Misfortune 39

Chapter 39

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The irises in the vase spilled over onto the floor. At the same time, the water she had so carefully filled it with soaked their feet.

Delnia's eyes wavered as she watched the scene.

Roan, on the other hand, remained impassive, his face unchanged.

"But so be it. Your ambitious plan didn't work."

He didn't know what she had in mind. Was she trying to remind him of those damned days, or was she really just trying to get under his skin without thinking?

But it didn't really matter. Either way, he was going to be offended.

"Why don't you just play nice and be a doll."

"..."

"That would be better than trying to get my feelings hurt by doing something I didn't ask you to do."

After spewing his venom in a flat tone, Roan stepped on the scattered flowers on the ground. The delicate petals squashed beneath his feet.

Somehow, it felt like it wasn't her he was trampling on, but his old self.

But it didn't matter. She'd be hurt, too, just as he'd always hoped.

As if to prove it, the woman's face was blank, like someone who didn't know what expression to wear. Her reddening eyes stood out alone on her pale face.

Why didn't he feel any better, why was his stomach churning like it was going to explode?

"If you understand, please leave. I don't need you today."

With what little sanity he had left, he gave a dismissal order. If she continued to stand in front of him, he was sure his emotions would only get worse, not better.

To shake off the feelings he didn't understand, he took his foot off the ruined flowers and walked back toward the bathroom.

He didn't hear the woman's footsteps, which should have been far away. Instead, he still felt a presence behind him.

Roan narrowed his eyes and glanced back.

As if mocking his thoughts, the woman crouched down and picked up the crushed remnants of the flower from the ground.

"..................What are you doing?"

Roan asked, glaring at the small curled back.

But she just kept her head down, as if she hadn't heard him, and continued to pick up the ruined flowers. As if she were planting a seed back into the ground that had been trampled down to the point that no grass could grow.

The sight of it completely butchered what was left of his sanity.

Roan turned back the way he had come. He grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her to him.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked.

"I'm just trying to make amends for something I did wrong."

She replied in a calm voice, unlike Roan's, who was still raging. As expected of a woman who always had a natural talent for bringing his mood down.

He knew it, but why did he keep getting dragged down again and again?

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm just going to clean up quickly and leave, so please let me be.”

The woman with the stiff head even apologized. Meekly, as if the whole thing was really her fault.

"So now you're going to be a good little slave?"

He laughed ferociously, as if that were impossible. His breathing had already become uncontrollably ragged.

"That's what you wanted."

Delnia snapped back. Her watery vision blurred, but she didn't look away from him.

Didn't she realize it wasn't the flower Roan wanted to trample, but herself?

Delnia was not that stupid. She was just foolish.

She had expected it, she thought, but her heart broke anyway, for it was Roan.

And as if to mock her for her willing foolishness, he had shattered her heart, the heart she had hidden within, right before her eyes.

She couldn't leave it like that. The flowers on the ground, the heart thrown away.

She didn't want to insult her already tattered heart any further, so she made her own grave and picked up the pieces, and that was all.

But even that was a luxury for Delnia, and Roan's fierce eyes flashed at her.

"If you're going to do it, do it right, don't get on my nerves like this."

"I'm not."

Roan found it amusing that the woman was so brazenly and unapologetically claiming innocence.

But it wasn't laughter that escaped his lips, but a breath hot with anger.

"You're still acting like this, and you think you've never defied me?"

"No. I haven't, though the master just takes it differently."

The title he had so unkindly pointed out to her flowed smoothly from her lips.

Yet she wasn't provoking him.

The fire in Roan's blue eyes grew uncontrollably as the woman's red eyes cooled. The coldest light in the world clashed with the hottest water.

He felt like he was going to go insane. The single-minded determination to bring this woman to her knees, no matter what, consumed him.

He had no intention of letting her test his patience. Losing had been bad enough for him as a naive child; he was no longer the helpless child he had been.

"If you're so sure, let's check it out, shall we?"

Roan said menacingly, suddenly grabbing her by the hair and jerking her back.

Her eyes narrowed reflexively, her face flushed with anger. His grip on her hair tightened, as if he wouldn't allow her to look away.

Her bent neck ached, but Delnia gritted her teeth and stifled a groan. As if she would never allow her mouth to spill a weak sound.

Roan recognized her tells, his lips forming a twisted arc.

"I've heard that in the past, when a slave was acquired, the master branded it with a sign of ownership."

She froze at the ominous foreshadowing in his casual voice.

His gaze was fierce and ferocious, like a wild beast searching for a place to bite, as it raked over her bare, white nape.

He wrapped his free hand around the nape of her neck and traced it with his thumb.

"It would be quite a sight to carve my name here."

Her fear-flecked eyes fluttered open, revealing her agitation. Her lower jaw quivered with the effort of clenching her teeth.

But he didn't back down.

He had no intention of going easy on her. He was going to wrestle surrender from her mouth.

"Do it."

"..................what?"

The words that came out of her trembling lips were enough to shock him.

Facing him with a blank look on her face, as if she had forgotten her predicament for the moment, Delnia spoke in a new voice, like one possessed by evil.

"Brand or not, do as you please!"

She had reached her limit. What the hell was she supposed to do anymore?

Delnia was already at the bottom, with nowhere to fall. The mess was beyond repair.

The man in front of her was the one who made it so.

He'd taken everything from her, and as if that wasn't enough, he'd destroyed everything he'd taken. So that she would never be the same again.

And yet, she was willing to endure the harshness.

Roan had every right to hate her; she had taken someone important from him.

So it was only right that he should be cruel to her.

That was what she'd convinced herself, and that was how she'd gotten through the days, the days when it had taken everything in her not to resent him.

And yet he still pushed her, as if it wasn't enough. As if testing her to see how cruel he could be.

"If it's only by breaking me completely that you'll be satisfied, then so be it."

Now she hoped he would.

For him to hurt her more. To maim her.

If that was the only way to completely eradicate this foolishness of a mind willing to go blind for him. If she could leave nothing behind to hurt more.

If only she could make sure that this tiresome heart would never beat again.

Her eyes burned like fire as she prayed with all her heart. The blue eyes staring back at her were as calm as the water that would swallow the fire.

"...."

Suddenly, the hand holding her hair slipped away.

The man who had released her turned. His sure steps continued until he left the room.

The door slammed shut with a thunderous noise.

The heartless man disappeared beyond the door, as if he was determined to never give her what she wanted.

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