Chapter 3

There’s nothing.

Clack.

Davion tossed the file onto the desk and rested his arm against his forehead as he closed his eyes.

He had checked the entry and exit records from every checkpoint in the city.

There was no trace of Cecilia anywhere.

Not only because of her hair color, but also because of her peculiar presence, she was the kind of woman who stood out even when she was simply standing still.

So he couldn’t believe that the checkpoint officers had somehow overlooked her.

Come to think of it, I haven’t sorted through her belongings yet.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, he had been too busy to find the time to sort through Cecilia’s things.

She wasn’t the type of woman who liked keeping records, but if he searched carefully, there had to be something that could serve as a clue.

With that thought, Davion got up and headed toward Cecilia’s room.

They had a bedroom that belonged to the married couple, but for some reason, they had been sleeping in separate rooms for a long time.

Even though only two weeks had passed since Cecilia left, the path leading to her bedroom felt strangely unfamiliar.

Too much had changed in the world during those two weeks.

As soon as Davion reached the bedroom, he carefully pushed the door shut.

The room had originally been an old storage room that had been renovated, so it was small. But because of that, it received plenty of sunlight.

Winter sunlight streamed through the square-shaped window and painted the reddish-brown wooden floor.

Dust danced peacefully in the light.

“…”

It feels as though time has stopped here.

The perfectly smooth, wrinkle-free blanket on the bed felt so out of place that his chest actually ached.

The air warmed by the sunlight carried Cecilia’s scent.

Davion habitually reached into his trouser pocket, only to realize that it was completely empty.

Damn it…

He had accidentally left his cigarettes in the study.

It was too far to go back, so he could only click his tongue in frustration and roll up his sleeves.

He opened the wardrobe first.

Then he squeezed his eyes shut.

“No, this woman…”

There were no clothes in the wardrobe.

It was completely filled with trash.

She really has never been good at organizing things…

Davion gave a hollow laugh and closed the wardrobe.

He then opened the top drawer of the chest beside it, but suddenly stopped.

Underwear and stockings, neatly folded according to color, filled the drawer in perfect order.

His eyes sank deeply, like the curtain of night.

“…”

Davion reached out and gently ran his fingers over the seam of the plain underwear.

He remained lost in thought for a long while.

Then, when he suddenly heard footsteps, he hurriedly closed the drawer.

Clack.

“My lord. Are you there?”

A familiar servant’s voice came from outside the door.

Davion cleared his throat like a boy who had been caught doing something he shouldn’t and opened the door only about a hand’s width.

“What is it?”

“Her Grace, the Duchess of Sisledown, has arrived. She is waiting downstairs.”

“My mother?”

Just as the servant had said, a familiar car was parked outside the window.

Davion swallowed the sigh that had risen all the way to his throat.

Even if they were mother and son, it was only natural that he wouldn’t welcome such an unexpected visit.

“Tell her I’ll come out to greet her.”

Davion’s mother, Blake Sisledown, lived in a penthouse by the riverside.

It was only a thirty-minute drive from the Winterhall estate.

Davion shoved both hands into his unusually empty trouser pockets and walked toward the car, whose engine was still running.

When the window rolled down, the face of a beautiful middle-aged woman who resembled Davion appeared.

Davion noticed where his mother’s eyes were directed and calmly pulled his sleeves down to hide his tattoo.

Perhaps it was actually fortunate that he didn’t need to worry about hiding the smell of cigarettes.

“If you’d told me you were coming, I would have prepared an early meal.”

“It’s fine. I only stopped by briefly on my way to meet Mrs. Everett.”

Her clear, authoritative voice always made Blake seem like a woman who was not easy to deal with.

Without getting out of the car, she extended a brown document envelope through the window.

“I arranged a meeting for you. If you sit around doing nothing, you’ll be out of the marriage market in no time. You need to start a new family while you’re still young.”

“Mother…”

A sudden headache began throbbing in Davion’s head, and he closed his eyes.

But Blake didn’t even blink at her son’s obvious displeasure.

Afraid that walking closer would be taken as agreement, Davion remained standing where he was like a stone statue and quietly but firmly protested.

“A meeting? It’s only been two weeks since I lost Cecilia.”

“You know this woman well. Esmerilda Rene. Do you remember her? You were even engaged to Esmerilda before you married that girl.”

Of course he remembered her.

Regardless of the fact that she had once been his fiancée, Esmerilda was a nationally famous actress.

Her father was a noble-born politician who had even served as the Emperor’s attendant, while her mother was the only daughter of a wealthy tycoon.

Born into a family at the very top of the social hierarchy, Esmerilda had once become the target of public criticism because she chose to work in a theater troupe, spending her days surrounded by men.

It had been a long time since Davion had heard her name.

Hearing it now, in this way…

He suddenly felt the reality of being a widower on paper.

“Esmerilda also lost her husband recently, so isn’t she the partner fate has brought to you? You can comfort each other’s wounds and live happily together.”

“You haven’t even discussed a marriage with Lady Esmerilda, Mother. And she’s a famous actress. If I remarry too soon, people won’t look kindly on it.”

“Since when did you care about what other people think…? If you cared about such things, would you have married her in the first place?”

“Mother.”

Blake was about to say something more, but she saw Davion’s expression and closed her mouth.

She narrowed her eyes and slowly took back the document envelope.

“Fine. Then I’ll put the meeting on hold. But you must remarry. Promise your mother that you’ll do your best when it comes to your relationship with Esmerilda.”

“You still treat me like a child.”

“Wait until you become a parent yourself. Then you’ll understand my feelings a hundred times over.”

Blake tossed the document envelope onto the back seat and signaled the driver to leave.

But before closing the window, she suddenly complained to her son one last time.

“Oh, and by the way, the street inspections are far too strict. Is it really this difficult for me to see my own son’s face? We had to stop the car three times on the way here.”

“I’m sorry. There’s a con artist running around the city.”

“A con artist? I didn’t see anything about that in the newspaper…”

Blake’s neatly drawn eyebrows rose at an angle as she demanded an explanation.

There is one. A shameless, vicious con artist who pretended to be dead and swindled one million Burnets from me.

Davion swallowed the answer that he could never say out loud.

He carefully smiled and tried to maintain the expression on his face.

“We know the person’s identity, so we’ll catch them soon. Don’t worry, Mother.”

* * *

Cecilia stared deeply into the mirror and admired herself.

“Oh, this works amazingly well…”

The woman in the mirror looked like a completely different person.

Her face was swollen like a full moon, and both cheeks were covered in ugly, bright-red, pockmarked bumps.