The Reason Why the Forsaken Fake Returned Chapter 114

The moment she brought up the past, the frozen air in the room loosened all at once. Slipping into that opening, Shailoh slowly lowered her gaze. “Back then, neither of us had any kind of agenda or stake in anything. We didn’t even know each other’s names when we first met, and we just poured our hearts out.”

 

A mysterious and handsome man whose identity she didn’t know. Without meaning to, Shailoh pictured Caleb from that time. At once, the forgotten ache in the left side of her chest throbbed to life. As his younger self flickered in her mind, the memories of her first love, buried deep in her heart, began to surface as well. Awkward and unripe, but precious simply because it was what it was. A time so pure it could never be recaptured after everything that had happened, a time that couldn’t even be compared to now.

 

Shailoh couldn’t tell if what she missed was the man from those days or those days themselves. Either way, without even realizing it, she had been longing for that time with everything in her.

 

“…Right. That’s how it was.” Caleb fell silent for a moment, as if recalling the same memory. Then he carefully tipped up her chin so their eyes would meet. “If you want, we can go back to those days, Sasha.”

 

“Back… to those days?”

 

“Yeah. As many times as you want, from the very beginning.”

 

His gentle answer made a bitter laugh rise in her throat, and Shailoh barely managed to swallow it down.

 

Go back? They had come far too far for that. There was nothing left between them now. All that remained was a first love burned down to ash and its wretched debris. But she couldn’t let any of that show. Instead of denying him, Shailoh simply looked up at him with trembling eyes.

 

“If I could really do that, I’d give up everything I have.”

 

“Sasha…” Caleb’s voice trailed off, his brows drawing together. He slowly pulled her up and settled her on his lap. Then he wrapped his arms tightly around her. “I missed you.”

 

“…”

 

“Keeping you locked up like this hasn’t sat well with me either. But you tried to get away from me.”

 

“…Yes.”

 

Shailoh nodded and slowly lifted her hands to circle his neck. Caleb flinched for a second, as if he hadn’t expected that, then tightened his hold around her waist.

 

“Honestly, I was shocked. It wasn’t enough that you used me, and now you’re saying you’ll just make me one of your wives. It sounded like you were planning to use me to the very end.”

 

“At first, that’s exactly what it was.” Caleb slid his hand up to her shoulder and looked straight at her. Shailoh quietly listened. “But it changed, little by little. You’ve become someone I can’t live without.”

 

Someone he couldn’t live without. Shailoh turned the phrase over in her mind. To her, it was nothing but an excuse. To him, she was just a jewel he was especially fond of, or a pet he adored to no end. Or both. Whatever she was, she was something he didn’t want to let out of his hands.

 

“I understand what you’re saying, Caleb.”

 

The moment she spoke his name for the first time in a long while, his hard expression began to twist. Shailoh rested her forehead on his shoulder.

 

“Even so, I need time to think. I never even considered something like this…”

 

“What were you planning to do originally?” There was a cold blade hidden behind his mild, even tone. He was a man who could change masks as easily as he pleased, just like her.

 

Feeling a chill prickle at the back of her neck, Shailoh confessed in a low voice, “I was going to quietly move to the countryside. I was too exhausted and… I’d been through too much. I just wanted to rest without thinking about anything.”

 

“…”

 

“Just imagining someone else sitting beside you here hurts so much, right here…” Shailoh took his hand and guided it to the left side of her chest, where her heart was.

 

Seeing the way her eyes looked on the verge of spilling tears, Caleb’s heart softened. He pressed a soothing kiss to the crown of her head. “Even if I take the first queen, my heart will still be with you. Whether you’re the first queen or the second queen, I’ll make sure there’s no difference at all in authority.”

 

“Yes… But I still need time.”

 

“How long?”

 

“I don’t know. But I’ll need at least two months.”

 

“…Alright.” As if he’d expected at least that much, Caleb nodded and met her gaze. “Four days from now, let’s go to the villa by the sea. Just the two of us, Sasha.”

 

“Just the two of us?” It was an important opportunity she hadn’t even dared hope for. Shailoh barely stopped herself from cheering and only blinked instead. “But… you’ve only just ascended the throne. You must have a mountain of work to do.”

