Chapter 39
39
Blight knew from their expressions that they had spoken beforehand, and Viktor was teasing her about it. So, he smiled diplomatically and withdrew from the scene.
Scarlett felt a burning sensation rising from within and quickly said her goodbyes.
"Thank you. I'll be going then."
"Stay here until I'm ready."
"I'll wait downstairs."
"Can't you stand to be with me even for a little while?"
Scarlett was silent for a moment at Viktor's low voice. Hesitating, she finally spoke.
"Isaac… can see the light now. The medicine worked. It seems I did sell you for it, just as you said, for that medicine."
Scarlett looked at Viktor and continued.
"So, while I feel terribly sorry for you, I also… hate you like crazy."
"Why can't you forgive me?"
At Viktor's uncomprehending expression, Scarlett scratched the table with her nails in frustration. Then, in a voice that had become as cold as Viktor's, she said.
"While I was suffering from the fever, all you lost was your honor."
Silence fell after her words.
Viktor grabbed her hand and pulled it away from the table.
"So you think it was just my honor, that's why you're acting like a child."
"We're not married anymore. Whatever I do, you…."
"And stop wearing these clothes."
With his other hand, Viktor pulled the ribbon at the neckline of her plain dress.
Scarlett tensed at his action and involuntarily held her breath. The ribbon came undone in his hand, revealing a bit of her collarbone.
Scarlett asked in a trembling voice.
"Does my dress… tarnish the honor you're so obsessed with again?"
Viktor replied with an indifferent face.
"Perhaps."
Scarlett quickly pulled her hand away from Viktor and turned away from him. She tied the ribbon with trembling hands.
She struggled to hide her trembling as she continued the words she had been unable to finish earlier.
"I'm not coming back here. So, I don't have to live the way you want me to. So don't interfere."
She heard a snort of derision behind her. Startled, she turned around and froze.
Was this the expression Viktor had on his face when pirates saw him at the last moment? He stood there with a sleek, devilish face, and Scarlett felt more afraid of Viktor Dumpelt than at any moment before.
As she stood frozen by his gaze, unable to even think of running away, a commotion arose outside. Scarlett looked out the window and saw a carriage bearing the Hunter Family crest entering.
Soon the carriage stopped, the door opened, and Nina Hunter stepped out. A glamorous beauty with a perfect figure, she seemed to wither everything around her just by stepping out of the carriage.
Scarlett looked at Viktor as she watched her. And, trying to escape the crushing pressure that made her body feel frozen, she made an exaggerated joke.
"See, you should have come back from the sea a little faster. Then you could have married Nina Hunter."
Viktor asked.
"How do you want me to react?"
"Just… that's what I'm saying."
"Oh, right, I should have come back from the sea faster and married Nina Hunter."
"……."
"Do you like that?"
When he asked, Scarlett thought for a moment and shook her head.
"Honestly, I don't like it."
Regardless of her feelings for Viktor, even though they were divorced, his former lover was bound to be awkward.
Scarlett looked at Nina Hunter and said.
"I've never liked anything related to that woman."
Whatever he liked about it, Viktor gave a faint smile, and the icy tension eased somewhat.
In Viktor's eyes, Scarlett was usually an excessive philanthropist. Not as much as to him, but certainly more full of love than other ordinary people. The fact that the woman she disliked was his former lover was a pretty good fact for Viktor.
As Viktor Dumpelt came down to the first floor lobby, Nina Hunter said.
"I'm sorry for coming so suddenly. I came to take the items to be donated to the charity event."
Feeling that her words lacked explanation, Viktor stared at her silently.
Nina recalled the sensations she had felt when she was with him, looking at his impeccably elegant face, and continued.
"I can't entrust the good items to be auctioned off to a servant, can I? If they get lost in the middle, what will I be as the host of the event?"
At that moment, another carriage arrived, a little late. And Hugh Gun Hunter, her brother, got out of that carriage.
He wiggled his eyebrows playfully and said.
"I'm sorry to bother you when you're busy. There are so many precious items that even I, a Royal Police officer, had to come along."
Instead of accepting the greeting, Viktor said to Blight.
"Prepare tea. For four."
"Yes, Master."
Nina asked, puzzled by the words.
"Four people? Who's here?"
Viktor replied.
"Scarlett is here."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know about women's things. She's here to help organize them."
"Ah."
Nina answered as if she understood, but there was a strange doubt left on her face. Hugh Gunther said casually from the side.
"I've never met her, Miss Scarlett."
"Let's go in."
Viktor turned and headed to the drawing room. Then Hugh Gunther said to his sister Nina.
"You didn't answer my question."
"Would you like that? Because the Royal Police are digging up dirt on you, you haven't been able to enter the royal family yet."
"Still, that's too much."
Hugh Gunther grumbled and moved his feet.
Meanwhile, Blight conveyed this fact to Scarlett.
"Madam, the Hunter Family members have arrived."
"Yeah. I saw them getting out of the carriage earlier. I wonder if I can sneak out?"
"Well, the Master has already ordered to prepare seats for four."
Before Scarlett could react to the words, Candice said.
"Madam, you must choose a dress first."
"I have to go out and greet them quickly."
"No, since they came suddenly, they should wait."
Whatever Scarlett's intentions, Candice called all the servants in the mansion. Especially the maids, who all left their work and gathered, making a fuss.
"In this situation, you must dress up with strength."
Then Scarlett asked with a somewhat uncomprehending face.
"At a meeting with my ex-husband's ex-girlfriend?"
"Yes, exactly that situation."
Just as Scarlett looked up the love stories of theater actors in the newspaper, these people seemed to find the love affairs of their employer interesting.
Scarlett wore a red velvet dress in a color similar to her eyes, and brought a thick, pure white shawl to wrap around it.
She closed her eyes for a moment in front of the drawing room door and calmed her mind.
The people in this room had been taught social etiquette by tutors hired by their parents from the moment they were born. Scarlett was always afraid of entering such places. She was worried about making even one mistake.
She briefly recalled the parties she had attended during her marriage to Viktor. Her husband, who would check on her with his eyes even from a very far place.
And at some point, he would come to her side, wrap his arm around her waist, and whisper in her ear as if whispering love.
"Hold your head up. There is no one my wife should avoid looking at."
He did not understand the root of this fear that Scarlett had.
'It was nice not to do this after the divorce.'
After taking a few breaths, Scarlett straightened her back, raised her chin, and said to Blight.
"I'll go in."
At her words, Blight bowed his head and knocked.
"The Madam has arrived."
And opened the door.
Scarlett, who had resolved not to be intimidated, first saw Viktor, then passed Nina, and then found her brother next to her.
The moment Scarlett made eye contact with Hugh Gun Hunter, who was wearing the Royal Police uniform, her body lost strength and she collapsed into a seat.
"Madam!"
The maids in the hallway rushed to support her. Scarlett was breathing rapidly and couldn't breathe properly.
'Don't make a mistake. If I make a mistake…….'
As that thought repeated in her head, she couldn't come to her senses even more. She couldn't understand why she was doing this.
It was a man she had never seen before. The moment she made eye contact with such a strange man, she couldn't breathe.
As she trembled, her body was lifted. And Viktor's voice was heard above her head.
"Doctor."
"Yes, Master."
Scarlett gasped for breath, and Viktor took her to the guest bedroom on the floor directly above, the fastest place he could reach.
Scarlett scratched the bedding with her hands in agony. Tears fell from her eyes, but she herself couldn't understand why.
Viktor first tore the dress that was tailored to fit her body perfectly with his hands. And after letting everyone out, he completely covered and wrapped her in a blanket and pulled her into his arms.
