Episode 77: The Reason We Came Back

“Is it because I’m a slave? If I were a noble like Valérie, would you have listened to me?”

“Lara, that’s not true. Not even once—”

“It is true! If my father were a noble and not a slave, you wouldn’t have ignored me.”

“I’ve never ignored you. How could I?”

“You have. You never listen to me, not even a little. Even when I begged and pleaded, crying for you to let me go, you wouldn’t—because I’m just a girl with nothing.”

Lara glared fiercely at him, her voice laced with icy resentment. Every word dripped with bitterness. Alec looked at her calmly, which only made her anger flare hotter.

“That’s why, isn’t it? Because my only family is a rundown chapel and a poor friar, you think you can do whatever you want with me. If I were born into a grand house like your other wives, you wouldn’t have treated me this way. But because I have nothing—because I’m just a woman with nothing—”

“Don’t belittle yourself like that.”

Alec’s voice was firm as he warned her. Lara, unable to bear it, shoved him away. She was sick of it. She knew. She was degrading herself in front of him. There was no need to humiliate herself like this. It was pathetic. It was miserable. Even Brother Dallas, who raised her, would be ashamed. And yet—

“…I don’t want to feel this way.”

Lara began to cry again.

“I want to believe I have worth. I want to love myself, Alec. But—”

“I love you, Lara. Nothing else matters to me. In my world, there is only you. Without you, I have no reason to live. If you’re gone, I can’t go on.”

Alec lifted her chin, his sorrow-filled eyes glistening. Lara bit her lip.

“I want to be a noble, too.”

She thought of Valérie. A lifetime of inferiority surged over her again. There were many things she envied about that woman, but what she envied the most was that she was the daughter of the Marquess of Opprezé.

No matter how hard she struggled, it was something she could never have. No matter how much effort she put in, she was born a slave. All that effort would always amount to nothing.

“If I were, then maybe it would have been okay for me to be by your side. Maybe if my father had been powerful, he could have protected me from everything that happened. Maybe if people feared him, no one would have dared to harm me.”

Gladis had feared Valérie’s family too much to treat her recklessly. Even when she plotted against her, she always watched the movements of the Offrezé family carefully.

It was the same with Valérie.

Even when her father was falsely accused and executed, Belzenor, who represented the rising bourgeoisie, was careful not to act too boldly.

But Lara—Lara had no one. She had lived alone for so long. Enduring was the only way to survive. She bent, but she never let herself break.

“If only my father had been from Offr—”

“I’m sorry.”

Before she could finish, Alec pulled her into his arms, pressing his trembling lips against hers. Lara stared up at him. Alec was crying. His anguished expression was like that of a man being consumed from the inside by disease.

The pale, trembling man gripped her face, his eyes melting with desperation.

“I was wrong, Lara. I was truly, truly wrong. I beg you.”

Lara pressed her lips tightly together and pushed him away. She stood up, intending to leave the bedroom, but Alec fell to his knees before her again. Lara clutched the hem of her dress and looked down at the man kneeling like a dog at her feet.

“Give me a chance. Just one more.”

“……”

“Give me one more chance to protect our child.”

To protect you and Klaus. Alec pleaded desperately. Never had he looked at her so fiercely before. His tearful voice was laced with a chilling resolve.

“I will have my revenge.”

“……”

“Those who harmed you. The ones who killed Klaus and destroyed Loras. The woman who murdered you and her entire family.”

Lara’s brows furrowed. Alec, who had been pale moments ago, now had eyes gleaming with madness. She stared at him in shock.

Alec must have thought she didn’t believe him, because he stood and grasped her shoulders.

“Have you thought about why we came back?”

She shook her head. She never imagined something like this was possible. At first, she thought it was a dream. Then, she thought she had lost her mind. If she had been the only one with memories of the past, she might have truly believed she was insane.

But Alec remembered, too.

This wasn’t phantom pain. It wasn’t some imagined suffering.

“This is a chance, Lara.”

“A chance for what?”

“A chance to drag the vermin who ruined us into hell.”

“Valérie and Gladis didn’t do anything. Those women—”

“The women who ruined all your dresses and exposed your past using the maids—are they innocent?”

Her shoulders ached under his grip. Alec’s eyes were filled with fury. Cold, steel-like eyes glinted like a blade. Lara stared at him, realizing that he knew about the events at the ball. How did he know? She and Diane had decided to keep quiet about it.

The culprit behind last night’s destruction of her dresses was unknown. She had planned with Diane to find the perpetrator, but they had given up, fearing Alec would find out if they stirred things up too much.

In the end, it was either Gladis or Valérie. The thought alone left her feeling empty.

“Those women made a fool of you at your own ball. And you think Gladis, who tried to take me from you, is innocent? Even if she truly were—”

“……”

“I haven’t forgotten a single thing.”

Alec let go of her shoulders.

“So watch me, Lara. Watch what I do. Watch how I get my revenge. Watch how I take back everything we lost. At least, stay and see it through.”

Alec kissed her lips, which were as red as pomegranate seeds. The touch of her skin was filled with the taste of long-held despair and loneliness. He held his fragile wife in his arms. Lara did not resist. She closed her eyes, sinking into his embrace.

Alec thought of Klaus.

His firstborn son.

This time, he would not lose him.

This time, he would not fail.

“Every last one of them… I’ll tear them apart.”