My Former Lover Didn't Die And Came Back - Chapter 40

It was three years ago.

A woman, unable to gather her senses after losing her lover, was dressed in a pure white dress. One day in the first year of marriage, the woman, who sat like a decoration in the house, suddenly expressed a desire to become a merchant, her eyes finally sparkling with life. There was no reason not to fulfill the wish of his beloved wife.

He didn’t make love to her easily. He waited for her to open her heart. She was hard-won. He wanted to go through every step perfectly. If he always supported them and became her strength, eventually she would give herself to him.

His resolution crumbled overnight.

He entrusted everything about the trading company to her and did not interfere. He thought the lack of profits was due to her lack of business acumen.

“Sir, here is the ledger for the first half of the year for Cavendish Merchants. Would you like to see it?”

He took the ledger offered by the servant without much thought. Flip, flip. The sound of pages turning filled the room. Blank spaces filled his view.

“……”

She was not running the trading company properly. Then where had she been going?

That night, after digging into the traces of the trading company and finding out she had been chasing after traces of her former lover she still couldn’t forget, he couldn’t hold back. He forced himself on her. As he whispered in the ear of the woman who was twisting her body about the end of the ship Cedric had been on, she stopped resisting. He forcibly opened her up, like wetting a cotton with water.

That night, Adrian tried to fall asleep next to his wife, who had fainted and slept, but sleep would not come.

Tomorrow, when tomorrow comes, everything will return to its place. Now that she has given her body, what could she do? Besides, they were already husband and wife. When day breaks, she will accept what happened overnight and become his true wife.

Well done. It was something that had to be done eventually. Maybe taking the first step like this was the right thing to do.

Having obtained what he desperately wanted, he believed he would be happy from tomorrow on and closed his eyes.

But the next day, she said something different. She mentioned divorce. It was exactly opposite to what he had expected.

He locked the bedroom door that day, thinking that it was the only way to keep her by his side. Blair knocked on the door without rebelling or showing tears. She just looked into the void with eyes full of emptiness. Still, he couldn’t unlock it until he was sure she wouldn’t leave him.

A month passed like that. Even then, he did not regret it.

He did not regret anything about that night a month ago until she hung a rope made from bed sheets on the bedpost.

「……Blair! Blair!」

He pulled down his wife’s body, she was pale, almost as white as the bedding.

「……Blair! Breathe!!」

Adrian shook his wife’s cheeks, who looked no different from a corpse.

As he was desperately compressing her chest and breathing into her, Adrian did not realize tears were streaming down his face.

「……Just live, just live. Blair.」

His fingers trembled as he held her. He had just wished for her to smile beside him like a doll in his arms.

He kept moving his arms and blowing breath into her. The tears from his cheeks wet Blair’s dry cheeks.

「……I was wrong.」

He did not wish for things to turn out this way.

「……It’s all my fault.」

Adrian kept crying incessantly while trying to save Blair. Several minutes later, Blair exhaled breath.

「……Cough, cough……」

「……Blair?! Blair!」

A shallow breath was exhaled between her purple lips. She barely clung to life but immediately developed a high fever.

「Call a doctor! Call a doctor!」

Blair was sick for exactly one week thereafter. When she regained consciousness, she did not remember anything that happened over the month.

「……Do you really remember nothing?」

「Yes. When I returned from going out a month ago, you called me to the living room. After that, nothing……」

Was heaven helping him? Blair had forgotten everything about that terrible night and everything over that month, including that incident. He felt relieved,

And at the same time, he felt hopeless.

That month was the first time he had shown his feelings for her since their marriage. That time was such a terrible memory for her that she wished to forget it.

He always felt it but also constantly refused to acknowledge the truth.

This woman really does not love me.

In front of his wife, who was slowly regaining her health, he acted like a loving husband and she began to trust him again. The hope he had put aside began to stir again. Perhaps someday, she would accept his feelings.

It was their third year of marriage. They were not a loving couple, but there was affection built over three years as a family. Adrian was satisfied with that fact but despaired at the same time that he still had not won her heart.

Sometimes he thought,

How ridiculous. To dare hope for her heart when I’m not even true to her.

Adrian knew their seemingly peaceful married life was built on a sandcastle. Yet he wished for this sandcastle to last.

At the same time, he hoped for a moment when he could be true to her.

* * *

“…….”

Back in the gray visitation room, Adrian faced his wife.

“Sob…….”

Blair was covering her mouth with one hand, trying not to cry out loud.

“……Did you quietly stay in jail without appealing because……”

Blair lowered her hand and asked. Adrian couldn’t meet Blair’s gaze.

