Predatory Marriage

Chapter 257. Fragments

Translator: Atlas / Editor: Regan

Leah awoke from her sleep as if she had been ejected, clutching her head in her hands. Nausea gripped her.

The headache was so bad, it felt as if her skull were shattering. As if someone had smashed it with a hammer. But even through the agony, Leah tried to grasp the fragments of memories whirling through her mind.

—Take me as your wife.

There was a peony garden. She clearly remembered the moment she had plucked up her courage to confess her love to Blain. But this time it was different. Another man stood before her, holding a peony in his hand.

—Really…you’re very capricious…

The man’s voice faded. His figure blurred. But one thing was clear, and that was Leah’s smile, and the happy smile of the man before her. His voice sounded the sweetest in the world to her as he spoke.

—My fiancée…

The memory didn’t last long, and faded quickly.

“……”

In a cold sweat, Leah pushed back the damp hair clinging to her forehead. When she tried to summon those memories again, it only intensified her headache. Closing her eyes, she tried to breathe deeply. She still felt nauseous.

Hadn’t she confessed to Blain?

Not only had she lost her real memories, but false ones had taken their place. How long had her memories been distorted? She couldn’t believe in…anything.

But she did know for sure who she had really confessed her love to in the peony garden.

Ishakan had been so furious when she said she had confessed to Blain.

Leah covered her face with her hands. Even after she regained her memories, it would take a very long time to make amends for her mistakes.

Sitting up in the bed, Leah realized she was still in Count Weddleton’s mansion, and Ishakan was nowhere to be seen. And there was still the sound of rain pouring outside, pounding against the windows. She had thought it would stop soon, but it was only getting worse.

Though the rain and dark clouds made it hard to tell, she thought it might be close to sunrise. Leah peered out into the darkness.

There was nothing to see there. It seemed like a darkness without end. But at some point soon, the sun would rise.

Leah laid a hand on her abdomen, feeling the slight roundness to her once-flat belly. It hadn’t been very noticeable, so she had ignored it until now. She had just thought she was gaining weight.

Vividly, she remembered the scene from her dream. That little wolf cub with golden eyes had grown to the size of a house and then rushed at the iron gate.

How could she not have noticed it until now? Anyone who saw the golden-eyed cub would know it was that man’s child.

Leah sighed. Her mind was in chaos, excited, happy, scared, overwhelmed…and so sad. She couldn’t even enjoy learning of her baby because she felt so incomplete. Only a child with a bad mother would suffer so many hardships before it was even born. If only he had come a little later, when it was safe…

But in her mind, she pictured herself with Ishakan, holding their son.

She would finally have a family.

She was feeling strange things. For a long time, she sat with her hand on her belly, and only started and turned her head at the sound of the doorknob rattling.

“…Leah?”

Pushing the door open, Ishakan entered with a pile of clothes in his hands. He looked surprised to see that she was awake. She had the impression that he had planned to secretly move her back to the palace after he had dressed her.

She was only naked because he had torn all her clothes off.

But Leah didn’t care if she was naked. Sliding out of bed, she approached him on wobbly legs and rose onto her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around his neck to hug him. Stiffly, Ishakan bent to embrace her, and she felt the warmth of his clothes against her snow white skin.

“Did you have a nightmare?” He asked.

Leah gazed into his eyes, the golden eyes that so perfectly matched his title. King of the Desert.

As the silence stretched, he lifted an eyebrow.

“Or do you want to do it again? In that case, you’ll be late.”