Chapter 5
Mia Blair found Dylan Richard hard to understand.
He was the kind of man who would throw a stone into a quiet lake and then act like nothing had happened.
Inside the gently swaying car, Dylan was reviewing documents at a steady pace.
Mia rested her head against the window, her eyes looking outside, but all of her attention was fixed on the man sitting next to her.
She found it oddly funny.
Without a sound, Mia let out a small, amused smile and slowly turned her gaze away from the window.
Dylan was still calmly flipping through the papers, his hands moving with smooth precision.
Then, as if he had noticed her staring, one of his eyebrows twitched slightly.
Thanks to the streetlights the workers had left on, his face was clearly visible.
Without thinking, Mia began to examine him closely.
It felt like she was seeing him for the first time in three years.
His eyebrows, his eyes, his nose, and his mouth finally came into focus.
Her eyes dropped, and she noticed the way his Adam’s apple moved slightly, the broad shape of his shoulders, and his long fingers gripping the documents firmly.
She let her gaze travel back up along the line of his body, and when she finally looked up again, his bright blue eyes were staring directly at her.
“Do you have something to say?”
His eyes, deep like the ocean, were fixed on her once again.
They stopped, facing each other, close enough that a slight movement could bring them into contact.
The faint sound of paper crumpling echoed between them.
“Dylan,” Mia finally spoke.
“Come to my room a little later.”
Dylan tilted his head slightly, as if he didn’t quite understand what she meant.
Mia calmly added a reason.
“We should finish the conversation we started earlier.”
It was the answer she had come to after quietly sorting through her thoughts while looking out the window.
There had been endless reasons why she couldn’t make a decision in his office.
His argument had been absurd, the heated atmosphere had thrown her off, and there had been a strange sense of being trapped that made her feel afraid.
But once she sorted through it all calmly, there was nothing absurd, nothing shocking, and nothing to fear.
“I’ve made my decision.”
She only needed to stop him from adding more reasons.
She just had to get used to the heat.
And even if it cost her something, she would find a way to avoid the trap.
“Dylan, like you said, if we drag this out, I’ll be the one who ends up at a loss.”
“I expected you to make the smart choice,” he replied with a faint trace of sarcasm at the corner of his lips.
His eyes, once calm, now looked as if they were trembling like waves crashing in a stormy sea.
Mia took in his face, now clearly visible, and held her gaze steady.
“I don’t know what the smart choice is. I only know how to act.”
Even his sarcasm no longer shook her.
She didn’t hesitate from surprise or freeze from confusion anymore.
It was as if the lake had returned to stillness.
By then, the car had entered the residence grounds, and the steadily turning wheels came to a gentle stop.
“Don’t be late. I’ll be waiting,” Mia said, then stepped out of the car without accepting Dylan’s escort and disappeared from view.
Back in her room, Mia quietly went about her usual routine.
She undressed, washed up, and changed into fresh clothes without much delay.
Thinking about how many documents Dylan had been reviewing earlier, Mia was sure it would take him some time to arrive.
Sitting on the couch, she calmly went through the contract.
She also made notes on the sections she needed to negotiate with Dylan.
By the time she finished writing down everything she had in mind, the clock had already made a full circle.
Glancing at the time, Mia assumed Dylan was running a little late.
She leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes.
Then she let herself sink into the slow current of thoughts.
And all of those thoughts were filled with Dylan.
“I don’t want to think about him.”
She meant it.
But it was always like this when it came to him.
He slipped out of her control, and her thoughts kept going in a direction she didn’t want.
“I don’t even want to understand him.”
She did not want to respond to such a forced remark or show even a hint of understanding. Still, without meaning to, she kept trying to understand what he was thinking.
“Do you have no intention of honoring the contract?”
Even to her, the question sounded ridiculous. A quiet, bitter laugh escaped her lips.
When it came to Dylan, she had always carried a quiet belief. Just as she had lost her parents because of the Murad royal family, he had lost all of his loved ones because of them too. He had lost countless comrades in battle, and one of his choices had led to the death of his cousin.
That cousin had drowned at sea, and his body was never recovered. When it was finally brought back to shore, Dylan had made a vow to Mia. He promised to find her parents’ remains, no matter what it took, and to give her what she had longed for.
