Chapter 68
68
Whatever It Takes
“Now you’re here, Leila.”
Madam Mona, who had been pacing in front of the cottage, quickly ran toward Leila as she returned.
“How did it go? Did you meet the lawyer? What did he say?”
Leila could only shake her head slightly at the barrage of questions.
The servants of Arbis, pitying Bill Leamer, had secretly pooled money to hire a lawyer from a law firm without the knowledge of the master’s family. When she had received the money with repeated thanks, the girl had harbored a faint hope, but now only deep despair remained on her face.
“I heard Lady Norma wants to forgive him, but the madam’s will is firm. Goodness…… It wasn’t even intentional, so you’d think she’d forgive him if possible.”
“Couldn’t I somehow see the madam?”
“Well, Leila, that might not be the best approach. Why not try seeing the duke instead? I heard from a maid serving Lady Norma that their opinions can’t be reconciled, so they’ve decided to leave it to the duke.”
Leila blinked slowly a few times, then suddenly felt dizzy and staggered. Madam Mona hurriedly supported her and led her into the cottage.
“It’s a blessing in disguise. In matters like this, the duke seems more lenient than the two madams. So let’s hold onto hope again, Leila.”
After seating Leila in a chair by the fireplace, Madam Mona gently stroked her trembling slender shoulders in comfort.
“Still, at this rate, your health will suffer before Mr. Leamer’s. You need to eat something. I brought some of your favorites.”
“Thank you, ma’am. Later…… I’ll eat a little later.”
Madam Mona let out several more sighs as she looked down at Leila, who mumbled like a dazed person, before leaving the cottage. As the sound of the door closing reached her, Leila covered her face with both hands.
The lawyer she met at the law firm had given her an even more despairing answer than the police. If she was lucky, she might avoid prison, but lawsuits inevitably required a long time and money. Moreover, compensation was unavoidable anyway, so fighting the duke’s family in court would be a foolish choice.
‘The best option is to beg for leniency.’
That was the only answer the lawyer had given. Leniency from the Herhardt family. No, now it was the duke’s leniency.
It had already been three days since she met that man. She had thrashed about, unable to accept such an absurd deal, but now she felt thrown back before the duke.
Leila chewed her lips anxiously and rose to go to the kitchen. She didn’t even have the energy to boil tea and only drank a few sips of cold water. Her body felt utterly empty, as she hadn’t eaten or slept properly for days.
But Uncle Bill must be suffering far more.
The image of Bill Leamer’s face, which seemed to have aged dramatically in just a few days, brought a sharp pain scraping at the pit of her stomach.
Leila sat alone at the end of the dining table. The loneliness of the empty seat left behind after Kyle left and Uncle Bill was imprisoned was excruciating.
She couldn’t live like this. So she had to save Uncle Bill somehow. But the only path was to accept the deal the duke proposed. No matter what she tried, that conclusion didn’t change.
She gritted her teeth and tried to stand, but Leila couldn’t take a single step and collapsed back down. The memory of the duke’s gaze upon her made her entire body tremble with shame.
If only it had been eyes mad with lust, she wouldn’t have felt this immense humiliation.
At that moment, the duke had been utterly composed, even seeming somewhat amused. Leila knew that expression well. It was the face he made when enjoying a hunt for mere amusement and when tormenting her viciously until she cried.
After repeatedly standing and collapsing several more times, Leila finally slumped forward onto the table like she was falling. No more tears came. Instead, only her ragged breaths poured out like sobs.
It might mean nothing to others, but this life was incredibly precious to Leila. She had done her best to protect and nurture it. She wanted to live that way going forward too. Hardworking, without shame.
Yet she couldn’t just let that man trample this life with his petty desires and whims.
Leila hardened her resolve.
But what about Uncle Bill?
That name pulled everything back to square one.
The deepening darkness pressed down on her frail back like a weight. For a long time, Leila couldn’t lift her head.
It was quite late into the night when he finished signing the last reviewed document.
“You may go ahead and return.”
Mathias gave a brief order to the attendant waiting nearby.
Once the man quietly withdrew with the documents, Mathias was left alone in the annexe. He had always spent long hours here, but lately, with the main house without power, he stayed in the annexe more. Of course, Mathias readily admitted that wasn’t the only reason.
Tonight, Leila would come.
He had a vague premonition of it. After struggling for days to find another solution, she must have realized by now. What the only path available to her was.
On the day Bill Leamer’s mistake snowballed into an irreparable disaster, the moment Mathias’s eyes met Leila’s as she collapsed weeping and calling out to the man being taken away, he knew. How to tear the wings off that beautiful bird trying to flee.
He knew, so he followed through. That was all.
Of course, he knew it wasn’t the most suitable way to obtain the joy he most desired. But first, he had to seize her. So she couldn’t escape. So she would live by his side. Even if the order was reversed, even if it meant taking a long detour, he would surely find that joy he wanted.
Mathias reached out and opened the cigarette case on the edge of the table. He placed a cigarette between his lips but didn’t light it.
Knock knock knock.
A faint knocking sounded at the door. A powerless knock laced with hesitation.
Mathias tossed the unlit cigarette into the ashtray and slowly rose from the sofa. He stood there for a moment until his twitching throat settled, then took a step forward.
As he opened the front door, a cold river wind blew in. And in that wind stood Leila, exactly the face Mathias had anticipated.
The two simply gazed at each other without a word. If not for their hair and clothes fluttering in the wind, it would have been easy to think time had stopped.
