Chapter 9

“Elina? Elina, are you okay? What is this…?”

Reynard, seemingly not hearing Madame Rasiche’s shout, stood up and gently stroked Elina’s back. His touch was rough, lacking any care.

It only hurt more instead of feeling better.

He knew his mother was doing this on purpose, yet he had been silently allowing it until now.

Elina hated that touch.

But knowing she wasn’t feeling well and that Reynard was blocking Madame Rasiche, she kept her mouth shut.

There was no point in explaining things Reynard couldn’t hear.

She buried her face into the salad bowl where she had vomited everything, hiding her expression, and let tears fall.

She didn’t know that one night’s escapade would make her feel this miserable.

If she knew it would end like this, she wouldn’t have done it.

Why did I cling to a love I never even received…

“Mother, isn’t this too much! Doing this to Elina…!”

Reynard was raising his voice, arguing with his mother because of Elina. It was quite a sight.

Elina glanced at Madame Rasiche and then at Reynard before picking up a napkin from the side of the table to wipe her sour mouth.

Then she drank cold water to calm her stomach, almost vomiting again.

While Elina was trying to recover from her mistake, Madame Rasiche opened her mouth wide.

Her gaze was fixed on Reynard, not Elina.

“…It was you.”

“What do you mean? Me?”

Madame Rasiche seemed to suspect that Reynard had caused trouble with Elina.

Elina didn’t bother to explain anything. Everything was over now; what truth or lies could she discern?

She didn’t have the energy for it.

Perhaps because it was her son, Madame Rasiche’s wide-open lips didn’t produce a loud voice.

Reynard tilted his head as if he didn’t understand. Madame Rasiche’s red eyes shone coldly again.

The gaze landed on Elina.

The look in those red eyes was so cold that Elina closed her eyes tightly and opened them again.

She knew.

That she was pregnant.

She knew she couldn’t hope for anything more at this moment, but it ended without any room for maneuver.

At that moment, the real doctor appeared in the dining room. Dressed in black, like a grim reaper leading to death.

“Follow me.”

Madame Rasiche stood up, even though the meal wasn’t finished.

Elina had to follow her without saying another word.

****

The place they arrived at, following Madame Rasiche, was one of the many rooms in the Valois mansion.

Judging by its unfamiliar location and size, it was an unused empty room. Inside, there was a lone white bed.

Guided by the doctor who came with them, Elina carefully sat on the bed.

It was the first time she felt so nervous about a medical examination.

Bang, bang, bang—!

Reynard, who followed later but couldn’t enter the room, was banging loudly on the firmly closed door.

The noise was enough to make everyone inside frown. His voice, mixed with shouting, was even more unpleasant to hear.

“Mother, open this! What are you going to do to Elina…!”

The endless repetition was giving her a headache.

What did he do to me?

She turned away from the door and moved her body. The result was already set, so there was no need to delay further.

Elina met Madame Rasiche’s gaze.

Madame Rasiche’s red eyes held the most contemptuous look she had ever seen.

But since the doctor’s results weren’t out yet, Madame Rasiche held her tongue.

“Please show me your wrist, Miss.”

Breaking the tense atmosphere, the doctor in the same room finally spoke. At the doctor’s words, Elina rolled up her dress sleeve and slowly extended her wrist.

She was scared but also curious.

Was there really a child in my womb?

Floi’s child…

She could tell from what she had felt so far, but she had never been diagnosed directly by a doctor.

Elina’s eyes wandered between the doctor and her wrist.

What result would come out?

What would the doctor say?

How would Madame Rasiche react?

And what would happen to the child afterward?

The doctor, holding her thin wrist, frowned and hesitated.

Elina gripped the bed sheet tightly with her other hand, taking a deep breath.

Soon, the doctor spoke.

“It’s faint, but… it is indeed a pregnancy, Madame.”

The doctor bowed deeply, confirming the diagnosis. Then he turned to Elina and asked for more details about her pregnancy.

“Unbelievable…”

Slap—!

At that moment, Elina, unable to answer properly, was met with a sharp, stinging sensation.

“Madame!”

Elina raised her voice, touching the cheek that had turned the other way.

