Episode 34

“Rihanna, would you like to step outside with the kids for a moment?”

Rihanna, having observed the entire situation, nodded silently without raising any questions.

In a slightly trembling voice, she spoke to the children around me.

“Kids, let’s go.”

The children nodded in unison and quietly followed Rihanna outside.
The sound of the door closing echoed, and silence descended upon the house.

Though I had never thought of the house as cramped before, at this moment, the guilt felt constricting, as if the entire space was just the room where Elia hid.

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door that Elia had locked.

“Elia, are you okay?”

There was no response.

I placed my hand on the door, lowered my head, and spoke again.

“For what happened just now, I’m sorry, Elia. It’s because you said those words that I felt uneasy…”

Finally, I could clearly hear Elia sobbing on the other side of the door. It felt as if my heart was being torn apart. Elia, who had never shown tears in front of me except as a newborn, made my emotions more turbulent than usual.
Every father carries a cup in his heart. A cup filled with a child’s tears is unmatched by any strong drink.

Though I hadn’t yet decided what to say, I simply wanted to look at Elia’s face and talk.
I took a deep breath and knocked on the door again.

“May I come in?”

Finally, instead of a verbal response, I heard the click of the door opening.

I counted exactly 10 seconds in my mind before entering, despite the sound of the door opening, to give her time to prepare herself.

I couldn’t see her, but there was a quilt on her bed with a bulge in the middle.
Without bothering to lift the quilt, I sat on the edge of the bed.

I could feel the soft bed beneath me, but my heart felt like it was sitting on a bed of thorns.

I couldn’t think of what to say. I wanted to stroke her head as usual, but I thought even a small gesture might hurt her now.

While I was lost in thought, Elia spoke first from under the quilt.

“Dad… don’t you love me?”

Her voice was cracked from crying so much.

“Of course not. Dad loves his daughters more than anyone.”

“Then why can’t I be with you…? I need you, Dad.”

The issue I had been avoiding was forced upon me when Elia said those words.
I took a moment to breathe and gave a conventional answer.

“Elia, that’s something you shouldn’t do with family.”

Honestly, if I were to speak my true feelings, I was barely holding onto reason even now.
There were rare moments when I felt a hint of desire towards their adult bodies clinging to me. It would be a lie to say otherwise. Their bodies, which had matured over four years, felt alien and created a sense of dissonance. However, I never showed it. I didn’t want to hurt them by revealing my desires.

Yet, was she tempting me so openly to have a relationship while I was trying to hold back? It was a temptation so strong that I would’ve had to tear all the flesh off my thighs just to resist it.

Hearing my answer, Elia shrugged her shoulders slightly. I could feel her sorrow beyond the quilt.

I understand.

The only men nearby were Hans, a middle-aged man with graying hair who ran the butcher shop, and several elderly men with bent backs.

It was inevitable that the only young man in the village, me, would attract attention from them.
I didn’t want to say this, but wasn’t I originally not their biological father?

The silence stretched, and Elia finally emerged from beneath the quilt.

Her eyes were red.
The cheek I had struck still bore a slight mark.
I gently caressed her cheek and asked,

“I’m sorry, did it hurt a lot?”

After a bout of crying, she seemed quite calm, contrary to my expectations.

“No, it’s okay. It was my fault.”

She had regained her composure, but I was cautious, as she could have another outburst at any moment. I was careful, very careful, not to stir Elia’s emotions.
I sat down next to her and asked again.

“Are you feeling a bit better?”

She shook her head slowly, without showing any sign of affirmation.
My heart ached for no reason.

“If there’s anything Dad can do, just say it. I’ll do anything.”

Elia’s eyes sparkled.

“Really?”

I was confident I could fulfill any request she made.
Whether it was expensive clothes from the city, numerous books, or luxurious ingredients that we couldn’t usually afford, everything.

There would be some expenses, but if it could lift her mood, it was a cost I was willing to bear.
However, contrary to my expectations, she blushed and twisted her body before speaking.

“Then… give me a kiss.”

It was an easier request than I thought. Wasn’t kissing something we did often anyway?
I kissed Elia’s soft cheek and observed her reaction.