Because she remembered that side of Dylan, this current proposal was completely unexpected. It fell outside anything she could have imagined.
“If he had just asked me to stay for another year because he needed me, I would have said yes without hesitation.”
That was why this offer made no sense to her. It left her feeling unsettled, even slightly offended.
“Did he not trust me?”
She kept trying to read his thoughts, but there was nothing. She hit a wall every time, returning with no answers. The cycle repeated itself again and again.
Then, someone knocked on the door. A quiet, steady sound. At the same time, Mia slowly opened her eyes.
“Come in.”
As soon as she spoke, the door opened. Dylan stood at the boundary between the hallway and her room.
He looked more relaxed than usual. His hair, which had been neatly styled for the banquet, was now slightly messy. His overall appearance felt less put together, but his steps remained calm and purposeful.
Before long, he stood in front of Mia, who was still seated. His eyes began to move slowly over her, taking her in without rushing.
Just as she had done earlier in the car, Dylan now examined every part of her with a quiet, steady gaze. The only difference was where his eyes landed in the end. They stopped at the contract she had been reading and the paper she had placed beside it.
His gaze felt heavy, almost like it was holding her in place. Mia turned her head to the side with some effort.
“There are a few things we need to go over.”
Without saying anything, Dylan picked up the sheet from the desk. It was the one Mia had written on herself.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, as if struggling to read her handwriting, and began scanning the page with a quiet, serious look.
“The Second Party shall fulfill the duties of a spouse as requested by the First Party. The Second Party must faithfully carry out the First Party’s demands. In return for one year of effort, the Second Party will earn the right to receive the remains of her parents, as previously promised, along with passage back to her homeland.”
The rest of the contract read as follows.
A new contract would be drawn up without being bound by the terms of the previous one, but its legal effect would remain the same. Neither party was to bring up anything outside the written clauses in order to avoid fulfilling their responsibilities. If a similar situation arose again, the First Party would hand over all authority to the guarantor and lose all rights.
It was around that point in the reading when Dylan’s lips twisted slightly.
“The Second Party, the Second Party, the Second Party.”
His low, cold voice echoed in the room.
“Are these really the kinds of demands and actions that suit a Second Party?”
Perhaps not. A typical Second Party would not have dared to make such a statement.
But Mia saw no reason to accept that judgment from the very person who had created this absurd situation.
“Dylan, if I weren’t the Second Party, I wouldn’t have even listened to your pathetic words.”
A small, dry laugh escaped from Mia’s lips.
She was sure Dylan himself knew just how strange this situation really was.
“Isn’t this what you wanted all along?”
Mia reached out and pulled the paper from Dylan’s hand.
Surprisingly, he let go of it without resistance.
Without glancing back at him, Mia picked up her fountain pen again.
Seeing that he said nothing in return, she assumed he had accepted it.
She began adding to the contract slowly.
“I have the right to ask for this much.”
The soft scratching of the pen filled the silence as her hand moved steadily across the page.
Dylan watched her without saying a word.
Unlike the last time they wrote a contract together, her handwriting was uneven and a bit messy.
But Mia did not seem to care. She continued writing without hesitation.
After writing everything she wanted, she looked at him and asked,
“If you have anything else you want to add, say it now. Don’t bring it up later as some excuse.”
There was no answer.
Instead, a fresh scent filled the air and tickled her nose.
She suddenly realized he was standing right next to her.
The moment Mia became aware that Dylan’s face was just inches away, her body stiffened.
He seemed to have washed, just like she had. His damp hair gave off a cool, clean scent.
“Do as you wish,” Dylan said quietly.
At the same time, his hand reached out and gently touched the nape of her neck.
“I’ll be watching to see how faithfully you carry out our contract from now on.”
His cool, fresh presence was in contrast to the warmth that spread where his skin touched hers.
Mia’s eyes, which had shown no particular reaction until now, widened suddenly.
It was a response to the unfamiliar sensation.
There were always surprises in life, but Mia had always tried to remain calm and unaffected.
However, everything changed when Dylan was involved.
It had been that way four years ago, when they married under contract.
It was the same three years ago, before she sent him off to war.
And even now, after all this time, it still hadn’t changed.
It felt like a scar that remained on her body.
Her grip around the fountain pen tightened.
