Leon did not take his eyes off the frozen turquoise eyes.
“I wondered why Daisy called me a pig. I’m not even fat.”
He uttered that while laughing, but ‘Daisy’ didn’t.
“But, I only remembered it when I heard you call me that yesterday that the rebels call the royalists that way.”
“….”
“Dirty monarchy pig.”
Turquoise eyes, brown hair, and a bold temper… He believed that this rare combination could not have happened by chance in different people. So, there was only one conclusion.
Sally Bristol was Daisy.
He thought she was hiding the fact that she was Daisy because she had a story she couldn’t tell. However, he thought that the story had to do with Leon’s father’s death.
‘…How foolish I was.’
She was obviously in front of him, and he acted like a blind man…
Perhaps, deep down in his heart, he had some lingering feelings for his first love and refused to connect it with the terrible crime. As he grabbed the hair of the fox that had twice blinded him, the woman groaned as her neck snapped back and was forced to face him directly.
“You played with me that day, knowing your mother would kill my father. You are so vicious that even the devil would be speechless.”
“No.”
When the woman denied it, Leon tightened his grip on her head even more.
“All the cute things you said must have been lies. From then on, you would have been a whore who would kiss anyone for the Duke.”
The first love was a lie.
He could have seen and prevented his father’s death. Still, he was completely unaware and was fooled by a young girl and missed the opportunity. And because of that, Leon became even more resentful of himself.
“Was it your mission to spy out the villa? You sensed something suspicious in me, so you pretended to have a personal interest in me, and you distracted me!”
“I didn’t know you were a Winston… I didn’t even know they were trying to kill your father.”
“Don’t expect to let me be fooled again. I now know that you are a bloodless, tearless killer.”
Deep in Grace’s subconscious, there was still a sense of debt towards Leon from childhood. He unknowingly stimulated it very effectively.
“They didn’t mean to kill him in the first place! It was an accident!”
In the end, that feeling of debt caused Grace to make a slip of the tongue.
“Ha… You know quite a bit about it, to know even the smallest details. Then, how can you say you don’t know!”
Saying so, the hand that had been gripping her hair caught her chin and forced her mouth open. At the same time, the holster from Winston’s waist untied, and the loaded pistol lodged in Grace’s mouth.
“Were you there too when my father died?”
“No. No.”
“Did you try to kill me, too?”
“I had no intention of killing you. But now, I have changed my mind.”
Winston burst into laughter.
“That sounds honest.”
“At that time, I didn’t lie about anything other than my name.”
Did he know that she tried to reveal that to him honestly at the end?
“You’d like to believe it though I’m not responsible for your father’s death.”
“Then, who is responsible? Don’t fool me by saying that a woman who weighs less than 50 kg did it alone.”
“Please… Don’t do this, huh—”
Moderately intimidated by Winston. By the time she thought the frightened performance was enough, Grace began to recite the names one by one. It was because he would never believe her even if she told him right away.
“Jonathan, Riddle.”
When she called her father’s name, Winston pressed her tongue with the muzzle, saying, “Are you kidding me about calling the name of a dead bastard?”
“Pa, Patrick Pullman.”
Only then did he insert the pistol back and pull out a notebook from the inside pocket of his jacket.
He didn’t seem to know that Patrick Pullman was also dead, as he was taking down the name seriously. Perhaps when he found out, Grace would not be in this person’s hands anymore. She only hoped so.
Winston stopped his hand and glared at her as if he wanted her to give more names. Grace deliberately whimpered and shook her head.
“Including my mother, there are three of them.”
In fact, there was one more person left alive, but she was no renegade like Fred.
“You, who have been silent all this time, are also an accomplice.”
Winston glared at her with resentful eyes, further aggravating her guilt.
“I was a child back then, and now we are enemies.”
Grace caught her body that had been shaking.
It was a war… War always comes with sacrifice. They killed others countless times and were not sorry, so why should she be sorry?
“What do you want to hear from me? Would you like an apology?”
“Apology…?”
Winston sneered.
“I don’t need anything like that. I hope you weren’t expecting a tearful and heartbreaking reunion.”
His grip gripped Grace’s neck again. She had no choice but to stand up obediently from the force of the lift.
“I was thinking of breaking Daisy’s neck if I ever saw her again. Though when I found out that Daisy was you, I didn’t want to kill you gracefully.”
“Kuht…”
“I just want to see you suffer for a long, very long time.”
Winston threw Grace out of the blue. Grace, who was staggering, leaned herself on the table.
I won’t kill you gracefully.
His creepy words didn’t surprise her at all. From the moment she was caught, she was destined to be that way anyway. It was a luxury to die gracefully if not rescued.
‘It’s fine no matter how you bully me, so please get me out of here…’
While Grace was breathing impatiently, Winston moved a chair in front of her and sat down. A file folder was placed on top.
It was the paperwork Campbell had filled out this morning.
“Hmm…”
The enraged man from earlier was nowhere to be found. Winston, who was flipping through the papers page by page with a frighteningly calm attitude, muttered incoherently:
“There’s a physical examination procedure remaining.”
Tak.
He ordered, closing the folder and throwing it on the table.
“Take it off.”
A master of torture that destroyed not only the body but also the mind. Winston, who knew how to humiliate the proud Grace, chose not to do so himself but to let her undress herself.
Not wanting to show any signs of shame already, she stood upright with her head held high and proudly took off her clothes. As she took off the cardigan, Winston smiled while crossing his arms. His gaze rested on Grace’s breasts, to be precise, on the n*pples protruding from under the sheer fabric.
“Ah!”
The tip of the riding whip in Winston’s hand pricked her n*pple.
“This is just a physical examination. What did you expect? Or do you have the quirk of getting excited about taking off your clothes in front of your enemy? Either way, it’s downright obscene.”
‘…This is swelling because you bothered me so much yesterday.’
She couldn’t bear to say such a thing. He was obviously driving her to be a prostitute, knowing Winston as well. This was a ploy to make her speak about what happened to her the day before, unable to withstand the humiliation. Then, in the end, to suffer even more contempt.
Grace gritted her teeth and endured it. She didn’t want to give the monster satisfaction by reacting in any way.
And it was like that. When there was no reaction, the whip that had been mercilessly crushing the flesh withdrew.
“Continue.”
Winston returned to his calm demeanor.
As Grace took off her clothes one by one, he rested his chin and watched expressionlessly. Even when she took off her bra and exposed her chest, he didn’t rush like yesterday. Even after stripping off the stockings and bloomers and becoming completely naked, he did not react.
“Blanchard’s prostitute. I was expecting it because of the rumors… You’re not even great.”
Were those words sincere? The man’s eyes, looking at her body, contained no emotion, let alone lust.
…It was better if it was sincere.
It was not like yesterday to take it off, just to attack her. It was just an act to humiliate. That was why he was just looking at her with eyes, like looking at a piece of meat.
Grace tried hard to believe that.
If that was the intention, Winston had already succeeded admirably.
The tip of her red, swollen chest quivered visibly. It would be clearly visible even in the eyes of that person. Grace crossed her neatly gathered legs to hide her secret place and carefully covered her chest with her arms. Still, she couldn’t hide all the traces of last night.
Apparently, yesterday’s dirty ‘deal’ was made by the two of them.
The man in front of her now sat in the form of an impeccably virtuous human being. While a woman standing bare like a beast with clear traces of a love affair—together
He, who was not really a human last night, was dressed in an officer’s uniform with all buttons neatly buttoned up and had cold eyes as though he was staring at uncivilized livestock.
The shame that followed along with the dirty deal was only on her side.