Even after fulfilling her request, she still had a pouty expression.
As I looked at her puzzled, she leaned toward me and spoke in a sultry voice.

“No, not here.”

She gently touched her pink lips with her finger.

“Here, Dad.”

I felt like my breath stopped.

I couldn’t cross that line. Wasn’t she my precious daughter, irreplaceable by anything else?
There might be fathers who kiss their daughter’s lips, but I instinctively knew that what she wanted wasn’t something so simple.

If I crossed that line, it was obvious that we could never return to the father-daughter relationship we had now.
She wasn’t seeing me as a father. She perceived me as a person of the opposite sex, a man she wanted to embrace. I wasn’t so oblivious as not to notice that.

The idea of being with my daughter was absurd…

But losing Elia was even more dreadful. Rejecting her now felt like she would retreat into an impenetrable shell, never to emerge into the world again.
Someone might call it a cowardly excuse, but I made up my mind internally.

I gently wrapped my hand around the back of Elia’s head and carefully pulled her towards me.
My heart started pounding like crazy.
Is it really okay to do this? Is it acceptable to cross the boundaries set by society?

As if to dispel such thoughts, Elia’s lips, which had come close, emitted the scent of sweet fruit.
The tight-fitting top made her chest stand out more than usual.

I could hear a snap in my head as reason broke away.

When I kissed Elia’s lips, she immediately wrapped her arms around my body.
It wasn’t a light kiss that a father would give a child, but a deep and passionate kiss like lovers.

Elia, with her eyes open, smiled blissfully.
Her warm, slippery tongue extended to lick my gums, entering roughly in a way I never thought she would.

It must have been her first kiss in life, yet she was much more skilled than I had imagined.
She pulled away and, with a bashful smile, answered my unspoken question.

“I knew this day would come, so I practiced hard on my own.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than I embraced her soft body tightly and continued our earlier actions.

We exchanged no words. We were solely focused on fervently intertwining our tongues. Elia moistened my dry lips, sticky and damp with anticipation.
Thick saliva flowed between our lips, soaking the bed sheets.

Elia sucked in my saliva and pressed her body even closer.
Kissing me in a seemingly embraced position, she gently bit my lips without causing pain and inserted her tongue into my open mouth. Her tongue moved like a snake, persistently searching and sucking on my tongue.

From her mouth, which always read books aloud in a bright voice, came obscene sounds.

After the long kiss ended, we barely parted our lips, stained with each other’s saliva.

A thin thread connecting Elia and me was glistening in the sunlight.
We were just staring at each other’s flushed faces, panting.

‘What have I done…?’

Getting absorbed in kissing and mingling tongues with my daughter… It was an outrageous act.
However, Elia didn’t mind and gently stroked my thigh as she spoke.

“Dad, I know you can’t be satisfied with just this. We are alike…”

A sweet voice that seemed to melt my eardrums. I swallowed hard and cast my gaze at Elia’s lips, glistening with my saliva.
The pleasure was greater than the guilt.

“You want to do a bit more, don’t you?”

Elia, who grabbed my collar in silence, pulled me onto the bed. My body, helplessly drawn to her, fell over her body, and she didn’t miss the chance.
She grasped my arm, which hadn’t regained its senses, and moved it to her chest.
Before I knew it, her white skin was fully revealed through her disheveled clothes.

A luscious chest, adorned with red fruit in the middle.

Elia subtly applied pressure to keep me from pulling my hand away and spoke again.

“This time, you can’t run away, right? You have to properly see Elia’s body… to the end, okay?”

The soft sensation at my fingertips numbed my reason.

There was no turning back now.

The relationship between Elia and me, at this moment, had become like water spilled on the floor.

I pressed her ample chest with my hand, then softly licked and sucked on her lips again. Elia, now accustomed to it, naturally moved her tongue in sync with my actions.
Elia’s tongue, persistently entwining while thick saliva dripped down my chin, looked like an obscene living creature.

Elia unknowingly positioned my body between her constantly squirming thighs, covering her slender body with my warmth.
The last thing I heard in my lost senses was Elia’s tearful voice.

“Yes… finally, with Daddy… I can connect…”

The fruit of betrayal, nurtured by the guilt over four years, was incomparably sweet, yet left a bitter aftertaste.