To My First Love, With Regret - 70

—When will it finally be my turn to be a father?

At this critical moment, that idiotic four-eyes started babbling about something else entirely in a voice that sapped all the tension from the room.

—Owen, how many times have I told you? If you love me, you have to give up on having a child. What if I lose my position while I’m away secretly carrying and giving birth to your baby? Hmm? Do you think Eve would just happily accept it if I told her, ‘I raised your child, so now you raise mine’?

…Did she just say she raised Eve’s child? Does that mean… I am Eve’s child?

—Someone else’s kid is going to be the heir to Kentrell. I’m fine with it, but Eve won’t be.

—That’s why, if only we had had that baby before things turned out like this….

—Owen, that matter breaks my heart too. So please, don’t bring it up. You say you love me, and yet you hurt me like this?

—…I’m sorry.

—I love you, Owen. You love me too, right? Promise me you’ll never waver for anyone but me.

—Chantal, you are my eternal queen.

From that moment on, Tony created and memorized a spy rule of his own.

Rule number three: Do not throw up in the fireplace.

Eve had carried Ethan’s child. And the person who claimed to be Tony’s mother had raised Eve’s child. Therefore, he was the child of Eve and Ethan.

Even after crawling under his covers to sleep, Tony was still busy fitting the pieces of the secret he’d scavenged earlier into the picture he wanted to see. Just then, the low hum of an engine sliced through the stillness of the night.

‘They’re here!’

Tony kicked off his blankets and sprinted to the window. In the glow of the headlights illuminating the front entrance, a man stepped out of the car, turned around, and reached out his hand. A woman took that hand and followed him out.

Tony called out to the couple, who looked so good together. He called them by names he wasn’t supposed to use.

‘Mommy… Daddy….’

He had only moved his lips without making a sound, yet his heart hammered against his ribs. In the empty room, Tony hurriedly clamped his hand over his mouth, terrified that someone might have heard him.

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After the conversation in the dining car, the train became a cage for a pacing beast. Eve couldn’t read a single line of the book she’d bought to soothe the boredom of the long journey.

—It’s Owen Kallas, isn’t it? That piece of trash.

Who could leisurely read a novel while locked in a cage with a violent predator?

—Did you sleep with him? You entered a sham marriage to get your money back, and you even managed to take the man’s purity?

—Purity?

Eve had intended to remain unresponsive, but at this, she couldn’t suppress a laugh. Purity, for that worn-out deviant? It was an insult to the word itself.

—Did you strike a deal with him? Did you agree to be his Queen in the bedroom in exchange for getting your embezzled fortune back? Ah, so that’s why you told me to pay up if I wanted to sleep with you.

Ethan was losing his mind, spinning a third-rate novel of his own making.

If you’re going to lose your mind, could you at least become a murderously jealous maniac?

Owen Kallas was useless now, anyway. The will had already been perfectly revised.

Of course, leading Ethan to believe she’d engaged in perversions with Owen hadn’t been her only goal.

Ethan, I’m no longer the pure girl you once loved.

Eve was mirroring Ethan’s own methods. Just as he had revealed his own vulgar true nature to brutally kill Eve’s first love, Eve had become an ugly woman to kill the first love of Ethan Fairchild.

She wanted him to mistakenly believe this fallen woman no longer had any ‘utility.’

But perhaps she had underestimated him. The real deviant might be Ethan Fairchild himself. Even as he cursed her for being filthy, he did not pull away. To drive away the man who followed her all the way to her bedroom door, Eve sprayed her poison.

—If you’re willing to become a slave and teach me how to be a perfect Queen, you may enter. If not, goodnight. Thank you for today.

She knew he wasn’t the type to lick up the poison she’d scattered like a dog. Ethan Fairchild was a rebel by nature, constitutionally incapable of submission.

There was no way he would enjoy kneeling and being trampled like Owen. Sure enough, his face twisted as if he’d chewed on a maggot.

—How did you develop such a taste? Or was it always there? Come to think of it, there were signs even back when you ordered me to masturbate in front of you. I just missed them.

Ethan tapped his forehead with an exaggerated gesture, as if he’d realized some profound truth far too late.

