.”
With a soft rustle, Cedric lifted the veil and pressed his forehead to Rowena’s, who had frozen in surprise.