My Former Lover Didn't Die And Came Back - Chapter 42

“Yes. I knew. But does that really make it a reason for you not to accept me?”

He retorted sharply. Blair looked at him with surprised eyes for a brief moment, then,

“……You really are shameless.”

She said with eyes that seemed as though she had given up.

“…….”

For a moment, their eyes met in the air. Whoosh. A salty wind swept past them.

“……I hung myself from the bedpost, Cedric.”

“…….”

At that moment, Cedric’s golden eyes wavered. The color drained from the face of the man, who had never lost his dignity.

“I remembered everything. I heard the whole story from Adrian.”

“…….”

The face of the man, as finely crafted as the statues that adorned the streets, hardened.

“Do you know why I hung myself?”

“…….”

Tears began to well up in Blair’s eyes as she spoke. The strength left Cedric’s robust hands, that were holding Blair.

“……I couldn’t forgive myself. For taking your hand and leading you there. I lasted a month. But I couldn’t bear it any longer.”

Cedric dropped his gaze to the ground, unable to meet her eyes.

“……I tore the bedsheet into long strips. I tied them together into a rope and hung it from the bedpost.”

Wobble. The man standing like a statue staggered on his knees.

“…….”

“In heaven, I thought you would be there.”

Just thinking about it seemed painful for Blair, her beautiful eyebrows twisted.

“…….”

A tear streamed down her flushed cheek.

“I thought there was a fifty-fifty chance since I might go to hell.”

“……Blair.”

Cedric uttered her name as if someone was choking him.

“When we reunited, my knees just gave out. In my head, I thought I did it because of my parents, but actually…… it wasn’t because of that.”

She recalled the moment of their reunion. When she heard about what he had gone through on the slave ship, her heart sank to the bottom of the sea. When she came to her senses, she was kneeling and begging him.

「……It was all my doing. I was responsible for everything.」

She said while crying.

She didn’t do it just to save her parents. It must have been what her subconscious commanded.

“…….”

Her hellish days at the Cavendish mansion flashed through her mind. Back then, she always tried to understand him. Always tried to think from his perspective. But the outcome…

It was too hard for her to utter any more words. Just mentioning it was painful enough. She wanted to end the conversation.

Blair brought up what she had prepared to say.

“……Did you enjoy it?”

The head of the man, who stood still like an old tree, slowly shook from side to side.

She wanted to kill the man before her eyes. But what she wanted to kill even more was,

For a brief moment, she wavered towards him who had become affectionate……

“Did you enjoy playing with me?”

Blair asked with tears in her eyes. Cedric looked up at her with a face filled with despair.

“……Blair.”

She took a deep breath. And then she drove the final nail in.

“Release my husband.”

“…….”

“That’s all I have to say.”

* * *

The first trial had concluded, but Adrian was still deep within the old prison. The final decision regarding him was scheduled to be made in the second trial two weeks later.

Adrian, staring blankly into space, heard the sound of metal scraping. The bars opened and a tall soldier entered. It was Cedric Fitzgerald. Adrian watched indifferently as he strode into the cell with his long legs.

Adrian spoke first.

“I knew you’d come straight to me.”

Step step.

The approaching man’s face sent shivers down his spine. He seemed like a candle that could go out at any moment.

Cedric opened his mouth and called his name.

“Adrian Cavendish.”

“…….”

“You don’t care if you spend your life locked up here, do you?”

Cedric circled around Adrian without taking a seat. Each step he took made the old prison’s gray dust dance in the air.

Adrian responded.

“……Do as you wish.”

Adrian kept his gaze fixed on Cedric.

“…….”

The face of the man circling around him remained unchanged. He just looked at him with a cold face.

Adrian continued.

“If you want to lock me up for life, do as you wish. It shouldn’t be hard with the power of the Fitzgerald family.”

“Why did you change your mind? Didn’t you say you wanted to leave?”

“……”

“Tell me. Why didn’t you keep your promise?”

Adrian’s gaze momentarily touched the void. He paused to choose his words before replying.

“……Because she cried.”

Silence ensued as the footsteps of the soldier that polluted the air of the cell ceased. Cedric stood still, looking at Adrian.

“Because the Blair who regained her memories cried.”

“……”

Adrian looked at Cedric. The soldier, known as the mad dog of the battlefield, had a complexion resembling the dust rolling at his feet.

“……It was the first time I saw Blair cry.”

