To My Beloved Oppressor

Chapter 24

Heiner could not take his eyes off the last sentence for a long time.

He noticed a step late that a faint smile was drawn on his lips. Heiner touched his mouth with a trembling hand.

Unable to resist, he opened a few more envelopes. One by one, the fragments of memories he had tried to keep hidden came to light.

Everything was a lie, but it was the happiest time of his life. The moments when he wanted to forget everything and live in peace like that. He wished that the future would never come...

"I'm sorry." (A)

Her words came to his mind suddenly as if he had been hit on the back of his head.

"Just everything..." (A)

Annette was not a woman accustomed to apologies. She was a woman who, even after a fight, could not speak directly to him, but only delivered letters later.

"I'm sorry, Heiner." (A)

Even then, the first part usually began with a criticism, and the word sorry was sometimes preceded by the qualifier 'I'm sorry, too, to a certain extent.'

"Even for the things I don't know." (A)

She wasn't the kind of woman to apologize, at least not in that way.

Heiner's face tightened as he looked at the letter of mercy in the pile of letters on his desk. The uneven handwriting and spacing between the lines seemed to speak for her inner feelings.

The blood slowly drained from his face as he traced the disordered handwriting.

Sleeping pills she had saved up for months. The crooked embroidery on the handkerchief, the way she walked absentmindedly into the sea.

The answer was that there was no need to change her doctor.

The traces she had been showing were opposite to the woman he knew, the traces he was suspicious of came together one by one.

She was not that kind of woman.

Ah.

Since when did she stop being the woman he knew?

A terrifying feeling of foreboding ran down his spine.

Without time to reflect further rationally, Heiner jumped up from his seat. The chair was pushed back with a loud thud.

He strode out into the hallway without closing the door to his office. The sound of his shoes echoed heavily in the vast hallway.

He wasn't sure. It might have been a groundless fear. Maybe he was just being oversensitive. But his steps didn't stop and became faster.

Major Eugen, who was on his way home late, called him with a surprised look on his face.

"Your Excellency ......?"

The question of what was wrong was added, but Heiner walked past him without even looking at him.

All the way to Annette's room, his heart pounded horribly. He was the kind of man who never held frivolity without certainty, but it was hard to ease his anxiety.

Leaving the eastern government office and passing through the gardens, Heiner entered the main building. The servants greeted him hurriedly at the unusual presence of the Commander-in-Chief.

As he ascended the stairs, he could see the door to her room. Heiner caught one of the passing servants and asked.

"Where is the madam?"

"Yes? Oh, she is probably in her room. She's tired and going to bed."

He turned toward the room without further questioning. With each step closer, the horrible premonition became more vivid.