I Slept with the Villain Holding My Hand Chapter 118

💫

 

Ariene put Shannon to bed and immediately went out.  

 

There was no other choice if she wanted to retrieve the ring without drawing attention. But contrary to Ariene’s expectations, Shannon didn’t fall into a deep sleep.  

 

Accustomed to solitude, Shannon was acutely sensitive to the warmth of others.  

 

The moment she noticed Ariene’s absence, she woke in the dead of night.  

 

A strange unease clung to her throat like a lodged candy. The thought of Merria being alone gnawed at her.  

 

Yet she hesitated to act—fear of angering Ariene held her back.  

 

Shannon headed to the kitchen, hoping warm milk might lull her to sleep. But she never drank it.  

 

“Hello? Is anyone there? Please…!”  

 

A desperate cry tore through the night—Merria’s voice, sharp with panic.  

 

The frantic pounding on the door radiated fear.  

 

Shannon couldn’t ignore it. The image overlapped with her own struggles under Count Magnor’s cruelty.  

 

And the person trapped inside wasn’t a stranger.  

 

Shannon knew her face, had even spoken with her. She remembered Merria’s kindness from their last meeting.  

 

That gentle noblewoman was now begging for help.  

 

“And you do realize why I locked the door, don’t you?”  

 

Ariene’s cold expression flashed in her mind.  

 

Shannon covered her ears, trying to block the sound.  

 

‘But…’  

 

She couldn’t bring herself to walk away. The memory of Merria handing her a cake box flickered before her eyes.  

 

— “I wouldn’t feel right accepting such a cake. Please take it.”  

 

That day had been her late mother’s birthday. Shannon had sneaked out to pray at her mother’s grave—the only one who would remember.  

 

Merria, a complete stranger, had shown her kindness when no one else would. Because of her, Shannon could offer her mother something sweet and delicate for the first time.  

 

That memory shook her resolve.  

 

“Agh—!”  

 

A pained cry jolted Shannon into action.  

 

Before she knew it, she was standing before the wardrobe—the hidden passage to Merria’s room.  

 

‘Ignoring someone so kind isn’t right.’

  

Earlier, though they’d been in the same room, Shannon hadn’t noticed the shackles on Merria’s wrists.  

 

Ariene had returned too soon. 

 

Besides, Ariene had only forbidden entering the room—not speaking to Merria.  

 

Finding this loophole, Shannon took a steadying breath. Her priority was checking on Merria.  

 

The prolonged silence after the outburst was concerning.  

 

If Merria had fainted, there was no time to waste. Pressing her lips together, Shannon pushed against the wardrobe’s false back.  

 

Creak—  

 

The room beyond was pitch-dark, not a single candle lit. Her eyes darted urgently until they landed on Merria, slumped on the floor.  

 

The light from behind Shannon illuminated the noblewoman’s crumpled form.  

 

“Ah—”  

 

Merria stared up at her, wide-eyed. Her lips parted in shock.  

 

Relieved to find her conscious, Shannon met her gaze without blinking.  

 

For a long moment, they simply stared—one bathed in light, the other in shadow.

 

💫

 

Merria watched Shannon’s frantic movements with a peculiar gaze.  

 

The moment Shannon saw Merria’s bloodied hands through the wardrobe, her face drained of color. She grimaced as if physically sharing Merria’s pain.  

 

Shannon couldn’t risk being caught in the room again when Ariene returned.  

 

Yet she couldn’t abandon an injured Merria either. After a brief internal struggle, her soft heart won—she pulled Merria out through the wardrobe.  

 

Merria followed Shannon’s silently offered hand without question, desperate to escape the dark confines.  

 

But Shannon froze upon seeing the shackles digging into Merria’s wrists. She soon returned with warm water, clean cloths, and a first aid kit.  

 

Merria found the entire situation baffling.  

 

As she processed this unexpected care, Shannon asked with concern:  

 

“Are you okay?”  

 

Merria tilted her head at the vague question.  

 

‘What exactly is she asking about?’  

