As the foul-smelling soup went down his throat, David writhed in agony, even gagging.
But Ariella didn’t stop and continued to force the food into his mouth.
“Eat it even if you don’t like it. It’s still better than a live rat, isn’t it?”
At least this was cooked. She added in a chilling voice.
“Gugh! Ugh!”
David finally vomited what he had eaten. The dirty vomit stained Ariella’s skin and clothes, but her face remained as calm as if it were painted.
As if she had expected this much, Ariella continued to serve the meal as if nothing had happened.
She fed him what he had vomited back, and she fed him even when he vomited.
Only after emptying the small bowl did she put down the spoon.
By that time, David was half-exhausted and passed out. His face was covered in vomit and smelled, and his eyes, which had been sparkling with greed, had lost their vitality and were staring blankly into the air.
“Now, David. You ate so nicely, so I’ll give you a gift now.”
Ariella wiped her skin clean with a wet handkerchief and placed the tray on the floor. Then, she picked up the gift placed on the small chair and began to unwrap it.
“I hope you like this.”
No matter what she said, David showed no reaction.
His gaze was still fixed on the air, and the beast-like cries were no longer heard. He seemed to be very tired from the meal just now.
Well, if that’s the case.
Ariella opened the box, took out the object, and stood up, shaking it in the air so that David could clearly recognize what it was.
A thick, long rope dangled above the bed.
David’s pupils dilated instantly upon seeing this.
At the same time, the afterimage of the past flickered before his eyes. The afterimage of when he killed a large dog with golden fur and hung it directly from the ceiling of Ariella’s bedroom.
“Ugh, ugh!”
She’s going to kill me. She’s going to strangle me to death like that dog!
The only reason she brought the rope, even after chasing away the servants, was that. David, regaining his strength from that fear, screamed again.
Ariella chuckled softly as she watched him scream.
Dream big. She muttered and continued.
“Don’t worry, David. Your sister isn’t kind enough to kill you herself.”
As she had told Milo, Ariella did not want David to die. She wanted him to crave death in pain worse than death.
In that sense, the current situation was what she had longed for. So it was clear that she, not David, was the lucky one.
Thud. Ariella placed the thick rope on the bedside table.
“I’ll leave it here. Keep looking at it and think about it.”
David, who wasn’t very smart, didn’t seem to understand what she was saying yet.
But he would soon find out.
“Keep thinking about whether it’s better to keep living like this, or to be strangled to death. Keep thinking until bedsores cover your whole body and suffocating loneliness devours even your mind.”
That the life of a beast, always ridiculed by him, tied to a short rope and waiting only for the moment of death, was exactly like this.
The life left to him would be incomparably more boring and painful than before, and he would eventually desperately want that rope to end his life.
The rumor that Bedford’s heir had become a living corpse quickly spread beyond the Duke’s mansion.
The Duke thoroughly silenced the servants, but it seemed that Nobert wasn’t the only one who had planted people within the Bedford estate. Before even a few days had passed, letters poured in from all directions.
Among them, the ones who contacted him the fastest and most aggressively were none other than Bedford’s collateral relatives.
It was only natural. If David’s position became vacant, and with Lizzy about to marry the Crown Prince and Ariella recognized as a fake, the most likely candidates to succeed him would be the collateral relatives.
They conveyed their hypocritical intention to visit the mansion as soon as possible to comfort the unfortunate David, which the Duke of Bedford considered extremely presumptuous and infuriated him.
“Am I about to die within the next few years? How dare they, not knowing their place…!”
The reason why nobles usually didn’t leave the heir’s position vacant even for a short time was to prevent any sudden problems from befalling the head of the family.
However, the Duke of Bedford, Caleb Bedford, was once one of the most outstanding generals in the country, and even now, he boasted physical strength and stamina that rivaled those of most young people.
It didn’t seem like a war would break out suddenly in the current situation, and unless he had a particular illness, there was little chance that he would die an untimely death within the next few years.
Therefore, there was no reason to hand over the heir’s position to some collateral relatives whose names he couldn’t even remember. At least, that’s what he believed.
‘I can just create a new heir.’
An heir untainted by dirty blood. The Duke gnashed his teeth and muttered.
‘No, to be precise…’
Clatter.
He slowly took out an object he had kept deep in a drawer. A delicately carved blue jewel sparkled in his hand.
It was a woman’s necklace. The design, with a blue emerald in the center and surrounded by elaborate silver decorations, was a style that had been popular decades ago. The quality of the jewel wasn’t particularly good for something owned by a Duke, but he caressed the necklace as if it were the most precious treasure in the world.
‘An heir who has received pure blood.’
He stared at the necklace for a long time without saying a word.
He felt as if someone’s face was reflected on the jewel, which had cracks here and there, but it quickly disappeared upon closer inspection.
Pure blood. He needed an heir who inherited his and Meredith’s blood.
No matter how long it took, the person who would inherit Bedford must meet that condition.
And now that David had lost his fertility, there was only one way to achieve that goal.
That was for the real Bedford Duchess to have a child.
‘Lizzy or Arrie, which one is the real one?’
The concern he had abandoned long ago filled the Duke’s mind again.
The reason he had recognized and treated Lizzy as the real one until now wasn’t because he really believed she was. It was simply because he calculated that it would be more beneficial. But looking back now, it was a wrong decision.
The Duke still wasn’t sure whether Lizzy or Ariella was the real one.
In terms of appearance alone, Ariella resembled his wife more. Her long eyes, slender face, sculpted nose, and elegant atmosphere were all identical to his wife, Meredith Alkestis.
Perhaps because of that, the Duke often unconsciously regarded her as his real daughter. The child who had led Meredith to her death on that fateful day. The hand wielding the whip seemed to have more strength for that reason.
But the important thing was that she had no memories.
Ariella still hadn’t recalled any memories.
If she had remembered even one thing, she would have said it long ago, but she continued to remain silent about the events before she was five years old.
On the other hand, Lizzy had recalled quite a few memories. Past information that even the butlers currently working at the Bedford Duke’s mansion didn’t know flowed smoothly from her mouth.
In that case, the answer to the question of who was real seemed clear.
‘It must be Lizzy.’
Surprisingly, the Duke of Bedford didn’t even suspect that Ariella might be deliberately hiding her memories and pretending to be a fake.
This wasn’t because he was stupid, but because he didn’t empathize with her misfortune at all. He believed that there was no reason for Ariella to pretend to be a fake, even after whipping her like that.
If Lizzy was the real one, things became a little more complicated. It was because her fiancé, Aaron, had also become infertile.
But it wasn’t a big problem.
‘Children aren’t born from the father’s womb, so it’s fine.’
