The Reason Why the Forsaken Fake Returned Chapter 113

Ever since the day Shailoh turned down Caleb’s proposal, she’d been locked up, and her entire world had shrunk to the four walls of her room. To prevent even the slightest chance of escape, the maids who brought her meals and cleaned up after her were switched out every single day. They only gave the bare minimum answers to whatever she said, and never actually talked to her.

 

“Good morning. The weather’s nice today.”

 

“…”

 

“How is it outside? Is it as warm as it looks from here?”

 

“…Yes, Milady. It’s fairly warm.”

 

Only after she’d tried again and again did one of the maids finally answer, dusting the curtains with a feather duster as she spoke. The maid had told Shailoh to wait for a while in the side room that had been turned into a study while she cleaned, but Shailoh stubbornly stayed put and kept trying to draw the maid into conversation.

 

“What’s it like out there? I’m curious how His Highness’s coronation went.”

 

“…”

 

“Were there a lot of people? All his closest aides must have been there, right?”

 

“…”

 

“Was Lady Ferus there too, by any chance?”

 

The maid, who had been pretending not to hear and focusing desperately on her work, finally set the duster down. “No matter what you say to me, Milady, I can’t answer you.” As if she expected Shailoh to start hurling abuse at that firm reply, the maid dropped her gaze.

 

Watching her, Shailoh let out a deflated little laugh. “Thank you for at least answering me like that. I was starting to think I’d turned into a ghost. Everyone just brings food, cleans, and leaves. No one will actually talk to me.”

 

“…”

 

“What’s your name?”

 

At the gentle question, the maid’s eyes wavered. Sensing she’d pricked the maid’s sympathy, Shailoh pressed the advantage.

 

“I feel like I’m going to lose my mind. You can at least tell me that much.”

 

“…Kayla.”

 

“Kayla… That’s a pretty name.” The words held no flattery, no groveling. Just simple sincerity.

 

The maid opened her mouth, about to say something back, when a cold voice from outside the door cut in.

 

“Time’s up. Out.”

 

“Yes.” Startled back to herself, the maid bobbed a quick bow to Shailoh and fled the room.

 

Left alone again, Shailoh was hit by a wave of emptiness and hurled the couch cushion in her hands. “I thought I’d finally gotten someone to talk to me.”

 

It had somehow already been fifteen days since she’d been shut in. The coronation, the greatest event in the kingdom, was already over, and the world was at a turning point, changing by the day. Her plan to go north had been completely shut down under the tight surveillance, and with every repeated attempt to escape, the number of people assigned to watch her only increased.

 

“I can’t go on like this…” Shailoh screamed into another cushion, then started chewing on her fingernails. “And just… sitting here blindly waiting for words makes me anxious too.”

 

It was sheer luck that before she’d asked Caleb to meet that day, she’d managed to send a secret message to her half-brother, Duke Declen Yesiol, asking him to take her away. By now, her letter should be in his hands. The safest course was to wait for Declen to reach out and pull her out of this, but her nerves refused to settle.

 

She felt like a bird in a cage. With no room to spread her wings, trapped in a cramped space, she could only yearn for the wide open sky until she went mad. On top of that, the bastard who’d put her in this state hadn’t so much as shown his face. No matter how many times she told the maids or the guards that she wished to have an audience with him, the only answer she ever got was that he was extremely busy at the moment, so she would have to wait.

 

Watching people parrot the same line at her like trained birds filled her with disgust and loathing. If at least Doris had been allowed to stay by her side, it might have been a little better, but even she was gone. Her depression and humiliation doubled, eating away at her more with each passing day.

 

After pacing the spacious room like a madwoman for who knew how long, Shailoh suddenly stopped. A thought had struck her out of nowhere. She walked over to the vanity and studied her reflection.

 

Fifteen days is long if you call it long, short if you call it short. The strain of it all had left her gaunt, her complexion haggard. The only reason she hadn’t wasted away to skin and bones was that every time she tried to refuse food and throw a fit, Caleb threatened her with the lives of Doris, Jenine, and Jenin’s little sister.

 

“…That fucking man.”

 

Remembering the guard’s voice as he relayed the message that if she kept up this tantrum, Caleb would send her pieces of the people around her, making her skin crawl and her stomach churn. She’d always known he was the sort of man who didn’t care what means he used to reach his ends, but she’d never imagined it would be this bad.

