Chapter 40
40
Back to Square One
The commotion carried all the way to the other side of Kyle’s firmly shut bedroom door. It was because of the window he’d left open.
Kyle slowly lifted his weary body.
“Hey, Mrs. Etman! Come out right now! Right this instant!”
The man’s bellowing voice sounded familiar.
“……Uncle Bill?”
Startled, Kyle got out of bed. As he approached the window, he saw Bill Leamer and the housekeeper facing off in front of the entrance.
“What is this racket?”
Mrs. Etman appeared with a cold shout.
“So you’re Mrs. Etman, that thief who deserves to be torn limb from limb? Is this something a person does? No matter how much you hate our Leila, how could you do something like this?!”
Kyle’s footsteps halted abruptly as he turned to intervene in the fight.
A thief? Why was he bringing up that theft here, to his mother of all people?
While Kyle stood frozen in confusion, Bill unleashed an astonishing story laced with furious rage. Kyle listened, rigid as a statue, to words that were utterly unbelievable.
“No way.”
Kyle muttered dazedly as he stumbled out of the room. His steps wobbled precariously as he descended the stairs. Even Uncle Bill couldn’t be forgiven for such baseless accusations. How, no matter what, how could he say something so horrific….
“Did Leila say that?”
When Bill’s shouting stopped, Mrs. Etman shot back sharply.
“This is outrageous. How dare you make such a vile accusation….”
“Does Leila seem like the kind of child who could say something like that?”
Just as Kyle was about to step out the front door, Bill cried out, his voice breaking.
“If Leila had just told on you, my heart wouldn’t be tearing apart like this!”
“If you’re going to cause a scene with this nonsense, get out now! Before I call the police!”
“It’s the police you’re talking about! The mailman saw your precious cousin get hauled into the station and passed on what they said. Are you still going to deny it?”
“……What did you say?”
Mrs. Etman faltered and stepped back.
Please. Kyle gazed at his mother’s back, praying. Deny it. Shout that it’s a false accusation, a lie. But Mrs. Etman just breathed irregularly, as if her words had failed her completely. Her bloodless hand gripping the railing began to tremble.
Kyle staggered toward his mother.
“Mom.”
Only after hearing that sigh-like call did Mrs. Etman notice her son standing behind her.
“It’s not true, right?”
Kyle’s hand touched her arm.
“Uncle Bill got it wrong, right? Right?”
Kyle tried to smile, but it didn’t work. This moment felt so brutally real, yet his mind was shrouded in thick fog.
It had been hellish days. No matter how many times he went to her, pleading and begging, Leila wouldn’t change her mind, and time slipped away helplessly.
But Kyle clung to vague hope. Dr. Etman had gone to Ratz and paid even Leila’s tuition as planned. So if he could just convince Leila, if he could hold onto that foolish girl, everything would go smoothly. That’s what he believed.
If marriage was too much pressure, then what about just getting engaged? He planned to visit Leila that evening and persuade her one more time. They could go to university as an engaged couple. That would be enough. With enough time, she’d come to love him as her lover. And then they could live happily ever after.
But.
“Mom!”
Kyle’s voice cracked with tears. Mrs. Etman’s face flushed red as she stared down at the railing, unable to continue.
That was when Dr. Etman returned.
Two policemen got out of the car with him. Seeing them, Mrs. Etman paled and collapsed to the ground.
Dr. Etman apologized to the awkward-looking officers before approaching his wife alone.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Leamer.”
He first went to Bill Leamer and removed his hat.
“I have no words, even if I had ten mouths. I’m truly sorry.”
Despair filled Kyle’s eyes as he watched his father apologize repeatedly.
“As you can see, the situation today makes it hard for a proper conversation. May I come back after things settle and apologize properly?”
“……Very well.”
Bill Leamer roughly rubbed his eyes and nodded, swallowing his anger. As he stepped back, the policemen approached a few more steps.
“Why did you do it, dear?”
Dr. Etman’s gaze grew icy cold as he looked at his wife on the ground.
“No. It’s not like that….”
“Daniel’s at the station. He’s confessed everything already. That you put him up to it.”
Mrs. Etman’s lips stiffened at the name that slipped from her husband’s mouth as she tried to stammer an excuse.
“So don’t even think about lying to me, Linda.”
“Darling!”
“Pretending to accept Leila to her face, while scheming behind her back? You, my wife, Kyle’s mother!”
Dr. Etman’s face twisted in anger he could no longer suppress.
“It’s all because of you!”
A scream-like shout burst from Mrs. Etman, who had been sniffling.
“Why did you have to allow Leila and turn me into this mess of a person?!”