 

Caleb kissed her forehead with a soft smack and answered gently, “I’ve already taken care of everything important and urgent. I can leave the rest to Benjamin and Eric.”

 

More than anything, there was nothing more important to him right now than her. All the time he’d spent with Shailoh imprisoned here while he threw himself into work like a madman, it had felt like someone was squeezing his heart in their fist. Every nerve he had was focused on this place. He thought of her when he tried to sleep, when he ate, when he worked. The image of her face, trembling with rage, kept flashing before his eyes. He couldn’t truly concentrate on anything, and even the smallest report about Shailoh put him on edge. He couldn’t do without her.

 

The moment he finally spoke that conclusion out loud, Caleb felt at ease. It was like a tight collar around his neck had finally come off.

 

“I…”

 

“Just nod. That’s all you have to do, Sasha.”

 

Shailoh, her throat too tight to speak, slowly nodded. “Okay…”

 

Overwhelmed, she wrapped her arms around his neck again and stayed silent for a while. He, too, said nothing, simply breathing in the sweet scent he hadn’t smelled in so long.

 

“Can I ask you for one favor?”

 

“What favor?”

 

“A maid to attend to me.”

 

“Doris is…”

 

“She can’t, right? I understand. I just… want someone I’ve at least exchanged a few words with. I’ve been so lonely all this time.” Deliberately pricking at his guilt, Shailoh let her voice trail off, as if she were too miserable to go on.

 

“…Who do you mean?”

 

“The maid at the villa. I think her name was…” She thought for a moment, then continued. “I’m pretty sure it was Anne.”

 

It wasn’t a difficult request. If she’d worked at the villa, her background would already be verified. Instead of answering, Caleb simply nodded.

 

* * *

Exactly four days later, Caleb took her to a secluded seaside villa protected by multiple layers of security and its own private beach. The royal family vacation estate, passed down through generations, was a three-story stone mansion overlooking a vast stretch of white sand and an emerald sea.”

 

“It looks like something out of a painting…” Shailoh looked around in wonder, her mouth hanging open.

 

“It was often used as a honeymoon spot for the royal family,” Caleb explained kindly as they walked side by side along the beach. “I heard my mother and father spent a lot of their newlywed days here.”

 

“I see.” Shailoh obediently nodded and quietly laid her hand over the back of Caleb’s hand, which was wrapped around her waist.

 

As if they’d never bared their teeth at each other and fought like that, the cold atmosphere between them had completely cleared. To anyone watching, they would have looked like nothing but a tender, devoted couple.

 

Shailoh found herself thinking of all the different paths things could have taken. If she had never found out that Caleb had been using her as a pawn? Maybe even now she would be thanking him for everything he’d given her, still serving him, revering him like a religion. Pouring all her love, respect, and trust into him. In a way, she was glad it hadn’t turned out like that. If she’d learned the whole truth on the day she closed her eyes for the last time… The thought alone was horrifying.

 

With no way of knowing what was flickering through Shailoh’s mind, Caleb suddenly stopped, shrugged off his coat, and laid it down on the sand.

 

“Your Majesty?”

 

“Just call me by my name. When it’s just the two of us.”

 

Startled, Shailoh lost her balance at the hand reaching for her. She ended up plopping down on his coat, more precisely, between his legs. Caleb wrapped her up tight from behind, as if bundling her, and murmured in her ear.

 

“The sun’s going to set soon. The sunset here is really beautiful. Every bit as beautiful as the Barony Kildare.”

 

Barony Kildare. At the name she’d never expected him to say so shamelessly, Shailoh had to fight the urge to whip around and snap at him.

 

“After I left that place, I couldn’t stop missing you.”

 

“…”

 

“Looking back, I think it started then. Was it the same for you?”

 

Instead of answering, Shailoh simply nodded. Those days had been far too vivid to dismiss as something that had passed like a dream. Along with the Barony Kildare’s blessed natural beauty, what had healed her body and mind were those very dawn meetings by the lakeshore. Ironically, he was also the one who had left her this ruined.