Chapter 1

This marriage was a fraud.

Rowena learned the truth one afternoon, a week before her grandfather’s memorial service.

“Your husband seems to be having an affair.”

Perhaps it was because the words had come so suddenly. Rowena’s hand, holding a fork, trembled slightly.

She stared blankly at the half-eaten chocolate cake.

“I have proof.”

Camillia, who was sitting across from her, held out a small piece of paper.

The letter that had crossed the tea table was half-burned and partially destroyed.

“This is proof?”

Sunlight, broken into fragments as it passed through the closed window, brightly illuminated the paper. The light was so sharp that Rowena involuntarily narrowed her eyes.

“Yes. I went into your husband’s office to leave the receipts, and I found it in the fireplace. The recipient’s name was burned away, so I couldn’t check it, but it’s definitely a love letter.”

“The memorial service is my responsibility, Camillia. You can give the flower decoration receipts directly to me.”

“Is that what’s important right now? Hurry up and read it.”

Rowena’s pale violet eyes quickly swept over the sentences.

Even at a glance, she could identify the nature of the writing.

“This looks like a transcription of Rodems’s love poetry.”

“But it’s your husband’s handwriting. Why would that taciturn man bother copying down love poetry? This is the intuition of someone who married before you, Rowena. This is definitely a sign of an affair.”

“……”

“Why don’t you casually ask your husband about it tonight?”

Gerard, having an affair?

Just imagining it made Rowena feel as though her heart had sunk into a deep hollow.

That couldn’t be.

He was not an affectionate husband, but he was a faithful man whom her grandfather had chosen for her.

He had never once told Rowena that he loved her, but he had promised to be a good husband.

How could a man like him……

Rowena gulped down her half-cooled tea. She wanted to return home immediately.

Even if it meant being rude to Camillia, who had gone to the trouble of inviting her, she did not want to continue this uncomfortable conversation.

“Camillia, I’m sorry, but……”

However, Rowena could not finish her sentence.

A dull thud came from the window.

Yellow feathers scattered through the air, and she saw a small bird bounce away.

Startled, Rowena reflexively sprang to her feet.

No, she tried to stand.

Her leg caught on the chair, causing her body to stagger violently.

In the silence left behind by the bird’s fluttering wings, she fell backward with a short scream.

A terrible pain immediately struck the back of her head.

Hot blood flowing from her head ran along the grooves in the wooden floor.

Suddenly, the ceiling seemed to grow distant, and her consciousness began to fade.

“My goodness! Rowena!”

Camillia’s shrill cry was soon swallowed by another voice.

“Divorce me!”

Unfamiliar memories were flooding into her.

Bewildered, Rowena tried desperately to lift her eyelids.

However, all that appeared in her dimming vision were unfamiliar sentences written in familiar handwriting.

Love poems, long letters and short notes, the sweet words of love contained within them……

“How, how could you do this with Camillia? Why did you deceive me?!”

Rowena mercilessly hurled a bundle of papers at her husband’s face.

“You say I deceived you? Rowena, I didn’t deceive you. I was being sincere with Camillia.”

The moment her husband’s cruel answer pierced her ears, Rowena lost consciousness.

After being taken to the Libroth Count’s residence, Rowena was diagnosed with a mild concussion.

And so, lying in her dark bedroom, she had to confront the memories of her previous life one by one as they poured down upon her like hail.

She had thought the affair was everything, but her husband had repeatedly betrayed Rowena for other, equally despicable reasons.

It must have been March.

On a spring day in her previous life, when the wind was still chilly, Rowena threw promissory notes and payment demands at her husband.

“Have you been deceiving Grandfather and me all this time?”

Her husband, who had disposed of her grandfather’s property without permission, had even laid his hands on Rowena’s personal assets.

It was only when she saw the staggering figures that Rowena realized.

He had been embezzling Grandfather’s property since before our marriage.

And so, she demanded a divorce once again.

“Sign the divorce papers.”

Naturally, Gerard refused.

“It seems you’re trying to make me angry, but not a chance. If you want to test my patience, you’ll have to try harder.”

However, as had already been revealed, he was a liar.

Gerard could not endure it.

He had been monitoring Rowena’s daily life and censoring her correspondence, but what finally caused him to explode was something trivial.

“Marquis Winderbane? Are you still in contact with that good-for-nothing? How dare you betray your husband?”

“It was merely a two-line greeting asking after his well-being. If you dislike it that much, divorce me.”

There was no way he would agree to a divorce now, after holding out for so long.

Instead, her coldhearted husband isolated Rowena even more thoroughly.

He confined her to a cold, dark bedroom.

Rowena spent an entire six months locked inside that bedroom.

When she was caught attempting to escape for the twelfth time, her husband finally announced their separation.

“I will grant you a divorce.”

However, it was not in the manner Rowena wanted.

“But before you leave, you must give birth to my heir.”