Ever Ever After

Chapter 18: Lawrence’s Attempt

Lawrence frowned the sight of the garden. It was much more beautiful than the one from his memories. Shaking his head, he walked to the garden.

“Is your mother still sick?” asked Ailea, pouring water in the small boy’s  jar.

“Yes… she’s still in pain but she’s gotten a lot better since taking in the hot spring water here!”

“I’m glad!” Ailea smiled. “Make sure to come here every day.”

Ailea took out a chocolate bar from the apron pocket and placed it on the child’s hand. The apron, it was a maid’s uniform. She looked like a servant.

“Now… this is a gift for your mother.”

“W-wow! Thank you, Big Sis!”

 

“Go back safely. Goodbye,” she said, smiling.

The little boy trotted back home with a bucket of water. Ailea turned her head to the sound of horses’ hooves from behind.

“Ailea.”

When Lawrence called her name, Ailea stood still, eyes boring a look of dismal surprise.

It was not the reaction Lawrence expected. He thought that when she saw him that she’d cry bitterly and cling to the point of not letting go. But now she was avoiding him. She wasn’t in tears.

Why wasn’t she coming to him?

Lawrence narrowed his eyebrows, forming a crease in the middle and got off the horse.

The tree of the garden grew inwards, birds flying by. Lawrence’s eyes squinted. When Ailea was in the Imperial City, he, too, saw various kinds of birds passing by. He thought it was a symbol of auspiciousness because after Ailea left, they were nowhere to be found. It was strange.

All the birds from here flew ever so freely.

The wild rose vine, which grew anywhere it liked, was a withered brown that said winter was approaching and surrounded the castle. It was incandescently beautiful.

 

“The weather’s getting colder. The day’s getting shorter,” Ailea said coldly.

“And?”

“Thank you for coming all the way here, Your Highness. Why don’t you go back to the Imperial City before sunset?”

This time, she was driving him away.

Lawrence was exasperated. Of course, it was true that he hadn’t looked after her properly these past few years, but he was the man she was engaged to. It was somewhat rude to kick him out without caring to serve him a cup of tea.

And also, why was she dressed in a maid’s uniform? Lawrence, for the life of him, couldn’t figure out why she was dressed in such tatters.

He grabbed Ailea’s wrist and dragged her inside the castle.

“Law… Your Highness!”

Things were moving towards a direction Ailea didn’t want. Lawrence dragged Ailea to the bed and crushed her above roughly.

“You look happy. You seem to fit in happily in the Outer Palace, right?” he asked, sarcastically.

Ailea shook her head.

Her slender body reacting and flinching to him wasn’t bad. He thought maybe he could hold her like this and… he wanted to see her face in abysmal despair.

Lawrence frowned as he pulled down her clothes from her shoulder which was loose compared to the other area of her body. Her slender and curvaceous shoulder line to her mounds was uncannily beautiful, but it was stained with black marks.

Lawrence, who was about to touch and devour her body, eventually gave up and grew fright with nervousness.

“It’s even more disgusting to see you like this naked. I can’t hold you.”

“…..”

“One side is black, the other white.”

He tapped his hand erratically as if he had touched something dirty and picked up the uniform that fell on the floor.

Ailea wrapped her arms around her perky mounds and trembled.

A moment later, Ailea heard the sounds of horses’ hooves clicking and clacking. Lawrence was leaving.

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Two times… this was the second time she had gone through this unforgettable experience—one in the past and another in this present moment.

It ached her heart, yet she felt relieved.

It’s over now.

It won’t happen ever again.

Because this was the last time…