Translator: Nox

Chapter 33

“My bag is gone….”

“Your bag?”

Vanessa nodded. She seemed to be trying her best to remain calm, but the way her hands were crushing the fabric of her skirt made it clear she was anything but.

“The kitten was so small, so I set my things down for just a moment….”

Her faltering explanation made it easy to guess what had happened. He had thrust the cat into her arms, and in her fluster, she must have set the bag down. By the time she had regained her composure, it was likely long gone. He summarized the situation in a few short words.

“You were hit by a pickpocket.”

“What should I do? The gifts for my friends were inside.”

“Forget about getting it back.”

“Is there really no way?”

Hardly. It was impossible. It would be faster to simply buy the exact same items again. Perhaps sensing the answer in his silence, her pretty eyes clouded with anxiety.

“If I tell the police….”

“It won’t work. They don’t operate alone.”

“Still. You never know. Someone might have picked it up and reported it.”

Looking around, Vanessa spotted a police officer and ran toward him, waving her hand. Theodore watched her retreating figure and bit down on the dry end of his cigarillo.

Trying to see the good in everything was that woman’s strength and her greatest weakness. Perhaps it was a survival instinct of the weak. In this world, there were times when pretending not to notice was the better strategy.

And yet, every now and then, he thought she might actually be a decent person. His initial cynicism—wondering how decent someone who tried to buy people with money could really be—had faded. By now, he prided himself on ‘knowing’ Vanessa to some extent.

She was a woman who preferred a hundred books to a hundred dresses, who enjoyed tending to the Rose Garden, and who loved quiet silence more than the frivolity of high society. Despite being a noble, she earned her own money, and her way of thinking was as unique as it was bold.

These small, seemingly insignificant traits gathered to form the woman she was.

“…….”

He let the urge to smoke pass and watched her on the other side of the street. Vanessa was now half-shrouded in the shadows of the night. The warm light spilling from a nearby shop illuminated her profile as she earnestly explained something to the officer.

He stared at those soft contours for a moment before striding toward her.

“It was about ten… no, five minutes ago…. It was at a stall near the mouth of that alley….”

The officer glanced at Vanessa’s beautiful face and diligently noted her description in his notebook with maximum sincerity. Judging by how the notebook was packed with similar accounts, such reports were clearly not uncommon.

“It’s a popular method lately, a truly nasty bunch. They’ll take jewelry, of course, and sometimes they even kidnap children in the blink of an eye…. Ah, by the way, what is your name?”

Vanessa fell silent at the unexpected question. She couldn’t give her real name in a place like this. Her uncle would be notified immediately. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to give a false name and send the officer on a wild goose chase.

In her fluster, she unconsciously gripped her skirt. What was she supposed to do in a situation like this…?

“Theo.”

At that moment, a hand reached out over her head and took the notebook and pen from the officer. The officer looked at him with surprised eyes.

“Ah. Are you with her?”

Vanessa looked up at River Ross, who was standing beside her with a casual lean. He scribbled something in the notebook and handed it back to the officer. Standing slightly on her tiptoes, she saw an unfamiliar name written in the book.

“You can contact me at that shop.”

“Understood. I’ll let you know as soon as I learn anything.”

Vanessa watched the officer walk away before turning back to River Ross.

“Theo? As in Theodore?”

Theodore, who had also been watching the officer, flicked his gaze down. For a moment, his breath hitched. His spine, which had been relaxed in the warm air, stiffened, and even the loose atmosphere seemed to snap taut.

Theodore looked down at the woman’s face, his neck feeling stiff enough to startle even himself.

“…What?”

“That signature just now. That spelling is a shorthand for Theodore.”

He had thought she was agonizing over something serious with that somber face, but that was the answer she had come up with. She had no idea what kind of impact those words had on him.

“So, Theo.”

It was just a nickname, yet his nerves kept fraying. It was a name no one had called him since he was ten. Even his grandmother didn’t dare use it, and even when she was furious with him, he was always ‘Theodore.’

She had told him that since he had to stand tall as the head of the family, she could not treat him like a mere grandson. Theodore slowly swallowed a surging breath. Vanessa watched his Adam’s apple move slowly up and down with fascination, then smiled as if she understood everything. Even though she knew nothing at all.

“Since when did you have a name like that picked out?”

He swallowed an unfamiliar, ticklish breath. And he finally admitted it. He could have used any name. He could have even used ‘River Ross.’ Yet, the fact that he had revealed his real name like a lingering trace was nothing but greed.

Simply because he wanted to hear that woman—those small lips—murmur his name. Because there was no one left who called him that.

“Since a very long time ago.”

It was such a trivial reason.

“Just how long have you been planning today? You must have been looking forward to it to have an alias ready.”

He firmly grabbed the hand of the woman who was laughing brightly. Whether it was a car or a carriage, he had to find a place where he could touch her. Right now.

Vanessa looked innocent even as she was led away by his hand. Her face was full of firm belief that he was still ‘River Ross.’ She had no idea that he wasn’t her childhood friend, but the most terrible deceiver of her short life.

That was why she followed him so defenselessly into this deserted area.

“…….”

At the mouth of a dark alley, Theodore snatched both of Vanessa’s wrists and pinned them against the wall. Startled by the sudden shove, Vanessa looked up at him with wide eyes. A primal sense of satisfaction surged through him at the sight of her so easily suppressed by his strength.

“River, why…?”

His own reflection was mirrored in Vanessa’s wide gray eyes. His face—clumsy, unrefined, and feverish—was blindly obsessed, enough to startle even himself. He desperately put strength into the hands holding her.

“Vanessa.”

He wanted to touch her. He wanted to feel their pulses together, bodies pressed close. He wanted to weave her life and his together. Right now, even if it was for only a fleeting moment.

As he looked down at her, he could feel Vanessa’s pulse gradually quicken. She was cute. Perhaps even lovely. Since she was small to begin with, he had to lean down quite a bit for his lips to reach her ear.

“Siren.”

When he called her by the name permitted only to her family, as if returning exactly what she had done to him, her fair face crumpled for a moment as if she were about to cry. It was clear even in the dark. The trembling of her eyelashes, her breath that suddenly grew shallow, her flushed cheeks. Every emotion she was feeling was vivid enough to touch.

He leaned down and gently bit her trembling lower lip. It was shallow this time. Without even entangling their tongues, they fumbled and caressed one another. From there, the color began to spread again.

“Wait, just, a moment….”

“Why?”

“People… can see….”

“They can’t.”

“Liar.”

“I’m blocking them with my body.”

The small body, warmed by the summer heat, gave a start. Her face, flushed anew, was undeniably alluring.

“My Siren.”

With her makeup smudged, she looked utterly erotic. At this moment, it felt as though he could willingly endure any foolish act for this woman.

He pressed his thumb lightly against Vanessa’s reddened lips. If he made a single phone call to the butler in Linden, the culprit and the lost items would be in his hands within two hours. If he got them back for her, would she smile? Brightly, like she did then? Or….

“Everything about you is bigger than me, so sometimes… it’s overwhelming.”

That innocent grumble cut through his complicated thoughts. The moment he hungrily swallowed Vanessa’s lips, fireworks exploded noisily above their heads.

They were the flares announcing the opening of the circus.