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Chapter 2 …
“Wait. I’ll come down!”
The moment Seimon moved, Christine admitted she could no longer avoid him and shouted.
Judging by that expression, that voice, that atmosphere—if she made one wrong move, he looked ready to tear the door off its hinges just to get in.
Her head spun.
The first thought that came to her mind was: how on earth did that man find this place?
‘Why is he here?’
Letting go of the balcony railing with trembling hands, Christine stepped back inside the living room.
“Did he find out I’m pregnant and come here to threaten me?”
Muttering as she paced in circles around the room, Christine’s face darkened.
Duke Duran Deirtt had promised he would neither interfere nor harm her, but Seimon might be different.
Seimon Deirtt was even more stubbornly Republican than his father, Duke Duran Deirtt.
So if he had discovered that a child existed between them, she could easily imagine him becoming furious enough to make an extreme choice.
‘He’ll hate this child.’
Christine’s hand trembled violently.
‘It’s fine if he comes after me, but if he threatens my baby, I won’t stay still either. So I need to hide it as much as possible.’
Having steeled herself, Christine bit her lip and retrieved the pistol she had hidden in a drawer.
Taking a deep breath, Christine headed downstairs. The creaking sound of the apartment gate’s hinges stretched the tension even tighter.
A gust of cold wind struck her cheek.
As she walked toward Seimon, who stood watching her with both hands shoved into his pants pockets, Christine swallowed hard.
It really was Seimon Deirtt.
Perhaps something had happened during that time, because the area beneath his eyes looked darker, and he seemed thinner.
‘Why does he look like that?’
But Christine quickly stopped herself from worrying.
He was a stranger now, after all.
As she approached him with forced composure, she caught the familiar scent of the cigarettes he always smoked.
That faint, subtle smell—not overwhelmingly strong.
He was the same as ever.
Seimon stared at Christine as she approached without even the slightest smile, then looked at her belly again and let out a hollow laugh.
“Hah.”
As expected. So he really hadn’t known she was pregnant.
Christine deliberately stopped about five steps away from him, keeping her distance.
Seimon’s brow furrowed slightly before he spoke.
“You seem to have been doing well, Christine.”
“Thanks to you. How did you find this place?”
Feeling awkward and uneasy seeing him again after so long, Christine lowered her gaze as she answered.
After a brief silence, Seimon spoke.
“I came because I have something to ask.”
Something to ask?
He came all the way to the distant Rojas Republic just to ask her a question?
It was absurd, but Seimon’s eyes as he stared at Christine were deadly serious.
“What is it?”
Watching Christine mumble while constantly avoiding his gaze, Seimon let out a sigh.
It had been a grueling journey.
After making every possible effort to finally find her, this was the reaction he got.
“Christine Eliete Oredot.”
The sound of him calling her full name made his voice even lower and colder.
Seimon slowly stepped closer, narrowing the distance between them.
Christine, who had been staring only at the ground, finally lifted her eyes toward him.
“You removed the Deirtt name whenever you pleased. That divorce that turned us into strangers. Just why…”
Looking back and forth between Christine and her belly, Seimon inhaled sharply before continuing.
“Why did you do something like that?”
Christine was puzzled.
Did he really need to chase her all the way here just to ask why she divorced him?
Were they ever that close?
A sharp ache pierced her chest, and Christine realized remnants of lingering attachment were still stuck deep inside her heart.
Was it because, even if it had been a contract marriage, they had still been husband and wife…?
Confused, Christine forced herself to remain expressionless.
“Because I had to.”
“I had to…?”
At her indifferent answer, Seimon’s brow twisted.
“I needed a divorce, so I did it.”
Seimon bit down on his lip.
That rigid attitude. That wall Christine always put up.
She had always been like this before the divorce too, but today she felt even colder.
“Haa…”
His sharp golden eyes wavered violently.
“Christine. Do you really think I came all this way for an ambiguous answer like that?”
“Then what exactly do you want me to say?”
“Christine.”
Seimon’s voice sharpened slightly, but Christine did not back down.
“Well. We’re divorced anyway. The outcome won’t change, so do I really need to explain every little reason?”
At her answer, Seimon clenched his teeth and stepped even closer, looking as if he might grab her at any moment.
“Don’t talk nonsense. You ran away carrying my child. Did you think I wouldn’t find you just because you hid like this?”
Seeing the burning mixture of anger and strange obsession in his eyes, Christine instinctively tightened her grip on the pistol inside her coat pocket.
