Chapter 88: Discord

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[T/N: The POV shifts from Melissa to Alan and vice versa in this chp]

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Melissa stood with slightly damp hair and a slightly defenseless face.

Alan already knew that she usually took a bath before she went to bed.
Maybe she was getting ready to sleep.
Nevertheless, rather than feeling sorry, there was a greater sense of stability.

“My goodness.”

Alan whispered to the woman who couldn’t take her eyes off him as if she had forgotten how to blink.

“There are no flowers today.”

“…….”

Alan Leopold, standing under the moonlight, was mesmerizingly beautiful.
It seemed hard to believe that he was a human being, and it seemed as if he would disappear if she closed her eyes and opened them.

But Melissa didn’t forget to talk just because of his dazzling beauty.
Rather, she was confused.
It was because she felt that the affectionate feelings that had prevented her from treating him harshly no matter how hard she tried to pull herself together were fading at once.

The cause was none other than a red mark left on Alan’s disheveled shirt collar.
It was so obvious that it was a mark of a woman’s lips.

“You…….”

As if she was strangled, a very suppressed voice leaked out.
However, Melissa could not continue her words because of the flood of emotions that shattered her mind into pieces.

Her anger, which she reflected on his evil deeds one by one and thought about poor Tobias, would disappear like a bubble when she faced Alan.

To overshadow the many nights when she blamed and suffered, Melissa trembled with terrible disillusionment when she faced him, who had been buried under the traces of an unknown woman.

You called me out tonight to show me this? You’re now going to crush my heart?

He is not even her lover, and yet the blood all over her body has become unbearably cold.
The sensation made her heart beat fast.
But the bitter hatred that rose in it was as hot as the fire of hell.

Melissa’s face, which was happy when she suddenly hugged him last night, stopped still and didn’t close the distance, as if she was a stranger.
And then her face looks like it’s falling apart…….

Eventually, Alan was watching her in silence, grit his teeth in a clear rage.
With a serious and deep gaze as if one were appreciating a work of art in an art museum

But her lips crept open with an unexpected question.

“Is it Monica Elwood?”

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“…….”

Only then did Alan look down at his badly disheveled collar and click his tongue.
He was so distracted from running all the way here that he didn’t even notice this look.
He wasn’t his usual self.

And the moment his brow was nervously frowned, Melissa lost her last strand of patience.

“Tell me, is it Monica Ellwood?”

“………No.”

Alan grudgingly replied to an unprecedented rush.
It wasn’t Monica Elwood who had stained his clothes, it was stupid, low-class Marcela Riemann.
So there was no mistake in his answer.

“Ha….”

But he didn’t know that the answer hurt Melissa’s tender heart.
She was staring at the man in front of her, chewing her lips visibly trembling.

“……Disgusting man.”

Melissa opened her eyes wide in surprise at what she had said.
But she didn’t want to apologize.

Alan Leopold was literally a disgusting man.
He should not have done this to her even when he still knew how much she loved him.
If he didn’t know how she felt, he wouldn’t have been kind enough to make her have such ecstatic delusions over and over again.

It must have been fun, a country woman shuddered at every word of him.
Then what is this today? A new joke?

His cruel sadism, who looked as if he were watching out for her reaction, was unbearably disgusting to her.

“You rolled around in a mess…… Did you want to brag about it?”

“Ha.”

Then Alan’s mouth twisted coldly.
The sight of her being confident and speaking recklessly made him stand on edge because she wasn’t like her usual self.

He knew why Melissa was angry.
But he had also had his worst day that he couldn’t kindly point out that it was a one-sided, silly illusion.

“Yes, it was splendid.
It will probably be on the front page of the newspaper.”

Melissa burst into tears at the words.
It was pitiful to see her barely holding back her sobs and shedding tears as if she didn’t want to receive any sympathy from the man in front of her.

“Why did you come if you were going to do this? You should have slept all night.
Why……!”

The contempt was new.
In her innocent red eyes……….
The low murmuring Alan soon closed his eyes.

It was then that his red lips spat out impulsive words that were not calculated.

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“Do you know what I threw away?”

“Of course she…….”

Alan sneered coldly as Melissa glared at him and muttered.
A deep, subdued voice echoed through the air.

“There’s no way you’d know.
Just to spend a few hours in this mansion, you don’t know how I….”

Damn it.

Alan, who wrinkled his brows in agony, roughly swept up his pitch-black hair.
He opened his eyes ferociously, and his cool blue-gray eyes turned straight to Melissa.
Melissa gulped down her breath at the trap-like stare.

