DAHLIA:“My lady, are you alright,” Lina said. A look of concern was washed over her face.I wanted to say ‘yes,’ but I was well aware that my appearance looked pale, and knowing that the full tray in my hand looked funny, I didn’t say anything. I just sat on the couch, brooding deeply.Who was Tristan talking to? What does he mean of ‘that girl,’ and what kind of promise is he going to keep?There was another thing I wanted to know more about. I called to my attendant, “Lina, did you mention to the lord what had happened between papa and I on the morning of our wedding day?”Lina opened her mouth to say something, but she abruptly closed it again, and her eyes fell into the floor. “Yes, my lady… I know you must have wanted to keep it a secret, but I just couldn’t hide it from Count Abell anymore… He insisted that I tell him everything that happens to you in the mansion

DAHLIA: I didn’t know what came over me. I was enraged but also extremely exhausted. My body was hurt a lot, and my head was spinning. I wanted to throw up some more… Suddenly, I felt myself floating into air again, but in a different way. I never felt lighter in my whole life. ‘Sleep, Dahlia… I’ll take over…’ Eva’s voice was so comforting that I readily succumbed to it. I let myself float aimlessly into a void. I began to wonder… Why did Tristan do it? Why did my husband, a person who was supposed to love me, do it? Was this side of him always there? Was that the real face of the person I chose to marry? Maybe I made a mistake… Maybe I shouldn’t have married him too soon… In an instant, I became conscious of something else… I became aware of the smell of the earth and the feeling that I was going away somewhere else. ‘Eve… What are we doing?’ ‘We’re getting away, Dahlia… We have to get away…’ I succumbe

KAIST: I was in the midst of a hunt when a strong smell of blood mingling with honeyed milk and cherries filled my head. I was about to drink at the spring in the middle of the woods, but I staggered. Am I hallucinating? Why can I smell Dahlia’s scent here at the heart of the woods? It has been a little more than two months since Dahlia failed to show at our wedding. I resented her for it. Since then, there was no night when my heart did not throb and ache for her. I knew that she was with that scoundrel Tristan somewhere, but what can I do? She had expressed her love for him countless times in my presence before. She had begged me to stop the wedding to be with that wolf, but I was the one who didn’t listen… I was the one to be utterly blamed. News would sometimes reach me in the capital on how Dahlia and her new husband were doing. I didn’t need to hear it. I can sense her state of mind despite the distance that loomed between us. For the fi

DAHLIA:“It’s too bitter,” I said as I sipped the greenish liquid in my cup. I hated drinking anything that’s bitter, but Tristan stroke my head to coax me into finishing it like a child.“Just a little bit more… Just two more sips, and it’ll all be gone.”I made a nasty face as I braced myself to take in another sip. It didn’t taste any better on my second try, but I gulped down and held it into my mouth until not a drop was left.“Yuck! Remind me never to get this medicine again…”Tristan’s face looked agonized. He unwrapped what looked like a small treat in his hand and held it before me.“What’s that?”“It’ll take some of the bitterness away,” he said timidly.He held it into my mouth, and I had no choice but to take it in. It was a piece of chocolate, and it tasted very nice after that awful medicine.

DAHLIA:“Thank you, Lina,” I said as my attendant put down two cups and a pot of hot tea in our midst. I wanted something cold given the weather, but Lina insisted that I take in something warm since I was still in the process of recuperating. Of course, Kaist agreed. They always agreed to torture me under the guise that everything was for the sake of my health.On the second day of my recovery, Kaist really did show up at the villa. Tristan said he was going to do something in his study, and he left me alone even before Kaist came that morning.Now, I was the only one who has to endure being put in a tight spot…I took the cup closer to my lips, taking time to blow the heat of the liquid away. I was grateful for the temporary screen that the mist was giving me as it obscured my face away from Kaist.The last time we saw each other in the cave, I was deathly embarrassed. He had seen me in such an embarrassing and vulnerable state