~Chapter 30~
Samantha stared at Ethan for a moment before signaling Merrick.
Her face was itching to speak, but she was signaling him to stop stalling and just do it.
“Brother.”
Ethan called out to his brother as though asking for rescue, but Merrick had never hesitated in a situation like this.
Before long, Merrick, who had been standing close to Samantha, whispered into her ear.
It was an open betrayal for everyone to hear.
“What are you doing, speaking like that in such a harsh tone, standing in front of the lady on a cold night? ‘There will be no love in our political marriage. You should focus on getting along with the others in the family.’ And then, right after, the lady collapsed like a feather.”
He went into detail about how his younger brother had treated the lovely McCurry lady in a disgusting manner.
Of course, Riden had said very little, but he didn’t mention that part.
“When did I ever…!”
“……”
Samantha was furious for the first time in a while.
The flames in her red eyes, as she looked at her child, seemed like they would never die down.
She glanced at Riden, still groaning in pain, and spoke quietly.
“Keep only the personal doctor with you, and come outside quietly.”
“Bride’s Entrance!”
The light above Riden’s head grew brighter.
Applause erupted from the guests.
‘What is this?’
Riden stared, stunned, at the end of the wedding aisle.
The groom, Seongmin, dressed in a tuxedo, was sending her a warm gaze.
‘On my wedding day?’
She hastily checked her hair color, but her updo ruined any hope of that.
Riden approached a guest who was taking pictures and grabbed their phone.
Black hair, black eyes.
The face reflected in the camera was Jeong Dain’s.
‘What’s going on? Did I die and possess Riden, then possess Dain from my past life?’
Whatever the case, she couldn’t walk down this wedding aisle again.
Marriage would be the end.
Without hesitation, Riden threw off her wedding shoes and lifted her dress.
She immediately turned around and ran out of the wedding hall.
But as she got closer, the doors of the ceremony hall seemed to move further away.
Riden looked behind her while running.
The wedding aisle she was running down was being pulled away by Mrs. Kim Si-eom, who looked like a crazed black sorceress.
‘Aaaagh!’
“Dain, where are you going? I promised I’d love and cherish you like my daughter, but you don’t believe me? You’ve never been loved by your parents, so you don’t trust people easily. Don’t worry! I’ll teach you love!”
“Aaaagh, please go away, Kim Si-eom!!!”
Riden tore off the bottom of her wedding dress and ran with all her might to escape, but somehow she was getting pulled further back.
Now Seongmin shouted.
“Dain, your husband is here! Where do you think you’re going?”
“Why are you my husband? You damn ex-husband!!”
“Ex-husband? What do you mean, Dain? I’ve never divorced you.”
‘Aaaah!’
“Please go away! I don’t need a husband like you!!! Hah… Hah…”
Riden panted heavily and woke up.
“Oh dear, are you feeling better?”
Breathing heavily, she looked around.
A familiar wallpaper, familiar decorations.
It was the room at the villa that had been assigned to Riden.
‘Hah, hah… I didn’t go back to my past life.’
Riden placed both hands over her knees and bowed her head as if in prayer.
A deep sense of relief washed over her body.
‘Ugh, even in this dream, the horrors continue.’
Riden wiped her racing heart and looked at the elderly man handing her water.
“I’m Norman, the personal doctor of the Kenwolf family. You’ve been sweating excessively.”
Riden drank the water first.
The elderly Norman, who had been watching her closely, asked quietly.
“I heard you collapsed after talking with Lord Ethan. Do you remember?”
She remembered not feeling well after talking to him.
‘I collapsed, huh.’
“My heart started racing, and it became hard to stand. Then I think I lost consciousness.”
Norman pulled up a chair next to Riden and sat down.
“Could you tell me in detail what symptoms you experienced? Any feelings during your conversation with Lord Ethan? If you’ve had any similar experiences recently, please feel free to share.”
The personal doctor’s expression was warm, and his eyes were full of understanding and empathy.
But Riden hesitated, wondering if it was okay to speak. Seeing her uncertainty, he reassured her.
“I swear by my conscience as a doctor that your private matters will remain confidential.”
She had been feeling strange lately, so she knew it wouldn’t hurt to speak about her symptoms.
Riden carefully began to speak.
Norman watched her with a warm smile as his new patient slowly began to open up.
The one who entered the study was the Duke’s family personal doctor, Norman.
“The young lady has awakened.”
Samantha, who had been in conversation, stood up immediately.
“The child?”
Norman nodded lightly, as if to say not to worry too much, but then shook his head with a puzzled expression.
Samantha, slightly irritated, spoke calmly.
“Tell me.”
Norman, who had approached with slow steps, bowed his head and opened his mouth.
“She was born with a weak constitution, and it seems that the sudden stress caused her to collapse. Fortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any serious physical issues.”
Samantha sighed deeply in relief.
Ethan also quietly listened.
At that, Samantha gave him a subtle glare and spoke.
“To bring the child here and make her sick, the Count and his wife have made a huge mistake. I’ll have to see the state of my child myself.”
“My lady, before that, there’s something I must tell you.”
Samantha, sensing it had something to do with Riden, sat down without asking.
“Go ahead.”
Norman, with a slightly surprised expression, began to speak.
“When I examined her, the young lady was merely weak, but there didn’t seem to be any physical illness. However, it seems she is suffering from a mental illness.”
The three people listening all went quiet.
“A mental illness?”
“It’s trauma.”
‘How could someone suffer from such trauma?’
Even someone like Norman, who had cared for patients for many years, found it difficult to make this diagnosis. This trauma was extremely powerful.
As Norman tried to figure out how to explain it, his face showed his own struggle.
“My lady, for example, what would you do if a vicious criminal, whom you thought had disappeared, came back to life and tried to come after you again?”
“I would kill him.”
“Yes, that’s right. But what if he came back tomorrow?”
“I’d kill him.”
“And what if he came back the day after?”
“I’d keep killing him until he died.”
“Yes, but—”
“Norman, are you joking with me? Don’t tell me you’re trying to say that I want to die in a roundabout way?”
Norman was horrified and waved his hands frantically.
“What kind of brutal words are those? But let’s change the example to the young lady. How would she react if a vicious criminal who came to kill her came back again and again?”
“That child…”
Having cried in terror, pale and trembling…
The only outcome she could picture in her mind was one where she had to die. Samantha couldn’t bring herself to speak further.
“Yes, that’s it. The young lady is suffering from a trauma, thinking that the vicious criminal who she thought was dead keeps coming back to life to hunt her down, my lady.”
“How could… how could a person suffer from such a cruel illness?”
Norman thought the same.
He had seen a few extreme cases of trauma, but the one Riden was experiencing was almost unbelievable in its intensity.
Ethan, who had been silent until now, quietly spoke up.
“Is there a way to cure it?”
“The most effective way to treat trauma is to recreate the situation so that the person develops a deep belief that they are safe even when the same situation happens again.”
As Norman continued, he sighed.
“In the young lady’s case, we couldn’t pinpoint the exact nature of the trauma. If I were to guess, perhaps it’s the sudden loss of her parents and being left alone in the world… But I can’t be sure of the exact cause.”
Thud.
The sound of Merrick irritably taking off his glasses echoed through the study.
