Chapter 12

“Ella….”

He slowly approached Elina.

His lips parted foolishly, as if lost in thought.

Elina stepped back, her face full of surprise. But sitting on the floor, she couldn’t move far.

Their eyes met, both pairs trembling.

Elina clenched her crumpled dress hem tightly as the man knelt before her.

“Oh….”

The blue eyes filled with Elina turned red around the edges. He wasn’t crying, but looked as if he might.

Leaving only a few inches between them, he didn’t come any closer. He seemed ready to embrace her but didn’t.

What was this? What was this situation?

Elina, aware of the many eyes on her, shifted her gaze to her stomach, which suddenly began to ache.

Her purpose for coming today was to propose. This was the best way to take responsibility for the child inside her.

She hadn’t ruled out being rejected, but she never expected his identity to be like this.

Why was Floi, someone she could never even touch by chance, the Grand Duke of Rennes?

Now there was no reason to meet him. She couldn’t marry him.

A one-night connection should end in one night. She didn’t want to uncover a cruel truth.

But how… they had to take responsibility.

What about the child inside her?

Having a child from a one-night affair, wouldn’t he marry her?

They liked each other briefly, so it wouldn’t be bad.

She intended to say that….

Elina let out a sigh, close to lamentation, trembling slightly. She had to admit it.

This was inevitable. There was no hope, really.

She knew well that a man who loved her for just one night wouldn’t take responsibility.

Seeing it with her own eyes, she had to admit it, and it made her feel pathetic.

“…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come.”

Her voice didn’t rise much compared to her swirling emotions. This was his mansion, and only his people were here.

It wasn’t his child. The child inside was hers alone to bear.

“Ella, wait. It’s not like that….”

“You don’t have to explain. I came here.”

Of course, it could be like this.

Their relationship was just a one-night affair based on the love Elina so desperately wanted.

He was drunk, and in such a shallow night, he could have said anything. Even telling a woman he’d just met that he loved her….

Lacking the courage to meet his gaze again, Elina stared at the floor and rose from where she’d been crouched against the wall.

She moved slightly toward the center of the Grand Ducal residence, where the chandelier cast a bright light. The servants seemed to be whispering among themselves.

Elina wrapped an arm around her stomach and bit her lip.

It was strange. A man like him couldn’t just be a lower noble. Why did she believe it so easily?

Why, why. 

She hadn’t expected him to be a high-ranking noble, and now….

She confirmed it directly.

As she stepped out into the reception room, the woman who had been laughing with the man over tea couldn’t hide her surprise and stood up.

She was a beautiful woman.

And clearly a woman of high status.

Her dress was made of rich silk and adorned with numerous dangling jewels.

For a moment, Elina felt ashamed.

A dull cotton dress hastily worn to escape the mansion. An unkempt face and hands.

And a one-night affair with a high-ranking noble.

She had become a shameless woman who played with the man of that beautiful woman. If she hadn’t come here, she wouldn’t have needed to know or tell this truth.

Elina didn’t want to show tears to them here.

So she bit her lip harder and widened her eyes, but couldn’t stop the moisture from gathering at the corners.

She felt like a tiny impurity in perfectly clean, transparent water.

Even the beautiful woman who didn’t pull the hair of the woman who had played with her man made her feel that way.

I just wanted to tell him about the child. And together….

But the man who whispered love to her that night was this person in reality. She didn’t feel betrayed. She couldn’t.

Yet she wondered, ‘Did he really love me that night?’ Such thoughts crept in.

Thinking a Grand Duke wouldn’t truly love a one-night partner.

Even the days she had endured with that one night seemed to vanish like a bubble….

Everything she had held onto crumbled.

Could a one-night affair be this devastating?

Elina, unaware of the eyes watching, gently caressed her still uncalled stomach with trembling hands.

Inside her was the man’s child.

She couldn’t even sigh anymore.

Thud. A large tear fell from Elina’s eye, rolling down her cheek.

I didn’t know it would turn out like this….

“Floi… oh, no, Your Grace the Grand Duke of Rennes.”

Her voice trembled pitifully. Having learned too much in such a short time, her head throbbed.

“I can explain everything… I’m so shocked, I can’t speak properly. What happened is….”

She saw him moving his lips, but nothing reached her ears. Her body seemed to instinctively block his words.

“I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come, causing trouble, so….”

Ah. Was I really just a one-night affair to him?

Her mind spun.

She had resigned herself to this fact as soon as she learned his identity, but facing his silent response hurt deeply.