Mathias moved first. He lightly stepped back, opening the way for Leila to enter. On this unusually cold winter night, the woman, pale and without even a coat, trembled as she crossed the threshold.
The sound of the door closing and locking echoed through the frozen air.
Leila stopped at the exact spot where she had first begged the duke for Uncle Bill’s leniency a few days ago. The posture was the same, but her expression was entirely different. Her face, stripped of innocent faith and hope, held only resignation and fear. Yet as if graciously respecting the woman clinging to a futile attachment, Mathias sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, just like that day.
“To the duke, I’m nothing, right.”
After several deep breaths, the words she finally uttered were so hollow that Mathias laughed.
“So?”
“Because of a nothing of a woman, just a fleeting desire for her…… wouldn’t leaving a stain on the duke’s life be a loss for you too?”
A faint light flickered in Leila’s eyes, dark as unlit windows.
“So please, tell me another condition. Then I’ll do anything. Anything you want, Duke. I mean it.”
“Leila.”
A sneer soon spread across Mathias’s briefly furrowed eyes.
“There’s a castle our family owns in a resort town south of Berg.”
Leila’s gaze wavered at his sudden, unrelated remark.
“It’s quite beautiful, one of the most renowned in the empire, bought by my grandfather. For his mistress. She lived there loved and well until she passed.”
“Duke……”
“My father was a music lover. That’s why he kept women who performed music close, and the one who stayed by his side the longest was a famous singer. My mother quite liked her too. She was exceptionally talented.”
Mathias lifted his thoughtful gaze to Leila.
“Shall I tell you what their reputations were like?”
At his unexpectedly gentle tone, Leila lost even her last ounce of fighting spirit. She didn’t need to hear the explanation; she knew all too well. How could she not? Those brilliant names that still commanded the respect of the entire city even after death.
“I think that’s enough worrying about me. So, what’s your decision?”
Mathias’s gaze traveled past her heaving chest and slender neck to Leila’s dazed eyes.
“On…… one night, right?”
Leila turned her head several times to glance behind her, but in the end, she looked back at Mathias.
It was something she had resolved the moment she decided to come here. But she wanted to cling to even the slightest possibility. To him, Leila Llewellyn was an insignificant being, but surely his own life was incomparably precious and proud.
Yet I can’t even be a stain on your life.
Realizing that, Leila’s heart calmed instead.
She thought of it as no different from falling down or tumbling from a tree. Just a bit unlucky with a deep wound. But wounds heal eventually, and she could shake it off and walk forward boldly again. As much as needed.
As she steeled her resolve over and over, Mathias’s lip curled slightly upward.
“I told you, Leila. I don’t do losing deals. You think you’re worth enough to cover all that damage with just one night?”
“Then what…… You don’t actually mean to make me your mistress, do you?”
Mathias simply stared at Leila without answering.
Unable to bear it any longer, Leila turned away. But she couldn’t take more than a few steps before stopping.
If she left the annexe like this, even her last hope would vanish. Uncle Bill would rot in prison, a painful lawsuit would drag on, and even if released, he could never return to his old life. Never again.
Leila gritted her teeth and turned back around. As if he had anticipated all this, the duke merely leaned back on the sofa, watching her leisurely.
Yes. You’re that kind of person in the end. Someone who takes what he wants, even if it means breaking it. Without a shred of guilt. For amusement. And then discards it. Like those bloodied birds—shot dead on target, nothing more; or left to bleed out and abandoned, done with.
Mathias chuckled softly, willingly meeting Leila’s glare with reddened eyes, and rose to his feet. Leila, unable to flee or simply wait submissively, collapsed to the floor right there. Without a hint of surprise or fluster, Mathias knelt on one knee before her.
“……!”
At the hand casually undoing the first button of her blouse, Leila reflexively clutched her collar and recoiled.
“Leila.”
Contrary to his chillingly low voice, the breath brushing her cheek was hot.
“You have to. Whatever it takes.”
He lightly traced the back of Leila’s hand gripping the blouse with his fingertips and smiled. Then his hand swiftly gripped her chin painfully.
“If you don’t want to, the door’s over there.”
He forced her head to turn toward the parlor door. Then, slowly, as if to say the choice was entirely hers, he released his hand. More than anything, this attitude infuriated Leila.
Driving her into a dead end, then pretending to give her freedom—cruelly, vilely trampling her heart.
“I’ll never forgive you.”
As she weakly released the blouse, Leila muttered in a voice thick with tears.
“Well, whatever you say.”
Mathias’s hand reached the front of Leila’s loosened blouse with a snicker. With a hard yank, the buttons tore off and scattered across the floor and carpet.
As her pushed body hit the floor, Leila heard a softly whispered voice.
“I’ll be looking forward to it, Leila.”
Leila tried to hurl curses, but no such leisure was given. By the time she realized what was happening, Mathias’s lips had already devoured hers.
In an instant, their tongues entwined, rough breaths mingling. Any attempt to escape was futile. The overwhelming pressure from Mathias’s body pinning her down was incomparable to before.
The wet sounds of desperate sucking and biting. The sensation of saliva trickling from parted lips down her chin. The force and heat in the large hand hiking up her skirt and yanking down the stockings fixed to her garters. Gasps and moans mingled in between, shattering the deep night’s silence. Meanwhile, Mathias settled between Leila’s legs, forcibly spread by his strength. Her skirt and undergarments were stripped off all at once and tossed messily onto the carpet.
“Beautiful.”
Sitting up, Mathias gazed down at Leila as if admiring his own creation.
