CWMBR 132

Chapter 132

***

Bridget found it impossible to take Declan's words at face value. Ain was doing something for her? Out of guilt?

"Guilt………………."

Did he even know how to feel something like guilt? No, did it even make sense for him to feel guilty in the first place? What gave him the right?

Bridget genuinely couldn't understand. Seeing her reaction, Declan spoke in a low voice.

"If I may add my personal opinion, I don't believe you need to feel any sense of obligation regarding what Ain is doing.

It's all simply his own choice."

"Why would I feel obligated?"

Bridget clenched her teeth. He was doing something for her. Out of guilt.

No matter how many times she repeated it in her mind, it remained a strange, unreal sentence. Ain Wise? The man who treated her so coldly, who wouldn't even acknowledge his own child?

She had no reason to feel indebted to him. Declan's cautious advice rang hollow.

"Rather………………."

Bridget took a deep breath. She pressed her lips tightly together, but her breath grew short as the rising emotion overwhelmed her.

Ever since accepting that her relationship with Ain Wise was completely broken, she had treated him with resignation. She believed he was someone who wouldn't change no matter what she did, and since the outcome was inevitable, there was no point in worrying about him. 

She believed it was a hundred times better to focus her energy on honoring the child who had left and reclaiming the Grand Theater than to dwell on such things. Yet, hearing Declan's words shattered every thought she had clung to until now, leaving no trace behind.

Deep-rooted emotions, buried beneath resignation and melancholy, which she had never intended to bring to the surface again, began to stir.

Bridget, who had been quietly catching her breath, slowly parted her lips.

"Where is he now?"

***

Within Glynford, there were many mansions Ain had purchased and was renovating, but among them, Mrs. Olden's mansion was a place he paid particularly close attention to. How much attention? Ain himself regularly visited the site to check on progress. While he reviewed the progress of other mansions in writing, he personally inspected each stage of completion here.

Today was one of those days. Having heard the interior was finally renovated to modern standards, Ain came to see it for himself.

Though the furniture hadn't been meticulously placed yet, the construction materials that had piled up were neatly cleared away. Perhaps because it was empty, the mansion seemed more spacious than expected. Even though only the interior had been gutted and rebuilt, it was vastly improved over before. Changing the old-fashioned layout by tearing down or adding walls in several places had also increased its functionality.

Ain, who had been walking slowly, checking each replaced window pane, suddenly stopped. Through the transparent glass, he saw someone approaching the mansion.

"Bridget?"

The figure striding purposefully toward the mansion was unmistakably Bridget. Standing at the window with a startled expression, Ain froze unconsciously when their eyes met. Even from a distance, Bridget's aura felt decidedly off. Confirming Ain’s position, Bridget immediately entered the mansion. With no one to block her path in the empty house, she reached Ain in an instant.

Bridget's face, now close at hand, looked flushed. Without so much as a greeting, she abruptly opened her handbag, pulled something out, and thrust it toward Ain.

"Sign this."

"This is………………."

As he unfolded the paper, crumpled from being stuffed into the handbag, the words "Divorce Agreement" immediately jumped out at him. Ain, who had taken the paper in a daze, stood frozen, staring down at it, seemingly speechless. Bridget stared at him coldly and pressed him again.

"Sign it."

He couldn't make such a flimsy excuse about not having a pen; a fountain pen was clearly tucked into his breast pocket. The one he always carried, the one called his lucky nib. Ain, staring down at the paper with bewildered eyes, swallowed hard. 

Of course, he had told himself countless times that he had to divorce her. But now that the moment had suddenly arrived, his hand simply wouldn't move. Hesitating, he finally spoke softly.

"Your uncle is still..."

"My uncle is now only going to court. Donna's acting career is over. I can handle this without needing the name Madame Wise, so don't make excuses."

Her sharp words were undeniably true. When Ain had initially insisted on postponing the divorce, his excuse had been the threatening problems arising from Ronan Pennington and Donna Green. But as Bridget said, both of them were now too preoccupied with their own situations. Bridget didn't seem inclined to just sit back and take their attacks either, so she'd probably wrap things up well on her own, just as she claimed.

Ain, who had been biting his lip, finally couldn't bring himself to pick up the pen and instead called out Bridget's name in frustration.

"Bridget."

"I don't want anything to do with you anymore, so sign it now."

Her voice was sharper than ever, making Ain’s lips tremble. Then, in a darkened tone, he asked.

"Why are you suddenly doing this?"

"Why am I suddenly doing this?"

Bridget's eyes widened at his question. She let out a hollow laugh as if hearing something absurd and glared at Ain.

"That's exactly what I want to ask you. Why are you suddenly acting like this?"

Emotion simmered in the green eyes staring straight at Ain.

"Do you know what Mrs. Callaway told me? She said you're paving the way for me."

The emotion that surfaced more clearly than ever before was anger.

"Mr. Rogers said that too. He said all your recent actions are for my sake. That you're trying to lighten your guilt that way."

"That's……."

Ain stiffened, averting his gaze from her fiercely lashing words.

"It's true I have wronged you."

"So now you realize your mistake and feel guilty? That's why you're trying so hard to do something for me?"

Bridget glared at Ain, who couldn't bring himself to say anything more and fell silent, then snapped irritably.

"Are you kidding me?"

Unrestrained fury erupted with every syllable.

"You reduced me to utter misery, and now you claim to care about me?"

Bridget's lips trembled violently. She was so enraged she couldn't control herself. Ain, who had lifted his gaze to say something, fell silent again at the sight of her. Her face was so furious, so utterly at a loss, it made one wonder how she could have treated him so indifferently all this time.

Ain realized this was resentment far too late. Feelings that should have been spewed out long ago, but instead had been tightly bottled up, festering inside until they rotted her insides.

"I know I was mistaken. I thought you thought I was special, and I acted even more foolishly because I was the only one deluding myself. Yes. But that doesn't make me deserve contempt and ridicule. It wasn't a mistake big enough to warrant insulting my child too. Yet you treated someone like that………!"

"You weren't mistaken."

Ain felt as if his throat were being squeezed, barely managing to get his voice out.

"I was the one who was mistaken."

Bridget's mouth fell open at those words.

"Ha."

She let out a loud, hollow laugh, as if utterly flabbergasted, then her expression turned cold and hard. Only her green eyes, now engulfed in flames of rage, glared at Ain from her face, which had turned as cold as ice.

"You know exactly what you're saying, don't you?"

"I failed to judge properly. It wasn't you who was mistaken; it was me refusing to acknowledge my own feelings.

If I'd thought rationally for just a moment, I would have realized it immediately. But I didn't."

It felt like a terrible confession, one that could never be forgiven. Yet the floodgates had already opened. Ain knew exactly how ugly the words spilling from his tongue sounded to the other person, yet he couldn't stop.

"From the very moment I first saw you when we arrived at Glynford, I felt toward you..."

SMACK!

A sharp crack echoed through the empty mansion, accompanied by a harsh hand. Ain clenched his lips tightly against the stinging pain in his cheek. The blow had been hard enough to leave it numb.

Bridget, who had struck Ain's face, gasped for breath.

"Don't talk nonsense."

Her voice trembled as if she'd mustered every last shred of patience. Hearing that pitifully suppressed voice, Ain found himself opening his mouth again without thinking.

"I'm sorry. This whole mess is because I'm an idiot."

At the same moment, Bridget clenched her teeth and shoved him away with both hands. Then she swung the handbag she was holding and smacked him with it. Thwack!

"Ain Wise, you bastard!"