[TIDK] 105 – There Was Never Love

He strode over and smacked Andrei in the face, then bent his arm behind his back and pressed it against the wall. Even Andrei looked puzzled by the overwhelming power. It was the difference in strength between an adult and a child.

Viktor found the royal police notebook in Andrei's coat pocket, which he was wearing to get off work.

Scarlett, who ran to stop him in surprise, asked in a trembling voice.

“What is that?”

“Are you asking because you don't know?”

Viktor said, handing over a royal police ID tucked in the notebook.

[2nd Class Royal Police, Hylum Pitt]

Scarlett looked up at Viktor.

“Who’s Hylum Pitt?”

“Are you asking me about the employee you hired?”

“It says he is a royal officer. Andrei is not a royal police officer.”

Andrei said, leaning his forehead against the wall, holding his broken arm in pain.

“It is true, the Royal Police... Ugh!”

When Viktor twisted his broken arm, Andrei fell unconscious from the terrible pain.

Scarlett hurriedly pushed Viktor away from Andrei.

“What are you doing?”

“You keep asking questions.”

“Something's wrong. Andrei is really...”

The first person she believed in the world was Isaac, and the second was Andrei. He was both a good employee and the most dependable person to Scarlett.

Andrei always said he wanted to watch her business grow to great heights. He said from the start, that her watchmaking skills had infinite possibilities. So, it shouldn’t have been this way.

“It really shouldn't be....”

Scarlett muttered weakly.

After a while, Viktor's men left with Andrei and the fallen masked intruder.

Leaving only Scarlett and Viktor in the watch shop.

Time passed and Viktor, looking tired, pressed the back of his neck with his hand, turned back at Scarlett with cool eyes and asked.

“Do you still have something left to sell about me?”

“What?”

“Or do you just like the royal police?”

Scarlett shook her head at his question.

“No, I didn't know.”

“Oh, you didn't know this either?”

Viktor’s indifferent gaze left Scarlett speechless.

Viktor continued.

“To pick him out of all the entire staff as an employee, and you didn't know that bastard was a royal police officer?”

“I really didn't know!”

Scarlett raised her voice in anger. Viktor then smiled rather apathetically and said,

“Then explain yourself. Why did he happen to be the one?”

At his words, Scarlett wondered how to explain.

Of all things, to explain that the one person she picked was a spy who hid in the Dumfelt family. -To explain that she had nothing to do with the royal police either before or now.

Scarlett felt lost of breath. If she did not explain herself properly now, he might send her to the monastery or something. No matter how estranged they became, he had the power to do so.

She was always at a loss in front of Viktor Dumfelt. He would never try to understand her mind by any means. That had been the case for most of their marriage, and it was the same at this very moment.

But she couldn't think of an explanation. Really, it was just a feeling. From the moment she woke up and saw Andrei's face after her monastery experience, she knew that she had to take him with her when she left the Dumfelt estate. It was true that he was competent, but there was nothing to say if one asked why it had to be Andrei.

Scarlett pursed her lips in silence.

Viktor tilted his head and asked her.

“Why? You don't remember again? You don't know why this time as well?”

“…Yes.”

Scarlett felt like a parrot. Repeating the same thing again and again. The fact was that the amount of information she couldn’t comprehend seemed to be increasing.

“Is this an act, too? You're acting like you’ve gone insane,” Viktor said.

As Scarlett stayed silent because she was at a loss as to what to say, Viktor continued.

“It’s because you lie so much. Now I don't know what to believe about you.”

“....”

“I think I have to be suspicious of everything that comes out of your mouth. Did you even love me in the first place?”

Scarlett's tears and body, which was trembling with fear and anger, froze in exhaustion at Viktor's grim question. She looked at Viktor and said,

“…so it wasn't love? In your eyes.”

“I'm asking because I don't know.”

Scarlett closed her eyes for a moment. She felt like she had lost so much.

“Then I guess not. I must have been mistaken.”

She bit her lips and continued.

“I've never received it, so I don't know what love is. Maybe that's why I got it wrong. So why didn't you like me? If my love was a lie, why didn't you do it?”

“I told you, I love you.”

Scarlett gave a hollow laugh at his words.

“Then it was never love. It was all fake. Yeah, I never loved you. I just wanted to destroy you, so I did. I was trying to sell your whole life. Is there anything remaining? I was going to squeeze out more if there was anything else left. Are you done?”

Scarlett said as she pushed Viktor toward the door, avoiding making eye contact with him.

“If you know, why don't you leave now? And I don't care if he’s a royal police officer or anything, so please send Andrei back. We cannot operate without Andrei here.”

After speaking, Scarlett turned around, climbed up the stairs and went into the studio.

She locked the door and crouched down behind it. She didn't know what to believe.

♔♔♔

// weep (╥﹏╥)