The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 273: Among the presumptions

Joanna turned her head in the opposite direction, but what her eyes captured startled her. It was not another tree, as she had strongly believed it would be.

"No," she managed to answer in the same volume, staring at the sweating, brawny arm that was close to her eyes as it was placed near her head.

"What a disappointing answer." Joanna heard Canillas click his tongue before adding, "So are you hiding here because the one that you wanted to see is not me, and you wanted to keep it behind my back?"

"No! Of course not!" Joanna turned her head in a swift movement to face the source of the voice, responding with her eyes narrowed, before belatedly comprehending that she had failed to control her voice as it went slightly higher than normal.

Realizing that she was too reactive in responding to the man whose lips curled up in amusement, Joanna pursed her lips and darted her gaze away from his smiling eyes. She was then aware that she was in a position where she could not escape easily, as his hands were now on either side of her head, trapping her like the memory they had when they shared a room for the first time in the Powel Orphanage.

"So, because Lady Joanna is hiding here to see her husband but not wanting him to know, would it be wrong if there were a speculation saying that Lady Joanna is missing her husband already, though today’s sun has not set yet?" Canillas commented, grinning as he noticed a warm flush gradually creeping up Joanna’s face and ears.

It was always an amusement for him every time he found his shy wife flustered like a timid rabbit when his words and actions had effects on her. And he cheered for that, as it meant that Joanna had him in her heart, and he wanted to believe that.

He did not notice that she made her way here, and he happened to know about that because of Fabio, who informed him that his wife was behind the tree that he pointed to, and that tree was about twenty-five steps away behind his back.

He did not believe it at first, as there were moments Fabio tricked him, particularly when Fabio was vexed at him. But there were moments when he would do a skit out of the blue without any particular reason. Thus, if the latter happened, Fabio was not far different from Paul in terms of making him irked.

He did not want to trust him, but at that moment there was something that moved him, making him willing to turn to look at the tree that Fabio pointed to. It was then he was inwardly sorry to Fabio for accusing him of lying to him when he caught sight of light green fabric that he believed belonged to his wife, as he had seen her wear dresses with such a soft color before—a typical soothing color that filled her wardrobe. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Being completely certain that Fabio did not utter a lie to him this time, he put his sword back in the scabbard that hung on his waist and stealthily walked toward her.

With joy flooding in his heart and a radiant smile flickering across his face, he made his way toward his wife, who for the first time came to find him without him asking her to.

Nonetheless, when he marched toward her, he could not help but be struck in puzzlement. At some point he felt uneasy. His mind was filled with numerous questions.

Why did she hide there, behind the tree, as he had no doubt that she was here to find him, her husband? Was it because she was too shy to meet his friends? Or was it because she only wanted to see him from afar without being known by him? If so, did she already miss him but not want to expose it?

Among the presumptions, Canillas indeed chose the latter the most. It would surely be a wonderful day in his life if it had become the truth, but unfortunately he seemed to still expect it too much.

He already got the answer to all the whirlwind of questions that spiraled in his mind. He knew why Joanna hid, and it was not hard for him to reckon from the way she was busy darting her eyes here and there but not to him.

For a moment he forgot that she had not yet seen the bare part of him since they met again in this lifetime. Everything between them was new for her, just like when they met for the first time in their previous life.

Yet she was still adorable with her innocent reaction and flustered expression, which made him once again be reminded that Joanna was still the same as the lady that he had deeply imprinted in his mind and heart far before today—the noble lady that he had chosen to be his wife, the beautiful lady that had given her all to the unworthy him, the woman that had made him a father, the mother that had loved their child beyond her bone, the wife that had left him without a proper goodbye.

It was the fact that Canillas remembered—a fact that made him realize why he longed for her, missing every fiber of her being, yearning for her presence every single second, refusing to leave when she pushed him away, and accepting when she was cold to him and ignored him.

A fact that had made him soar in indescribable joy for their reunion—a reunion that trembled his heart when her warm body and her soothing scent greeted his soul once again. Yet it was also a fact that made him shrink in fear of what would come later.

But she did not know that, as he hid it deep beneath the layers of his façade. And she would never know that he was also in fear because he would never tell her that.

Her fear was a fear of living a life with him—a fear that made her not hesitate to leave his dwelling place, causing their reunion in this lifetime to be delayed and their path to be steered to a different course.

His fear was a fear of her past memory returning to her—a memory that was so vivid and painful that it suffocated him after shock and confusion consumed him when it returned to him, and he did not want her to remember that.

He did not want her to remember that nightmare—the nightmare that she mentioned amidst her tears—tears that she did not know had pricked his heart, as it described how painful it was still for her. Because it was the nightmare that would pull her away from him to never come back when she recognized it as the past.

Thus, what he wanted was for her to recognize that nightmare as a mere dream that would dissipate soon to no longer leave a trace in her life as they lived a life together, passing day after day side by side in this present time.

And what he wanted was for Joanna to never leave him like she did in the past.