There is no happy ending

Bianca walked to the window like she was possessed. It was a staggering gait, but surprisingly her frame was solid and her back was straight.

As she approached the window, she reached for the curtains.

Bliss hadn’t realized what she was doing until then.

‘What are you doing in the middle of a conversation?’

Tudududud!

As Bliss spoke to Bianca, Bianca yanked hard on the curtain. The curtains were held firmly in place, but as Bianca pulled harder and harder, they began to tear apart.

The struggle between the curtain and Bianca continued. The curtain finally gave way. Bianca pushed the curtain away from her and started walking again.

Next up was the marble sculpture that was right next to the curtain. It was the work of a sculptor Bianca had rediscovered three years ago, to Bliss’s taste.

It had a price now, but that was none of Bianca’s business.

Wham!

The sculpture hit the floor, shattering its original shape into a million pieces. Bianca kicked the largest piece nonchalantly away and started walking again.

The vase was next, then the painting that had been hanging…….

Neither Odette nor Bliss could stop Bianca as she destroyed the objects in the parlor, as if mesmerized.

They found it hard to accept what Bianca was doing now.

With no one to stop her, Bianca’s hands were unbridled. In an instant, the parlor was a mess. Now there was only one thing left: an ornate cabinet adorning one wall of the parlor.

Six years of Bianca and Bliss’s labor of love.

Bianca threw open the door to the cabinet and dumped the contents onto the floor. Bianca’s hands were strong as she frantically threw the ornaments out. One of the ornaments was a little spiky, and as she grabbed it with her scarred hand, she dropped it and screamed.

‘Ouch!’

Without tending to her torn and burned hand, Bianca’s frantic movements wrecked the room; there was no way her hand could not have been intact. Bianca wrapped her other hand around her injured hand and winced.

Suddenly, Bliss and Odette’s eyes took in Bianca’s wound.

‘Wait, Bianca……!’

Bianca had been shouting at her earlier, but that didn’t mean she was ignoring the wound, at least not as far as Bliss was concerned.

As Bliss let go of Odette and started to approach Bianca, her eyes widened and she glared at Bliss.

‘Duke Winston.’

Bianca stopped him, her voice cracked and sullen.

‘If you approach, your head will be the next thing to be smashed.’

Odette gasped at the words and threw her arms around Bliss. Odette looked up at Bliss, still terrified, and shook her head, looking as if she would run to Bianca’s hand at a moment’s notice.

She didn’t speak, but everyone could tell. Please don’t go, she was saying.

There was no way Bliss could win over Odette, who was looking at her desperately. So Bliss eventually stops looking at Bianca’s wounds. Bianca watches the two of them stare at each other and then laughs in vain.

‘Be annoying…….’

Bianca muttered under her breath and gritted her teeth at the sight of my hand dripping with blood.

Bianca stopped throwing things one by one. Instead, she slipped her hand into the back of the cabinet and knocked the whole thing over. With just the slightest tilt of her hand, the cabinet was no match for her weight.

Kwajangchang!

It was a sound unlike any other. It was loud enough to make Odette and Bliss, who were far away, flinch, but Bianca was unmoved.

‘Master!

The butler rushed into the parlor, much louder than before.

The butler’s mouth dropped open as he looked at the scene in the parlor. What is this? How did my parlor, the beautiful Duke of Winston’s, come to look like this? The butler couldn’t bring himself to ask the question.

Bliss’s gaze was fixed on Bianca. Only Bianca, smiling, looked at the butler.

‘Butler.’

Only Bianca’s voice, as if nothing had happened.

‘Go away. Nothing has happened.’

‘But, Princess…….’

Nothing had happened.

Bliss had made the last six years into nothing, so this parlor, with all the evidence of the last six years gone, was as if nothing had happened. To Bianca, it was.

The butler did not leave but lingered. Bianca’s face hardened, and she spoke again.

‘Don’t you hear me telling you to go out? If the butler was deaf, I could pierce his ears myself.’

With that, the butler bowed and left the parlor. When Bianca saw that the butler was gone, she turned and looked back into the parlor.

The parlor was now empty of anything she had chosen. There was some furniture left, but Bliss was not a great man to keep something this dusty.

It was shattered. There was nothing left.

In the mangled parlor, clenching and unclenching her bleeding hand, Bianca laughed. It was a cheerful laugh. Her next words didn’t match her expression.

‘I feel like shit, Bliss Winston.’

‘Why…….’

Should she be sad, that he still didn’t know her? Or should she still be angry?

Bianca tried to do neither, and as she spoke, her voice sounded soothing, she walked away.

Bianca no longer hesitated in the parlor; she intended to leave the Duke quickly.

‘Bliss.’

‘……why.’

Their eyes met. Bliss felt a chill somewhere, in the center of her chest.

‘It was okay to picture a future with you because it seemed like the perfect future.’

‘…….’

‘That I would marry you, have children with you, and that I would be okay with being Winston instead of Moening.’

‘Bianca.’

‘And now it’s all for nothing, you made it so.’

Bliss can’t understand what Bianca is saying. He also doesn’t understand why Bianca had to do ‘this’.

The sequence of actions, it seems, says that Bianca loves Bliss.

“We’re breaking off our engagement.”

Bianca interrupted Bliss before she could finish her thought. Bliss’s eyes widened.

Bliss had never thought of breaking up, but as Bianca continued to speak, she seemed more determined than ever. As if there would be no turning back…….

‘I’ll pay for the parlor, of course.’

‘…….’

‘Burn the handkerchief I gave you moderately. Don’t throw it away.’

‘Yes.’

Bianca rolled her eyes and smiled.

‘I’ll send a lawyer. And you’d better have a big alimony settlement because I’m going to have to make up for this loss.’

Without another word, Bianca stormed out of the parlor.

As she began to walk down the empty corridor, tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn’t hold back the tears of sadness. At the same time, she was filled with anger.

I hated that this was what I deserved for nothing.

Bianca wiped the tears away with her injured hand. As she wiped the tears away, she caught sight of Bliss’s engagement ring.

The ring that had once shown so brightly was now devoid of any sparkle. It was as if it had never shown in the first place.

She removed the ring from my left ring finger and tossed it away. Bianca’s hand was left with a ring mark. As she started to walk away, she glanced back at what she had left behind, as if remembering something.

Bliss Winston was behind her, staring at her.

Bliss stood there, looking dumbfounded, like someone who had just been hit over the head with a hammer. Bianca didn’t say anything, but the look on his face convinced her that it was over. This relationship was over.

It’s over, it’s over!

And it will never be the same again.

Bianca and Bliss, the couple of the century, broke off their engagement.