CH 14

14 – Remarry, Viktor

“Huh.”

And before she got any closer, she put her briefcase on a seat, opened it, pulled out an envelope. 

“Here.”

Viktor blinked; Blight took it and checked the contents. His eyes widened, and he handed it to Viktor. Even after learning that what he had accepted were divorce papers, Viktor remained stoic.

“Sir Gregory allowed it,” Scarlett explained.

“You want to divorce?”

“After that, you just need to remarry a lady from a good family. Then the royal family will see you differently.”

Viktor looked at the paperwork with indifference and walked over to the table in the lobby. He wrote down the necessary information with a gilt-rimmed pen.

When he returned them to Blight, the assistant fidgeted and softly whispered as he took the envelope.

“Why don’t you think about it a little more?”

“Done,” Viktor said as he turned around and casually climbed the stairs.

“Then, I will go straight to the Crimsons.” Scarlett retorted as she took a few unconscious steps towards him.

At her words, Viktor stopped and turned to Scarlett.

“Are you going now?”

“Huh? Yes.”

“It’s raining, and it’s late. Stop talking nonsense and go tomorrow.”

“The tram is still going. I’ll walk there,” Scarlett chirped.

Then she looked up at him.

“I’m sorry I betrayed you, Viktor, but I truly loved you. More than my life. Seriously, why did this happen…” she turned around to stop herself from continuing.

“Goodbye, my darling,” she said before resuming the stairs.

Only after Scarlett left did Viktor figure out that she had not taken off her raincoat because she had no intention of staying in this house. He was supposed to pick her up tomorrow, so he shouldn’t have been drinking today, he thought belatedly.

Embarrassed, Blight followed Viktor.

“I, Vik…”

But Viktor pretended not to hear and went back to the place where he had been drinking. As he closed the door, the mansion fell into silence.

Scarlett ran out in the rain, but she couldn’t run for long in her fevered state. Andrei, who stood by the door with her luggage on his back, grabbed her suitcase. She squealed in surprise.

“Boss, can you walk a little faster?” he asked.

“I’m already the boss? The store hasn’t even opened yet.”

“You hired me, so you’re the boss.”

Scarlett was too embarrassed to pick up her umbrella, and she moved on.

On her way to the tram station, she asked, still bewildered.

“I can’t pay much, is it really, okay?”

“Yes. It was my dream. It starts with a small shop and grows into a huge business.”

“...huh, huge?”

“As I said, the boss has great abilities. Enough to fix one watch that no other watchmaker in the Crimson family can fix.”

“It took me a full week.”

“It doesn’t matter. You can tell just by looking at it. It is Lady Scarlett Crimson who inherited the skill of the watchmaker Crimson family.”

As they talked, they made their way through the rain, waited at the bus stop, and got on the tram.

As they left the Dumfelt mansion and headed for Seventh Avenue to open the watch shop, Andrei looked at the papers with his usual sullen look as Scarlett looked out the window at the dark street.

“It’s not that sad because we’ve already been separated for three months.”

“Yes.”

“I seem to be taking the divorce relatively calmly.”

“You seem to be full of regrets, saying such things.”

“No, I’m composed.”

“Your remaining composed, will be a great help in the future.” 

Andre was so stoic, and he was so funny that Scarlett couldn’t help but laugh. 

Even with her soul in this state, she thought she was lucky to still be able to laugh a little.

Seventh Avenue, where Scarlett had rented, was the downtown area closest to the Crimson Mansion. The fever she got at the monastery hadn’t entirely receded yet, so she concentrated on making watches in her studio on the second floor. In the meantime, it was mostly Andrei who set up the shop. It was indeed fortunate for Scarlett, who knew a little about watches but knew nothing about self-employment.

After summer, as she regained her full health, her watch shop opened, and shortly after that, Scarlett bought a bike. It was the first time she rode one since her parents passed away and her cousin, Marilyn, had hers taken away.