Chapter 16: Unbreakable Contracts and Unyielding Storms

“Adrian Blake!”

“It was decided like that from the very beginning.”

“What nonsense is that? Do not act unreasonable!”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, slammed her hand on the table and stood up abruptly.

Words wrapped in anger followed.

“She is a free citizen of the Federation.

If not herself, who gets to decide her whereabouts?

Furthermore, who has the right to possess or not possess another human being?”

At that naive yet upright rebuttal, Adrian Blake smiled with warm-less eyes.

“That woman, Deputy Director.”

“……”

“She decided so herself.

A very long time ago.”

So do not interfere.

Sandria, the Deputy Director, awakened from the brief recollection.

Recalling the confrontation with Adrian Blake caused sweat to pool in her palm.

In truth, Adrian had belonged to a remarkably quiet category of convict until now.

The Deputy Director had never imagined that he would become so silently enraged.

My goodness, an Adrian Blake who gets agitated every time Selena Han’s name is brought up.

Therefore, it was no wonder that Sandria, the Deputy Director, said these words first to Sena.

“What on earth happened?”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, leaned her upper body toward Sena and spoke seriously.

The problem was that Sena had no such thing as personal memories with Adrian Blake.

Sena took Sandria, the Deputy Director’s question differently.

If Adrian Blake was the face of the Special Bureau, Sandria Oslo was the pillar and main beam of the Special Bureau.

Furthermore, she was also one of the busiest people in the Special Bureau.

If she could not reach a conclusion here, she would be dragged around by Adrian for the rest of her life.

Sena decided to reveal the truth of the atrocities committed by her legal husband to Sandria, the Deputy Director.

“You may not believe it, Deputy Director, but this is a fraudulent marriage.”

A fraudulent marriage.

At the unexpected words, the Deputy Director’s green eyes widened.

From here on was what truly mattered.

Sena bit her lip.

A metallic taste rose from her chapped and torn lips.

“In truth… I was threatened.”

Sena spoke dolefully and blinked her eyelids.

A single transparent teardrop fell with a plop.

She did not forget to place the marriage contract she had brought from the safe house onto the table.

The four clauses written under the sun, the solemn symbol of the Federation, looked comical even.

Kidnapping, confinement, rape, and coercion—Sena reported Adrian’s criminal acts in minute detail.

Of course, she did not forget to conceal and downplay her own faults.

“I see.

For Adrian Blake to commit such…”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, listened to the facts summarized by Sena and let out a low sigh.

Indeed, the Deputy Director showed no sign of defending Adrian.

Sena was encouraged by that and drove in the wedge.

“If you do not grant me a divorce, I will expose the true nature of Adrian Blake.”

“His true nature.”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, repeated Sena’s words with a stiffly frozen face.

When the Deputy Director did not readily agree, Sena pulled out her final move.

“Deputy Director, you know who my father is, correct?”

Selena Han, reporter for Oscar Tribune, was known publicly as a complete orphan, but in truth, she was not.

Like everyone else, Sena had parents.

“I mean my legal guardian.”

It was a somewhat complicated story.

Sena was a child born out of wedlock, her mother had passed away early, and there was no way to enter her father’s family register other than through adoption.

However, other than that, she had spent warm times with her father like any other family.

When winter came during her childhood, he was a father who made candy together out of maple sap and went skiing, and when summer arrived, took her to the stadium.

Now her father was not by her side, but Sena could not bring herself to abandon her memories with her father.

“…Cyrus Hale, you mean.

I know well.”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, nodded her head slowly.

“Is he not a Senator of the Federation Congress?”

“That’s right.

Before I meet my father and tell him the truth as it is, I want to annul the marriage contract and get divorced.”

The Deputy Director did not acquiesce to those words.

The moment Sena mentioned divorce, businesslike and official language flowed out as if an automated answering machine had been turned on.

“I am truly sorry, but what you two wrote is a marriage contract notarized by the Federation government.

We have no way to assist.”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, even pulled out a magnifying glass from her breast pocket and examined the contract Sena brought out closely.

Then she shook her head.

“If there were penalty fees or complicated conditions structured, we might have guided contract cancellation or voiding… but as you can see, the contents are extremely clean.

There are only four clauses as well.”

“…Then if I tell lies and refuse marital relations, can the contract be voided?”

“It is difficult.”

At those words, Sena’s face was stained with despair.

It was a stark change like frost falling on an autumn wheat field.

