Revenge Costs Interest [EN]: Chapter 47

Revenge Has Interest 48. A Love Scarred and Twisted (47/200)

48. A Love Scarred and Twisted

2023.09.17.

Leah was dragged to the Metropolitan Police Agency by the officers.

Pauline rushed over and protested, but it was no use. They simply repeated that they were following orders.

Pauline started crying as she watched Leah being taken away. Leah reassured her.

“There must be a mistake. Tell Terrence.”

“Yes, I… I will.”

Pauline got into her carriage and headed for the Duke’s residence.

Meanwhile, Leah was taken in the officers’ carriage to a damp, dark place, a place she never imagined she’d be associated with.

A fence of tangled barbed wire topped the high red brick walls, likely to prevent prisoners from escaping.

‘Attempted murder? What is going on?’

No matter how she looked at it, none of this made sense.

As she entered the dark and narrow corridor, fear began to creep in.

The lamps hanging from the ceiling looked precarious, as if they might fall at any moment.

There weren’t many lamps, so she had to stay close behind the officer in front to avoid getting lost.

“Excuse me, I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I never tried to kill anyone,” Leah said to the officer, her voice trembling with fear. But the officer didn’t respond, just walked silently ahead.

Leah shivered, her teeth chattering despite her thick coat. The prison was colder than outside, with a unique chill that seemed to emanate from the shadows.

Then, the officer suddenly stopped and opened a prison door at the end of the corridor.

“Go in.”

The officer pointed inside.

Leah was stunned. The prison cell looked like a monster with its mouth open, waiting for prey.

The room was filled with darkness, lit only by a single candle on the wall. Even the small window was covered with black iron bars.

“Me?”

Leah asked again, unable to believe it. Had she committed such a terrible crime to warrant being dragged to a place like this? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t recall doing anything that would justify this.

“Go in.”

The officer replied mechanically, in a stiff, businesslike tone.

Leah dragged her feet inside. The door slammed shut, and she immediately heard the sound of a lock being fastened from the outside.

“!?”

Leah immediately knocked on the door and shouted, “Please! Let me out! I’m not a criminal!”

Leah cried out in terror, but no one listened.

Then, a rat appeared from the corner of the prison, squeaking and glaring at Leah.

“Eek!” She screamed as if she had encountered a monster and pressed herself against the wall.

Only then could she see the inside of the prison cell properly. There was a narrow plank with only one blanket. Suddenly, Leah’s father came to mind.

‘Is my father trapped in a place like this right now?’

The thought snapped her to attention. Maybe someone was trying to prevent her from losing sight of her goal, to give her a sense of urgency.

After a while, she heard footsteps outside. Several people stopped in front of her prison.

‘Who is it?’

The sound of the lock opening was loud. Soon the door opened.

Leah reflexively clutched her coat.

But the man standing in front of the open door was Terrence. Terrence, wearing a uniform and a black cloak, filled the doorway.

“Terrence…” Leah said in a daze. Tears welled up in her eyes with fear.

He walked towards her, looking only at her.

“Were you happy to run away from me?” Terrence’s voice was cold, like the chill emanating from the prison walls.

“I didn’t… run away. I came back.”

“How dare you even think of leaving me alone?”

His anger was palpable, and he didn’t seem like the man she knew. The candlelight reflected in his dark eyes looked like flames of fury.

“How do you think I felt when you betrayed me, Leah?”

She was unfamiliar with this side of him, which she had never seen before. He looked like he could kill her with his bare hands.

“You were living peacefully at the Brasel Hotel and went to the dinner party Allen McDowell invited you to. Even though I was in Gardencia, you calmly faced him, ate, and even smiled at him.”

Terrence spoke in great detail, as if he had been there.

‘He had me followed.’

She knew Terrence wouldn’t just let things go.

She had been uneasy because he hadn’t chased after her, but he had been watching her in another way.

“Were you watching me?”

“Not watching, protecting.”

Suddenly, Leah began to understand the situation. Terrence was the one who had put her in prison.

“Are you doing this ridiculous thing because you’re angry with me?”

If so, he was out of his mind.

“Did you say ridiculous?” Terrence snapped, and Leah flinched.

“I almost died because of you.”

