CHAPTER 16

They stared at one another, after a few seconds the Viscount sighs and looks away as he took the towel from the maid and handed it over to Arabella.

Once the two of them were finally alone in the hallway, the Viscount took the chance to observe Arabella who's currently wiping her hair dripping with champagne that his wife poured earlier. The Viscount massaged his temple and glance at the woman in front of him.

It's been years since he last saw her, she was sixteen years old back then full of intelligence and cheerfulness and with those dark blue eyes, that's full of dreams and hope. But right now, all he can see was a bottomless pit, and the way she cautiously walks together with him earlier, he can feel how distrustful she had become...what happened?

"You've changed" he unconsciously blurted out his thoughts, and it's too late to take it back now.

Arabella froze while wiping her dress because of what the Viscount just said.

'Did he realized I wasn't the real Arabella?'

While thinking about the possibility that the Viscount knew what happened to her, she heard him sigh as he stared at her with his serious face.

"It's been a while, thinking you adopted a son and then a few years adopted a daughter. You...you aren't planning on marrying anyone are you?" the random question he asked caught her off guard.

"What I do with my life is none of your business" earlier she wanted to look pitiful in front of this man, to gain his sympathy and get the Viscountess drowned in jealousy and lose her composure to open an opportunity for Ruel and his men to get the antidote from her.

But right now, she doesn't want to continue that plan anymore, since the audience was already out of their sight, fuming in anger somewhere.

'Ruel, please hurry!'

"Yes, whatever about you, it's always been none of my business." Arabella was confused with his empty expression right now. But she felt even more confused because she felt bothered by that.

The Viscount looks down as if sewing the words he wanted to tell for a long time now.

"..."

Arabella can't find her voice to reply back, but before she can even think of opening her mouth, the Viscount's eyes met hers, as he slowly looks up and stared at her. Arabella felt her heart throbbed.

'what's this? Was the former Arabella in love with this man?'

The Viscount's voice brought her back from being lost in thought.

"When you got your engagement annulled by the man you've chosen over me, I was happy, thinking you'll suffer after leaving me with such agony. But, I was wrong."

This time, Arabella noticed his appearance, with her mind filled with fear of losing Blaine and Scarlet earlier, she wasn't able to notice him, she just saw him like another annoying noble who's invited to this birthday banquet.

His honey-colored brown hair glistens under the moonlit night, his brown eyes filled with bottomless sorrow, and the familiar air around him makes her heart throbbed.

The soft expression on his face, his beautiful appearance knocked a memory on her head...she recalled the Viscount smiling while holding her hand....and she was smiling as well.

Arabella took a step back when she felt like the man was like a magnet pulling her towards him.

'The novel I wrote, I am its creator, but I feel like I am just one of those readers, who doesn't know what lies ahead'

'His eyes...why does my heart aches when I see those eyes?'

"I've loved you, but I'm not stupid to not let go of what's torturing me. Then I got married and never even tried to check on you."

Arabella frowned at him, listening to his words made her feel like he's about to drop a bomb.

When he took something out of his coat, her eyes widen, confirming what she just thought earlier.

The moment its contents sparkled under the moonlit night, Arabella glared at the Viscount.

"You!"

The stoic face that the Viscount always wear was now stained with an exhausted and drained expression.

"I know what you're thinking, let me explain first." although Arabella doesn't want to hear his excuses, she calmed herself, there's a chance that he won't hand it over or worse threw it away.

Right now the thing that the Viscount has in his hand, was the antidote she has been looking for.

"I've been trying to get along with my wife after our son was born, I wanted my son to be raised in a loving family. I thought everything would be okay after that, but Lilly...she still thinks that I'm still in love with you."

For the first time after living in her past life and now, Arabella felt sympathetic over a man, she never thought a man can have such emotions, a man who wanted to take the first step to fix a marriage which the foundation of it was filled with jealousy and distrust.

All the men she met and knew weren't like this, they come and go and do whatever they want as long as their life isn't burdened.

Hearing him mentioning his worries about his son, made her think about her real parents, in her past life, and in this life. Is she cursed for her to live twice without even experiencing her parents' love?

"I always monitored wherever Lilly goes and who is she meeting with, but when I was out of town someone befriended my wife and sold her the...Azula flower. Lilly doesn't know that I knew what she had done. I'll give you this antidote, but please, forget about this incident and I'll compensate you"

The viscount's pleading eyes didn't faze her, she wanted the Viscountess to pay for her sins.

