To Embrace the Devil - Chapter 1
He’s coming. She has to get out of here now.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Yelena whispered softly, cradling the fussy baby in her arms. She pressed a kiss to the round crown of the baby’s head and drew in a breath.
The baby’s soft, fragrant hair was the same striking red as its father’s. Every time she looked at the baby, she was reminded of him.
His piercing, cold gaze was etched into her mind. So was that sharp voice she’d heard while planning her escape.
“You really think you can leave me?”
Forget it. Every day, Yelena tried to silence the voice in her head.
“You’re going to marry Aless? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard lately.”
Even if it meant a fake marriage, it was the only way she could break free from him. The only escape from this hell.
“Say it properly. Who was it that saved your life?”
He had appeared like a hero in her childhood, and she’d fallen for him. He was her first love, the man who had saved her. She lived loyally as his maid.
Eight years passed that way, and she believed it would always continue.
Until the memories of her lost childhood came rushing back.
‘I have to go to the sea.’
It was the only place she could rely on now.
Yelena wrapped herself in a large cloak and held the baby tightly. The normally quiet baby was fussier than usual today.
Shouldering the bundle she had packed in advance for this very moment, she stepped out into the night. The sky was dark under the sliver of a waning moon.
“Huu… uwaaah!”
The baby kept crying, and the shortcut to the beach was rough and uneven. But Yelena didn’t stop. She kept going.
His pursuit had come faster than she expected.
‘Where did the plan go wrong?’
Her heart pounded wildly at the thought of being caught. If he found her now and saw the baby who looked just like him.
Diago Martinas.
The moment she let herself fully say his name in her mind, a chill swept over her. Yelena bit her lip hard, trying to overcome the instinctive fear.
A man with a face that looked as though the sun god himself had sculpted it. He had once been her master. A beautiful and noble figure that was worshiped by all.
But he knew nothing of human emotion.
He would kill this child. Especially a man like him, who loathed his own bloodline. He absolutely would.
“The Martinas bloodline ends with me.”
They said the blood of the devil ran in the Martinas family.
It was a tale nearly forgotten now. But back when the family lacked prestige, such rumors were common. A monster born between a serpent-shaped devil and a human. It was what they claimed was the Martinas ancestor.
They said that boys born into the Martinas family were especially cruel like the devil itself.
The family’s prosperity might have come from the blood of the devil. But as with all things, there was a price.
An unbreakable curse had plagued the family for generations.
The Martinas family once dismissed those rumors as baseless slander meant to defame their name. But Diago had said it was true.
He hated his own bloodline and had no intention of letting it continue. That was why contraception had always been strictly enforced by both of them.
To this day, she couldn’t understand how she had become pregnant.
Yelena had never lain with anyone but Diago. There was no doubt that this baby carried Martinas blood.
And that meant terrified cries or desperate pleas wouldn’t sway Diago. Even if the baby was only six months old, Diago would show no mercy.
He would slaughter the child without a moment’s hesitation.
Because the child was his child.
Was Diago Martinas truly a devil?
Yelena had asked herself that question many times while fleeing from him.
There were moments when he’d seemed kind. At one point. But at his core, he was cruel and cold.
“Call off the engagement. Unless you want to watch your future husband torn to pieces.”
To him, a woman who loved him was nothing more than a possession.
“Why is my property disobeying me?”
But most of all, it was the curse that had him in its grip…
“Uh!”
Maybe it was the storm of thoughts clouding her head, but as she hurried down the dark path, Yelena twisted her ankle.
She didn’t fall, thankfully, but her face contorted in pain as it throbbed sharply.
Still, she kept walking.
Shhhaa. The sound of waves grew nearer.
Clutching the crying baby even closer, Yelena moved. Her breath was almost at her chin and her lungs were aching.
“Hh… waaah…!”
Yelena pressed her lips to the baby’s forehead and took a deep breath.
The pain in her ankle was constant and distracting her mind.
“Everything will be okay.”
Yelena whispered it to the child and to herself.
The warm scent of milk and the soft hair. There was nothing in the world more precious to her than this baby now.
Even the mere thought of losing the baby made her feel as if her body might shatter.
That was why she had to escape Diago no matter what.
“If my child is ever born, I’ll kill that hideous monster immediately.”
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