Deceived, Yet Drawn to You - Chapter 141

“What are you trying to do?”

As Blair left the ward and began to walk away, a worried voice followed her. Though Isabelle barely clung to consciousness after being consumed by the flames, there was no way Edmund would welcome Blair insisting on facing her. Without giving any real answer, Blair quickened her pace.

“Blair.”

His voice, uncharacteristically urgent, called out again from behind her. With his long strides, Edmund quickly caught up and stretched out an arm to block her path. Blair stopped and looked up at him quietly.

“There’s no need for you to face that woman in person. And you’ve only just regained consciousness, haven’t you?”

“I’m not hurt.”

“To me, you look like you’re barely standing. In that state, where you could collapse from a single misstep, who exactly are you planning to see?”

A look of tension was clear on his face. Though his own injuries were far more severe, enough to require layers of bandages wrapped around his entire body, he felt an indescribable anxiety over nothing more than Blair’s pale complexion. He was worried that Isabelle, even lying in her sickbed, might somehow harm Blair.

Looking back, it was clear that Isabelle influenced things in some way when the Count of Twyford revealed the truth about his wife, a truth he could have hidden for the rest of his life. At the root of it all was one thing alone: a vile malice that wanted nothing but Edmund’s suffering.

“She’s the kind of person who would spend her dying moments scheming to bring us down. It’s over now. I don’t want you to face her unnecessarily.”

The shadow Isabelle cast over Edmund’s life was far too long and far too dark. To lift it, they needed to confirm its substance. Whether she truly could no longer harm them, whether everything had really come to an end… Blair had to see it with her own eyes and put a final period to it.

“Ed, I know what you’re worried about. You don’t want her to shake me again, to wound me again, and see me fall apart.”

“Then you also know this holds no value, don’t you?”

“No.”

Meeting Edmund’s clenched jaw with steady eyes, Blair shook her head firmly.

“She failed. In the end, she couldn’t destroy us, and now she doesn’t even have the strength to try. That’s why I need to see it. To see how pathetically the one who tormented us has crumbled.”

“….”

“And she needs to know as well. That her malice was nothing but a shabby illusion, and that she can no longer harm us.”

The man blocking her path still didn’t look entirely convinced. But he seemed persuaded by her reasoning. And he seemed to realize that he couldn’t break Blair’s will, fragile as she appeared yet standing firmer than anyone.

“…I’ll stay by your side.”

In the end, Edmund conceded and stepped aside. Still, he reached out, took Blair’s hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze. It was a silent promise that he wouldn’t leave her alone.

When they reached the hospital room at the end of the corridor, the sharp scent of disinfectant mixed with the acrid smell of burnt flesh assaulted their senses. Without hesitation, Blair placed her hand on the doorknob. She was about to face the remnants of the malice that had twisted Edmund’s life.

As the door swung open, the stinging smell grew even stronger. Blair stepped inside and quietly steadied her breathing.

What lay on the bed was no longer the beautiful woman once called the flower of high society. From head to toe, wrapped tightly in bandages and gasping for air, only a ‘remnant’ remained.

It was, quite literally, wreckage. When Edmund said that once the minimum treatment was finished, Isabelle would pay for her crimes, Blair thought it only right. But the figure before her now was nothing more than a shape that had even lost its human dignity.

Between the bandages soaked with some sticky red fluid she couldn’t identify, only a pair of blue eyes were visible. Those eyes twitched and then fixed, in turn, on Blair and Edmund.

When Isabelle recognized their presence, her eyes flashed. Unbelievably, they were still filled with a chilling obsession.

“…I’ll give you that much.”

Isabelle slowly moved her lips. What slipped out between them was a grotesque voice, closer to the scrape of metal.

“That your wretched life… is tougher than anyone’s.”

“As you can see, I survived just fine.”

“Like a worm, you trampled your birth mother’s corpse and clawed your way up, and now, in the end, even this mother of yours….”

Isabelle cut herself off and broke into a dry cough. Only after a moment did they realize it was a snickering laugh.

“Tell me how it feels… surviving after crushing two mothers beneath your feet.”

“You’re not my mother.”

The blue eyes that stared coldly up at him shifted toward Blair. The malice of the woman who couldn’t even lift a finger flickered darkly.

“Well…. In that sense, you truly are a well-matched pair.”

The composure Edmund maintained twisted instantly. Even the murderous aura that radiated from him didn’t make Isabelle flinch.

“Truly, a pair that resembles each other perfectly.”

“Do you still believe you have nothing left to lose? You must’ve thought that in that state, I’d hand you absolution. The moment your burn treatment is finished, I’ll drag you down to the very bottom.”

“I have no regrets even if I die…. I’ve already left an indelible mark on your souls.”

Isabelle let out a fishy sneer. Watching her, Blair tightened her grip on Edmund’s hand and suddenly felt a hollow emptiness.

Wasn’t it truly a futile obsession? Here was proof of how far human hatred could destroy itself.

“Look at those eyes that are the spitting image of your father’s…. You must hate this mother enough to die.”

Isabelle spewed venom without tiring. It was revolting, yet at the same time, a cold rational thought rose in Blair’s mind.

Even if it became known that Isabelle was involved, how would the world react if a woman who had once been a duchess, now reduced to this ruin, were dragged all the way to the gallows?

Edmund’s cruelty, showing no mercy even to a mother who was practically a living corpse, might be spoken of more loudly than Isabelle’s crimes. Could that vicious woman, who desired nothing but Edmund’s ruin, truly be unaware of that? She didn’t want revenge to breed more hatred, nor that hatred to gnaw at Edmund and isolate him in tragedy.

“There’s no need to go as far as the Metropolitan Police. Kill me here.”

As always, Isabelle stared as if she could pierce straight through Edmund. Her voice urging him to kill her was absurdly light.

“End me with your own hands. You’ve always wanted to. You’ve always wanted to strangle me.”

Edmund silently looked down at Isabelle, who burst into laughter loud enough to fill the hospital room as she incited his killing intent. In his ashen eyes, the impulse to tear apart the being before him flickered. Just as it threatened to consume his reason, Blair tightened her trembling grip on his hand and met his gaze.

“It’s pointless. She’s already lost everything.”

“…I thought so too. That’s why I let my guard down. As long as that woman is alive, she’ll never stop.”

He breathed roughly, like a beast parched with thirst. The fact that the very thing that had bound him his entire life was still alive and breathing loomed over him as a grave threat, pushing him to the brink of losing his reason.

“I should just get rid of her. Before she tries to take you too, before she steals the last family I have left… I’d rather….”

“Ed, that’s not revenge. That’s self-destruction.”

Blair reached out with both hands and cupped the pale man’s face. The eyes that had been fixed on Isabelle regained their clarity and met hers.

To trap them in lifelong murderous intent and hatred, forcing them to live just as she had. If he gave in here, he would be completing the ending Isabelle desired.

“There’s no crueler punishment than showing her that we didn’t fall apart.”

Blair spoke calmly and stepped toward Isabelle. Not a trace of fear remained in her eyes as she looked at the horrific figure. There was nothing frightening about a being flailing meaninglessly until the very end.

“I won’t grant you the mercy of ending your life in an instant. You don’t even deserve rest.”

“….”

“Try looking into a mirror for once. And watch us live our lives properly. Trapped inside that wretched body you brought upon yourself, watch us endure without collapsing under any lie, and rot away slowly.”

“You ungrateful bitch…!”

“You’ll endure a life worse than death and become a witness to our future.”

Blair delivered her final declaration in a voice stripped of emotion.

“With every breath you take, you’ll be forced to savor your defeat.”