CH 53

“Gareth!” Lydia burst into tears as she shouted at the man who ignored her. However, Gareth only continued to walk towards Elena as if he couldn’t hear her.

“What are you doing?” Gareth asked Elena.

Elena became taken aback at his indifferent attitude towards Lydia. ‘She’s still the royal princess and the woman bearing his child… How could he—”

Her thoughts were cut short by Gareth’s voice. “Elena, I asked what you were doing here.” Gareth could see that the skin on Elena’s neck had turned red from the coarse dress she was wearing. He also noticed a wet broom leaning against the table and how the hem of her dress was wet with muddy water. It was clear that Elena was cleaning the hall.

Gareth grabbed Elena’s hand with a tight grip, causing her to let out a scream from the uncontrollable pain. The hand that he had ended up grabbing happened to be the one Lydia had stepped on earlier. Gareth quickly turned around in response and examined Elena’s hand to find a footprint on it. He then snapped his head towards Lydia, who was still on the floor, and approached her.

“Oh, Gareth. Please listen to me. I’ve never been so insulted in my whole life!” Lydia whined.

Ignoring her complaints, Gareth asked, “Did you step on her hand?”

“What?” Lydia felt as if her tears were going to stop from the sudden accusation.

Gareth calmly crouched down to meet Lydia’s eyes and raised her chin with one hand. “Just try doing that again next time.”

Lydia couldn’t hold back her anger and retorted, “Then what?! What are you going to do if I do it again?!”

Gareth suddenly grabbed Lydia’s neck, causing her to scream. He gradually tightened his grip until there was a snapping sound and the woman grew quiet.

Elena, who was watching the sight in horror, rushed over and grabbed Gareth’s hand. “Don’t do this. She’s carrying your child.” She couldn’t hide her shock, seeing how Gareth had grabbed the neck of the woman bearing his child.

“Don’t touch her,” Gareth reminded Lydia for the last time.

Elena was taken aback once again, not from the horrifying sight, but from Gareth’s words. ‘Don’t tell me that this is for me… Do you really think that what you’re doing is for me…?’

Despite Elena’s dissuasion, Gareth continued to tighten his grip around Lydia’s neck. After another snapping sound, Lydia’s face began to turn purple. She eventually nodded her head desperately.

“You only have four months, Lydia.” Gareth warned as he relaxed his grip but not enough for Lydia to escape. He then continued in a bitter voice, “If the child born in four months is a red-haired girl resembling Adelia, I’ll spare you. But if you give birth to a boy or if your words turn out to be lies, I’ll tear you and the baby apart for deceiving me.”

Elena felt suffocated listening to Gareth’s frightening threats. She couldn’t understand how someone could be so cruel.

Lydia thought fast as she struggled to catch her breath. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy to carry out her plan, since she was only four months pregnant. Even so, she had a back-up plan and wasn’t going to give up so easily. “Okay, I understand. I’ll forgive your rudeness in advance,” Lydia said as she dropped her head pitifully.

Gareth smirked at Lydia’s response and released her neck. He then stood up and immediately headed to the second floor, dragging Elena by her uninjured hand.

* * *

The door of the bedroom closed loudly as Gareth violently pushed Elena. “Why were you taking her side? Are you out of your mind?!” he shouted.

“I didn’t take her side, I took the baby’s side!” Elena yelled back.

“I told you it wasn’t my child. Why don’t you believe me?”

“Have you ever said anything reliable to me? I’ll tell you again—I was simply worried about the child.”

“Ha! Pretending to be decent and nice towards other people, but acting like a witch towards me…”

“Sir Gareth!”

At that moment, Gareth seemed even angrier than before at Elena for stopping him downstairs. He violently stomped on the floor and disheveled his short hair. He then suddenly brushed past Elena towards the door as an ominous feeling began to creep into her heart.

“Where are you going?” she asked, feeling that she had to stop him from leaving.

“I’ll send Lydia away from here. She’ll either go back to the capital or wherever else she can go. It’s none of my business. You’re the person I brought back to this estate, not Lydia.”

Elena was shocked, she didn’t know how to stop Gareth. He looked sincere; it seemed that he was going to kick Lydia out right away if she let him. ‘And if she rebelled against his order… he might choke her again and something terrible might happen.’ Since she was the royal princess, it wouldn’t be good for Gareth if something were to happen to her here.

“Stop it, Sir Gareth.”

“Why? Isn’t she the reason you’re acting like a maid? Isn’t she why you’re refusing to obey me and rebelling instead?”

Elena held on tightly to Gareth’s arm to prevent him from walking out the door. “You just told her that you’d give her four months. There must be a reason why you said that. Please keep your promises… even if you haven’t done so for me.”

Gareth narrowed his eyes and looked down at Elena. “In the end, it’s that again.”

Elena felt her heart freeze over at his cold gaze. “Keep our problems between us. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of our issues.”

“Alright, I won’t stop you if you really want to live like that,” Gareth said as he pushed on Elena’s chest, knocking her towards the bed.

Elena staggered backwards and eventually fell onto the bed. “W-what are you doing?!” she yelled.

“You said you’d accept my desires. Did you forget?” Looking at Elena with a bizarre fervor in his pitch black eyes, Gareth approached her as if to burn her alive. Bracing herself for what was about to happen, Elena tightly shut her eyes.