Overshadowing the fact that it was this morning that she was worried about whether his work was very busy or did he sleep well, Melissa thought, feeling the shivering anger intact.

I won’t be fooled any more.
Alan Leopold is neither noble nor elegant.
He’s vulgar, brazen…… just disgusting.

“…… Did you think I’d be touched if you said that? It’s rather horrible to say that after seeing this look.”

Melissa spoke with strength in her words, even as she shed tears like beads.
Severe contempt, with scorn in her eyes.

“I thought you’d be special…….”

The man’s regret filled murmur dispersed helplessly.
But for Melissa, all his words and sigh were like a sharp dagger.

“Special… An ordinary woman like me must be special to you.”

“…….”

“Did you try to hold me here because I was special? Softly comforting you with candy-like words?”

There was no answer to the woman’s cold words.
Melissa murmured helplessly.

“Indecent….”

As if those words were a signal, a creepy look suddenly appeared in Alan’s eyes.

“You know it well.”

The words of explanation came to the end of his throat, but what he said was an arsenic-mixed joke.

“It just so happened that I wasn’t very satisfied today.
You have to deal with it, Melissa.”

“……What?”

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Melissa staggered with empty eyes under the illusion that her feet were falling apart.
She regretted her past of being obsessed with him, and tears welled up as she was devoured by that sadness.

“You’re the worst.”

She was no longer confident of forgiving Alan Leopold.

“Seeing you, who is always in the spotlight but doesn’t easily mix with people, I… I was happy to think that there are similarities between you and me.”

“…….”

“But… you were a prodigal playboy in the background.”

She suddenly remembered a story she had heard from her mother.
Alan’s father, Ian Leopold, had a great history with women. 

Maybe it’s not just a rumor.
The only son who inherited his blood is proving it so faithfully.

Melissa continued to mutter with her small fist clenched.

“……What does it feel like to be such a dirty deceitful person?”

“Ha, are you out of your mind?”

Alan asked back in a vicious tone.
The only person who recognized the hideous scar he had hidden deep in his heart, and who assured him that he would find what he had pursued blindly all his life, was now, dripping with pure hatred, belittling him.

It was last night when that heavenly consolation held him back from falling.
Suddenly, the purpose of his life and ideals seemed to be scattered like smoke.

I am so exhausted.
I can’t stand it if I don’t lean on such a small and weak woman. 

At what point?

It was disastrous.

“You must have found the whole thing funny.”

Melissa’s delicate lips, however, did not stop and poured out knife-like criticism.

“When you harm an innocent and good person…… I thought I wouldn’t hate you more than that.
It’s amazing…… I hate you so much.”

“……What nonsense are you talking about?”

Alan, who had a cold face, got a headache with the high-pitched voice.
His bloodless face with his back against the light was eerily beautiful.
It wouldn’t be weird if he bites a woman’s neck right now.

“Tobias Miller.
If you’re a human, you can’t pretend you don’t know.
Because you completely trampled his life.”

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“…….”

Alan could certainly have corrected her wildest misunderstanding at once.

“You’re no difference to a murderer…….”

But, oddly enough, he couldn’t refute anything.

Why is it that I am now reminded of the fact that Ian Leopold has taken the lives of not just a few people in order to rise to the position he is today? It was a long time ago when I found out that it had happened in silence, and I hated him deeply…….

Why did the eyes of Melissa Collins looking at me resemble those of mine when I was young while looking at that man?

“Right, you can’t even make excuses.”

Melissa, who was teary, continued without taking her eyes off the man in front of her. 

Said in a voice as clear as a resolution.

“I curse all the time I loved you.”

“You are…….”

Alan, who was about to say something, resignedly covered his eyes.
Melissa’s shoulders flinched and she wrinkled her delicate brows further when a sigh-like swear word came out from his gritting teeth.

“Ha, nevermind.”

“…….”

“I was crazy, to think you’ll be different.”

The low voice darkened the shadow of despair over Melissa’s head.

“Don’t talk like that.
It’s horrible to hear that because you’re not as beautiful or fancy as the women think you are.”

Alan gave no answer.
He looked deep into the eyes of the woman which was filled with poison, the watery brown eyes that hadn’t left his head all day.

Although it was only for a brief moment, his gaze on her was so deep that it made her legs go weak.

“…….”

Alan walked past Melissa, whose lips were trembling, without knowing what to say, and left the terrace.
A strange scent, a mixture of pale roses and musk scent, hung faintly in the place.

Melissa’s sad tears did not stop until the maid who rushed to her helped her back to the room.