Adrian said with a calm expression. The sunlight leaking through the small window of the cell made his sandy blonde hair sparkle.

“Even when she was enduring that night, even when I had locked her in the bedroom for a month. She just endured with empty eyes, never crying.”

I couldn’t bear being imprisoned any longer. I feel like I’m going to go mad soon.

“……”

……Did she feel the same?

“She said she found the letters that I exchanged with her parents e. She regained her memories on her own. I just helped fill in the gaps.”

Eleanor allows for capital punishment. But in Alatra Prison, there are more prisoners who ended their lives through suicide than those who were executed.

I knew there were prisoners who hanged themselves with ropes made from torn prison uniforms. It was the only method of suicide possible in Alatra, with its windows barred by thick iron.

“Hey, Cedric.”

But gathering the courage to carry it out didn’t come easily.

“Do whatever you want with me, you can leave me here forever or add more crimes and have me killed through an execution.”

How did she do that?

“Just know this.”

What have I done?

“……”

Cedric silently listened with a cold face.

“I regret selling you to the slave ship. That’s sincere. However,”

“……”

“It’s not easy to continue being in a marriage with a woman who doesn’t love me.”

“……”

Adrian swallowed his saliva. His brown eyes, tinged with red, faced the void.

“……The very first time. I remember when I first saw her.”

“……”

“She seemed like a person made of sunlight. But she was too young, so I thought of sending a proposal when she turned twenty.”

“……”

“But it was too late.”

I shouldn’t have coveted what wasn’t mine.

“If you try to grasp it forcefully, it slips away like sand, doesn’t it?”

Adrian’s eyes turned towards the dust floating by the window.

The cell soon darkened. The winter in Eleanor has short days. The fragmented sunlight coming through the small window quickly diminished.

It was this easy to lose something precious.

* * *

Two weeks later, newspapers distributed in Blue Port all contained the same news article.

[Adrian Cavendish, detained under charges of unsavory operations done under his company, was acquitted at his second trial. His wife, who appeared as a witness at the first trial to claim her husband’s innocence, watched the second trial from the gallery.

Immediately after the trial ended, the couple left the courtroom and headed to Eleanor’s Family Court. There, they ended their marriage of approximately 3 years and 6 months.

Although Lord Cavendish was eventually released without charges, it seems the trust between the couple has been damaged due to the tumultuous events they experienced. The Eleanor Imperial Army plans to compensate Sir Adrian Cavendish with 100,000 gold for mental damages,…]

* * *

The Cavendish mansion has been bustling since the morning. Their former madam was finishing packing her belongings since she had settled her legal relationship with her husband. Clothes-filled bags were loaded onto a carriage parked in front of the mansion.

Adrian stood by a second-floor window, watching Blair prepare to leave their home. He brought a cigar to his lips, recalling their conversation from a few days ago.

「I’ll leave. I’ll give you this house as alimony.」

「Instead of the house,」

Adrian held his breath, waiting for her next words. Instead of the house?

「Give me the same amount in cash.」

There was no reason or shame in refusing. Adrian paid Blair the amount she mentioned in cash.

Adrian finally took a drag on his cigar. The hazy smoke filled the living room.

He turned his head to look at a pair of rings on the table. A pair of wedding rings with white diamonds, one left by her and one by him, stacked on each other.

“……”

Since it was a relationship that one forced on the other, it was so easily severed. He lifted one from the stacked pair and instantly separated them into two rings.

The court offered him 100,000 gold as compensation for being unjustly imprisoned for 6 months, and eventually, he received that money from the Eleanor Imperial Army.

100,000 gold.

Three years ago, Adrian sold Cedric to a Litunia slave ship for 100,000 gold.

“……Ha,”

A laugh escaped him out of disbelief. He forced the cigar he was holding into his lips.

Outside the window, she bustled back and forth to the carriage and mansion in a light blue dress.

* * *

“Madam, everything has been loaded.”

Blair responded to the servant’s words.

“……I’m not a madam anymore.”

Having settled her marital relationship, she was no longer the madam of this mansion. Blair Seymour. She returned to her maiden name.

There was no reason to maintain her marriage with Adrian. He was a man with whom, despite living together for three years, she never developed romantic feelings with. Her guilt for him repaying her family’s debt, and the belief that he respected and cherished her were the reasons she stayed married. Now that she knew what happened in the first year of their marriage, there was no reason for her to stay by his side. Above all, she had no more parents who would nag about her married life anymore.