 

The fact that she’d been kidnapped? The crude iron restraints? Or the wounds on her hands that burned beyond mere stinging?  

 

Unable to immediately respond, Merria simply stared.  

 

After a long pause, she finally spoke slowly, “I don’t know what you’re referring to, but ‘okay’ wouldn’t be the right word.”  

 

Her tone carried bitter sarcasm.  

 

Seeing Shannon’s pupils tremble at her bleak response, Merria noticed how the girl’s gaze kept returning to her injured hands.  

 

“May I see your hands?” Shannon asked.  

 

Merria didn’t comply immediately. Instead, she studied Shannon’s own unblemished, unrestrained hands, then looked back at her own shackled wrists with a frown.  

 

The contrast made no sense—Shannon moved through this place like she owned it.  

 

‘What’s going on here?’

  

Completely lost, Merria finally withdrew her hands and asked:  

 

“Where exactly are we?”  

 

Shannon blinked, momentarily speechless.  

 

Merria’s wariness deepened.  

 

“I was in the Etowas Forest. Then I woke up in that room—in shackles.”  

 

“Let’s treat your wounds first—”  

 

Shannon’s weak smile faltered as Merria whispered sharply:  

 

“…Aren’t we both kidnapping victims here?”  

 

“What?”  

 

“I assumed you were in the same situation. How did you remove your restraints?”  

 

“Miss…”  

 

Ignoring the question, Shannon gently but firmly took Merria’s injured hand.  

 

Merria tried to pull back.  

 

“Who did this? And why?” Her face had gone pale.  

 

Shannon shook her head slightly. “Please, calm down.”  

 

Merria’s trembling eyes locked onto Shannon’s.  

 

Something felt terribly off. Unlike herself, Shannon showed no signs of being a kidnapping victim—no panic, no fear.  

 

‘She seemed… aware. Just accepting.’  

 

Taking a steadying breath, Merria finally nodded.  

 

“Let me clean the blood first.”  

 

Shannon carefully dabbed at the wounds with a warm cloth.  

 

In proper lighting, the injuries appeared deeper than Merria realized. The white cloth turned completely red before Shannon set it aside.  

 

Without a word, Shannon applied ointment to the torn flesh.  

 

Merria watched intently, waiting for explanations that didn’t come.  

 

The only sound was their synchronized breathing in the heavy silence.

 

💫

 

Just as Shannon had anticipated, Merria seemed deeply disoriented upon waking.  

 

To make matters worse, her hand was torn—perhaps from catching on the door’s ornamentation.  

 

Shannon believed calming and treating Merria took priority. That’s why the first words out of her mouth upon facing Merria were… 

 

“Are you okay?”  

 

It was a question born of concern for the noblewoman, who sat slumped with bloodied hands.  

 

But Merria frowned as if she had heard something entirely different.  

 

After a long silence, she finally answered curtly:  

 

“I wouldn’t say I’m okay.”  

 

Her tone was sharper than expected.  

 

Yet Shannon had one advantage—she was accustomed to such cold receptions. Lowering her trembling gaze, she guided Merria toward the light.  

 

Only then did Shannon fully notice the iron shackles clamped around Merria’s wrists.  

 

And the waves of blood staining the skin beneath.  

 

‘She must have her reasons.’  

 

Now that she had brought Merria out, she couldn’t just send her back without helping.  

 

Besides, Shannon remembered the kindness Merria had shown her before.  

 

‘Someone that gentle couldn’t be a bad person.’  

 

Shannon focused on the wounds rather than the restraints.  

 

For now, applying ointment was all she could do. Bandages would have helped stop the bleeding, but she hesitated—Ariene might notice.  

 

Though she refused to ignore Merria, Shannon paradoxically chose a path that wouldn’t provoke Ariene’s suspicion.  

 

Even with her head bowed, she could feel Merria’s gaze pressing into her. That persistent stare finally made Shannon break the silence.  

 

Hoping to ease Merria’s wariness, she brought up their prior meeting.  

 

So the moment the treatment ended, Shannon voiced what she had wanted to say all along:  

 

“Do you… remember me?”