# 17
---
After a few moments, Victor opened his mouth: “You better go back to my house.”
“What?”
“You”
Scarlett frowned and said, “Me? Why?”
“Why? You live like this.”
Victor pointed to her work table, and Scarlett paused, then looked at him and asked, “Do I seem sadder to you now than I did when we lived together?”
“Is that a question? Do you think your life here compares to my house?”
“I was miserable in the Domfelt family!”
Scarlett, who was always calm, shouted, and Victor frowned and replied, “You said you were happy.”
“I was happy because I loved someone. Attending parties and lunches every day with people I didn’t want, and pretending that I was fine in front of those who despised me from head to toe, was never happiness. In our marital relationship, I was the one who was always clinging to it, and you...”
Victor's face frowned at her words.
“Are you saying I didn't make any effort?”
“Is that a question?”
“I think I tried hard enough.”
“Your effort was to make me, which you saw as imperfect, into an ideal wife to offer to others.”
Victor fell silent at her sad voice.
She couldn't see his face clearly because of the light, but he seemed unable to believe that she was happier here dealing with small parts that were barely visible with a magnifier, compared to her life of luxury in Doomfelt.
“Why?”
"Yes, you were imperfect, so I tried to improve you. Isn't that an effort?"
Scarlett looked at him desperately, then closed her mouth wordlessly.
Hearing that she was incomplete in his dry voice made her lose her enthusiasm. It was impossible to convince him, who saw himf as superior, that she was worthy of love as she was.
There was silence.
Victor didn't speak because she didn't answer.
Finally, Scarlett looked up at him, and he was looking at her calmly, and said, “Any other questions?”
“The light of the street lamp creeps through your bed window.”
“I know”
“And yet you prefer it here?”
“Yes”
For Victor, who lived in a mansion surrounded by vast gardens, it was impossible to imagine hearing street noise or light seeping into the house.
Scarlett looked out the window and said, “Meeting strangers always makes me anxious. Here, Andrei deals with customers, so I like it.”
“You should have said that.”
“How do I say?”
Scarlett laughed sarcastically and buried her head in the sofa.
“You said my only duty is to help you succeed. How can I say I can't even do that?”
At the beginning of the marriage, she was so afraid of gatherings of nobles that she did not sleep. On those nights, she hugged her knees in bed, shivering, waiting for dawn.
She opened her mouth: “Can’t you leave? Your presence bothers me.”
“I'm not a stranger”
“And you're not warm either.”
Scarlett raised her knees to the chair, buried her face, and muttered: “And you are definitely not the person I love.”
She remained curled up, and after a while, she heard the sound of Victor's shoes moving away.
The wooden door creaked, and I heard him coming down the stairs.
As soon as he left, Scarlett got out of the chair.
If one gear fails, the clock stops. Maybe because of her profession, she would feel very nervous if something was not in place.
I tried to put the chair back in place, but it wouldn't move, so I sighed.
“How did he move it?”
Since the day of the interrogation, Scarlett would sometimes suffer from memory loss for days.
She had to bear that fear alone. This increased her obsession. She couldn't take it anymore, so she ran to the stairs, feeling grateful for the first time that Victor was a heavy smoker.
Scarlett grabbed his coat as he smoked outside the store door.
“Put the chair back in its place.”
Victor turned around with the cigarette in his mouth.
Scarlett tried to calm her breathing and said: “The chair. You moved it, put it back in its place. Don’t mess with my life. Don’t try to fix anything!”
“Scarlett Domfelt”
Why does he call me Doomfelt? I'm Crimson. I make watches with Crimson skills.
She wanted to respond, but the words wouldn't come out.
Anxiety swept through her.
Victor dropped the cigarette and grabbed Scarlett by the waist, who almost fell.
While she was breathing hard, Victor picked her up and patted her back.
“You are not free”
He made a sound of dissatisfaction as he did with his followers who suffer from panic attacks, and he carried her to the second floor, sat her on the bed, and put the chair back in its place.
Scarlett was exhausted, so she fell on her side, looking at him.
"I will never live with you again. Do not appear in front of me again," she muttered as she sank into a blur, unsure whether she was losing consciousness or falling asleep.
She tried to read his eyes, but it was too exhausting.
She muttered weakly: “I will kill you if you show up...”
Then she disappeared, as if she lost consciousness.
Victor stood in front of her, looking at her with an expressionless face.
***
When the alarm rang, Scarlett got up and saw the curtains closed.
Apparently the street light was very annoying.
“Oh my God, what do I do?”
She stood up half-consciously, feeling as if the blood was leaving her body, and held her forehead with her hands.
“I threatened to kill Victor Domfelt...”
Scarlett opened the curtains with a pale face.
After the dim light of dawn illuminated the room, I noticed that the safe door was open. I ran to her terrified.
I discovered that several blueprints had disappeared, all for double-winged aircraft, as well as a scale model. Victor took the evidence during her panic attack.
Scarlett sat in front of the open safe, her face pale.
If repairing trams is considered diabolical, then airplanes are even worse.
The king said that nothing should pass over his head. Discovering the plane's blueprints meant execution.
Scarlett closed the safe and covered her face with her hands.
She thought he had neglected to repair the tram, and wondered if he had some affection for his ex-wife, so she let her guard down.
She was the only one still holding on to him.
His neglect of tram repair was just bait for a bigger catch.