Music Recommendation: Naked Body- Kim Min Ji
Lady Hilda looked like a ghost as she stared with horror in her eyes. She felt her husband turn to look at her, his eyebrows furrowed, and he questioned,
"Is what Noah saying... is it true?"
The woman was at a loss of words, because she hadn't expected the secret to come out. All these years, she had been control. The servants had been paid heavily to close their lips, and those who couldn't were discarded and put to grave. She shook her head like a broken toy,
"Jeffry, I..."
Jeffry turned stunned, before he placed his hand on his forehead. Never had he been fooled the way this woman before him did. For nearly a good minute, everyone stood there in silence, and he then turned to look at Hilda,
"Why?" There was so much disappointment in his voice that brought shame to Lady Hilda that hadn't occurred to her all these years. "I loved you, Hilda. I treated you with love and respect. With patience and have stayed beside you... how could you break my trust? HOW?!"
Lady Hilda closed her eyes at the sudden rise of Jeffry's voice, and tears slipped from her eyes. She said,
"You don't understand. You both don't understand. James and I... it happened when you were out to the North trip for two months. I tried to resist, but I was turning lonely!"
But Jeffry shook his head and turned to look away from her as he didn't want to see her face. He said, "You have lied to me, Hilda. And from what I can sense, it wasn't the first or the last time, was it? Did you enjoy fooling me and going behind my back? To no one but my brother?"
"Please don't say that, Jeffry," Lady Hilda tried to close the distance between them and was about to place her hand on his shoulder when she heard him say,
"Don't touch me. Don't come near me. I will ask to transfer myself to another cell because I cannot look at you, Hilda."
At the same moment, a guard appeared and unlocked the gate of the cell the elderly Sullivan couple were in. The guard then said,
"Jeffry Sullivan, follow me."
Lady Hilda tried to stop her husband from leaving here alone by herself, and she said, "Jeffry, I didn't mean to hurt you. Please come back! I am guilty and in pain, I need you!" The guard locked back the gate and took Jerry away from the corridor, while Noah stood there, staring at his mother.
Hilda tried to control her tears, but one slipped from her eyes as quietness began to settle in and around the cell. She asked Noah, "Are you happy now? Happy that your father knows the truth?"
Noah took a step closer to the cell and asked her,
"Mother... did you truly weep for me when I died? When I was being buried?"
"Of course, I did! I am your mother, I brought you up--"
"Then shouldn't you be happy that I am alive than being questioned about the marriage that you failed to maintain and keep?" Noah asked his mother with a softness that only pricked Lady Hilda.
"You don't know how the world works, Noah. I did things to survive, to come forward and to make sure you had a better future," Lady Hilda replied to him with her glistening eyes.
"How can I have a future, when your lover or my biological father stabbed me. Watching the life leave my body?" Noah had always respected his mother, even when her decision and thoughts didn't align with him. He said, "All of you have suffocated me, and somewhere, I have always felt dead. And regarding about knowing the world, all of you made sure I grew up faster than the others. So don't patronise me about not knowing. Everything you hide and lie about, it eventually comes out."
"Are you going to make it public then?" Lady Hilda asked him with a serious face.
"I will leave the decision to your husband," Noah said to her, watching her frown before her eyes widened.
"He is going to be free..." Lady Hilda bitterly smiled and crossed her arms across her chest. She then nodded and said, "I never thought there would be a day where I would see hate in your eyes for me."
"Neither did I," Noah responded to her. He said, "This will be the last time we will be seeing each other, mother."
Lady Hilda asked him, her words growing softer, "You refuse to see how I am doing here? Will it pain you? Is that why you won't visit me?"
For a moment, Noah didn't respond to her and Lady Hilda continued to stare at him.
She asked him, "What is it?"
"In the light of whom you were associated with and the bodies that you have killed and buried. Involved in the operations behind the scenes by killing innocent men and women, your penalty is death. You will be executed tomorrow."
Lady Hilda stared at him, and then looked away before a bitter smile made its way to her lips. She nodded, "I see. So that is my punishment." When Noah was about to leave, she stopped him, "Noah. Will you come see me tomorrow?" Her voice broke at the end, because as much as she had used her son as her puppet, she loved him. After all, he was part of her flesh and he was her son.
Noah wasn't sure if he was ready for it. But at the same time, he had been raised to be a good person. He finally gave her a nod, "Sure. I will be there. I should go now."
He made his way to the end of the corridor, taking a right and when he came to the end of it, he stopped walking. His eyes were filled with sadness, and he braced himself before stepping out of the dungeon.