 

Drawing a deep breath, Shailoh grabbed a chair and smashed it into the vanity. With a deafening crash, the glass shattered.

 

The guards burst into the room, flinging the door open. “What’s going on, Milady?”

 

“Don’t come any closer!” Snatching up a shard of glass, Shailoh pressed it to her own neck and glared at them.

 

The guards, faces gone pale with shock, faltered and formed a loose ring around her.

 

“Everyone back off! If any of you take even one step closer, I’ll—”

 

“Please, calm down!”

 

When she, shaking with fury, pressed the shard harder against her throat, a red line appeared, and a thin trickle of blood slid down. Horrified, the guards shook their heads and took a step back.

 

“If there’s something you want, say it. Whatever it is, we’ll prepare it for you. Dresses, jewels, food—”

 

“Do you really think I’m doing this because I want that kind of crap right now?” Letting out a disbelieving laugh, Shailoh narrowed her eyes, her gaze turning razor sharp. “I want to see His Majesty.”

 

“That’s…”

 

“Later, you mean? No. Send word to His Majesty right now. Tell him that if he doesn’t come now, he’ll be greeted by a cold corpse instead.”

 

The guards swallowed hard and exchanged looks. The gleam of madness in her eyes, slick and feverish, was all too clearly real. No one who saw it could doubt she meant every word.

 

* * *

Only after threatening to hurt herself did she finally manage to get a private audience with the face that had become so hard to see. Hearing the soft sound of the door opening, Shailoh straightened her back and sat up rigidly. Footsteps approached, accompanied by a low sigh, and stopped right in front of her.

 

“Sasha.”

 

Unlike her, who was going a little more insane with each passing day, Caleb, now openly the king of a kingdom, sat down opposite her at his leisure.

 

“I heard you tried to harm yourself. Said you wanted to see me.”

 

Shailoh quietly studied the face of the man she had once loved so desperately. Platinum-blond hair, turquoise eyes. His face was still dazzlingly handsome, but now, instead of making her heart flutter, that beauty only made the fury raging in her chest feel like it would burst her heart.

 

When she saw the expression on his face, as if he were dealing with a disobedient child, anger surged hot and sharp inside her. She forced it down and parted her lips. “I didn’t think you’d agree to see me any other way.”

 

“And if I’d refused you to the end?”

 

“Then I suppose that would’ve been as far as my life went.” It was a lie. She didn’t have the slightest intention of dying. She could finally start searching for her true roots only by escaping Caleb.

 

An awkward silence passed. Caleb, who had been staring at her without a word, suddenly spoke. “It wasn’t a good idea. If you had died, I would’ve had your corpse stuffed and kept it beside me.”

 

She couldn’t tell if it was a threat or the plain truth. A sudden chill crawled over her skin, and Shailoh bit the inside of her cheek.

 

Surprised by her unusually quiet reaction, Caleb changed the subject. “Anyway, does this mean you’re finally in the mood to talk?”

 

“Talk about what?”

 

“Who’s the man you’ve set your heart on?”

 

“…What?” At the absurd question, Shailoh only blinked.

 

“What exactly is going on between you and Declen?”

 

Her heart plummeted. Shailoh fought with everything she had not to let her agitation show and shook her head. “There’s nothing between us. Just like last time, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

“You have no idea?”

 

“No. There was a time I asked him for a personal favor, to look for my birth father. There was a chance he might have ties in the North.”

 

“…”

 

The lie she’d prepared just in case slipped out of her mouth more naturally than she’d expected.

 

Caleb, who had been quietly watching Shailoh as if he could peer straight into her mind, soon nodded. “Wyson said the same. Said he was there too, at the place you two had your tryst.”

 

“…”

 

A shiver ran through Shailoh at his thoroughness. At some point, he had already tracked down her connection to Declen and Wyson and interrogated them. Then he’d pretended to know nothing and tried to bait her.

 

“I really am innocent. There’s no one I’ve given my heart to.”

 

“…I see. That’s what you’re saying.”

 

Instead of showing relief, Caleb’s expression only grew darker. Shailoh instinctively realized he was entertaining an even more dangerous thought. She swallowed dryly and, all at once, dropped to her knees on the carpet.

 

“The whole time I’ve been locked up here, I’ve done nothing but think. From that dawn at the lake where we first met, all the way up to now.”

 

Caleb, who had been reaching out a hand to help her up, froze at her words.