She thought he would back off, but instead, he closed the distance in an instant. Trapping Eve between the door and his body before she could flee, he invaded her space until his lips were a breath away from her ear. Along with his hot breath, a chilling whisper—as if spun by a serpent’s tongue—slithered into her ear.

—Lady Evelyn, how about I teach you something far more interesting and novel?

—I’m not interested. I’m tired, so go.

He didn’t move. His chest, pressed tight against her, expanded as he breathed, rubbing against her body. His heavy sigh—like a man making a difficult decision—had been an ill omen.

—Dammit, fine. I’ll do it.

—What?

—I’ll be your slave.

Eve’s heart sank for a moment. She had sprayed poison, but instead of fleeing, he was staying to drink it and die.

Why?

Was a single night with her so valuable to this man that he would drop his pride to the level of a slave? She couldn’t understand his relentless obsession.

Whatever his reason, things going off-script was a problem. She was racking her brain for an excuse to reject him without exposing her lie when her gaze drifted past Ethan to the end of the hallway.

There, she caught sight of sky-blue pajamas. A terrible spy, failing at the art of hiding, was peeking at them from behind the corner.

—Tony.

As Ethan turned his head and his grip loosened, Eve shoved him aside and approached the child.

—Did the noise wake you up? Let’s go to your room. I’ll tuck you back in.

Of course, Tony couldn’t have heard their whispers from his room. She simply needed an excuse to get away from the man. She had overlooked the fact, however, that the boy and the man had been practically inseparable lately.

—Ethan, you come and tuck me in too.

—Should I?

—No. It’s late. Play tomorrow.

—Tsk… Goodnight.

Nudged along by Eve, Tony reluctantly moved forward, waving his hand behind him. Ethan waved back. This time, he didn’t follow.

Just as she was feeling relieved, thinking she had finally shaken him off, Ethan pointed at the floor beneath his feet with a cigarette he’d pulled from his pack. It was a clear sign: he would wait right there until she returned.

That relentless man.

Should she sleep in Tony’s room tonight?

But Tony was proving to be just as tenacious.

—Where did you two go? What did you do? Did you go on a date?

—No.

—Didn’t you make up?

When a look of blatant disappointment washed over the boy’s face, Eve was momentarily at a loss for words.

Why on earth are you so desperate for us to reconcile? Don’t tell me….

Eve thought of one cruel possibility.

Do you, perhaps, want to be a family with that man?

That could not happen. Never.

She could allow him as a seasonal playmate, but a family member was out of the question. Eve redirected the child’s interest from the man to a toy.

—I bought you a gift.

Tony certainly deserved a reward. She had expected him to throw another fit because she hadn’t taken him along, yet here he was, greeting her so calmly.

He was still far from an angel, but he was moving further away from being a brat. Was his heart growing?

—Wow! The Titan! I wanted this so much. how did you know?

That man… he really does know this child best.

The bitterness that fact brought lost its sting in the face of the child’s explosive joy. Even though the model kit was much cruder than the ones she usually bought him, for some reason, Tony was as thrilled as a child receiving a gift for the first time in his life.

—Did you really want this that much?

The child, who had been sitting on his bed staring at the box for a long while, looked up at Eve. For some reason, he asked with a tone that was hesitant yet brimming with excitement.

—Eve, did you miss me?

—Of course. I missed you very much.

The moment he heard her answer, the boy’s face lit up like sunshine. It was a smile of perfect happiness, without a shadow in sight. For the first time in a while, Eve came face-to-face with the only hope that had kept her from letting go of this precarious life on the edge of a cliff.

Eve recanted her earlier thought. Anthony Sherwood was closer to an angel than anything else.

—You can build this tomorrow; now it’s time to head back to dreamland. Sweet dreams.

She stroked the child’s hair gently and moved to stand up. Right then, Tony’s small hand urgently grabbed her sleeve and wouldn’t let go.

—What is it?

The boy looked up at Eve, hesitating as if he were about to utter something difficult. His small lips parted and closed several times before he finally made up his mind and whispered:

—Eve, you’re my mommy….

Everything in Eve stopped at that single word. Her heart, her breath, even time itself.

‘You knew? Since when?’

As Eve stood frozen, the child looked up at her quietly and finished what he had to say.