Chapter 116

“The rules…?”

Yelena’s face contorted.

Not only was the old woman saying things Yelena couldn’t understand, but the manner in which she spoke also changed. But Yelena didn’t have time to worry about that.

“What are you going on about…”

“I did everything I could. Figure out which takes the front seat, your fate or the world’s. You lost once, but since I helped you this time around, things may change.”

“Old woman?”

“Please succeed in stopping the world’s destruction. So that my child’s sacrifice won’t be in vain.”

“Old woman, wait—”

The old woman turned her back.

Yelena reflexively outstretched her hand towards the old woman, but she couldn’t reach. Her vision suddenly brightened, and she was blinded by a bright light.

Yelena squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again.

“…Madam!” cried a fretful voice.

Yelena opened her eyes with difficulty, her eyelids heavy.

“…Abbie?”

“I’ll call the doctor. Please wait!”

Yelena hazily watched Abbie’s back through her blurry vision as the maid immediately ran out of the room after saying only those words.

Yelena opened and closed her stiff eyes, clearing her blurry vision.

Soon after, once her vision returned to its perfectly clear original state, the first thing Yelena saw was her husband guarding her bedside.

“…Ah.”

Seeing his face reminded her of what happened before she lost consciousness.

Without realizing, she brought her hands up to her neck. But her left hand wouldn’t move.

Yelena looked down.

Her husband was squeezing her hand.

“Kay… Ahem.” Yelena cleared her throat. Her voice was embarrassingly hoarse.

“Kaywhin.”

Her voice was still hoarse even after feigning a cough.

Eventually, Yelena gave up on clearing her throat. She looked at Kaywhin and asked, “What happened? How long was I unconscious?”

Instead of answering, Kaywhin stared into her eyes.

Then, he brought Yelena’s hand to his lips.

“…”

Yelena could only watch, enraptured, as the back of her hand lightly touched her husband’s lips and then fell down.

Yelena missed the brief warmth of the touch.

“Yelena.”

“…”

“You might not remember, but you had asked me. If you were someone I needed.”

Yelena stared blankly at Kaywhin, still unable to tear her gaze away from his lips.

“I’ll give you my answer now.”

“Um…”

“Yes.”

“…”

“You are someone I need.”

He spoke neither slowly nor quickly, and each syllable reached her ears.

It was then that Yelena came to her senses. Her gaze moved up from her husband’s lips to his eyes.

Her reflection filled those blue eyes.

“I need you, Yelena.”

“…”

“So please don’t get hurt. Please continue staying by my side.”

Yelena blinked slowly. She could hear his heartbeat beating through the solid hand that held fast to her own.

‘…No.’

No, that wasn’t it.

The sound was coming from somewhere else…

‘It’s coming from me.’

Badump, badump.

Yelena’s heart raced with a clear sound.

Chapter 5.5 Kaywhin

Kaywhin started speaking at a very young age.

While others were barely able to babble, he was able to clearly understand other people’s speech.

“To think that this is really the child I bore…”

“Oh, God help me.”

“I can’t even look at him for more than a few seconds. He’s dreadful.”

“I pray that this is all a dream.”

However, at the time, Kaywhin could only understand what people were saying. He couldn’t distinguish truth from lie.

“My beloved boy.”

“Child, we love you no matter what.”

“Of course we do. We’re your parents.”

Thus, there was a period of time when Kaywhin thought that his parents were just extremely capricious people.

It was when Kaywhin grew a little older that he learned that people did not always say what they truly felt.

Kaywhin learned very quickly. It didn’t take long for him to be able to distinguish truth from lie.

“Kaywhin, you are a precious gift bestowed on us.”

That was a lie.

“Please, someone tell me that this isn’t my child!”

That was how they really felt.

Once Kaywhin was able to differentiate truth and lie, he no longer got confused.

After his parents cruelly beat him while speaking the ‘truth,’ Kaywhin would only cling to his parents when they spoke ‘lies.’

It was then that Kaywhin’s younger sibling was born.

“Congratulations, Madam!”

“It’s a healthy baby boy.”

“Martin. I’ll name him Martin.”

Kaywhin’s parents devoted all their love and care to his brother who was only one year younger. They never lied to Martin.