Sandria, the Deputy Director, let out a dry cough, feeling awkward.

“Han, that is actually interpreted as a guideline for mutual faith and sincerity between husband and wife rather than a contract clause.

There are no penalty clauses for violation, are there?”

“……”

“So to speak, it is the same as swearing at a cathedral during marriage vows that we will not stray until our hair turns white.”

Despite the Deputy Director’s clear answer, Sena’s face, once crumpled, did not unwrinkle.

“Then I… am I forced to… continue married life with him like this…?”

“Regrettably, yes.”

“……”

“Think as positively as possible.

Lord Adrian’s heart will never change.”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, who declared so firmly, saw Sena glaring as if to tear her to death and changed her tone to begin persuading.

“Selena Han, people change.”

“Then will Adrian Blake come to dislike me? Like regretting a mistaken choice of his younger days?”

Despite Sena’s question mixed with hope, the Deputy Director continued what she had to say.

“No.”

Sena gasped at that short but clear answer.

“People change, but nature does not.

Have you ever seen the sun veil its light just because the weather is dry? He is like a natural disaster.”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, reached out her hand.

That hand, which hesitated for a moment, slowly settled down on Sena’s shoulder.

In a gruff tone that was as warm as her hand, she lied with sincere heart.

“None of this is your fault.”

Sena, who had been wary thinking this person was an investigator of the Special Bureau just like Adrian Blake, had no choice but to lower her guard at that moment.

Sandria, the Deputy Director, slowly patted her shoulder.

“Loving you was Adrian Blake’s choice alone.

It was not yours.”

Sena was flustered by the tears that burst out in an instant.

What had happened over the past two days was difficult for anyone to handle.

Suddenly receiving a confession from a famous sworn enemy, getting married, and having human relationships severed.

Who wouldn’t be like that?

Without even thinking of wiping her uncontrollably pouring tears, she was listening to the Deputy Director’s trustworthy whisper.

“Therefore, Selena.”

The Deputy Director confirmed a small but firm nod and continued speaking.

“Do not break yourself because of that, but use him for yourself.

Hasn’t humanity always utilized nature?”

“…You speak so easily.”

“It is the wisdom of a senior in life.

Have you forgotten who my ex-husband is?”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, smiled, pulling up only the corners of her lips.

Sena looked at her unsmiling eyes and recalled the gossip surrounding the Deputy Director.

They shared a bond of empathy in the sense that the Deputy Director also possessed no small twists and turns in her life.

The Deputy Director asked Sena, whose venom had softened a bit, in a slightly warm tone.

“Which part of Lord Adrian did you dislike? Just say it.

I will see to it that he rectifies it.”

Before she knew it, the conversation had been finalized as Sena and Adrian maintaining their married life.

The Deputy Director’s voice had grown warm like giving candy to a child, but Sena failed to notice it in time.

She opened her mouth as if spellbound.

“The relations…”

“Did you get exhausted because the s*x was too long? Was the number of ejaculations too frequent? Or do you dislike it because he seems like a pervert?”

Wrong.

This person was not a normal person either.

Sandria, the Deputy Director, even pulled out a small notepad from her breast pocket and was poised to write down Sena’s words.

Flabbergasted, Sena pointed out.

“No, why are you asking such biased questions?”

“Biased?”

“Because it seems you don’t consider that… Blake might be bad at it.”

At the words Sena threw hesitantly, Sandria, the Deputy Director, rubbed the dark circles under her eyes.

It was an incomparably exhausted complexion.

“Well, that’s.”

She stared into empty air and chose her words, then eventually seemed to give up and said only this.

“It’s Adrian Blake after all.”

“Is that not a proper answer?”

“Honestly, well, I felt like a day like this would come eventually.

Lord Adrian is… um, rather persistent.”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, trailed off her words in a dry voice.

That voice was so quiet that Sena could not even hear it properly.

Her hand was rapidly scribbling something in the notepad, but because it was such terrible handwriting, Sena did not even dare to peek.

“Then we cannot void the marriage contract, so let’s add special terms gradually.”

Sandria, the Deputy Director, reached a clear conclusion.

Listening to her words, Sena dreamed of a normal life.

Where was it a newlywed life to be confined indoors doing nothing but s*x? Of course, there might be such couples somewhere, but it was not Sena.

She swelled with hope.

If she could not escape this marriage, she wanted to live like a human being!

The problem was that this was not a matter agreed upon with Adrian Blake in advance.

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