Though Adeline was having a severe headache and though she was feeling as if her heart would explode, she closed her eyes and tried to remember Theodore. She chanted his name several times wishing that she would at least get some flash of images or hear his voice again. But she could not remember a thing.
The only thing that she felt was that she had chanted that name countless times before she forgot everything. And from the way her heart would ache for him, she could tell that she was deeply in love with him.
But then what happened? Why did she forget him if she loved him so much?
She dug her nails on the floor and screamed in frustration at her own inability to remember her fiancé, "And why the hell can't I still remember him? How did I even forget everything about him? How is that even possible?"
Adeline didn't know what to think and whom to blame. She wanted to blame everyone including herself. She wanted to blame herself for forgetting him, she wanted to blame her father and everyone else for not reminding her of her fiancé, and she wanted to blame him for not coming to her and reminding her who he was.
"But where is he? If I had a fiancé then why didn't he come to me to remind me who he was? Does he even love me? Why isn't he here when I am suffering so much? Or could it be possible that he has also somehow forgotten about me? Or is he already de… No! How can you even have such ghastly thought?"
She abruptly grabbed her hair and pulled it hard for thinking that he might have already been dead. Even though she didn't remember him, she wanted him to be safe wherever he was.
When she jerked her hair, the phoenix hairpin that she was wearing flew out and slid under her study table.
She was already feeling depressed and she wanted to let it be. She thought of asking her maids to get it out tomorrow. But then she remembered how happy Hawisa and Osanna were when she asked them to put that hairpin on her hair. And she didn't want them to think that she threw their gift in some corner like that.
So she heaved a sigh and wriggled near her study table. She slid her hand under the narrow opening and searched for her hairpin. After patting her palm around for some time, her fingertips touched the phoenix. She extended her hand a little more and dragged that hairpin from under the table.
A frown line appeared in between her brows when she saw a small key that was dragged along with her hairpin. She picked up both the items from the floor. And then she looked at that key with curiosity. It looked very familiar but she couldn't tell what it opened.
She wiped her tears with the back of her palm and got up from the floor. She placed the hairpin on her study table. That was when her eyes fell on the drawer of her study table. She felt as if she just discovered the drawer on her own table.
It was hard to explain. She would always see the drawer, she knew that there was a drawer but she never ever tried to open it, not even once. It was as if the drawer was nonexistent for her.
She stared at the key in her hand once again and as if she knew what to do with that key, she pushed it in the keyhole of that drawer and needless to say, it opened.
Adeline's hand began to somewhat tremble. She didn't know why she was feeling so nervous.
She gulped and pulled the drawer very cautiously as though it was some kind of a trap. The more she pulled it, the more anxious she got because a painting was slowly coming into her view. With her shaky hands, she took that painting out of the drawer.
Adeline inhaled sharply but at the same time, she felt extremely happy.
"It's him!"
Adeline began to cry again but this time, it was tears of joy. She needed some confirmation that the man in her nightmare was indeed her fiancé. And the moment her eyes fell on that painting of a beautiful man, she recognized him as the man in her dream. Though the man in her dream would always appear with bruises all over his face, she could tell it right away that both of them were the same.
She also recognized the painting as her own creation. And from the way she had kept it safely in that drawer, she felt it in her bones that she loved this man with all her heart.
Adeline pressed that painting over her heart and cried for some more time.
After a while of crying, she finally calmed down for good. She had this determined look on her face. Her heart was filled with new energy to find him. She was going to find him and ask him why he never tried to find her. He was going to find him and ask him if he loved her the way she did. She wanted to ask him if he remembered her. And if not, she was willing to get to know each other again.
Adeline carefully placed that painting back in the drawer.
Then she stormed out of her room at once. "I don't know what kind of game God played with us but I am going to find you."
If only she knew that it was not God but it was God's son who brought this misery upon them, then it was given that she would not even blink before trying to kill him.
When she opened the door of her quarter, she realized that it was already dark. But she didn't care. She had waited too long already and she could not wait any longer. She did not know how or where she was going to find him, but what she knew was that she had to look for him. Now.
She didn't want the guards to follow her so she sneakily walked in the shadows while hiding from everyone. She didn't care about breaking the rule of the Palace. All she cared about was that she was going to find her fiancé.
She reached at the stable while hiding from the eyes of her guards and maids. She then tip-toed towards where Rion was. She gestured Rion to keep quiet and he didn't make a sound even though he would normally neigh when he would see Adeline.
Adeline grabbed the reins of Rion and walked with him towards the back gate where there would be fewer guards. After reaching the back gate, she ordered the guards not to tell anyone that she was going out. She told them that she was on a secret mission and she also assured them that she would return back soon.
The guards didn't dare to question their Future Queen, and let her and Rion pass through the gate. After they were a little further away from the Palace, Adeline climbed on Rion's back.
Adeline made Rion run at the top of his speed. She didn't know where she was going but she believed in her intuition.. She had a gut feeling that she would somehow manage to find the man in her dream today.