I Am An Illegitimate Child With A Legitimate Reason For Revenge-Chapter 104: Ariel, you’re not filthy

"Ariel, I love you." Raymond confessed which immediately took Ariel aback and she blinked in disbelief.

"Um, are we roleplaying right now?" She asked, almost in a whispered tone.

"No, Ariel." He answered while shaking his head. "I have genuine feelings for you. This isn’t an act."

Ariel was silent. She was speechless. How was that possible?

"I heard that when you fall in love and realize your feelings, you’ll know exactly what to do to convey your feelings to the other but it’s hard. I have no clue." He said, taking her hand in his. "I don’t know what to do, Ariel. I don’t know what to say or how to accurately convey my feelings. My mind is all jumbled when I think of you and I’m scared I’ll make a mistake. You’ve passed through a lot and I don’t want to add another scar to your heart."

"Sir Raymond." Ariel called in a serious tone and he flinched. Why did she address him formally all of a sudden? 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

He looked up at her to see the serious expression on her face and he felt his heart shake. Did he make a mistake? Was she angry?

"Sir Raymond, this isn’t funny." She said and took her hand out of his hold. "Really, this isn’t funny."

Raymond looked at her. She thought this was a joke? Was he doing it the wrong way? Was that why she got the wrong idea?

"Ariel, I don’t know why you came to that conclusion but I’m being serious." He said and shut his eyes, looking aside with anxiously furrowed eyebrows. "I shouldn’t have copied from the internet. They’re all useless." He muttered.

"Sir Raymond, what exactly are you trying to say?"

"I love you." Raymond repeated his words, a lot confidently this time. "There are emotions building in me that I feel for no other human. I want you to remain in my life till my last breath. I equally want to be with you till your last breath. I want to make you happy, I want to protect you. I want you to be the first thing I see in the morning when I open my eyes and the last thing I see when I go to sleep. Please, is that too much to ask? If it is then I have no problem with taking things slowly. We can take it slow. I won’t rush you."

"How can you have such feelings for me?" Ariel asked him with a look of disbelief. "I am filled with scars and very filthy. I am filthy. How can you fall in love with a filthy being like me?"

"Ariel, you’re not filthy." He looked right into her eyes but she didn’t want to accept his words. "Fine. So what if you’re filthy? Do you think I’m clean? I’m darker, more filthy than you ever will and if you, whose filth can’t be compared to mine, finds it in your heart to accept me then I... I will be the luckiest person alive. The luckiest filth."

Ariel was dumbstruck. What were the words he was saying? They sounded like jest but the seriousness in his expression and tone said otherwise.

"How can you...?"

"Love you?" Raymond completed and took her hand. "I don’t know. It just happened. And I bet if I were to be brainwashed and completely forget about you, I’d still fall hard for you like a rock landing on a concrete floor." He kissed her hand and gazed up at her. "That’s how hard I’ll fall."

She looked aside and bit down on her lip. This is madness.

Those were her thoughts. She was scared. Scared to accept his love and open her heart. What if she finally accepted his love and loved him back and then he started changing? What would she do then? The thought of Raymond transforming into an unrecognizable and terrifying person after they get together utterly scared her.

Couldn’t they just stay the way they were? Did they have to put a label on their relationship?

"Why?" Raymond asked her. "Your silence... is this because you don’t like me?" He asked and she immediately turned to look at him.

He looked sad. Were his feelings really genuine? She wanted to test him to be sure. She didn’t want to fall into another hell.

"What if these are feelings of the moment?" She asked him. "What if your feelings start to weigh in a different direction?"

"As long as you’re you, I will never stop loving you." He kissed her hand once more.

"Raymond, I was pregnant." She suddenly dropped a bomb and he paused.

"What?"

"The twins. They got me pregnant and I lost the child with their mismanagement. They were so rough with me and I lost the baby." She placed her trembling hand on her belly. "This here, once held their blood, their child. Will you still love me after hearing that?"

Raymond was silent. He looked at Ariel’s pained and serious face and then looked at her stomach.

He slowly crawled towards her. Yes, he had been on his knees the whole time and had no intention of standing up any time soon.

His shocked look made Ariel feel that he couldn’t accept it and slowly, her heart started crying. She shouldn’t have put her hope in anything when she knew it was impossible.

Just this and he was already wavering? She knew it was too good to be true.

"You were hurt." Raymond suddenly said and reached out his hand for her belly. "Did you cry? Regardless of who the father was, it was yours. It was also a part of you, when you lost it, did it feel like you had lost a part of you? No, I shouldn’t ask that. You were pained."

"What?" Ariel looked at him confused and Raymond hugged her belly.

"So many things." He said. "So many things happened to you and I couldn’t save you from the pain. I wasn’t there to console you. I wasn’t there to cry with you. I’m sorry, Ariel. I’m really sorry. How can I protect you when all you had to protect is already gone?"

A brief silence followed and Ariel could only hear her heart beating fast. Or was it Raymond’s? She was confused.

"You... You don’t mind that I... " Her words choked in her throat and she swallowed, her eyes becoming teary again. "... I was having someone else’s child?"

"Before anything else, I love you, Ariel." His grip around her belly tightened as his body trembled. "A child. Even if it belongs to someone else, I don’t mind. As long as it belongs to you, it’s a flesh from your flesh, how can I hate it?" His voice sounded weird and Ariel quickly raised his head, only to see his eyes filled with tears. "It was yours yet I can’t help but feel the pain." Raymond cried, the tears finally rolling down his cheeks. "It’s almost like it belonged to me but it wasn’t. I don’t know, I’m crying because it hurts and why it hurts...? I don’t know. I don’t know Ariel."