Chapter 5 – 【 What Misunderstanding Brings 】 (Part 3)

“They sent the pearl necklace and divorce papers.”

Cedric laughed in disbelief. The day Yuria disappeared, Edward also vanished. Ever since he returned to Ritano and started lurking around, he had been an irritation. He should have taken action then. He shouldn’t have trusted the Princess.

“Did you follow the person who delivered it?”

“It was a kid who brought it. Said he was paid to deliver it. We got a description of the person who hired him, but it wasn’t Lord Edward.”

So thorough. 

Cedric’s fingers slowly drummed on the table. When he was extremely angry, he tended to act more leisurely. Howard took a step back, hesitantly.

Even after hearing about Yuria’s escape, Cedric hadn’t broken anything or thrown anything. By now, it would have been time to throw something. But he didn’t. That meant it was something bigger.

“It seems they had someone else send the letter too.”

“Thorough, unlike the Princess.”

They had passed the documents through two people to make it untraceable. The short letter asking for a breakup was neatly written. It wasn’t written under duress.

“If they managed to deliver the letters, they can’t be far. Search everywhere.”

“Yes.”

As if I’d let you go. 

Cedric had no intention of letting Yuria go, not even a speck of dust’s worth. He certainly wouldn’t let her live with Edward.

Thinking about her clinging to another man and crying that she couldn’t live without him made his eyes burn with anger. The papers in his hand were crumpled beyond recognition. Edward would be dealt with similarly.

The Princess would be stripped naked, wearing that necklace as a collar, and confined in a room. She wouldn’t be able to step outside the mansion without his permission. No matter how much she cried and begged, even if she coquettishly opened her legs, it would be to no avail.

She should have known what to expect when she tried to run away from him.

“Lady Mowbray has arrived… You can’t just barge in!”

“Count.”

Before the servant could even announce her properly, Charlotte pushed the door open and entered. Her steps were firm despite her pale face. Mentally, Yuria trusted and followed her more than anyone. Though she had been a nuisance, he had left her alone. Now, he wanted to get rid of her more than anything.

“The Princess running away? That can’t be true.”

She doesn’t even greet me now. 

Cedric tossed the crumpled letter in front of Charlotte. Howard quickly picked it up and handed it to her. One was a note from Edward to Yuria, impersonating Lesia and asking her to come to an empty restaurant. It was confirmed to be his handwriting when compared to previous letters from Edward.

The other was Yuria’s letter. Charlotte’s eyes wavered slightly as she read the two letters.

“I understand why you would be suspicious, Count. But something seems off.”

“You want to defend the Princess, but the evidence is too clear.”

“That may be true, but the Princess has no intention of leaving you, Count. She even asked me to get her a love potion to prevent a divorce by getting pregnant. Would someone like that run away?”

This was news to him. Cedric tilted his chin, signaling her to continue.

“I was worried it might harm the Princess, so I intervened.”

That made sense. Even when he took her sober, Yuria would cry, saying she felt like she was dying. If he took a potion and lost his mind, she’d be bedridden. There was a clear difference in their physical strength. 

What was the Princess thinking?

Even amid all this, Cedric inwardly clicked his tongue at her lack of foresight.

“May I ask a question?”

Howard, who had been listening quietly, interjected. He directed his question to Cedric, not Charlotte.

“Did you ask the Princess for a divorce?”

“Of course not. I’m curious why she thought that.”

It was time for answers.

“Count, she said you supposedly sought legal advice on divorce papers. The response got mixed in with the Princess’s letters.”

Damn, Henry, that bastard. 

If he had sent it with the Spencer family seal, Yuria wouldn’t have misunderstood. But sending it under the name of a legal advisor made the Princess completely misunderstand. 

Was that why she had accepted me so quietly on the table that day? Because she didn’t want a divorce?

“So, to prevent the divorce, I relayed through Mr. Lawrence that the Princess liked being coerced?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Charlotte frowned.

“I told you the Princess wants your love, Count.”

Though she had put it more delicately.

“Why did the Princess go out in the first place? Wasn’t it all to get your attention?”

Cedric’s frown deepened. He was beginning to understand, but something still didn’t add up.

“She didn’t cheat because she wanted to be treated harshly?”

“Certainly not. What makes you think the Princess has such tastes?”

He hadn’t doubted deeply because of that damn Henry. He looked like a straight-laced scholar but was into all sorts of perverted things. Growing up seeing that, he thought there might be something behind that innocent face. But now…

But it wasn’t? She just wanted attention? If that’s the case,

“She seemed to enjoy it.”

“…Anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about, Count.”

Charlotte redirected the conversation back to the important matter between the couple.

“About eight days ago, the Princess visited me while I was ill. She stopped by a cake shop before coming and met Lady Eastwood there.”

“Who?”

“Lady Lesia Eastwood. Your first love.”

First love? My first love? 

Cedric tilted his head at the notion of having a first love he wasn’t aware of. 

Who’s my first love?

His life had no room for such a soft term like first love. But suddenly, in a situation where the Princess was with another man, the topic of his first love came up, leaving him speechless.

“They say you almost got married.”

Half of it was true. At that time, Cedric wanted to escape the Duke’s estate, and Lesia was a great alternative. The fact that she was from another kingdom made it appealing. If they married, he would move to the Kingdom of Rinover.

But it was embarrassing to call it marriage talks. Lesia had once said she didn’t want a political marriage, and he had replied that he would marry her if she didn’t cling to him. That’s not what you’d typically call marriage talks.

“Did Lesia say that? That we had marriage talks?”

“No, Duke Spencer said so. And Lady Eastwood is divorced and came down to Ritano, planning to open a salon here.”

It was a situation ripe for misunderstanding, Charlotte added. So, summarizing Charlotte’s words, the Princess misunderstood the relationship between Cedric and Lesia.

“So she ran away in the night because of that?”

“That’s why she was easily provoked by the letter from Lady Eastwood asking to meet. She couldn’t have imagined Lord Edward sent it.”

Charlotte cleared her throat and added,

“As you know, our Princess can’t stay sane when her husband’s first love is flaunting in front of her.”

So she advised the Princess to do nothing, but that advice didn’t work. Where was the Princess now? Was she safe? Charlotte swallowed a long sigh.

“There was no information about Lady Eastwood opening a salon in Ritano.”

Howard quickly added. The fingers drumming slowly on the table stopped abruptly in mid-air. The letter pretending to be from Lesia also mentioned the salon. The letter in Lesia’s name was clearly Edward’s handwriting. But how did Edward know about the salon news Yuria heard from Lesia previously?

Lesia must have told him. 

That meant Lesia and Edward knew each other. 

How did they know each other? 

There was one person who came to mind. A person who was never helpful.

“Bring Lesia to me immediately, or I’ll go myself.”

The Princess hadn’t run away with Edward. With a foreboding feeling, he rushed out of the building as soon as he finished speaking. He had already been keeping an eye on Lesia, who had shown up in Ritano out of the blue. After investigating, he found that the Eastwood family’s business was drowning in debt, and Lesia had come to the Kingdom of Leuseun to somehow resolve the issue.

When Yuria mentioned Lesia, he thought she was approaching Yuria for her money. Knowing it would be useless to ask him for money, she must have been trying to use the kind-hearted Princess.

So he had warned Lesia. He thought he had been kind enough for her to understand, but apparently, she didn’t fully grasp it, being from another kingdom. She dared to try to steal his wife on his land.