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Chapter : 17
A shadow of a dagger fell across Loren’s nape. If she pressed even a little, the blade would slice through her skin and blood would drip down.
“Loren.”
The smile vanished from the man’s face.
“If I get hurt, you get the exact same wound.”
She had already experienced it several times. When her palm was cut by a key, his hand bled too. When he slashed his own wrist with a knife, blood ran down her arm.
Wounds were connected—which meant their lives were connected.
That was why Loren had been imprisoned in this damn mansion. Because she was no different from Cedric’s still-beating heart.
“Damn it. What are you doing.”
“If you lock people up, you pay the price. Don’t move. Don’t scream. If you do anything that irritates me, I’ll kill myself. And then you die too.”
She warned him coldly.
The cold metal near her throat made her skin crawl. She couldn’t afford to give him a chance to disarm her.
Slowly, without taking her eyes off Cedric, Loren rose from the sofa and moved toward the sitting room window.
He seemed genuinely tense. The mask-like smile that normally covered his face had vanished. His taut body looked ready to leap up and snatch the knife from her hand at any second.
“I think that’s enough playing around.”
“Playing? If I press this knife just a bit harder… what do you think will happen to you?”
Loren spoke slowly and deliberately and pressed the dagger closer to her throat. A thin line of blood opened and ran down.
It hurt like hell, but she swallowed the groan rising in her throat. Pale blue silk darkened with spreading red.
At the same moment, blood soaked into Cedric’s shirt collar. The same wound appeared on his neck, thin and clean, carved as though by a blade.
“……”
“Answer me, Cedric.”
“…What do you want?”
Instead of replying, Loren grabbed a nearby side cabinet and hurled it into the window.
CRASH—glass shattered outward in a spray of shards. Splinters scratched her face.
Cedric shot to his feet.
“Stay still!”
Loren snapped. In a situation where his life was held hostage alongside hers, Cedric had no choice but to obey. His gaze never left her.
“You have a gun on you, don’t you?”
Cedric nodded.
“Take it out, put it on the table, and go stand against that wall.”
He obeyed again. The silver barrel sat beside the teacups, absurdly out of place.
Cedric took long steps backward, placed his hands behind his head, and stood against the far wall.
“Loren, let’s stop this. You don’t really want to die. I understand you’re frustrated, but—”
Loren moved carefully to the table and picked up the gun.
Six bullets. Goodbye, useless little dagger.
“Are you sure I don’t want to die?”
CLICK. Without hesitation she loaded the gun and brought the muzzle beneath her chin.
“Cedric, remember I told you I was looking for my father?”
“…Put the gun down, Loren.”
“When I first met you, when you dragged me into this wretched house, I was searching for him.”
“……”
“You know what I heard? They said they found his body. Noah told me.”
A lie. No body had been found. Her father was probably alive somewhere.
Loren didn’t blink. She played the bereaved daughter flawlessly. She slid her finger onto the trigger.
“Did it never occur to you? I’m the one person who could kill you anytime—so why? Because I’m the broke noble with only a name left? Or because I’m a woman you thought you could overpower?”
The rehearsed lines rolled smoothly off her tongue. Perfect so far. Just a little more—
She wouldn’t drop the gun until Cedric swallowed every bit of her lie whole.
“Loren, I’m sorry. But—”
He could apologize so easily. After locking someone in a mansion with no windows for days, all he had to say was “sorry.”
Loren had no intention of stopping until she got what she wanted.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I have nothing left to lose.”
Another lie. She didn’t want to die at all.
“If we die, we die together. Cedric, I really don’t care.”
“Damn it…”
Panic flickered in Cedric’s eyes. Loren’s gamble was working.
He raked a hand through his hair. Loren held the gun. Literally and figuratively, the balance of power had shifted.
“You don’t want to die, do you?”
“No one wants to die.”
“…If you want to live, do exactly what I say.”
The greatest bluff of her life was reaching its climax. Loren searched her pockets and pulled out a neatly folded sheet of paper.
“This goes… right here.”
She placed the thin paper on the floor, just inside the shattered window frame—where a person could climb through if they crouched.
“You’re going to walk, slowly, to that paper…”
She backed toward the parlor door.
“Pick it up and follow what it says. Try anything funny and we both die.”
Cedric didn’t answer. Loren didn’t lower her guard. The gun remained pressed beneath her jaw.
“…Fine.”
Cedric approached the window and picked up the paper. From where she stood, Loren could only see his back—his expression unreadable.
They’re ridiculous demands…
But it was the best plan she could devise. She swallowed.
Cedric didn’t move.
“Are you serious, Loren?”
He asked without turning around.
“Yes. Completely.”
Cedric hesitated, then bent down and crawled through the shattered window. Loren followed. Glass crunched beneath her shoes.
“….”
The moment he saw outside, Cedric let out a breathless laugh. Crowds pressed against the tall iron gate.
As soon as he appeared, people erupted in noise. Servants scrambled to hold them back.
“He’s there!”
“Where?”
“Over there! At the window!”
Cedric checked the next line of the paper.
If you don’t do it properly, you die.
The next line read:
Go outside. There will be journalists.
Cedric lifted his eyes and stared at the crowd—faces, notebooks, recording devices, ready to pounce.
“Open the gate.”
He ordered a servant. The iron gate slowly swung open and the reporters surged in.
Among them was Noah. One glance told Cedric Noah had organized all of this.
Behind him—a woman with a gun.
In front—reporters hungry for scandal.
Cedric exhaled, then pasted on a warm smile.
“You were in quite a hurry, it seems? Hanging all over my gate before the owner even welcomed you. Honestly…”
He looked around the circle of reporters.
“The reason I’ve called you here is…”
The final line on the paper read:
Announce that we are getting married.
No matter how he reread it, the words didn’t change.
“We are getting married.”
Soft steps sounded behind him. Loren squeezed through the broken window and stood beside him, the gun still clutched behind her back.
“This person… and I.”
Cedric gestured to Loren and ground his teeth.