Where had the man gone who whispered love to her and hugged her warmly that night?

It must have all been a lie.

It was all a lie. Elina, who had endured hell with memories of that night, was shocked by the rejection from him.

What should I do now?

“Oh…!”

Suddenly, her lower abdomen, where the child was, throbbed painfully.

Elina, her strength depleted, collapsed on the spot.

The plain cotton dress spread out in a circle over the luxurious Grand Ducal carpet, and he, contrary to his hesitation, quickly caught the falling Elina.

“Ella. Just listen to me, no, where, where does it hurt? Tell me…!”

“Oh… oh….”

The pain she felt at the Valois mansion was incomparable. If she didn’t act quickly, the child inside might be harmed.

Yet, part of her thought… maybe this situation was a better choice.

“I’ll take care of the child myself… so….”

“Child…? What child?”

His expression was worth seeing. A face shocked as if the world had collapsed.

Watching him, unable to move as if his feet were glued to the floor, Elina shook off his hand and boldly stepped out of the space.

She wanted to escape here as soon as possible.

She wanted to sit down and gently rub her stomach, but she couldn’t do that here.

In fact, she wanted to scream from the pain in her stomach through clenched teeth.

After wandering several times, she finally found the stairs leading down. She had to get out of here. The high marble steps made of cold, hard stone were dizzying.

“Wait, please. Listen to me!”

The moment she stepped onto the stairs, his voice came from behind.

Floyd Rennes. The only Grand Duke in the Empire.

Warmth touched Elina’s wrist, hanging in the air. She turned her head toward the voice.

“You don’t need someone like me. I apologize again for coming….”

Sorry for ruining a perfectly good family.

But she had come to take responsibility for the child inside her.

Tears fell continuously from her eyes.

“Why… did you deceive me? If you had told me you were the Grand Duke, I wouldn’t have spent that night with you… telling me you loved me was all a lie, wasn’t it?”

Now it seemed she had been deceived.

By his kindness, by false love.

As she uttered words mixed with sobs and recalled that night, one of her most cherished memories, her stomach felt uneasy.

She couldn’t tell if it was nausea from having a child or from being repulsed by him.

But the fact remained that the child inside was his.

“That’s not it! I’ve been searching. I kept looking…”

“What?”

Lies. This was also a lie.

How much more misery would he bring me? And why now? Why? Why?

You have another woman… you don’t need someone like me.

“I’ll take responsibility. For you, Ella, and the child inside you.”

“…Impossible.”

No man takes responsibility for a one-night affair. Especially a high-ranking noble.

Seeing him spout petty lies, it was clear.

It was all her fault. Going there that night was wrong.

I was foolish… yes.

She couldn’t stop crying from sorrow. Elina had missed him for the past two months.

She hadn’t forgotten the night they spent together. Even when she learned of the child inside her.

It wasn’t a welcome event, but because it was his child… because she thought it was his child.

She wiped her tear-blurred vision with damp hands and stepped down the stairs again. There was no need for further argument.

It was completely over. There was no Floi in this world.

“Ella. Please!”

“Let go!”

Elina’s voice rose. Though still tearful, sufficiently angry.

One hand was tightly held, unable to move, while the other swung widely to free the captured wrist.

“Let go!”

Elina pushed him with all her might, breaking free from his grip, and tried to leave the Grand Ducal residence.

“…Ah?”

At that moment, her unbalanced body rolled down the cold, hard marble stairs.

Elina quickly curled her body, but it was already too late.

Her exposed arm hit the sharp edge of the stairs, her curled head hit, and eventually….

“Aah!”

“Ella!”

Floyd reached out to Elina quickly, but it was already too late. Elina screamed from the intense pain she had never felt before.

“Floi, Floi. Save our child….”

Her vision spun instantly. Everything she saw blurred.

But one thing was clear.

As she touched her stomach, which had hit the sharp edge of the stairs, red blood stained the rough cotton dress.

Seeing that, Elina screamed louder.

“The child… no. Oh…!”

Elina’s face turned pale, as if her breath would stop any moment.

Please save… the child is innocent….

Screaming like that, Elina eventually fainted, and Floyd, holding her, hurriedly climbed back up the stairs. The complex thoughts that had filled his mind moments ago no longer surfaced.

“Doctor! Call the doctor immediately!”

Please. Ella, please.

Floyd knelt on the floor as soon as he laid Elina on the bed, resting his forehead on her clasped hand, begging.

“Please wake up… Ella….”