Then she said firmly,
“It’s not your child.”
Seimon tilted his head crookedly and brushed his fingers over his lips.
“Oh? Then are you saying you had an affair during our marriage?”
“…Yes.”
Christine answered one beat too slowly.
But Seimon immediately let out an incredulous laugh.
“Did I look like such an idiot that I can’t calculate dates from the nights we spent together? This child is mine.”
He was absolutely certain.
But the moment Christine lowered her eyes—
For a split second, an unfamiliar anxiety brushed past him.
Christine’s gaze turned ice-cold.
“How arrogant, Seimon. Do you think you know everything about me? Are you really certain I only slept with you?”
What?
Seimon’s face crumpled instantly.
Even imagining it made him feel filthy.
But Christine ignored his feelings and continued.
“Why does my pregnancy matter? Everything is over. We’re divorced. It has nothing to do with you anymore.”
“Right. That damn divorce.”
Seimon let out a bitter laugh, tilted his head back to look at the sky for a moment, then looked at Christine again.
He seemed like he was smiling, crying, and furious all at once.
As Seimon said nothing and only stared at Christine, an uncomfortable silence fell between them.
“The divorce.”
After a long while, Seimon finally spoke first, his expression twisted in pain as if he were spitting out something burning hot.
“You were the one who divorced me on your own and ran away.”
“…That’s—”
As Christine tried to explain, Seimon bit down hard on his lip.
“Don’t interrupt me, Christine.”
His thick brows rose sharply.
“It took me half a year to find you. What the hell were you thinking, conspiring with Father for this divorce? Couldn’t you have said even one word to me?”
Listening to him, emotion surged in Christine’s chest.
Because I was pregnant with your child. Because I broke our contract marriage clause. Divorce was the obvious answer.
She barely swallowed the words rising up her throat and replied coldly,
“I didn’t think I needed to tell you.”
“Hah.”
At a loss for words, Seimon simply stared at Christine’s face.
Just what are you…
Inside his pocket, his hand clenched tightly.
“If you were going to divorce me and leave, then you should’ve at least gone somewhere better, eaten well, and lived properly. Why are you living in some shabby little place? Were you seriously planning to raise my child here?”
Pointing angrily at the apartment behind Christine, Seimon lashed out.
Christine was dumbfounded.
This was actually considered one of the more luxurious newly built apartments in the area, yet he called it shabby.
“What’s wrong with this place? At the very least, it’s more comfortable than being by your side. It’s peaceful here. I’m happy.”
“More comfortable than by my side? More comfortable than Deirtt Estate? This place?”
When Seimon looked genuinely unable to understand, Christine’s pent-up bitterness exploded.
Her lips trembled.
“Yes. How do you think it felt for me, an imperial princess, to live in Deirtt Estate with Republican Party members constantly coming and going?”
“…”
“Our divorce was inevitable anyway. It was a contract marriage. The timing was just a little sooner than planned.”
With an exhausted face, Christine continued.
“Go back, Seimon. It’s absurd that you came all the way here just to ask why I divorced you, but now that you’ve heard the answer, leave. I’ll quietly raise this child somewhere that neither Republicans nor Royalists matter, so you don’t need to concern yourself.”
The knife-like wind lashed painfully across their cheeks.
“Do you really think that makes any sense?”
Unlike the freezing winter air, Seimon’s voice burned with heat.
“You don’t know anything.”
Running a hand over his face, Seimon spoke with visible anguish.
“You have no idea what I’m feeling right now.”
It was Christine’s first time seeing him look so shaken.
Seeing so many unfamiliar sides of Seimon all at once was almost too much for her to bear.
Why is he acting like this…?
And Christine’s heart kept pounding faster and faster.
She couldn’t endure it anymore.
“I’m leaving. Don’t stop me.”
Her voice trembled thinly.
“And don’t even think about following me. I really will call the police.”
Leaving Seimon without waiting for an answer, Christine turned around without hesitation and walked away coldly.
She could feel his piercing gaze stabbing into her back, enough to make her skin burn—
But she ignored it completely.
Watching Christine walk away like that, Seimon swallowed sharply and lowered his gaze.
A cold wife.
A woman insisting the child in her belly was not his.
“Damn it.”
He yanked at his tie, loosening it.
He couldn’t breathe.
All he could see was the rounded swell of her belly as she returned to the apartment.
What on earth is she thinking?
Barely holding together his collapsing heart, Seimon slowly looked back up at the balcony of the apartment where she lived.
It felt unbearably…
Far away.
