Chapter 24
Riena, barely managing to hold onto her senses, parted her trembling lips in a daze.
“You… how are you here…?”
Her voice faltered, breaking apart as if someone had clamped tight fingers around her throat.
“You?”
Dante’s brows twitched as he let out a short, derisive breath.
“I half-expected you to pretend you’d lost your memory.”
“……”
“What should I do, Riena?”
His golden eyes gleamed like sharpened blades, pinning her in place.
“You could’ve at least made some pitiful excuse. But since you don’t even bother with that, it makes me truly want to kill you.”
It felt as though the blood drained from her body.
Her heart froze solid inside her chest.
What could she possibly say? Should she beg forgiveness? Apologize? Or—
Or what?
Her thoughts rattled uselessly, consumed by fear and confusion.
I should’ve just pretended not to remember, like he said.
Too late, the regret seized her by the nape.
She lowered her head, trying to avoid his merciless gaze that seemed to flay her alive.
And then—
Ding.
That familiar chime sliced through the frigid air.
“I’m here!”
A bright, high voice shattered the silence, followed by startled confusion.
“Huh? What’s going on, Riena?”
“Riena?”
The unfamiliar name slipped from the young woman’s lips, and Dante’s brows furrowed in sharp displeasure.
“You.”
His voice turned glacial, tinged with sudden fury.
“…Ha. So you were deceiving me from the start.”
Riena’s shoulders shrank as she shivered.
Sharon, sensing the heavy atmosphere, quickly stepped between them.
“Riena! Do you know this man? Is he threatening you?”
She pulled Riena into her arms protectively, edging her away from Dante, widening the distance between them.
Then Sharon fixed Dante with a glare full of contempt, as though staring down a vile criminal.
Dante’s expression grew colder still.
His gaze cut through them like ice.
“Stay out of this—and get lost.”
“You’re the one who needs to leave before I call the police.”
Despite his chilling command, Sharon only grew more hostile, snapping back without hesitation.
Dante let out a laugh of disbelief, though his eyes darkened with savage irritation.
This ridiculous excuse wasn’t worth even a second of his time.
He moved to seize Riena from behind the insolent woman shielding her, but just then, Riena cleared her throat.
“…Sharon, it’s fine. He’s… someone I knew, back in the city.”
Someone she knew.
That vague, evasive phrasing twisted Dante’s lips into a vicious sneer.
“What? That’s not what it looks like at all! He seems dangerous—insane! Riena, don’t—”
“Really… It’s fine. I’ll just talk with him outside for a moment.”
Sharon’s voice trembled with worry as she openly called Dante a madman, but Riena pressed her hand gently over Sharon’s and gave her a reassuring look.
Then she turned to Dante.
Her eyes still shook, yet she forced herself to meet his gaze.
A ragged whisper slipped through her lips.
“…Let’s go. Let’s talk outside.”
They walked for a while, until the salty tang of the sea grew thick in the air.
At last, when the vast ocean stretched before them, Riena stopped in her tracks.
For a time, only the cries of seabirds and the crash of waves filled the silence.
Riena drew a deep breath and turned to face him.
Thankfully, he had followed quietly, and no one seemed to have noticed them.
She scanned the area out of habit, her cautiousness making Dante’s brows twitch.
“This isn’t the time to worry about other people watching.”
His voice, heavy with arrogance, dropped like a weight from above.
She flinched and slowly lifted her gaze.
Dante’s eyes, frigid as ever, bore into her.
Riena swallowed hard and clenched her fists.
She had dragged him here.
There was no turning away now.
“…Could you pretend not to know me?”
“What?”
He blinked, baffled by her words.
Riena bit down on her lip, then let the words spill like an outburst.
“Please. I don’t know how long you’ll stay here, but just one year—ignore me for one year. That woman won’t speak of this either. And I swear, while you’re here… no, for the entire year, I’ll live quietly. I promise.”
Breathless, she steadied herself. If he refuses—if he won’t accept…
“All right.”
The answer came far too easily.
Her head snapped up.
“But you’ll answer my questions honestly.”
His gaze sharpened, cutting like a blade.
“…You want to know how I survived and ended up here, don’t you?”
“I don’t care about the details.”
Such things could be uncovered by investigation.
Listening to her lies would be a waste.
Dante studied her taut face, then suddenly asked:
“Have you read the papers?”
“…What?”
The abrupt change left her momentarily stunned.
Newspapers? What does he—
Ah.
A small gasp escaped her lips as memory struck.
Last year, as spring waned—her own funeral splashed across every front page.
The article she had read over and over again.
Dante saw the recognition flicker in her face, and his jaw flexed, a vein bulging.
So she had read it.
Yet she offered nothing, only that guilty silence.
Rage flared hot in his chest.
Riena’s trembling eyes suddenly steadied.
Calm returned to her expression as she spoke slowly.
“Yes. I read it.”
“Was that what you intended?”
His next question cut deep.
Riena bit her lip.
This was the one chance she hadn’t taken before, the question that might never come again.
There was no reason to hesitate.
She nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why.”
“So I could finally be free.”
His gaze narrowed dangerously.
“Even if I left Behern for some distant town or countryside, I would still carry the label of ‘former Grand Duchess.’ I would live the rest of my life under your eyes, under the eyes of the royal family. I wasn’t naïve enough to think otherwise.”
“Arrogant.”
“If that’s how you see it, I accept it.”
Her voice was calm.
She met his eyes squarely, holding her ground.
If I show weakness now, he’ll only turn me into his plaything again.
The conviction tightened her body like a bowstring.
A beat of silence stretched between them.
His unreadable face gave no hint of thought or feeling.
“Was the carriage accident your plan too?”
Carriage accident.
The words made her heart drop.
But she could not falter.
He would pounce on the slightest crack.
If she admitted it, he would despise her utterly. If she lied—
Her chest stirred with something sharp, almost painful.
The feeling clogged her throat.
Slowly, she shook her head.
“That was truly an accident. Nothing more than a chance.”
“Chance.”
Dante muttered, his jaw tightening again.
“Yes. Chance. I had no connection to that coachman.”
Her voice rang firm, as if to drive the truth home.
Of course, she could have claimed she orchestrated it, that she’d bribed the driver.
But then what? Would Dante leave that man alive, knowing he had been her accomplice?
No.
And though she was no saint, she wasn’t about to let an innocent man’s life be destroyed for her sake.
Not when she already carried so much.
She didn’t want to bear the guilt, not in the single year she had left.
So she told the truth.
Whether Dante believed it or not—
He would, eventually.
Because it had been an accident.
Riena braced herself for his reply.
And then—
“…Ha.”
Dante suddenly laughed.