“……That’s right.”

Blair’s gaze turned toward the gray brick wall. There was no reason to give her gaze to a husband who wouldn’t even meet her eyes.

“I’ll ask you one more thing.”

Even with her serious voice, her husband only looked at the tips of his shoes like a scolded child.

“…….”

“Cedric… does he know about all this?”

Whoosh.

Adrian lifted his head at that question.

He knows…… I see.

Blair’s hand crumpled the hem of her skirt. Her heart dropped to the bottom of my prison cell in an instant.

“When did he……?”

“……Blair.”

It was the first time she had seen her husband, who had never lost his elegance, look so anxious. Sweat was already running down Adrian’s temples.

“I’ll ask. When did Cedric know?”

“……”

“Adrian.”

Blair looked into her husband’s hazel eyes. He was confused now. He seemed to be deliberating over two significant matters.

“Tell me everything.”

* * *

The carriage stopped in front of the Cavendish mansion. As the carriage door opened, a woman in a going-out dress descended and walked across the garden bathed in moonlight. The blonde woman’s walk was that of a typical noblewoman, albeit slightly lacking in strength.

Creak.

“Welcome back.”

Servants stood in a line at the entrance of the hall. Blair handed her outerwear to the maid closest to her. She then approached a man standing tall like an old tree at the end of the servants’ line.

“……You’re late.”

Cedric opened his mouth as he looked at Blair. She looked back at him silently.

“……”

The servants filling this mansion were probably hired by him. It was obvious without asking. The servants who had filled this place before were all sent under the ground by him.

“Would you like to wash up first?”

Cedric examined her closely. Her small face was covered in fatigue.

“……”

Blair silently looked at the man in front of her. Cedric tried not to show his anxiety. Blair was expressionless, but her gaze bound Cedric like a rope.

Her red lips, which had been silent, parted.

“……I don’t like your proposal.”

A somewhat unexpected statement flowed from her lips.

“……What?”

Cedric asked back. Blair turned her gaze away from him and stared at the staircase. It was an unspoken response that she didn’t want to answer.

“……Tell me. What should I do?”

Cedric asked.

“……”

“Blair.”

Despite the man’s urging call, Blair kept looking at the stairs. After a moment’s pause, she answered.

“……In Estania,”

When her lips parted, the man leaned in.

“There’s a gem that can only be found in Estania.”

It was a country on the way to Litunia. It was once famous as a gem-producing area, but now that the mines had run dry, it was a story of the past.

“There’s a blue diamond that’s only found there.”

Above all, the western coast, where the war had just ended, still had a dangerous atmosphere.

“Bring the largest one you can find.”

“Understood.”

“……”

“Is there anything else you need?”

Without any hesitation, the man agreed.

“……No. It’s late, I’ll go.”

“……”

With that, Blair turned and ascended the stairs, intending to wash in the bathroom next to her bedroom. A few maids followed behind her as she climbed the stairs.

Blair moved her legs unconsciously as she thought.

……He must be bluffing.

In this situation, even an emperor would find it difficult to procure a blue diamond suitable for a proposal.

She handed one piece of clothing after another to a maid.

……I wanted to see him try to procure something difficult to find. I wanted to see him flustered and stomping his feet because he couldn’t get it. Surely he won’t be able to find it, which would be a good excuse to reject his proposal.

Blair immersed herself in the hot water. As she closed her eyes and relaxed her body, steam rose like a mirage, which condensed on her cheeks and around her eyes.

“……”

She hugged her knees and buried her face on them. A white breath flowed out between her tightly closed lips. She could only hope that he hadn’t seen her body trembling.

* * *

Blue Port City’s Administrative Court was located on a street lined with various courthouses.

The street’s landmark was a statue of the Goddess of Justice carved from white marble. The statue’s eyes were covered, and in her hands were scales and a sword. The scales signified fairness, and the sword represented strict punishment for wrongdoers.

The Administrative Court’s thick stone pillars and the building engraved with acanthus leaf patterns were busier than usual today because of the trial of the young and competent Lord Cavendish.

Having run a trading company before embarking on a career as a diplomat, he was a man with an impeccable reputation. He perfectly executed his duties and was known for his integrity and steadfastness. His amiable appearance and affable personality also contributed to his good reputation at work.

The fact that he was being tried for crimes committed during his time running the trading company and faced imprisonment attracted people’s attention. The charges against him included smuggling forbidden items, trafficking, entering areas where travel was banned, and personal use of passes issued for commercial purposes.