Chapter 16.1

The man reached behind my back and yanked at my hair. My head snapped back. He smirked as he looked down on me.

“Do you want to do that with me too? I won’t tell the others, I promise,” he said, “I just want to make this boring party a bit lively. What do you think?”

I smiled sweetly and drew closer to him. The man tilted his head as though giving me his permission. I covered his mouth with my hand while my other hand slid down his chest, to his abdomen and lower. The idiot’s eyes widened. His face turned pale, and he m*aned. His hand that grabbed my hair began to shake.

“How many others have you done this with?” I whispered softly. He wasn’t able to pull himself together because of the pain he felt between his legs. “Did you steer other girls to secret places like these too? Did you force yourself on girls who didn’t want to do this?” I felt anger and repulsion when I thought about the helpless girls.

Should I just kill him? The world would still go around without trash like him, anyway. One cockroach preying on girls seemed like a decent burden to get rid of.

“No, no. Never. I never did it to anyone who didn’t want it!” He said with gritted teeth. I twisted the thing between his legs harder. His hand fell from my hair. He seemed to want to push me away, but he thought better of it. I kept clinging closer to him. I liked fighting men who were bigger and burlier than me, because it was difficult when it came to fighting a person of small stature like me. I mean, I guess they could just throw me off but, in this case, that would be a bad move.

“Ah, really? Hm… why is it that I am not convinced?”

“It’s true!” he pleaded. “I have never! I am not that big of a scum. I would never fall to that level!”

“Hm… it seems you agree that you are a scum. I wonder why you continue to be a scum if you know better. Is it possible that you enjoy being a scum, then? Shouldn’t you clean up the trash when you see? It’s terrible to leave scum and trash just lying in the world, they stink.”

The boy scowled. Perhaps he hadn’t ever heard anyone insult him like this. The trash has ego, who knew? I want to smash his head like a watermelon.

“I… I have only approached the girls who said they liked it. I have never made a move or touched anyone who didn’t like it.”

“Really? But I seem to recall just standing here and not giving any hint about what I like, when you came out of the dark and pounced on me. How many girls have not been able to voice out their ‘dislike’ out of fear? And what did you do to them?”

“What? I… what is there to be scared of? I would never touch anyone if they told me…”

I really hate kids like these. They can be so cruel and act like everything was okay. He threatened the girls and didn’t acknowledge that they might have been scared for their lives to refuse him. “If I kill you here, will anyone even care?”

I don’t think anyone would chase after me or worry about this scum. I am the helpless Marquess’ daughter. Who would even believe I could kill a man anyway? The boy’s face turned pale. I knew that nobody would ever be sad that he was gone. Poor kid, nothing less than what he deserved.

“I think you should let him go, little lady.”

Without letting go of the kid’s painful part, I turned to look at the Grand Duke approaching us from the shadows. “If you twist it any harder. I think it will leave permanent damage. Justified, I am sure. But he might still have a bright future ahead of him. Maybe he will be a family man.”

“Ha! Then do you want me to twist yours so that yours doesn’t work? You don’t seem like a family man anyway,” I shot back.

He smiled softly at my words. “I couldn’t really fulfill the function the last time, so I don’t think I mind.”

I looked at him, confused. “My wife,” he clarified. “She left a long time ago.” His eyes held a distant look. Somewhere I couldn’t reach. “She wanted children. I didn’t. We were together for a while but that one difference created a chasm between us. She asked for a divorce.”

“And you let her go?” I asked.

“I couldn’t give her what she wanted. So, why would I make her stay somewhere she wasn’t happy?”

“And you? Were you happy?”

“I didn’t want to hold onto someone who hated to be with me. That wouldn’t have made me happy.”

I stared at him. He still looked into the distance. The present didn’t seem to exist for him at that point. He only saw the past. Perhaps he saw the person who used to be beside him.

“You can’t change the past. There’s no point reflecting on it. The only thing you can change is the future.”

His eyes found me. “Do you want to change the future?”

“I want to change it into something more financially helpful to me.” He let out a small but long breath. I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know what kind of answer you were hoping for,” I said.

“I was hoping you’d want to stand on the right side of the law. Someone like you would be very helpful to the police.”

I laughed mockingly. “Yeah, sure. Eighty percent of the crimes in the world are committed by acquaintances. Families, especially. Catching criminals isn’t even hard, you know.”

He was silent for a while. “I was thinking about you.”