“You may be of common birth, but I’m a noble through and through—down to my bones. There’s no reason for me to speak to you with respect.”

“Mia, you really are a frivolous woman. How dare you talk back while your husband is speaking? How dare a woman—”

A woman. A woman. A woman.

That tiresome refrain.

Before he could spew any more nonsense, I cut him off.

“Think whatever you want. How you see things is none of my concern.”

“Mia, you—!”

Louis ground his teeth, unable to contain his fury.

“Why don’t you let go first?”

I slapped his hand away from my wrist and took a step back.

“Let’s put an end to this pointless bickering, Mia!”

Louis glared at me, breathing hard.

“Louis, conversation isn’t pointless.”

“And you don’t think whining like a child is pointless?”

“I wasn’t whining. That’s just how it sounds to you.”

“Mia, you’re not being logical right now. From where I stand, you’re just whining like a child.”

Louis looked at me with an openly condescending expression.
That sneer on his face was a sharp reminder—once again—of just how thickheaded he was.

He could puff himself up and pretend to be composed all he liked; none of it worked on me anymore.
Honestly, people who use their heads as decoration are always the most oblivious.

“Mia, let me make one thing clear. I’m not a man with time to spare. Everyone’s looking for me—left and right!”

He’d come here thinking of rolling around with Olivia, no doubt.
Not because he wanted to see me.

“I wrapped things up quickly and came to see you, so I don’t want to raise my voice over a pointless conversation like this.”

Judging by the way he kept talking, it seemed he still had no idea what had already begun.

“Louis. I gave you everything—yet this is all I am to you.”

“All you are to me?”

“A tool. Something to fix your miserable life.”

Seeing your disgusting face every single day was pain to me.
It was h*ll.

And being forced into bed under the pretense of marriage—
that was no different from k*lling myself, piece by piece.

You wouldn’t understand.
You’ve always thought with yourself at the center of everything.

Love.
The bed.
Even everyday life.

So many words crowded at the tip of my tongue.
But I didn’t let a single one slip.

Explaining anything to a beast that couldn’t understand would only hurt my own mouth.

“After we married, you used schemes to seize all of my assets, had my parents branded as traitors and beheaded—
and after all that, you went to the emperor and begged him to spare only me?
Calling yourself a man in love?”

What astounding devotion.
No—twisted possessiveness, more like it.

I let out a soft laugh and looked at him.

“What are you talking about? I did everything I could for you. You know that.”

Unlike me, who found this situation absurd to the point of laughter, Louis looked deadly serious.

“Mia. I swear, I never did anything like that.”

How shameless.
His pupils were shaking violently.

“If you thought I knew nothing, you were mistaken.”

When I was buried alive in my previous life, I heard the entire truth of that incident.
Every word of the conversation between Louis and an anonymous someone.

“Mia. I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding between us.”

“A misunderstanding? What misunderstanding could there possibly be?”

“Mia. Just listen to me first—at least hear me out—”

“How exactly are you planning to excuse selling my family to protect a traitor?”

“What?”

At my words, Louis—who had been trembling and fidgeting until now—suddenly stiffened.

“You didn’t… touch my vault, did you?”

He glared at me sharply.

“Ah. So that’s where the evidence was?”

Honestly—his way of thinking.

“Or is it that time today? Is that why you’re so sensitive?”

After doing nothing but snarl moments ago, Louis suddenly broke into a syrupy grin and stepped toward me.

“I’ll tell the cook to prepare lots of sweet things. Hmm?”

As if soothing an upset child, he reached out to wrap an arm around my waist.

“That’s enough. We’re getting a divorce.”

I shoved him away and said it loudly, clearly—so there would be no misunderstanding.

A divorce.

And then—of all things—Louis looked genuinely dumbfounded.

“What? Why?”
“Why on earth would we get a divorce?”

Before long, Louis covered his face with one hand and let out a miserable wail.

“Aaah! Mia! I love you so much—how could I ever divorce you?!”

Anyone watching might have thought he was sobbing his heart out.

But with his face hidden behind one hand, Louis repeatedly squeezed his eyes shut and forced them open again.
He was trying to squeeze out tears that wouldn’t come.

“You love me, don’t you?”

He thumped his chest a few times, then dropped heavily to his knees.

There wasn’t a single tear at the corners of his eyes—
yet he made exaggerated sobbing noises all the same.

Seeing him start that pathetic performance told me one thing clearly:
he had finally realized this was the end.

“Yes. I did love you.”

I watched Louis put on his pitiful puppy act for a moment before speaking quietly.

“You were my entire world.”

At my words, color returned to Louis’s face—the sorrow he’d been faking instantly brightening.
He must have thought we were about to reconcile.

“Not anymore.”

I pressed my foot down hard on the thigh of the man kneeling before me.

“Miaaaaaagh!”

Louis shot upright, clutching his thigh and hopping around.

“Are you insane? Have you lost your mind? You’ve really decided to go completely crazy now, huh?!”

He screamed so loudly it felt like my ears would split.

Does he know how to do anything besides shout?
Not that I ever expected more from you.

“Louis. I’m sick to death of your vulgar behavior.”

If you’ve already taken everything I had, there’s nothing left for you to pick over, is there?
And if you’re going to keep another woman in your arms anyway, then you should let go of someone like me here and now.

If you keep being this greedy, you’re bound to choke on it someday.
Because I’ll be the thorn lodged in your throat.

“Wouldn’t it be better to divorce me and make Olivia your wife instead?”

At my words, Olivia—standing some distance away—looked at Louis with eyes full of expectation.
As if urging him to make her the lawful wife at last.

“A divorce, all of a sudden? Do you really think that makes any sense?”

If anyone should have leapt for joy at the mention of divorce, it ought to have been Louis—yet he reacted with clear reluctance.
The way he swept his gaze over me from head to toe, suspicion thick in his eyes.
The way his previously murderous expression melted away, only for him to approach me abruptly.

“Don’t tell me you’ve got another man.”

“No. It’s not that.”

I bit my lip hard, forcing a smile.

I’d sworn to myself that I wouldn’t lose to Louis—but my body knew better.
That he could beat me to death if he wanted to.

Not that death itself frightened me anymore, when I would only come back to life again.
Still, a body that had endured violence for so long seemed to remember on its own.
Even the sound of his footsteps, the rise and fall of his breath, filled me with fear.

Then again—this was the first time I had ever stood up to him like this.

“You were fine all this time. Why bring up divorce now?”

Thankfully, Louis didn’t notice the fear that had seized me.

So, in that brief moment, I recalled all the resentment that had piled up over the years and forced my trembling body to steady itself.

“Didn’t I already tell you?”
“Do you really not know why I’m doing this—still?”

Having regained a semblance of calm, I was finally able to look straight at him.

“Of course I don’t. How would I know what you’re thinking unless you actually tell me?”

What he really meant was simple: bring me a reason I find acceptable—right now.

“Is your head just for decoration?”
“Even when I spell it out for you, you still can’t understand a d*mn thing.”