“!?”

So that’s why he had her imprisoned on charges of attempted murder. Terrence strode up to Leah and cupped her face.

“You can’t believe it, can you?”

“What?”

“That I was so miserable that I almost died because of you.”

“I’m sorry, I was out of my mind after meeting the Empress, and I forgot for a moment that you were sick.”

“I don’t care about being sick. But you can’t forget me. I wanted to die because I missed you so much when you left me. Don’t you understand yet? My heart was desperately searching for you and burned black.”

Terrence’s face was a mess of anger, resentment, and desperate love.

But Leah shed tears because she resented him for only talking about his pain. If it came to unfairness, she had a lot to say too.

“Don’t you remember how much you hurt me, Terrence? You revealed your feelings for the Empress in front of me. Do you think my heart was okay when I asked the Empress for you?”

Leah roughly pushed his hand away. If they were going to argue about who was right and wrong, they had to start at the beginning.

“The Empress is just a friend to me, nothing more. Our parents talked about an engagement when we were young, but even that wasn’t my intention.”

“You said she was your first love?”

“When I was eight. What does that feeling even mean?”

“But you kept calling her Vivian and longing for the Empress.”

As Leah shed endless tears, Terrence hugged her tightly. He shouldn’t resort to any more shallow tricks.

“I did it on purpose because I wanted to see if you loved me. If you’re jealous, that means you have feelings for me.”

‘Ha! Just to check that…!’

Leah was furious and tried to push him away, but she was too weak to escape his embrace.

The more Leah struggled, the more fiercely Terrence hugged her. Then, he said something incredible.

“I like you. I don’t care what you look like. It doesn’t matter if it’s not your current appearance. What I want is not your body, but your soul.”

Leah stopped struggling for a moment.

She was hearing the words she had longed to hear in this situation.

Until now, she had been burdened by the fact that she was being loved as the fake Grace. No, she felt guilty.

But he had clearly said that he liked her soul, not her body.

She felt the complicated emotions in her mind disappear at once. In addition, her resentment towards him faded away without a trace.

“Is it okay to like Terrence…? Can I like you as much as I want without feeling guilty or being self-conscious?”

Terrence’s heart ached as if Leah’s words were piercing it. He couldn’t understand why she was being so self-conscious and feeling guilty, and it upset him.

Maybe she still hadn’t forgotten his cold behavior in the past.

“You have to like me. Otherwise, I won’t let you out of this prison.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s not a threat, I can do even more. I almost died because of you.”

Leah’s purplish-blue eyes were wet with tears and sparkled like jewels. She moved her lips and then said, as if exhaling a breath she had been holding back, “Kiss me, Terrence.”

The woman who was begging him for a kiss with her mysteriously shining eyes was so beautiful that it felt unreal.

Terrence immediately pressed his lips to Leah’s. As her arms wrapped around his neck, they pressed their bodies closer together.

It was a hot and passionate kiss, as if they were unraveling their past resentment and longing. Leah finally realized that the feeling of love is not something that can be controlled by suppressing and rejecting it.

‘I love your soul too.’

He was scarred, twisted, and sometimes so extreme that it was embarrassing, but she loved him.

Terrence greedily devoured Leah’s lips like a baby starving for milk.

In fact, he wanted to say ‘I love you’ to Leah. But he had made a vow to prevent the gods from envying his happiness.

A happy life had never been given to him before. He had heard that the god of fate was jealous and constantly gave trials. So he was going to cherish it.

Finally, the long kiss ended, and the two savored the lingering, subtle emotions.

“Don’t test me in the future.”

“I won’t.”

He was ashamed of himself for listening to Luke’s advice and resorting to childish games.

“Will we be able to protect this feeling we have in the future?” Leah’s heart was so full that she was afraid.

“We have to protect it, definitely.”

He used to think that people only died from war, famine, epidemics, and poverty.

But now he knew that love could devastate the soul and that longing could cause mental illness. Because he had experienced it firsthand. He could have died if it had been any more severe.

“Leah, if you want to live, love me.”

A man who could never make a romantic confession, clumsy and awkward, but she loved him.

‘I want to live too. I don’t know when this luck will end, but I’ll do my best.’