Try Begging - Chapter 163.1

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“Enough with these unamusing games, darling.”

It had to be a joke… Just another of her cute deceptions and schemes, designed to make him miserable by pretending to be dead.

“Get up now, or I swear I’ll cut you.”

He picked up a scalpel from a small table at his feet. Holding the gleaming blade threateningly over her pale face, Grace didn’t even blink, true to her bold nature.

Like a dead person.

“…I really will do it. Don’t regret this later.”

Leon tilted the blade towards her pallid skin, his voice was as shaky as the blade itself.

Clang.

The scalpel clattered to the floor, emitting an irritating metallic sound, followed by a choked sob.

“D*mn it…”

He had intended to shake her out of this irritating prank until her head spun. But as soon as he grasped Grace’s cheeks, he recoiled as if burnt by fire.

Could there be such a cold fire in this world?

He knew too well that there were people this cold.

Dead people.

Only then did Leon collapse into the undeniable reality.

He embraced Grace’s corpse in despair. Her heart had always been cold to him, but her body had been warm. It was agonizingly painful that she no longer pushed him away, and the dampness soaking her cheeks was undeniably his fault.

“Why are you here?”

He had desperately hoped to find her every moment, but never like this.

“If you had come to me, this wouldn’t have happened.”

As he instinctively blamed her, he broke down again.

I am the one who doomed you to this miserable death. I missed the chance to apologize and make amends for my many wrongs, and it’s my fault our story ended in tragedy.

“I’m sorry.”

A sincere apology that could never reach her was utterly useless. He shamelessly hoped that forgiveness would one day come with these words:

Don’t do this again.

But now, there was no next for either of them. This was the end.

“Grace.”

Leon stroked her cold cheek, calling her name repeatedly, filled with affection alone, stripped of all hatred. For the first time. Only after she had taken her last breath.

“Grace…”

Even in the final moments, the regrets only grew.

Tears that had fallen onto the dry turquoise eyes were now drying. Leon left a final kiss on her colorless lips and offered a twisted smile.

“Grace, you said you wanted to kill me. Do you know that? I feel the same way.”

He lifted her left hand and placed a kiss on the vacant ring finger.

“If I’m to die, I want it to be in your hands.”

He bent the stiff fingers to place them on the trigger. As the muzzle of the gun was aimed just below his chin, he slid the trigger into the ring finger of the woman he loved and firmly wrapped his cold hand around it without hesitation.

Bang.

As his body jolted, Leon’s eyes flew open.

“We’ve arrived.”

When he removed his hand from his forehead, he saw the taxi driver’s face looking back at him.

“Ha…”

Leon roughly wiped his face. It seemed he had fallen asleep during the brief moment from the train station to here. Even in that short span, he had been plagued by ominous dreams.

He was losing his mind.

His heart was still racing fiercely. He tried to steady his breath and regain composure but had little success. Ultimately, he gave up and, along with Campbell, stepped out of the taxi, instructing the driver.

“Wait here for a moment.”

It wouldn’t take long. Probably.

Leon, donning sunglasses to avoid being recognized, finally set foot inside the building. The basement of the hospital was cold even in June. The sound of footsteps echoing down the corridor felt eerie. Leon’s steps soon stopped in front of a door marked ‘Morgue.’

Campbell, having checked his superior’s expression, cautiously knocked on the door.

“Yes, come in.”

A voice called from inside.

When the door opened, a middle-aged man sitting at a desk in one corner of the morgue stood up. The desk was covered with cards arranged in several rows, suggesting he had been playing solitaire.

“Did you come after receiving the call?”

The morgue staff pointed to a corkboard on one wall.

Among various notices and regulations, there was a missing person flyer that had been hanging for months, fading with time. It might very well disappear today. The staff couldn’t easily decide whether that would be a joyful or sorrowful event.

“Yes, that’s right.”