“Do you think that’s something for you to say, after committing this outrageous act?”
“No. It’s all your fault! I said from the start I didn’t like that girl! If you’d listened to me then, we wouldn’t have come to this! If it weren’t for you, I, I….”
Mrs. Etman, who had been throwing a fit, finally burst into tears. Her hands covering her face soon grew soaked with them.
Dr. Etman let out a deep sigh repeatedly before helping his wife to her feet. The policemen showed respect to the esteemed doctor by letting him personally put her in the car.
Kyle watched that nightmare unfold before his eyes without blinking. Dusk had fallen thickly before he knew it. But even that twilight was too bright, so Kyle closed his eyes instead.
He wished the world would turn to darkness. That was his only desire now.
“Don’t cry, Uncle. Okay?”
Leila gently offered the handkerchief she’d pulled out, placing it on the table. Bill, who had been glaring at his beer glass like an enemy, startled and looked up.
“Cry? Who’s crying?”
Denying it vehemently, Bill still took Leila’s handkerchief and roughly wiped his damp eyes.
The food on the plates had gone cold untouched. But neither Bill nor Leila could suggest eating. They both knew it wasn’t possible.
While Bill gulped down his beer, Leila gazed tiredly at the end of the table.
It was only after hearing the comforting words from the Arbis estate servants who had rushed to the cottage that Leila understood what had happened. Mrs. Etman would never have confessed it herself, and Leila had kept her mouth firmly shut, yet everything from that day had come to light.
Leila had no idea who had tipped off the police with that suspicious conversation. That day, in that rundown tearoom on the outskirts, there had only been Mrs. Etman, Leila, and the strange man.
So was that man the source of the rumors? But who on earth was he?
No matter how much she thought, Leila couldn’t even hazard a guess. But one thing was clear. It had given Kyle an indelible wound. It had shredded her desire to protect him. The policemen who came with Dr. Etman had taken Mrs. Etman to the station. And Kyle had witnessed it all.
“Don’t cry, Leila.”
He set down his glass and offered her the handkerchief.
“Crying? Who’s crying?”
Like Bill moments before, Leila denied it firmly and rubbed her reddened eyes.
“I’m sorry. I pushed you and egged you on, clueless about the world as I am, and caused all this mess.”
“If you say that, I’ll really get mad, Uncle.”
“Marriage…… yeah. It’s better not to have a marriage like this. That’s right. It has to be.”
Instead of answering, Leila nodded deeply. The faint smile tugging at her lips glistened with tears.
“But go to university anyway, Leila. Dr. Etman already paid the tuition, and if we return the recovered money to them, it becomes my tuition payment for you. University has nothing to do with Kyle.”
“No.”
“For housing, if you do something like boarding, I can chip in. It might be tight, but with effort, living expenses….”
“I’m going to university, Uncle. I haven’t given up. But not now.”
Leila reached out and took Bill’s hand.
“I’m going to be a teacher. I’ll save up money, and when I can afford to study in the capital, I’ll take the exam again. That was my original goal and dream. I just got momentarily distracted by a shortcut and came back to where I started.”
“But you can’t just give up a university you already got into.”
“You don’t trust me?”
Leila could now smile naturally.
“Even if I take the exam again, I’m confident I’ll pass. I’ll do it with even better grades to get a scholarship. Just watch.”
“Leila, kid….”
“You always said it, Uncle. That I’d make a pretty decent adult. So trust me one more time.”
What was he to do with this child?
It would have been better if she’d bawled her eyes out, but Leila smiled so beautifully, unaware that it tore at Bill Leamer’s heart.
What am I to do with you. And what about that Kyle boy.
Unable to hold back his surging emotions, Bill Leamer’s shoulders began to shake. Ashamed to show such a pitiful sight, he quickly bowed his head, and thick, hot teardrops fell plopping onto the table.
“It’s okay, Uncle.”
Leila rose from her chair and went to his side.
“I’m really okay.”
The child hugged him in her small arms.
“Really. So tell them you don’t want Mrs. Etman punished, that getting the money back is enough, okay?”
Continuing in her astonishingly calm voice, Leila gently patted his back. What was he to do with her. The words he swallowed turned into even hotter tears welling up. Swallowing them, Bill nodded.
He hadn’t thought he could forgive her, but seeing Mrs. Etman crumbling before his eyes and Kyle pale as a ghost had left him uneasy too. No matter how vicious Linda Etman’s actions, that woman was Kyle’s mother. To Leila, she was no different from blood kin—the mother of that precious child.
“Alright, if that’s how you feel, then it’s fine by me, Leila.”
