try begging
"I heard that from Mr. Grant before."
In the break room next to the president's office, there were only three people, and a colleague whispered in a low voice. The source wasn't gossip, but the president. Grace held her breath as it seemed like some fairly credible information would come out.
"At the party, Virginia Roche dropped her hotel room key in front of the Count, but he did not pick it up."
"The key to that Rosh's hotel room?"
Virginia Roche was the greatest actress of her time, and was a symbol of sensuality. In the history of film, you hear gossip about actors even if you don't want to, but Roche never failed to get a man she set her sights on into bed. No wonder, she was such a great beauty.
According to my colleague, throughout the night, Rosh kept flirting with her, but the man pretended not to notice her and eventually politely turned her down. He said this.
"He said he would be loyal to only one woman for the rest of his life."
"Oh my, such natural elegance and romance."
"If that woman isn't the Archduke, then who else could she be?"
Grace laughed quietly as she gathered the bread crumbs again. Who else but the Archduchess?
I heard that the Archduchess was having an affair with Jerome Winston. I wondered if something had changed in the meantime, but that was still nonsense.
Loyalty to only one woman? You're making a joke. You want my loyalty.
And the word loyalty itself was misleading. What the man gave to Grace wasn't loyalty, it was obsession.
"You turned down a hot night with Virginia Roche because you wanted to be faithful to your future wife. I wish men would take a page out of the book."
Grace laughed inwardly at her superior's words.
You must have refused because you can only act like a man to me. By the way, going to a party where an actress is coming? Is it worth it?
"Anna."
Grace, who was staring at the photo on the front page of the tabloid, looked away in surprise when her boss called her.
"yes?"
"What does Anna plan to do this weekend?"
"Oh, I'm going to the department store with my daughter. She wants a princess crown."
"Hmm, okay... ."
Her boss and coworkers, who do not have children, were indifferent to Grace's words. It was fortunate that they were not even interested enough to ask what her daughter's name was, but it was unfortunate that she had no one to share the joys and difficulties of parenting and the bragging rights of her child with.
"Are you spending this weekend with your daughter again? Go on a date, Anna."
"Right. How old was your daughter?"
"I'm two and a half years old."
"Isn't it time for you to start needing your dad now?"
Grace smiled awkwardly when she realized why her boss had asked her about her weekend plans in the first place. Mrs. Tate kept trying to link Grace with Norman, the president's public relations manager. It would be understandable if the boss was the only one obsessed with playing matchmaker, but the problem was that Norman was also interested in Grace.
"Oh, by the way, I forgot that there was something I had to send to the Paramoor Theater today."
Grace ran out of the break room. She had packed up some stuff that could be sent tomorrow and dropped it off at the first-floor mailroom. There were several magazines on her desk.
"Anna, take all the magazines from last month. You're going to throw them away anyway."
When her boss said that from behind her, she couldn't refuse or throw it away. Grace said an empty thank you and sat down, pushing the stack of magazines with the man's name written on one corner to the corner of the desk.
"Don't forget to send out invitations to the premiere this week."
"Yes, Mrs. Tate."
Grace pulled a folder from her file folder labeled 'Blackburn's Heroes: Premiere and Party Attendees.' The premiere date had long since been announced to the attendees, and now it was time to send out formal invitations.
She took out a bundle of high-quality card stock and envelopes and opened the cap of her fountain pen. Grace stared at the name at the top of the list of VIPs at the front of the file for a moment before slowly writing the first sentence on the card.
Dear Count Leon Winston,
What is dear?
I intentionally made the strokes long and elegant. I have never used this kind of handwriting in the annex, so even if the man sees this invitation, he won't be able to recognize it.
Grace finished writing the invitation and held it up. She shook the card flat so that the ink could dry, and her eyes met the man's. Another clerk had placed the tabloid back on the coffee table, so that the photo and headline were visible.
[Count Winston and Archduchess Aldrich's wedding is imminent!]
I'll bring the Archduke to the premiere.
Grace didn't know about the confirmation of accompanying guests and the hotel reservations, as other clerks were in charge. She didn't want to know.
My hands started to tremble as I stared at the happy smiling face.
Do you dare to forget me and live your life?
If there had been no danger of being tracked down, I would have already called and written to her. I suppressed the urge to write, "Congratulations on your wedding, honey," on the inside of the invitation envelope and put the dry card in the envelope.
I'm going to get married now too.
Next April, Grace will be thirty. When I was young, I used to vaguely imagine that by the time I was thirty, I would have a husband and a child. Since I already had a child, if I just had a husband, the happy family that Grace had imagined would be complete.
I'm happy living alone with Ellie, but sometimes I need someone I can talk to openly and honestly. It would be nice for Ellie to have a father, too.
And as I watched Ellie slowly grow into a child, I felt regretful and even wanted to have another baby.
I don't want to go through that hellish morning sickness again, but maybe next time will be different. Maybe it was a rejection reaction because I didn't want to have a child because it was that damn man's child.
'And maybe... .'
If I meet another man, will I stop dreaming about him?
The only man Grace's body knew was him. The only way she knew to have sex was his.
If she could reduce Leon Winston from the only man Grace had ever slept with to just one of many, if she could dilute her love affair with him to just one of many, she might be able to completely erase her body's memories of him.
"They say you never forget your first time. Even if you want to forget tonight, I will do my best to make it an unforgettable memory for the rest of your life."
Grace tilted her teacup and smiled as she remembered what the man had said to her when he first raped her.
The memory of that first shocking experience has actually already dulled. Looking back, the man has done worse things to me countless times, and what I experienced that day seems like nothing special. The first day felt like the world was ending and the ground was collapsing, but Grace survived and escaped, and now she is leisurely drinking tea and looking back on that day.
Anyway, the final winner was her.
Besides, I was so exhausted that day that I couldn't even remember the details. All I could clearly remember was the look in the eyes of the beast looking down at me.
It was a moment when I took a deep breath without realizing it.
"Sally."
As soon as the door opened and a man's voice was heard, Grace's heart sank.
"Yes, Mr. Grant."
The man who opened the door and came in was Roger Grant, the president of the film company. The man, who was just entering his fifties, walked straight up to the colleague sitting at the desk next to Grace and asked her something. The other clerk's name happened to be Sally.
That's the name the man used to call her just before he raped her.
"Sally."
"I want to stay under your command for a long time, Captain."
Damn it. Why again... .
It was like a dog trained to salivate at the sound of a bell.
"Why is my future star a beet?"
Grace, who had been in a daze, came to her senses only when the president suddenly approached her and spoke to her.
"I wish you would make such weird faces in front of the cameras, not in my office."
When the boss brought up another pointless topic, Grace smiled awkwardly and changed the subject.
"The letter was sent to Myers by mid-morning."
"good."
As the president headed to his office, a man who had been standing far away and staring blankly at Grace approached him.
"Hello, Anna."
"hello."
A man in his early 30s stood at his desk and said something strange again today.
"Anna has no idea that I was looking forward to coming to work as soon as I got off work yesterday."
Shouldn't such a confession be made to the president? Grace just smiled as she lowered her head and wrote the invitation to the premiere.
"I stayed up all night excited to see Anna's dazzling face this morning, and you can't imagine how disheartened I was when Mr. Grant told me to come into the studio."
"It's the same face every day."
"You have the same pretty face."
The man dug into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, took out two musical tickets, and waved them in front of Grace.
"I wonder if you'll be this pretty on the weekends, would you please give me the honor of finding out?"