It was the story of the female protagonist, Lady Isabel Howard, meeting the young duke Jack Deviers at the kingdom’s founding festival and falling in love as if by fate.

That was essentially all there was to it.

A hot and brilliant summer. In the middle of that season where sunlight shattered and poured down at length.

They fell helplessly for each other in just one week.

Just like fate, like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

And so the two got married, and it ended with a happy ending.

The novel had concluded three years ago.

‘Duke Jack Deviers married Lady Isabel Howard three years ago.’

And in the novel’s world, three years had passed just the same.

She had thought they would live happily ever after, even after the last page of the novel.

Was it because they fell in love too quickly? Or were they destined for this from the beginning?

If Dona’s words were true, Jack Deviers had turned his eyes to another woman after just three years of marriage.

And that mistress was none other than Gloria, herself.

In other words, she was a villainess who didn’t even exist in the original work.

“My goodness! How could it be so filthy!”

Gloria was appalled.

“That madman! Why did he even get married if he was going to do this! Is marriage a children’s game?”

How dangerous and unrealistic it was to fall in love at first sight. While reading novels, Gloria believed that no matter how stunningly handsome someone might be, a childhood friend you’ve known for years would be a much better choice than someone you fell for at first glance.

“I didn’t like him from the beginning. If this was going to happen, he should have just married Dale!”

She felt unjustly wronged and irritated, but what had happened had already happened.

“I knew it from the moment he rushed into marriage, I knew it!”

Although she was still an unmarried woman herself, all human relationships required caution. Not something to rush into based solely on a belief in love. Especially not a one-week affair!

She had known all along that this was romance only possible in novels. That’s the appeal of reading them. She understood it all.

But this was no longer a novel. This was a documentary. This was reality.

Gloria placed her hands on her hips and exhaled deeply.

First, she assessed the possibility that all of this might be a dream.

“Haha, come on. How could transmigration even be possible? Even if it’s a common trope, still.”

Laughing weakly, she pinched her arm and bent her fingers backward, but she only felt a dull pain—Gloria was still Gloria.

The laughter disappeared, and a long, thin sigh escaped her.

If she had really died after slipping in the bathroom…

An emotion that couldn’t be fully expressed as “emptiness” tore through her insides.

For four years, she had drawn and drawn, attended classes, and taken exams.

In her final senior year, she had prepared for her graduation exhibition by skipping meals and reducing sleep, only to have her life end without receiving her diploma.

“What about my student loans? Will Mom have to pay them back?”

When that thought struck her, the emotions that had raged at the funeral parlor bubbled up again.

She felt so wronged she could go mad.

Gloria finally slumped down on the floor.

That’s when she recalled what Dona had said earlier.

‘He must have been visiting every night because he missed you, Miss.’

At that moment, Gloria returned from her thoughts to reality.

Now, her reality was this place—the Peyton comital residence.

He visited? Here?

“How……?”

To find out, she needed to call Dona again. But Gloria hadn’t finished organizing her thoughts yet.

The most certain thing was that the previous Gloria had genuinely liked Jack.

That’s why she must have tormented her maid to boost her obvious self-esteem.

Looking at it with a thread of hope, the affair couldn’t be confirmed with certainty.

“I’ve only heard it from the maid’s mouth so far.”

If he was going to visit, she wanted to meet him directly to know for sure.

But the news of what had happened to her today would have already spread far and wide—would he still come to see her?

Even if he did come, what came after was also worrying.

If everything Dona said was true and she really was just his mistress…

“What then?”

Gloria asked herself. Perhaps she was asking the soul of the Gloria who had already disappeared.

Why would she have done such a thing? Were there no other men in the world that she had to go for a married man?

Of course, she neither understood nor wanted to understand the minds of those who engage in affairs.

Gloria answered her own question.

“Obviously, I should stop it immediately.”

And then?

“Isabel……”

She probably doesn’t know anything. This wasn’t something to remain silent about if she knew.

Gloria clutched her head.

Should she reveal this fact?

According to her conscience, telling the truth would be right.

She needed to know that her husband was deceiving her.

This was obviously grounds for divorce, and divorcing a cheating husband would clearly be a better choice for her life than living with him.

But that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Gloria knew how a person crumbles when betrayed by their spouse.

It was different from novels. There was no happy ending, no satisfying justice. It wasn’t like being a reader who could say, “Come on, hurry up and divorce him and be happy with the second male lead.” Things didn’t work that way.

Perhaps it would be better to live without knowing anything, without even knowing she was being deceived.

“Why am I even worrying about this in the first place?”

Of course, the person she was most concerned about wasn’t Isabel, but herself. More precisely, the poor soul of Kang Jae-hee who had transmigrated into Gloria’s body.

If she confessed everything to Isabel, there would definitely be consequences for herself as well.

She felt confused, with sympathy for Isabel mixed with indignation over things she hadn’t done.

If she had to make a judgment based on right and wrong, it would be a simpler problem.

When weighing someone else’s life against her own, it became quite complicated.

“Anyway, now is the right time.”

Whatever happened, the option to quit immediately remained unchanged. If so, now was the perfect time—right after transmigrating.

The situation of transmigrating into a novel was already absurd enough. So was the idea that characters in a novel continued to breathe and live their lives even after the story concluded.

Compared to that, a dead person coming back to life, losing all memories, and suddenly reforming seemed relatively realistic.

“Stay calm.”

Gloria muttered again.

She still knew too little.

How long had the relationship been? How sincere were they to each other? Also, how public was their affair?

Would the problem be solved if “Gloria Peyton” simply disappeared? Would the Peyton family allow it?

She needed to confirm one by one.

In that case, the closest and most certain confirmation would be to meet Jack.

Gloria slowly stood up and opened the door. Dona, who had been standing outside, was startled by the sudden opening of the door and bowed her head.

Gloria spoke softly to her.

“Come in.”

※※※

The next day, Gloria, still very much alive, left the mansion with Dona.

To be precise, she left the main building.

According to Dona, Gloria had been living not in the main building of the mansion but in a small annex attached to it for quite some time.

It was a building that Gloria’s grandfather, who enjoyed collecting and reading old books, had built as a library. Later, it began to be used as a playroom and study for young children, and both Gloria and Chris had spent their childhood there.

Gloria lost her parents in a carriage accident when she was 10, and when Chris married Bella at 15, she moved her quarters to the annex where happy childhood memories remained.