When You Turned Your Back On Me, We Became Strangers [EN]: Chapter 37

Turning Away, He’s a Stranger (36)

Anna, who had been watching everything, also noticed that something was going wrong. This wasn’t the Reilly she knew.

‘What’s going on?’

Seeing Theo flailing in the air and Reilly attending to Duke Beritar, she felt suffocated.

Even though Reilly wasn’t looking at her, Anna felt her gaze and goosebumps rose on her skin. Kaban felt the same, standing frozen in place, his teeth chattering.

Clack, clack, clack.

Her whole body trembled like an aspen leaf. Anna and Kaban could do nothing but stare.

‘Hah, hah. What… what the hell is that?’

Her strength drained, Anna sank down, biting her nails. She desperately wanted to get up and escape.

‘I’m going to die if I stay here.’

But Kaban grabbed Anna’s hand, stopping her. She turned to look at him. His eyes were unfocused, and his pupils were wide with anxiety.

With a pale face, Anna felt the force of his grip was almost violent.

“Are you crazy?!”

“You can’t go anywhere. You mustn’t go. I’ll be…”

“…Let go! What’s wrong with you? What’s gotten into you?”

Anna slapped Kaban’s hand away and glared at him. She had thought he was handsome and smart, but now she saw only a coward.

It was then that Anna, who had been hiding, made a break for the door, trying to escape.

Reilly sensed Anna’s presence. But without showing it, she looked at Theo and a graceful, almost cruel, smile touched the corners of her lips.

“Father!”

Reilly, who had changed so abruptly, sobbed and supported Duke Beritar. Her eyes, filled with tears as she glared at Theo, were full of contempt.

“Do you even know what you’ve done?”

“I’m just getting a little…”

“Still, he’s my father! How could you…!”

Duke Beritar wanted to speak to Theo, but no sound came out. It felt like someone was suppressing him, choking him from the inside.

‘Somehow, I have to get this child on my side.’

Even in this situation, Duke Beritar was scheming about how to bring Reilly back under his control. He felt he had no other options. It simply wasn’t the right time to act.

Since the divorce from Theo was inevitable, he thought that if he could just get her out of this house, he would have her back in his grasp.

The Duke foolishly believed that Reilly had nowhere else to go.

‘It seems she hasn’t met the Crown Prince yet. That’s a relief, because if he finds out that she can manipulate Aura [a person’s life force or energy] for me, my position will be compromised.’

In a way, it was a stroke of luck.

“Cough, cough.”

As he opened his mouth to speak, his throat tightened. He frantically clawed at his neck as if trying to tear something away.

“If you stay still, you’ll be fine.”

Reilly whispered in Duke Beritar’s ear. Duke Beritar swallowed hard at her sweet and soft voice.

Reilly gently warned him not to resist. Only after seeing her father become still did Reilly nod in satisfaction.

It was frustrating, but there was no way to resist her overwhelming power.

The Duke only knew how to wield a sword well; he couldn’t handle mana [magical energy] properly. He could use the power of the sword, but Reilly wasn’t currently a sword contractor [someone bound to a sword through magic].

In other words, he was completely helpless against Reilly.

“Coachman, take my father to the doctor immediately!”

Reilly shouted urgently to the family’s coachman. It was clear that Reilly was the one who had done this to the Duke, but no one seemed to remember that she had caused his condition.

Only Anna and Kaban were forced to remember everything vividly. This was also something Reilly had deliberately orchestrated.

‘Even if you make noise, no one will believe you. What are you going to do?’

Reilly laughed inwardly.

She was paying them back in kind for the way she had been treated. The way they treated her when they were seen by others and the way they treated her in secret.

People don’t believe what they don’t see. It was just gossip to enjoy gossiping about others, not that they were interested in the truth.

“What… what is this?”

Theo felt like he was trapped in a nightmare. The Duke Beritar, drooling on the floor and vomiting in pain, and the few minutes of lost time were disorienting.

He felt a throbbing pain in his hands. They were tingling and slightly red, as if he had actually strangled the Duke.

He shook his head like someone possessed and stared at his hands, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Did, did I do it?”

“…It seems you really did.”

Reilly took a few steps back from Theo with a shocked expression.

