By Zephyria Suddenly, he saw faint smoke rising in the distance. Yu-jin blinked in confusion, then jumped up from his seat in surprise.
“That smoke, isn’t it coming from the mansion?”
At Yu-jin’s words, the driver, who had turned his head, stammered in confusion.
“I, I think so. I wonder what’s going on…”
Yu-jin hurriedly called the mansion. But unlike usual, no one answered the phone no matter how many times it rang. The driver said to him, who was getting anxious.
“They probably won’t answer. I heard that all the employees were given a day off today. So there’s no one at the mansion right now…”
“No one? Not even Winston?”
The driver answered Yu-jin, who asked urgently, looking embarrassed.
“Well, I’m not sure about that…”I was so confused by the unexpected turn of events. What’s going on? Does that mean Delights is empty right now? Yu-jin called the secretary’s office this time, and after hearing that Winston hadn’t come to work, he ended the call.
Then.
I hadn’t wanted to until now, but this is different. Yu-jin took a deep breath and called Winston. He could hear the ringtone of the cell phone, but there was still no response.
“Uh, what should we do…?”
The driver asked, looking at him cautiously.
“Keep going. I need to see what’s going on, quickly!”
“Ah, yes, yes.”
The driver hurriedly sped up and drove down the road. The smoke that had been visible in the distance gradually came closer, and Yu-jin’s heart beat faster.
* * *
“Kyaa!”
Mrs. Campbell screamed without realizing it at the loud noise, and barely took her hands off her ears. It was the first time I had seen her looking so dazed and blank. Winston looked at his mother’s face and opened his mouth.
“If things had gone as planned, this would have been the insurance I prepared in case the first plan failed, but I saved you some time.”
“What…”
Mrs. Campbell blinked rapidly, then gasped, her face turning pale. Surely, not that far?
“You should have chosen someone with a tighter lip when you were plotting this, Mother.”
Winston continued leisurely.
“I only threatened them a little, but they told me everything. Everything you were planning to kill Yu-jin.”
Mrs. Campbell said nothing. Winston just smiled at her as she listened silently. As if he found it amusing.
“You were planning to lure me out by using tricks if the kidnapping failed, and then set fire to the mansion, right? If you drugged Yu-jin and Angela to sleep before that, they wouldn’t be able to escape, and the fire would burn all the evidence, so it might have been perfect.”
Winston frowned after saying that.
“I thought you were planning something, Mother, but I’m a little surprised that you’re using such a drastic method. Maybe it’s because Gordon and Catherine aren’t here, so it’s difficult to execute any scheme, so this was the only way. I understand.”
He added it as if he were being considerate, but Mrs. Campbell’s expression did not change. Her head was still a mess. Suddenly, so many facts were crowding into her head that she couldn’t come to her senses. She would have been more conscious if Winston had hit her.
“You, then.”
Just as she managed to open her mouth, there was another loud noise. This time, the whole house shook even more violently than before. Mrs. Campbell, unable to stand because of the vibration, collapsed onto the sofa.
Suddenly, she felt an unpleasant smell at the tip of her nose. This smell mixed with Winston’s sweet pheromone scent was…
“Fire… is the mansion on fire?”
Mrs. Campbell screamed in a shrill voice, flustered. Winston simply brought the teacup to his lips leisurely. Her anger flared at the sight.
“Answer me, what are you doing now!”
“I told you.”
Winston replied in an even tone.
“I’m going to take care of all your plans at once so you don’t have to bother, Mother.”
Saving time.
Winston had said that earlier. Mrs. Campbell seemed to realize the meaning of it now.
“…Surely.”
She said, barely making a sound. In a voice full of trembling,
“You set fire to the mansion? Now?”
Winston smiled and raised his teacup as if to toast. At that moment, Mrs. Campbell realized that her vision was blurring and covered her eyes with one hand. Dizziness overwhelmed her due to excessive shock. She couldn’t believe the reality at all.
“Are you trying to kill me…?”
Mrs. Campbell asked in a trembling voice. Maybe there was poison in the teacup too?
As she traced back the cause of her dizziness and looked down at the teacup without realizing it, Winston said to her.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t put anything in your teacup, Mother.”
He added kindly, as if to reassure her.
“No matter how I am, I wouldn’t kill the person who gave birth to me directly, would I?”
Mrs. Campbell should have been relieved by that, but in reality, she wasn’t. There was a very disturbing expression in her son’s words.
‘In your teacup, Mother’.
Then.
“…Surely.”
Mrs. Campbell’s eyes widened.
“You put it in your teacup…? The poison, all of it?”
Instead of answering, Winston smiled and brought the teacup to his lips. Mrs. Campbell watched him empty it all at once without hesitation, frozen in place. She reacted after her son put down the empty cup.
“Ah… Aaaaaaaah! What are you doing!”
* * *
Angela, who belatedly discovered the smoke, shouted loudly.
“Daddy, there’s a fire! There’s smoke!”
At the urgent cry, Yu-jin quickly calmed his daughter down.
“Okay, let’s go check it out. It might be dangerous, so you have to stay in the car, okay?”
After instructing his daughter, he called 911 this time. The emergency responder who answered the phone recognized the name Delights as soon as he said it. After hearing that they would be dispatched immediately, Yu-jin hung up the phone and looked back in the direction of the smoke. The smoke that had been rising thinly was now swelling up like a cumulonimbus cloud. As the mansion finally came into view, Yu-jin clenched his fists tightly on his lap without realizing it.
“Daddy, fire, fire!”
Angela shouted. Yu-jin couldn’t say anything and stared at the black smoke rising and the flames flashing within it.
* * *
Mrs. Campbell stood there, pale and clutching her head with both hands. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen.
“How, how, how could you.”
The words that barely came out were cut off, unable to form a sentence. She couldn’t continue speaking, as if she was completely panicked, and then she screamed as if in despair.
“How, why did you eat that! How could you try to die in front of my eyes… No, no, Winston! Throw it up, throw it up…”
Winston quietly grabbed his mother, who rushed towards him desperately, begging and pounding on his chest. Mrs. Campbell, who was unable to move because her arms were held, twisted her body, but she couldn’t handle it at all. Winston opened his mouth to his mother, who was soon panting and looking up at him with a disheveled face.
“Stop it now, Mother. It’s all over.”
“How, how.”
Mrs. Campbell’s eyes soon filled with tears.
“Why did you do this… why did you. You were my everything, I did everything for you, why…”
Winston answered the futile question.
“If I’m gone, you won’t bother Yu-jin anymore, Mother.”
Mrs. Campbell had a blank expression. He smiled briefly at the gaze that stared at him as if he had lost his soul.
“Mother, you and I are very similar in some ways. That’s why you were so attached to me.”
His voice was so calm. As if nothing had happened. Winston looked down at Mrs. Campbell and continued.
“But Mother, the difference between you and me is that I’ve learned to let go, and you still don’t know how.”
He gently kissed his mother on the forehead. Mrs. Campbell looked up at her son with trembling eyes. Winston slowly released his grip on his mother and let her go.
“Goodbye, Mrs. Campbell.”
He whispered softly and got up from the sofa. Mrs. Campbell belatedly tried to grab her son, but at that moment, the mansion shook again, and she couldn’t get up. When she barely came to her senses and raised her head, Winston was already gone.
“Winston…!”
Mrs. Campbell called her son’s name until her throat was hoarse, but there was no answer.