CWMBR 67

Chapter 67

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*Present

She was speechless.

Doubting her own ears, Bridget pursed her lips.

"...Did you mean, did we...?"

"Did we have sex?"

Bridget truly couldn't understand why he was asking that.

Perhaps because her answer sounded too dejected, Ain, looking utterly incredulous, insisted on asking again.

"Did we sleep together?"

"Yes."

Even after Bridget affirmed it repeatedly, Ain still wore a look of disbelief. Frowning, he muttered as if to himself.

"I heard that scarf belonged to Donna Green."

Bridget was about to ask what he meant when she suddenly remembered the scarf she'd picked up in the hallway. That scarf was precisely why she'd gone to the front of the duty room in the first place. After that, pushed by Donna's urgent urging, she'd simply taken the scarf and entered the duty room. After facing Ain... ...she'd been so consumed by animalistic instinct that she'd tossed it anywhere within reach.

"If you're talking about the light pink scarf, then yes, that's true. I picked it up in the hallway and meant to return it to her. I just never got around to it."

With legs trembling, she was too busy rushing out of the Grand Theater to even think about picking up Donna's scarf.

Bridget, who had explained it in a daze, was suddenly overcome by a sharp feeling. Could he have mistaken the woman he slept with for Donna Green? Because Donna's scarf was lying there?

But was that even possible? Bridget had clearly spoken with him that night, and they'd spent time together by mutual consent. Sure, their conversation had been a bit different than usual, but she'd brushed it off as simply him being drunk.

Ah, was that the problem?

"You really were drunk. I didn't know you wouldn't remember..."

"Me, drunk?"

Ain snorted. Even though he acted like he'd heard every joke under the sun, Bridget couldn't bring herself to laugh along.

"Of course, you insisted you weren't drunk. But to be this forgetful... it's clear you were drunk."

"It's not just that I can't remember... …………"

He swept his bangs back, about to retort irritably, but suddenly fell silent. Pressing his temples firmly, he paused for a moment, then spoke in a stiff voice.

"Anyway, I get it."

"Huh?"

Their conversation hadn't properly started at all. The only thing Ain had confirmed with her was whether she had slept with him.

Bridget, too, began to feel a vague unease.

She had imagined what it would be like to see Ain again after 'that incident'. And this situation was a scene that didn't exist anywhere in her imagination. She had only imagined them being awkward or embarrassed, or even acting boldly, like adults who didn't care what others thought. But this...

Ain rose first, leaving Bridget speechless. There was no warmth in his gaze as he looked at her.

"I have business to attend to. I'd appreciate it if you left now."

He seemed disappointed that he had spent the night with Bridget, not Donna. The fleeting displeasure he showed left no room for any other interpretation.

Bridget must have been hurt then.

………………And from that moment on, she began to be hurt.

"Like I said before, Donna pushed me, and I went into the room. And we slept together. That's all."

The sweat and breath they shared all night, the searing heat, couldn't be summed up in such a brief statement.

But they were also things that no longer felt worth explaining.

Bridget, who had been gazing at the calm river, lowered her eyes. Even recalling it now, it wasn't a pleasant ending. The day she went to see Ain, Bridget was ultimately kicked out, and after that, it became difficult to see Ain's face. Then she found out she was pregnant.

His relentless passion that had lasted all night had finally left their mark on her.

Ain, who had treated Bridget ambiguously, began to despise her completely once he learned of her pregnancy.

"You want me to believe it wasn't intentional? That you drugged me, slept with me, and deliberately got yourself pregnant? How did you know my true identity beforehand, then?"

I was in Elber, in that grand mansion where I met you. The girl crouched by the window reading The Snow Queen was me. Would saying that make any sense?

Bridget was consumed by doubt, yet she told him nonetheless. That she knew his true identity because he had revealed it himself. To her, standing beneath Elber's warm sunlight, him, trapped inside that grand mansion.

What was the answer she received back then?

"Ha, did you sneak a peek at Donna Green's diary or something?"

He already distrusted every word she said.

"There were many press people among the guests that day. They're very interested in Donna's private life, so they might have wanted to capture a plausible scene. And if there were photos like that, of you and Donna together...?"

Bridget clasped her hands together. The lace gloves crumpled, their rough texture scratching her skin.

"Something must have happened before she pushed me in front of you."

According to Bridget's memory, the sound that came from inside the duty room was a scream, and what she saw upon entering was the scene of something being thrown violently. The first words she heard upon entering were to shut up. The circumstances made it impossible to believe Ain and Donna had shared any kind of sweet atmosphere.

Ain said there was a photo of Donna on top of him. If that was true, then the situation in the duty room that day could have been the scene of Donna failing to seduce him.

Ain seemed to have reached the same conclusion as Bridget. After pressing his lips tightly together and sinking into thought for a moment, he suddenly asked.

"Do you happen to know which leg has the scar on my thigh?"

"No."

Bridget shook her head.

"How could I have had the presence of mind to notice something like that? That night, I was too preoccupied just trying to accept you."

He was the man who had relentlessly driven her on, insisting the night was too short for any leisure. Even if he didn't remember, she recalled that frantic time vividly. How their skin had been slick with each other's saliva and sweat, how his muscles had felt so hard and heavy from sheer tension, even the groans that sounded like animal cries, the voice that finally cracked and broke.

She could describe those things if asked, but she couldn't say what scars were on his body that night.

The moonlight wasn't bright enough to make out each scar, and after catching a single glimpse of his groin rising ominously, she was so horrified she couldn't bring herself to look that way again.

"Right."

Ain nodded at Bridget's reply.

"I suppose so."

Whatever thought crossed his mind, his eyes grew cold and distant.

"Unless you deliberately intended to look, you wouldn't have been staring at the inside of someone's thigh in that situation."

Bridget glanced at him as he murmured softly, then turned away. The river breeze had cooled her head sufficiently; now she needed to attend to the next item on her schedule, which she had put off for a moment.

As Bridget moved, Aind followed her steps as if it were only natural.

"You said Donna Green was brought in by your uncle. Did he go all the way to Elber to fetch her?"

"If you're curious about Donna's situation, why don't you ask her yourself?"

"What I need is proper information."

Was that a way of saying Donna wouldn't give proper information herself?

This was probably the first time Ain had ever shown such clear negative feelings toward Donna. At least, that was how it appeared to Bridget.

Bridget glanced at Ain with a look of surprise, then quickly returned to her indifferent demeanor and withdrew her gaze. After a moment of silence, she spoke up readily.

"I heard Donna lived in Elber when she was young, but after that, she moved around between rural villages. Her parents didn't get along, and Donna suffered a lot emotionally. My uncle recognized her talent during a business trip to a rural village and felt sorry for her and tried to introduce her to my father. But a carriage accident ruined everything. After that, my uncle who took over managing the Grand Theatre brought Donna here."

Wandering around was probably in the Pennington family blood. Unlike her father, who settled in Glynford after meeting her mother, Ronan continued drifting around Alensia, hatching business schemes. When he occasionally dropped by Glynford, he'd try to fool Bridget with her father's exact likeness. Of course, Bridget never fell for it.

Looking back, the relationship with Ronan was actually better back then.

An uncle who came to visit occasionally and played pranks, and a niece who laughed them off without a care. That was the perfect kind of relationship.