“Wh, what do you mean?”

“Anna told me. She said you’ve been running around like a crazy person lately, attacking anyone.”

Reilly covered her mouth with her hand in feigned fear. A tear trickled down her cheek, and she lightly shook her shoulders and turned her head away.

“N, no. This is someone’s plot.”

Seeing Theo trembling with fear, she felt a surge of satisfaction. Theo himself sounded unsure as he spoke.

But who would believe him?

The momentum had already shifted to Reilly’s side.

‘No way.’

The servants’ gazes towards Theo changed. They couldn’t know the details of what was happening within the family.

After all, they were just servants, and the Duke would never confide in them about his illness. Besides, judging by the scene in front of them, Reilly’s words seemed to ring true.

‘Besides, Anna isn’t here either?’

It was strange that Anna hadn’t left the mansion all day. It was suspicious, as if she knew about the Duke’s illness and had fled in advance.

“Anna! Where the hell are you! Come out quickly and explain this ridiculous situation!”

Theo shouted at the mansion like a madman. If this continued, he felt like he would truly lose his mind.

“You! If you don’t come out right now, you’ll have to take responsibility for this!”

He didn’t give up and raised his voice, veins popping out of his neck. Had she really run away? He shouted so loudly, but Anna was nowhere to be seen.

‘Do you think she’ll stand up for you?’

Anna would never do anything that would harm her. Above all, there was nothing to gain from taking his side in this situation.

She would be lucky if she didn’t get involved.

As Reilly predicted, Anna held the door tightly, holding her breath and peering outside. Hoping that this commotion would subside quickly.

‘To think that all the Dukes are like that!’

Anna regretted calling Duke Beritar here. It had only made things worse.

But one good thing was that if Theo was successfully framed as mentally ill, she, as his wife, would temporarily wield all the authority.

If that happened, it would be a golden opportunity for her.

In the end, she closed the door and decided to hide with Kaban until the situation calmed down. She locked the door and watched the situation from the window, waiting for the opportune moment.

“Anna!”

Reilly’s smile deepened at Theo’s desperate cry.

She didn’t miss this opportunity and slowly approached Theo. As she hugged him, she whispered.

“Honey, it’s okay. Everything will be alright.”

She stroked Theo’s arm with a soft voice. The voice and smile were the same as before, but the atmosphere surrounding Reilly was completely different.

From some point on, everything was falling into place exactly as she wanted. Theo desperately tried to escape from Reilly’s grasp, but it was no use.

“L, let go! You have no right to do this to me!”

Theo was suppressed by an unknown, overwhelming force.

With Reilly’s gesture, the servants approached and held Theo in place.

“It’s okay, Theo. I’m here for you.”

“Reilly, what are you doing! How dare you do this to me!”

“Someone might misunderstand if they heard that. Honey, I’m your beloved wife.”

Strictly speaking, she was his ex-wife. He currently had Anna.

As Theo said, Reilly had no right to exert such power over him. But conversely, hadn’t he forced her to have children and brought in a mistress?

That was also a coercive force against her. If he had been a proper husband, it would have been only until they had children.

Right.

Reilly had no rights, but she had obligations.

The obligations as the Duchess that he had reminded her of so many times.

“You like it too, don’t you? Obligations. I also have an obligation to fulfill as the wife you acknowledged.”

She was his ex-wife, but Theo had brought her back as his wife, hadn’t he? She had been tricked by his scheme.

Reilly put on the most pitiful expression in the world and gently stroked Theo’s face. She threw the gloves she had been wearing on the floor and said in a soft voice.

“The Duke is very ill, so keep him in his room and don’t let him come out. If it gets into other people’s ears… wouldn’t the family’s honor be ruined?”

At Reilly’s very natural words, the servants listened intently as if they were hypnotized.

“Yes, Madam.”

Reilly was no longer the Duchess, but they were treating Reilly as the mistress of the house, as if they had returned to the past.

“The family will be strong only when the Duke recovers quickly.”

The servants admired Reilly’s words and nodded.

‘As expected, the Duchess loved the Duke even though she was being oppressed like that.’

‘The Duke has such a wife… Maybe it’s for the best.’

Everyone criticized the Duke as they watched him wail inwardly.