“Hey, it's okay to laugh, but could you take your foot off my head first?”
“...Did I laugh?”
"Yes. And it’s annoying.”
Shane calmly looked down at the man lying at his feet.
[His name was Lucian. He received the nickname "King of the Rat" from Edwin - for his ability to slither away like a real rat. Secretive, slippery, almost impossible to catch.]
[But this is if you use conventional methods.]
And Shane, when it came to Adaline, didn't choose the means. Whether she was there or not didn't matter.
“Where is Adaline? Where did you hide it?
“I don’t know... cough!”
The answer was cut off by a muffled groan, Shane pressed his shoe hard into his skull.
“If you tell me in a good way, I’ll let you live.”
“Damn, I really don’t know! It was Lloyd who hid it! And it’s so reliable that now I can’t find it myself!”
"Find it."
“I tried to reach her through newspaper advertisements... but I’m not sure she even saw them. I lost contact with her more than three years ago.”
[He actually tried to find her, but Lloyd was too cautious. Disgustingly smart.]
Lucian looked up at the man who could crush his head at any second.
On his face - impeccably clean, calm, there was not a hint of emotion.
But behind those icy eyes seethed an insane, poisonous rage.
Lucian knew you couldn’t come to an agreement with people like that. They are not interested in arguments. Logic won't stop them.
[These people have only one goal. One vector. And everything that interferes will be destroyed.]
Lucian himself has heard more than once that he is crazy...
[But this one is truly insane.]
[If I piss him off, I'm screwed.]
[A madman with power, position, fortune.]
[If such things become the pinnacle of the Empire, the world must have gone completely mad.]
[If Adaline sensed Shane's true nature and tried to escape,] Lucian understood her completely.
“So you can’t?”
[Even now, on the verge of death, it was stupid to provoke the Duke of Blanchard. There were rumors that he had become especially cruel since Adaline died.]
Lucian reconsidered his decision.
"There is a way."
[No friendship or old gratitude meant anything anymore.]
“It’s just going to be expensive.”
[To lure Adaline out, a new, expensive game was needed.]
---Blonde golden hair scattered across the snow-white sheets. Shane carefully collected them in his hand and took off his veiled hat.
He brought his finger to Adaline's nose.
[She was breathing.]
"Alive..."
Even seeing her breathing, he couldn't believe it.
But the warmth emanating from her body was real.
The touch of breath is palpable.
[You're alive.]
Shane exhaled deeply and covered his eyes with his hand.
[For the first time in five years, he could truly breathe.]
[Adaline, sleeping peacefully, is still beautiful. Nothing has changed about her.]
[The same...and at the same time already alien.]
[She probably forgot everything. And lived...happily?]
[Did you really want to run away from me that much?]
[How terrible was he in her eyes?]
[She asked me to forget. Live happily.]
[If this was her last wish, he would do anything to fulfill it.]
[But he couldn’t forget.]
[Not for a moment.]
[And, of course, could not be happy.]
[Adaline was still lovely. But at the same time he wanted to... strangle her.]
[If she had never appeared in his life, he would have lived a dry, joyless, but without pain.]
[Maybe he wouldn’t have become happy, but he wouldn’t have lost anything. I would have gotten everything I wanted.]
[Would live like a rich, powerful duke.]
[Oh, not like now, on the edge of the abyss.]
[But you.]
[You still know how to smile. You're still beautiful. Still the same.]
If you just said:
[Disappear. You're a monster.]
Or she threatened:
[I will kill myself if you force me to marry you.]
[Shane might have cried, begged...]
[But in the end I would let him go.]
[Because only in front of Adaline was he weak.]
[But she died. Right before his eyes.]
[Because of him. He lost it.]
[He was cast into hell in the most cruel way.]
[And now he couldn't leave her alone.]
[He didn't know if she really hated him enough to run away, leaving everything behind.]
"Wake up, Adaline."
[You are in my arms again.]
[And now you won’t go anywhere.]