Try Begging - Chapter 170.1

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It was the sound of waves.

Leon approached the window and drew back the curtains. Beyond the building across the street, the dark blue sea was visible. Farther in the distance, beyond the murky fog, faint lights on a hillside emerged from the haze.

It was the area of the Abbington Beach villas.

As a flood of emotions surged and tangled within him, he was left with a question he didn’t know how to answer.

Grace, what were you thinking while raising our child in a house with a view of where we first met?

She might have had no thoughts at all.

Perhaps she had chosen this place simply based on rational judgment, selecting it from the vast kingdom with no particular reason other than that. The rational, logical, and reasonable reasons drowned out his pathetic hopes with their loud voices.

How long had he been sitting at the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the empty crib? He heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him.

“Excuse me, Your Excellency.”

It was Pierce.

He had a puzzled look, not understanding why Leon was sitting in the bedroom of an empty apartment. Leon’s personal attendant was unaware of the urgent change in schedule that brought him to this place.

“I’m sorry, but you need to leave now.”

The title had come with the tedious seat in the House of Nobles. To avoid being late for the important vote in the council tomorrow, he had to catch the last train to the capital. Sitting idly in an empty house, just like he did with politics, was a waste of time.

As he left the bedroom and headed outside, he passed Campbell standing in the living room and gave an order.

“Also, look into purchasing this place.”

And so, the remnants of that woman continued to accumulate day by day.

º º º

As dawn approached, the townhouses in the noble district of the capital were deserted except for the occasional sound of a patrol whistle.

It was just as Grace had predicted.

The daytime chill had turned into what felt like winter temperatures by early morning.

As she watched her breath dissipate into the air, she looked up absentmindedly. Bare trees with outstretched branches against the heavily clouded sky seemed to plead for salvation from God, resembling humans crying out in despair.

This was no time for sentimental reflections. Grace pushed the stroller with increased effort and swiftly passed beneath the flickering streetlights.

‘D*mn… I’m almost there.’

At the end of the street, a patrol officer rounded the corner. Although he would have no reason to suspect a young mother of theft, it was inconvenient if he decided to kindly escort her to her destination. Grace turned down a side path between the fences of some townhouses.

The sound of the stroller wheels echoed unusually loudly in the quiet alley. Grace cast glances around the empty alley and pulled the scarf up over her face, which was already half-hidden by sunglasses.

‘This is it.’

She stopped in front of the third building.

The wrought iron fence surrounding the backyard was adorned with the County’s coat of arms, engraved in bronze.

No lights were on in the windows, as everyone was still asleep. As she carefully opened the gate and pushed the stroller inside, Grace parked the stroller in front of the employees’ entrance and opened her handbag.

The object she retrieved gleamed brilliantly even in the dim dawn light, but her eyes remained clouded as she looked at it.

“What the hell…”

The question she had when she first saw the ring hadn’t diminished; it still plagued her at this moment.

‘What was he thinking, giving me something like this?’

It was only now she realized. Inside the ring were two names engraved side by side. One was Leon, and the other was Grace.

Not Daisy, but Grace.

‘You wouldn’t have done this…’

While she absently fiddled with the engraving, the distant church bells marking 5 a.m. jolted her back to reality.

‘What am I doing? There’s no time for this.’

The train south would depart from Central Station in about forty minutes. Grace took an envelope from her bag, placed the ring inside, and sealed it. She then climbed the stairs and slipped the envelope into the mailbox next to the entrance.

The heavy thud of the envelope falling into the mailbox made her heart skip a beat for a moment.

She quickly went down the stairs and retrieved the square brown duffel bag from the bottom of the stroller, setting it down on the frost-covered stone pavement.

She then looked inside. The baby was soundly asleep, covered with a pure white, fluffy blanket.