Chapter 62
62
As she was gripped by fear, the curtain moved, signaling the end of the performance. It was heading back to the Tram garage.
Suddenly, Scarlett felt suffocated and terrified by the darkness, gasping for breath.
Just then, Isaac entered the curtained space.
"Scarlett."
"Isaac?"
Isaac hurriedly sat down in front of Scarlett and said, "I heard a moan."
At Isaac's words, Scarlett quickly embraced him.
"What should I do?"
"What's wrong?"
"I really... I think I'm losing my mind. What should I do...? I keep losing my memory. I forget everything. It's so... so scary..."
At her weeping, Isaac embraced Scarlett with trembling hands.
A moment later, the device stopped. Isaac quickly helped Scarlett up and out of the Tram, where the waiting drivers asked in surprise.
"Oh, Miss! What happened?"
"Was it too dark?"
Scarlett shook her head. She tried to smile, but her mind was still blank.
*
Late at night, as she entered the Dumpelt Family estate, Blight greeted her kindly.
"It's late."
From this response, Scarlett already knew that what she had heard earlier was true.
Despite her sudden visit after the divorce, he didn't ask for a reason. Moreover, he didn't use the title 'Miss,' which he had consistently used since the divorce.
Scarlett asked in a trembling voice, "My husband...?"
"He probably isn't asleep yet."
Scarlett nodded and walked up the stairs. She stood in front of her husband's door, hesitated for a long time, and then knocked.
"Viktor."
After a moment, Viktor opened the door and came out. He stared at her for a long time and then asked, "Scarlett."
"Yes?"
"Do you love me?"
"...What?"
Scarlett was about to ask why that was the first thing he said, but she remembered that Viktor had asked her the same thing not long ago.
Viktor smiled and replied, "What's wrong? Do you need something?"
"..."
"It's not polite to visit so often after a divorce."
Before Viktor could finish speaking, Scarlett hugged him.
"Is that how you tell? Whether I've forgotten we're divorced or not."
"..."
"Am I right?"
"How did you know?"
"I heard it on the street. Someone was talking about it."
"I see."
Viktor replied calmly.
Scarlett, who had been hugging him for a moment, soon let go and looked up at him.
"Viktor, I hated you so much for sending me to the Monastery. But you were right."
"..."
"I'm not in my right mind. Who in the world forgets they're divorced and goes to their ex-husband?"
Scarlett continued, struggling to breathe.
"Please help me, Viktor. Please help me..."
At Scarlett's words, Viktor hugged her tightly without a word. Scarlett, relieved in his safe embrace where nothing could threaten her, breathed heavily.
Scarlett's breathing slowly calmed down. Then, she looked up at Viktor. As she reached out to hug his neck, Viktor bent down, but when Scarlett tried to kiss him, he turned his head.
Scarlett then asked with a pitiful expression, "Do you not want to?"
"I can't."
"You said you liked sleeping with me."
"Think carefully about what you're saying."
"Let's trade what you want from me for what I want. Help me. If I... forget again and come to you... if I act strangely, stop me. Lock me up somewhere."
Viktor was staring silently at the pleading Scarlett.
He looked at Scarlett with a complicated expression, and after a moment, he opened his mouth.
"I'll help you. Don't worry. You come to me every time anyway. When you come to me, I'll write down everything you do during the time you don't remember."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Scarlett was relieved at his confirmation. Just as she was about to pull away from Viktor, feeling a little calmer, he grabbed her arm as she tried to pull away and pulled her back into his embrace.
At that action, Scarlett's surprised eyes turned to Viktor. Viktor lifted her chin with his other hand to meet her gaze and asked, "But, Scarlett."
"Yes..."
"Do you trust me?"
At his words, Scarlett nodded.
"Because you're rational."
"You said I was selfish."
"Yes."
Scarlett nodded.
"Both."
"Knowing I could do anything to you, you're entrusting your irrational self to me?"
"Unless you're a pirate... I don't think you'd do anything bad to me."
"I could seduce you, who's forgotten we're divorced, and sleep with you."
"That's... not your fault."
"Why isn't it my fault?"
"I was always the one eager."
Scarlett smiled wearily, as if relieved.
"I always... ran to you to be held. So, if I, who's forgotten we're divorced, sleeps with you, it'll probably be my fault. I'm sure of it."
Viktor made an unreadable sound of laughter. Then, after closing the door, he held Scarlett with one arm and stroked her cheek, saying, "Why don't you just live here? If you're anxious."
"Ah..."
"I told you, I liked it when you lived with me."
"..."
"You said I was right to send you to the Monastery. If that's the case, if I didn't do anything wrong, there's no reason to divorce."
Only Viktor's fingertips revealed that he was a man who had been on the battlefield. Unlike the smooth, white form of his hand, his fingertips were extremely rough. As those fingertips touched her cheek and lifted her chin, Scarlett's head was raised, and she looked at Viktor again.
"Yes? Scarlett."
"I'll... think about it."
This was the feeling.
Scarlett was reminded of the time she spent with Viktor by his touch.
He had never been sweet, but she had always cherished the moments with him. Just being together made everything in the world feel sweet.
Thinking that she was going more and more insane and didn't know what she might do, his proposal sounded very sweet to Scarlett now.
But after that sweetness disappeared, the emptiness she had felt for two years remained on her tongue. The fact that he was perfect and she was infinitely lacking was a hole in her heart. Her happiness was always leaking out through that hole.
Not only had she forced her love on him, but she had also chained his ankles, making him give up his lifelong wish that was within reach, before leaving him.
She cried silently until she collapsed from exhaustion, and Viktor picked her up and took her to bed. When Scarlett still couldn't calm down and even trembled, Viktor eventually had the alcohol he always relied on brought in.
Viktor handed her a glass of alcohol. Scarlett took the glass with both hands and asked, "Alcohol?"
"Drink it and sleep for a long time."
Scarlett nodded, then drank the strong alcohol in one gulp as he told her to. It was so harsh that it felt like her throat was burning, and she frowned.
"It's strong."
"I know."
Viktor put the glass on the bedside table and laid her down again. Scarlett, who was weak with alcohol, was drunk from that one glass, and so she said what she had always wanted to say to him.
"I'm sorry. That I..."
No matter how much she thought about it, no matter how much she tried to find something else to say, there was only one thing. What she was most sorry for was him.
"I'm so sorry that I loved you."
Was the fact that they were divorced the thing she wanted to forget the most? Was that why she had come to him?
Perhaps she was secretly thinking that if they were to marry again, it would be successful this time.
After the lights were turned off, Scarlett fell asleep exhausted, as if she had fainted, and Viktor brought a chair to the side of the bed and sat down, quietly looking at her face. Then, he opened her hand, which she was holding anxiously, pulled it closer, and kissed her palm. Then, he wrapped her hand in his.
Scarlett's hand was not small, but it was completely enveloped in Viktor's large hand.
He thought that if she increasingly distrusted herself and relied on him, she might one day accept having the bedroom door locked from the outside.