Did I just get slapped?

She couldn’t believe she had been slapped for the first time in her life. Holding her stinging cheek, Elina looked up at Madame Rasiche.

The doctor, who was about to leave after finishing the examination, also stopped in his tracks.

Slapping a pregnant person like that…

But it wasn’t something he could get involved in, so the doctor opened the closed door and left.

“Whose child is it?”

“……”

“Did you sleep with Reynard?”

Elina, holding one cheek, said nothing. She disliked Madame Rasiche, but it wasn’t as if she had done nothing wrong.

Now that her pregnancy was exposed, regret over her actions flooded in more than the clear issue of inheriting the Valois family.

What kind of result was this from a one-night fling?

This was not a good result for her, who was pregnant, nor for the child in her womb.

She couldn’t move, her gaze fixed on the white bed.

The child in my womb…

Madame Rasiche could only think the child was Reynard’s. How could she know that Elina had sneaked out of the mansion and spent the night with a stranger?

Even looking back, it was absurd.

And it was true that she was close to Reynard.

Madame Rasiche must have known to some extent the feelings her son harbored.

“How dare you, how dare you try to block my son’s future.”

At Madame Rasiche’s shout, Elina lifted her head slightly.

No matter whose child was in her womb, she was the one most troubled. It wasn’t like the man would give birth to the child.

“Get rid of it immediately!”

Madame Rasiche’s shout reached its peak. At the same time, Elina’s body rolled off the bed.

“Ouch! Madame Rasiche!”

“How could you get pregnant…!”

Clatter. At that moment, the closed door of the room opened. The door, which had been open since the doctor left, was now fully open.

But neither Elina nor Madame Rasiche had time to care about that.

“Elina, are you really crazy—”

“What do you mean?”

At the familiar voice drawing closer, both Elina and Madame Rasiche turned their heads.

A voice that was usually low sounded particularly low.

Elina sighed deeply, thinking she would have to deal with Reynard after Madame Rasiche. Reynard stood at the door, unable to control his emotions.

A different shout from Madame Rasiche’s echoed in the room.

“What do you mean? Huh? Elina, you’re pregnant?”

Reynard, looking terribly wronged, shook Elina, who had fallen to the floor.

It was so rough that Madame Rasiche, standing nearby, was surprised.

Unable to endure the shaking, Elina parted her tightly closed lips.

“Let go… I’m pregnant.”

“So whose child is it!”

“Let go…!”

Taking advantage of Reynard’s momentary hesitation, Elina escaped his rough grasp. Everything was already exposed, and there was no turning back, so she had nothing to hesitate about.

For the first time in her life, she was slapped, thrown off the bed, and shaken despite being obviously in pain.

Yes. I did everything wrong, but…

“How old are you to have slept with a man? It’s nonsense! It can’t be!”

Shouldn’t you be blaming me for that mistake?

“What does it matter to you if I sleep with a man or not?”

“No. No, damn it. How could you…”

Reynard, seemingly in shock, kept muttering meaningless curses. Elina sighed. At this point, there were two options.

Either get rid of the child, apologize profusely, and remain in the mansion as before.

Or leave this mansion now and prepare a lawsuit against Madame Rasiche and Reynard regarding fraud and inheritance.

The former had a high possibility of inheriting the family and property, but it meant losing the child.

The latter had almost no chance of inheriting the family and property, but it was a way to keep the child.

Additionally, the former might lead to being overworked until her health deteriorated. The latter had the possibility of meeting Floi, the father of the child, again.

Elina looked around, tidied up the hem of her crumpled dress, and tried to leave.

No, she was about to leave.

“It’s not Reynard’s child…?

Until she faced Madame Rasiche’s voice, trembling at the end.

Taking a deep breath, Elina spoke the truth.

The child in her womb was not Reynard’s.

“Yes, it’s not.”

She resented and hated herself so much, but she couldn’t show this to Madame Rasiche and Reynard.

Having finished all her worries in the brief moment she was caught by Madame Rasiche, Elina moved without hesitation.

With everything exposed, there was nothing to fear.

“…You’ve completely lost it.”

What she started, she would take full responsibility for until the end.