CH 104

She was always comfortable and appeared as if she’d moved on so easily.

On the other hand, he couldn’t do anything because he’s still tied to the past while Deatrice is already looking forward to her future without him.

A deafening horn resounded.

Lucius sat across from her and watched her quietly as she looked out the window with a relaxed expression. Her face looked so soft, as if drawn with delicately pale lines. But there was this deep-seated pride and arrogance in her bones as she looked at the world, and herself, with prejudice.

Lucius could at least still sense that much from her.

He inwardly shook his head. He couldn’t help but admit that all his sluggish thoughts were nonsense and would no longer matter. After all, they were bound to become strangers sooner or later.

But just like when he walked around the Fenry’s library like a madman, his mind collapsed. Lucius felt his anxieties begin to creep into his head and his breathing became chaotic.

His vision started to blur.

No! I can’t go back to that time.

He tried grasping his hand for something, but there was nothing to hold on to. He only had one thought in his mind—that he must not go back to that hell.

To that chasm filled to the brim with anxiety, grief, and loneliness that relentlessly dug into his flesh; trying to rip him into shreds as he fell into an inescapable pit.

He thought so, but he failed to realize something.

At the moment he decided to spend the night with her, his feet had already fallen from the edge of the cliff and ever since, he was already plunging into the abyss.

***

“So… you are Philip?”

Lucius said as he carried a young boy who previously hid behind the nanny. With a grunt, Lucius held Philip in his arms, smiled at the boy, put him down again, and then messed up his hair.

Deatrice smiled at the little boy with frizzy hair staring at her and Lucius, then turned to say hello to Dixie and her husband, Raymond Bellute.

Raymond wasn’t that handsome, but he was tall and very impressionable, especially with a warm and attractive smile.

“Greetings! I am Raymond Bellute. My wife has been caught up in other affairs and was unable to come because of her mother-in-law’s sudden illness.” For some unknown reason, Raymond gave a brief wink at this point, “Unfortunately, I have to be a good host and say hello myself. Congratulations on your marriage!”

After bowing his head politely, Raymond briefly praised her for her beauty and how perfect their wedding was. Speaking further, Raymond readily declared to be called by his nickname ‘Roy’.

Deatrice was surprised for a moment and asked with a hint of bewilderment, “But isn’t ‘Ray’ Mr. Bellute’s middle name?”

He replied.

“There’s hardly a difference whether you call me Ray or Roy. So, from a certain point in time, I just told everyone to call me Roy. My last name is Bellute, but then everyone shortened it and just called it ‘Belle’ instead.”

The last words he uttered with helplessness, then he bowed and backed away.

It was a short conversation, but his kind and approachable attitude made Deatrice judge Raymond as a good person.

“Philip is handsome because he resembles the two of them.”

As Lucius took off his hat and entered, Raymond removed his hat and hung it himself. “Don’t say words you don’t mean. I didn’t tell you that if he heard something like that it would make him very uncomfortable.”

“A three-year-old already knows how to feel uncomfortable?”

“Not enough time to know that he’s as handsome as you say.”

Lucius and Raymond were already quite friendly, joking around and clinking their glasses of wine. Deatrice and Dixie, on the other hand, only exchanged vague glances towards each other.

Dixie looked a little thinner than she had been a month ago or two. Her tummy wasn’t that big either that Deatrice probably wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t heard that she was pregnant. But Dixie was definitely more agitated than before, making it difficult for her womb to nourish her baby.

Lucius knew that his younger sister’s complexion wasn’t good, so he immediately turned his head to ask Dixie how she had been doing.

“Are you alright?”

Dixie smiled and nodded. “I’m fine, do not worry. When I was pregnant with Philip, it was even worse. Being locked up in a stuffy room because going out could harm the baby, with just the doctor to accompany me…”

She wrinkled her nose in distaste.