Chapter 22: Marriage Blues (2)

At that moment, warmth was conveyed from her shoulders.

A black coat belonging to the investigator uniform was draped over Sena’s shoulders.

She tried to throw off the outer garment, but after noticing her fingertips trembling finely, she quietly buried her body into the chair.

“Sena.”

His gray eyes scanned the woman held in his embrace.

She’s picking at her lips again.

Adrian swallowed a sigh and admonished Cyrus Hale in a subtle tone.

“Stop it, Father-in-law.”

The moment Cyrus Hale heard that sound, he threw a fit.

He raised his eyes sharp as an axe and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Who is your father-in-law? Don’t you have no parents?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Honestly, I don’t like you. No, I loathe you.”

“…”

“A war hero or whatever is just a flashy shell. In truth, aren’t you just a dog leashed to the Special Bureau?”

It was a sharp sarcastic jab.

It was also a fact known only to those in the know.

When Adrian couldn’t answer easily, Cyrus Hale sought agreement from the Deputy Director.

“Am I wrong? Deputy Director?”

“…Yes, but this isn’t a place to discuss that right now.”

“If we don’t discuss it now, when will we discuss it? When nails are driven into my coffin? Ha!”

Unable to overcome his own temper, Cyrus Hale spat out a sigh.

“I cannot acknowledge this marriage.”

While reading the room of Deputy Director Sandria, who was sitting with them, Sena discovered one strange thing.

The Deputy Director was breaking into a cold sweat.

And the Deputy Director’s gaze was pinned right next to Sena.

Sena slowly turned her head to the side.

The smile had vanished from Adrian Blake’s face.

She hadn’t known because he was always smiling whether in official settings or in photos taken by paparazzi, but Adrian had quite a cool and sharp impression.

His face, frozen coldly like a cold-blooded animal, looked as if it had never smiled even once.

He criticized in a neat tone.

“Don’t throw a tantrum.”

“…”

“Selena Han has no relationship with you anyway, doesn’t she?”

“What nonsense is that!”

Cyrus Hale broke into a cold sweat and looked around in all directions to check if other people had heard those words.

However, Adrian did not give him time.

“Am I wrong?”

“Wait, just a moment.”

“If I were right, you would have recognized her as an extramarital child long ago. Instead of adopting her.”

Adrian pulled down the corners of his mouth.

Sena was looking back and forth between the two with surprised eyes.

It wouldn’t be heard by the press photographers waiting far away, but Sena and Deputy Director Sandria, sitting shoulder to shoulder, could hear the conversation between the two.

Sufficiently.

Adrian reached out one hand and tightly grasped Sena’s hand.

Her coldly chilled hand was trembling finely.

She seemed so out of her mind that she didn’t even seem to realize Adrian had taken her hand.

It wasn’t something to be said like this.

He swallowed a sigh and spoke to the man who might have become his father-in-law.

“Shall we go to court? Or shall we go to Tracé Magic University? If you want, I can test if the two of you are blood relatives.”

Cyrus Hale wiped the heavy sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief and spoke reluctantly.

“…Fine.”

“A wise choice, Senator.”

Only then did a gentle smile spread across Adrian’s face.

Seeing his shoulders droop limply unlike a moment ago, Adrian whispered with a smiling face.

“You should smile brightly.”

Since Sena is looking this way.

Hearing that whisper, Cyrus Hale shuddered.

In any case, it seemed distant for Selena Han to break free from Adrian Blake’s grasp.

Meanwhile, Sena quickly regained her composure.

She was the first to brush off Adrian’s hand and compose her mind.

It was surprising that she and Cyrus Hale were not blood relatives, but still, a father was a father.

Cyrus Hale had taken care of her until she came of age.

Just because she wasn’t related to him by blood didn’t mean she could ignore his efforts.

Above all, having a senator as her father was beneficial to her standing.

Whether Cyrus knew she was making such a calculating thought or not, he let out a vague remark.

“I knew a day like this would come eventually.”

I didn’t know, Father.

If you knew, you should have at least given me a hint.

Sena sneered inwardly and smiled affectionately.

Then, the flash went off once more.

Whatever the motives of the four people gathered in the reception room were, to the press photographers, it looked like a sweet moment between a father and a daughter.

Cyrus let out a sigh and took out his personal business card from his inner pocket.

An aide waiting in the distance hurriedly ran over and handed it to Sena, who was sitting across from him.

“If there’s any problem, contact me.”

“I will.”

“I thought it would be better for you if I cut off contact. But it seems it’s already too late to hide you.”

Cyrus Hale paused for a moment before saying the next words.

This was a somewhat embarrassing story even for a senator known in parliament for having a thick skin.

