Chapter 20

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: Chapter 6. Unrequited Love is a Habit (1)

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"What meaning does a marriage like this even have?"

Keeping you pinned to my side. That's the meaning.

"We're not going to be happy like this..."

Shane let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

Happiness.

Edelaine had spoken of happiness so often. Even in her final moments, she'd left him with those words as her dying wish: if you truly care for me, forget everything and be happy.

You got it? If you care about me... be happy...

Be happy.

And with those words, she'd shoved him into hell. Now here she was, acting like it meant something.

"At least you'll be unhappy."

I'm already unhappy enough.

Edelaine slowly lifted her head.

"You'll have to marry a man you hate so much you ran away to die rather than face him."

Those green eyes he'd longed for even in his dreams trembled faintly. The woman who had turned away from him like he was nothing, lied to him, and left... now she was hurt by just a few words from him.

Did that fact satisfy him, or...

"Do you hate me that much?"

"......"

"Enough to cry over it."

A clear teardrop slid silently down, gathering at the tip of her chin. Shane brushed it away with his thumb, wiping her tears.

He still pitied Edelaine's tears.

He wanted to hurt her... and wipe those tears away.

She was so terribly lovable and so infuriating at the same time. He didn't know what to do with himself.

He deliberately stayed away for a few days.

After pushing her that hard, he figured he should give her a little room to breathe.

The trap he'd spent so long preparing might feel like a sudden catastrophe to Edelaine.

Just like the trap she'd set for him.

'If she panics and acts rashly, it'll be a problem.'

Edelaine needed to be shocked and flustered, but still keep her wits about her.

That way, the cards in Shane's hand would have value.

Genevieve, the Bertrand family, and Lloyd's lives only held worth because Edelaine cherished and loved them. If she abandoned them all and fled, the living shackles he'd so carefully prepared would lose all meaning.

He had to let her weigh her options, assess the possibilities, and calculate whether her "hostages" were truly safe.

Edelaine seemed emotional on the surface, but she was actually quite level-headed.

Even now, she was staying put because she'd gauged that his threats were genuine.

If they weren't, she would've found some way to vanish from Delmuse without a trace by now. It might take days, months, or even years.

So he had to proceed carefully.

To deepen her guilt toward her family.

To make her pity Genevieve.

All while staying glued to her side, watching over her.

"Stop it... that's enough..."

He remembered Edelaine holding him back at the ball when he'd beaten that drunkard senseless.

Her arms tightened around his waist. Shane had already stopped, but it seemed she hadn't noticed.

"What if... what if he dies..."

Shane looked up.

Most of the onlookers looked scared, but he could see the amusement glinting in the corners of their eyes.

Edwin and the Bertrand family showed no reaction, as if they'd already grasped why Shane was making such a spectacle. Genevieve smiled like there was no helping it, but she was utterly indifferent to the actual victim.

No one worried about the welfare of Tate Earl's Third Son lying at Shane's feet... except, amusingly, Edelaine, who actually seemed concerned for him.

"I haven't even had my first dance yet... Come on, want to dance with me? My partner's supposed to be Jeff, my brother, but you're my fiancé, so it should be fine. Let's go dance, Shane. Stop this, okay? Let him go..."

Her arms trembled faintly around him.

Even a bastard like this gets your sympathy, huh?

Shane resented that her compassion went to this idiot, but at the same time, he was relieved her heart was still soft.

The more ropes to bind Edelaine with, the better.

"If you'd just asked me to stop, I would've, Edelaine."

"...Don't lie."

"It's true. If you'd told me not to."

Anything except letting you go.

Reading the suspicion in Edelaine's eyes, Shane continued.

"If I'd meant to kill him, he'd be dead already, Edelaine."

"......"

"This should be lesson enough."

He'd never intended to kill him from the start.

But when he'd seen Edelaine close her eyes like she was ready to take the blow from that drunken fool's swinging fist, his reason had flown out the window. That much was true.

He hadn't meant to kill, but he hadn't held back either.

Edelaine had probably calculated that taking a hit would've been more advantageous for her.

The man would be exposed as utter trash, she'd play the victim, use the injury as an excuse to retreat or even postpone the wedding...

Shane knew that too, but beyond all her schemes, the mere possibility that she could've been struck had squeezed his heart like a vise.

"Shane?"

Edelaine leaned in close, checking his face.

"You're not still thinking about that guy, are you? Forget him. You have to."

"......"

"And whatever you do, don't go plotting to kill him later..."

"Ah, you caught me."

"Caught what? I said don't, so don't!"

"I'll listen since it's you... but it makes me jealous when you worry about another man. I get petty, and I can't promise what I'll do then."

"......"

"Don't worry, Edelaine. You said not to kill him, so I won't. I'll hold back."

"Don't talk like you're selling him off at a 20% discount..."

Edelaine let out a resigned sigh.

'He's definitely insane.'

The snide words slipping from her lips, even her sigh—they all felt unbearably sweet. He surely wasn't in his right mind.

Was it even possible to fall for a woman who hated him enough to cry over it?

No, Shane's love had never truly ended.

He hadn't realized just how tenacious it was.

Even as she still pushed him away and hated him.

'No, wait. There has been some progress.'

Thanks to forcing her to stay with threats, she no longer wasted effort trying to pair him off with Genevieve like before, or fled at the sight of him.

Yes, that was improvement, at least.

The wedding proceeded smoothly.

The Bertrand family cooperated fully, and so did the church.

The church seemed eager to show that the "miracle" revived by their "Saintess" fell under their influence; they even rang bells that hadn't sounded in ages to bless the new couple.

Edelaine, in a pristine white dress adorned with delicate lace and wearing a veil, stubbornly refused to look at Shane.

She walked forward staring straight ahead, her gaze fixed on Genevieve.

As if it didn't matter who stood beside her.

Shane lifted her veil and said,

"Edelaine. Look up."

A moment later, she reluctantly raised her face.

Beneath her sun-melted golden hair, her delicate features bore light makeup and a cold expression.

The face that hadn't budged at his command to smile softened just a little upon seeing her family and Genevieve in attendance.

Shane gripped her chin, his mood twisting slightly. Edelaine flinched at the light touch, which both saddened and thrilled him—she wasn't avoiding him anymore.

That she merely refrained from dodging was this joyful? He could scarcely believe himself.

Shane ended up smiling. Edelaine's eyes widened at the sight.

'She still likes my face, I see.'

Even as a child, she'd often stared at him in a daze. Thinking of that, he felt a twinge of gratitude toward the parents who'd given him this face.

My young fiancée.

The traitor who'd promised not to leave him alone, said it was okay to cry, then abandoned him anyway.

Yet she couldn't shake off the hand holding hers—a weak-hearted hypocrite.

In the end, Shane could only find her endearing.

It was a habit, like that.

The habit of a miserable unrequited love.