[TIDK] 89 – Out Of Her Mind

The first story he heard from his mother, who used to say the same thing every day, flowed out.

Viktor paused, his hand holding his glass. “Why?”

“Everything here is new.”

Marina continued languidly, pointing at the objects with a noble gesture.

“There’s not a single thing that has a history. These decorums are all shiny new ones. All young.”

“...”

Marina walked, shaking off the hands of the maids, dissuaded, and said, pulling Viktor’s straight tie.

“The clothes are new, too. Are you going to change your mother and wife for a new one?”

Marina often refused to eat and grabbed him with her skinny wrist. Withstanding the effort, he gently pulled her hand down. 

“Then why did you discipline me like that?” Viktor asked.

“Well... I was taking it out. Because I hate you so much.”

Viktor’s expression hardened at her nonchalant remarks. Then Marina giggled and laughed.

“It’s nice to be sane for the first time in a while. I can say everything I want to say.”

“...”

Viktor stopped moving and soon gestured to Hannah, a maid. “Do her hair. Make it look nice.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Make sure she looks as good as possible. I don’t care if it’s fake.” 

Marina frowned.

“I’m fine now. You’re the one who drives a normal person crazy. Didn’t you drive your wife crazy?”

At her words, Viktor laid down the glass and saw Marina. Marina laughed at his face and asked.

“You look like you can’t wait to kill me. Can you bear to kill your mother with all that blood on your hands?”

“You claim to be in your right mind, and I’m saying this because I believe the conversation will work. Why do you think I would consider you a mother if you never consider me a son?”

Marina snickered at the cynicism in his voice.

Viktor, who got up from his seat, stood right in front of Marina, leaned down and continued making eye contact with the woman.

“If you were as strong as I am, I would have killed you in the past.” Marina’s eyes trembled at his statement.

Viktor then continued, staring at her with calmness.

“I’ve been waiting to tell you that when you’re in your right mind, but from the look on your face, you’re really in your right mind.”

His mother could have said something incomprehensible when she wasn’t sober, but not now. Now Marina’s every word was sincere. And Viktor was sincere, too.

Marina seemed to be quiet for a moment, but soon after, she lost her mind and made a scene. Then, after the doctor administered the sedative, she collapsed and fell asleep.

After all the ups and downs, Viktor finally lay in bed, drunk as he hoped.

At that time, Viktor raised his upper body with a frown when someone knocked on the door outside. No one in this family was stupid enough to knock on the entrance without daring to reveal who they were. Viktor opened the door, thinking if his mother was up and walking around.

“Rain, Viktor...”

Then, when he faced the woman standing before him with a scared face, Viktor looked back on whether he had ever felt this strange feeling in his life. Scarlett stood in front of him, crying. 

His emotions sank in an instant into a sea of roughness.

Scarlett took a step closer to Viktor and opened her mouth before he asked what was going on.

“I’m sorry I’m late.” 

“...”

He thought of everything Scarlett Crimson could say when she suddenly appeared and knocked on his door, but none of them could have been an apology for being late.

She continued with a pale face.

“I don’t know how my day went. I remember going to the department store, but when did it become night...”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Viktor interrupted her as her voice faded.

“I don’t remember again. I was going to buy some cuffs. What do you want? If you don’t have anything you want, I will choose blue. It looks good on you.”

Viktor recalled a few days before Scarlett was questioned this time last year.

Scarlett was at the time ordering suits for Viktor to speak at his alma mater to be recognised as royalty.

“There was no blue. I’ve been looking for it all day today.…. But I’ll buy it for you before the event.”

“I don’t care about the colour.”

“I know, you don’t care about the colour. But I like blue. I think the sea will protect you if you buy blue. So strangely enough, I’m nervous if you don’t have anything blue on your way out. Well, it’s kind of my ritual. I finally found a pair of blue cuffs that I liked. But I lost it somewhere... I’ll get it back for you next time.”

Listening to her, the indignation and annoyance that were unlikely to disappear even if someone threw things at him and cursed him vanished instantly.

She clearly didn’t remember that the two were divorced now. The blue cuffs Scarlett had lost were put out at a charity event a few days ago with her own hands.

Scarlett was out of her mind now. 

♔♔♔

---