"Are you in the position to negotiate with me? Will you be able to just forget it after someone tried to kill your children? What will you do if I do that to your son?" the Viscount's face hardens when she mentions his son.

"After this, we will leave this place and move far away. Just give Lilly a chance and don't report her."

Arabela clenched her fist as she tries to hold herself back to punch this man in front of her, but seeing his eyes who's determined to hold on to their family, she felt aggrieved but unexpectedly relieved and....jealous.

'Why do I feel jealous?'

She shook her head with such ridiculous thought.

"You don't have to move far away though, I'll be the one to do that." her words got the Viscount surprised.

"W-where are you-"

Arabella quickly snatched the antidote away from him, she inspected the tiny bottle with blue liquid inside.

Although she isn't an expert in poisons, she knew instantly that it's really an antidote and not another poison, because when she was trying to come up with an idea to differentiate a poison and antidote she saw the moon while walking home from the university in her past life. That time she quickly got home and sat down in front of her desk and wrote another chapter about the Heroine getting poisoned.

The antidote will shine like a blue crystal under the sun and under the moonlit night.

"Consider this conversation done, go get your wife and tell her to never show her face again to me, or else I'll break this deal with you together with her neck."

With that Arabella turns her back on him and walks fast to immediately give Blaine and Scarlet the antidote.

Arabella's body trembled as she walks past the invited guests at the banquet, just thinking about the pain that her children are suffering right now makes her want to kill every single person who harmed them.

'kill? was I thinking of killing them?'

The thoughts about killing that crossed her mind, got her taken aback. Although she's now inside the novel, she still can't kill an insect let alone a human, just like how she was in her past life.

It's a natural thing to think about killing the culprits who harmed Blaine and Scarlet, but why does she feel like she can do it? As if she's confident that she'll execute it beautifully.

'what's happening to me?'

With her bothered mind, she just shook her head and walk towards where Ruel told her to meet up, there'll be a horse that she can ride to go back to the mansion quickly if ever one of them got ahold of the antidote first.

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The guest just stared at Arabella's departing figure.

Seeing her in a hurry to go away, they didn't have the chance to engage in a conversation with her. Although she had been dumped by her former fiance and their business got bankrupt, where the only thing that's left to her now is her noble title, many people still wanted to befriend the Baroness.

But, since the majority of nobles don't like her, they can't take an action to invite her into their houses, because right now the Baroness is considered an outcast, and to involve themselves with her will tarnish their reputation or worse get outcasted as well.

After a long time of not seeing her after the news spread that she got dumped by her fiance because an unknown man impregnated her, they saw her bloomed into a fine woman.

The beautiful girl they saw in the past is incomparable to the woman she had become.

The dress she wore at the banquet was an old dress, but it didn't change the fact that whatever she wears, trendy or not, she'll definitely be the most beautiful wherever she goes.

Arabella is the only woman they've been curious about for a long time now, she's a mystery to them, like her parents who came into their town as lower-ranked nobles and secluded themselves in their mansion.

They only see them whenever they have to deal with their businesses and need to meet other nobles and attend banquets.

Arabella who's the only woman who caught the empress's attention when she was just barely fifteen years old. A woman who lacks noble etiquette but can answer scholar's questions confidently in the academy, whether it's about politics, economy, society, and even psychology.

But she lost the empress's favor.

The empress who was there to inspect their town personally. Favored her because of her intelligence and beauty.

But after she had an argument with an officer about how he deals with commoners like an animal. The empress saw this as a weakness and decided to remove her from her list of candidates for the crown princess.

Arabella didn't mind losing her favor, but after this incident, their businesses got bankrupt.

The dreams she wanted to achieve and the hope she's been holding onto vanished into thin air when series of unfortunate events fell upon their family.

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When Arabella's departing figure disappeared, Viscount Mille felt that he can finally breathe easily.

Just holding her hand earlier made him feel so suffocated, her indifferent gaze made him feel the thick invisible wall between them.

It's been a long time since he saw her, and she's still surrounded by that air of mystery around her.

Viscount Mille shook his head and was about to look for his wife when his aide come rushing towards him.

"The-the madam! She-she's going after the Baroness!"

"What?!"

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A/N: I'm sorry for the late updates because online class sucks. After this sem, I'll update more. Love you guys (my lovely readers) hehe. .....also pardon my grammatical errors... T_T