“If you ever want to return to your family, feel free to contact me anytime.”

Sena wasn’t newly touched by those words.

If Cyrus Hale had truly wanted to help his daughter, he would have come to her long ago when she was struggling.

There were many moments when Sena thought of her father.

When she couldn’t afford her tuition, when she got on the Special Bureau’s bad side, and when all news outlets turned their backs on her, leaving her to eventually knock on the doors of the Oscar Tribune.

However, Cyrus Hale only showed his face now that things had reached this point.

Furthermore, Sena had even considered leaking information that would cause him to lose the election just to get his help.

It wasn’t a particularly normal father-daughter relationship.

The days of crying through the night while looking for a guardian were long gone.

So Sena put everything behind her and simply replied with a smile.

“I’ll contact you soon, Father.”

The gathering, which couldn’t really be called a family meeting, came to an end.

Having a wedding was something Sena had refused first, and now all that remained was to return to the mansion away from people’s eyes.

However, Sena hesitated, not wanting to return to Adrian’s mansion.

Going back there felt like it would bring back memories of doing nothing but having s*x like animals.

Adrian keenly noticed Sena’s hesitation.

He leaned his upper body down and matched his gaze with Sena’s.

“Sena, what would you like to do?”

“About what?”

“Shall we go to your place, or shall we go to my place? Of course, I am curious about your home.”

Sena quickly denied at those words.

“No!”

Goodness.

Imagining squeezing Adrian Blake into her cramped boarding house in the capital of the Federation, Sena unwittingly shuddered.

Neighbors from upper and lower floors who were mere acquaintances would swarm out to watch.

Such a scene was unbearable to witness.

Setting aside the fact that her room was untidy and a personal space she didn’t want to bring Adrian Blake into…

“My home is absolutely, positively out of the question.”

Sena emphasized once more.

Adrian brushed back Sena’s hair with a smile, as if it wasn’t particularly surprising.

“I thought so, Sena. Then we’ll have to go to our home.”

Just as she was about to argue about how his home became their home, Sena felt warm air touching her cheeks and opened her eyes wide.

“Sena, this is my mansion.”

Sena carefully examined her surroundings like a stray cat entering a house for the first time in its life.

The Blake mansion was quite a beautiful home.

The mansion, built with warm-looking beech wood as its framework and walls painted white, was filled with air-purifying plants and various furnishings.

However, just like the villa she had snuck into for reporting or his office, it didn’t feel like a place where a person lived.

Did Adrian Blake like cleaning and organizing, or did he simply not use this house much?

While Sena looked around the interior of the mansion with such thoughts, she stopped in her tracks in front of the dining room.

The mugs, the chairs, and the flowers decorating the dining table—everything was a matching pair.

“So this is why rumors spread that you were dating.”

Sena muttered absentmindedly while touching the flower petals.

Popular investigators of the Special Bureau had sasaeng fans or paparazzi following them.

They stalked investigators even more obsessively than Sena did.

So they must have known long ago that Adrian purchased all items in pairs.

It was to the point of being strange that the rumor hadn’t reached her ears.

Adrian scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed at her words.

“Just to be clear, I don’t have anyone besides Sena.”

“Regrettably, I happen to know that as well.”

Even if Adrian Blake’s past was fabricated with lies, Sena was the reporter who followed behind him most actively.

She knew enough to know he had no lover.

Recalling last night’s events, it showed even more how inexperienced he was.

Why was that?

With someone of Adrian Blake’s caliber, men and women wanting to date him would line up around Blue County seven times over.

While Sena roamed through the Blake mansion thinking such trivial thoughts, Adrian suddenly blocked her path.

Then he called her in a plaintive voice.

“Sena.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t go into the study.”

There was no stronger encouragement than a prohibition.

Feeling genuinely intrigued, Sena stood on tiptoes and checked over his shoulder.

The door to the study was tightly shut, stimulating her terrible imagination.

Wondering if he had hidden a corpse in there, she peeked around, but Adrian softly yet firmly grabbed her shoulders and turned her around.

“Is that a warning?”

“No, it’s a request. But if you do go in, there’s nothing I can do.”

It was a surrender as fast as the warning itself.

Sena glared at Adrian with eyes full of disbelief.

“Are you some kind of Bluebeard?”

“I’m not Bluebeard, but something similar.”

“Saying you’re similar is an insult to Bluebeard.”

Sena habitually sneered at him.

Bluebeard was a murderer who killed his wives, but Adrian Blake was a slaughterer who killed unspecified multitudes.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

At the Master’s Will

Dominant TopObsessive TopPolite Top

Read Now →
Not interested