Chapter 214

Chapter 214

Lucius, thinking she hadn’t heard anything all this time and that she was avoiding him because she was shocked by the emperor’s words, was undoubtedly mistaken. He believed she was shocked and unable to bear the betrayal, returning to her family after his past desire for revenge against Lady Kye was revealed without any explanation.

“Where is Lucius?”

She abruptly rose and asked the maid.

“He probably left by now, ma’am.”

“Gone?”

“Yes… probably… Miss!”

As Deatrice hurriedly tried to get up and go outside, the bewildered maid called her. The only thought occupying her mind was that she couldn’t leave him with that misunderstanding.

The idea that he might have been wounded and anxious for days was horrifying. However, her body, confined to the bed all this time, didn’t respond, and she could only slump back down.

“Miss, you shouldn’t get up like that. You’re not fully recovered yet.”

“How long has Lucius been coming here?”

With her hand on the supporting maid, Deatrice asked quietly. The maid answered as if it was an easy question.

“He came almost every day.”

“Did he say anything…?”

“He was very worried. He brought a clergy, saying that he hoped the lady for a quick recovery.”

“He didn’t seem angry or anything?”

“Angry? Well, when I conveyed that you declined to meet, he seemed disappointed. But he soon seemed to understand.”

“He understood?”

“Yes. He understood that it was not good if he caught your illness.”

At the innocent maid’s words, Deatrice burst into laughter. The maid, looking puzzled at her sudden laughter, questioned her with a face that seemed to ask why she was laughing.

“Why are you laughing, ma’am?”

“No, you’re right. It’s not good to catch the illness.”

“Exactly! That’s why the lady refused to meet him.”

“Right.”

She replied weakly.

Quietly sinking into the darkness, she pondered once again.

Perhaps all of this is not a coincidence. No, it certainly couldn’t be.

Deatrice herself had asked Tom to provide an opportunity, at least to help her convey the truth.

However, she could no longer think of herself as the rightful messenger to fully deliver that fact.

Could Lucius, who forgave her, expressing love even after she made derogatory remarks such as ‘dirty bastard child’ towards him in the past, possibly not forgive her when she confesses and repents for her sins?

He would have knelt before her, trying to console the crumbling woman in front of him, without even having the time to properly recognize and accept the events that unfolded.

Just as he had said before, that this wasn’t her fault, but the duke’s. However, could he truly seek proper justice from the duke with her by his side? Even if it was a just revenge, people would undoubtedly murmur and criticize him for implicating his wife’s father.

‘I am someone that should disappear for him.’

She realized it.

The maid was right. The illness should not spread. Whatever the illness may be, it had to end within her boundaries.

*

“A message has come from the duke.”

It had been a fortnight.

Lucius lifted his head at the awaited words, but for some reason, he didn’t feel quite as glad as he expected.

It was strange. He had waited eagerly for Deatrice’s message for the past two weeks, almost unable to sleep.

On the first day, drowning in self-loathing, he drank heavily and barely managed to fall asleep, and from the second day onwards, lying on the sofa in the study, even the act of lying down on a different bed felt suffocating.

In the end, he spent a fortnight dozing off on the sofa in the study.

There were many other rooms, but he didn’t want to lie down on a different bed, one that wasn’t shared with her. He wanted to wait for her, desperately hoping that they could return together.

“The lady expressed that she does not wish to meet.”

When Lucius first heard that Deatrice went to the duke’s estate instead of returning to their mansion, he couldn’t believe it.

But soon, he seemed to understand her. After what happened, she might not want to sleep beside him. Even if he pleaded to meet, she might still show her face.

With these thoughts in mind, he spent the entire night, and the next morning, he headed towards the duke’s residence. Then he requested to meet Deatrice, his wife. However, the maid firmly conveyed that she didn’t wish for it.

“The lady is in great pain. Even if you meet her, it may cause more harm.”

The maid spoke these words, bowed, and then withdrew. Lucius was left alone in the room, emitting a bitter laugh.

More than the fact that they couldn’t meet, the term ‘lady’ seemed absurd. ‘Lady.’ She was his wife. They were married, spent countless nights entwined, shared the same breath.

Yet, why… why did they have to go through this?

Why did she reject him, clinging to the excuse of seeing him later, and why did she go to the duke’s estate? Why did she refuse to meet him like this? Perhaps she was indeed in pain, or could it be that the claim of her being unwell was a lie?

Somewhere in the fragile shards of his heart, the weakest fragment gained strength again.