Just as everyone in the mansion had rejoiced together at the news of her pregnancy.

Giselle smiled as she recalled the hands that had helped her dress more carefully than usual.

Even now, her heart still aches at moments.

Since it was early in the pregnancy, her belly hadn’t swollen, and she hadn’t felt any fetal movement, but the longing for the child doesn’t disappear so quickly.

……Still, she would overcome it bravely and well.

On the day she and Lucas sent the child away, she had made a promise to herself.

Whether or not they would meet the child again, she would believe that day would come as promised to the child, and she would live well and bravely.

She would show that this mother was just as brave as her child who hadn’t cried even when covered in flour.

‘So…… come back quickly, little one. We need to play together again.’

As Giselle pressed her stinging nose with her hand, she heard someone approaching.

She straightened her back and assumed a proper posture as if nothing had happened.

“Have you been waiting long, madam?”

“No, it’s fine.”

Giselle answered as she slightly adjusted her hat.

The person sitting across from her was an employee of the Royal Bank. Although he usually handled VIP clients, he had never encountered someone of this caliber before, so he was quite tense.

“Ahem, um……”

The employee applied pressure to his legs that were shaking uncontrollably under the desk, then flipped through the documents he had just brought and glanced at her.

For someone who had been embroiled in unsavory rumors until very recently, she appeared remarkably dignified and composed.

‘And what’s more…… she looks incredibly pure and innocent.’

Clearly, newspaper articles aren’t to be trusted.

He couldn’t help but keep stealing glances at the “mistress of the Taylor family,” who was surprisingly lovely, contrary to his expectations.

Then he suddenly met her clear green eyes.

“Why, is there a problem?”

“Ah, no! Um, ahem. So……”

The employee blushed at Giselle’s kind inquiry and stammered as he began to speak.

Considering that most VIP clients were authoritative and arrogant, the woman before him could almost be called an angel.

‘President Taylor truly has everything. Not content with his enormous wealth, he also has such a lovely wife.’

The employee sighed with jealousy toward Lucas, then returned to his duties and began examining her investment details.

This time, he was genuinely impressed as someone who handled money.

“Wow, to achieve such a high return rate….. Even our bank’s investment managers couldn’t achieve this rate of return, madam. How on earth did you come up with such an investment strategy?”

The employee looked at Giselle with genuine amazement. She laughed awkwardly at his gaze, which regarded her as some kind of ‘investment deity.’

“I just studied a bit.”

“Studied! ……We also study in our own way.”

The employee’s shoulders, which had perked up hoping to hear some amazing investment secret, quickly slumped.

Giselle felt somewhat sorry and awkwardly added.

“……Just, rather ‘diligently’?”

At her words, the employee muttered to himself, “Diligently, I see… So that’s it. I need to be diligent.”

‘……What an interesting person.’

Giselle inwardly smiled as she watched the employee muttering to himself, then accepted the investment statement he had organized and handed to her.

Although she had anticipated it somewhat from the newspaper article she read this morning, the profit Giselle had made with her ‘pocket money’ was substantial.

‘With this much……’

She raised the corners of her lips with satisfaction. She felt a sense of accomplishment for the first time in a long while for having achieved something through her own efforts.

This was a separate accomplishment from managing the Taylor family finances.

It was purely her own achievement.

Of course, the initial capital was the ‘pocket money’ allocated by the Taylor family.

‘But that was literally given to me to spend as pocket money.’

Giselle smiled with satisfaction once more as she looked at the column recording her current profits.

Although Lucas had delegated the authority over the Taylor family finances to her, Giselle wasn’t bold enough to manage the entire fortune as she pleased.

So she had invested only the pocket money allocated to her according to her own judgment. In areas she deemed promising after studying on her own.

And that investment had, in common parlance, hit the jackpot. She had earned hundreds of times the amount she had initially invested.

“What would you like to do with this, madam? You could reinvest it, or……”

At that moment, Giselle looked away from the long row of numbers at the sound of the employee’s voice and responded to him.

“I’ll withdraw this amount for now. Please divide it equally into two envelopes. And let’s reinvest the rest.”

She handed the employee a note she had written at home. The employee looked puzzled at the note with specific numbers written on it, but soon complied with her request.

* * *

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Lucas didn’t even look up as he responded to the knock, telling the person to enter. He needed to process his work diligently to leave early again today.

However, despite the door opening, no words were heard.

Only a subtle fragrance spread throughout the office.

‘……What? A fragrance?’

He quickly raised his head at the scent that couldn’t possibly be coming from his office. At the same time, a bouquet of flowers was thr*st before Lucas’s eyes.

A bouquet made of various flowers in red, yellow, purple, and other colors.

But Lucas’s gaze wasn’t directed at the bouquet, but at Giselle, who was holding it and smiling brightly.

“Giselle! How did you… You said you were going out today.”

“I finished my business. So although I couldn’t have lunch with you, I thought we could leave work together. And I also have something to give you.”

“You mean the bouquet? I should be the one giving you such things.”

Lucas took the bouquet from her and smiled awkwardly. Giselle moved to the sofa with a bright smile and sat down.

He also took off his glasses, placed them on the desk, and sat across from her.

“We could leave right away. Well… Would you like some tea?”

“No. I told you I have something to give you.”

“Besides the bouquet?”

He tilted his head with a puzzled expression. Come to think of it, Giselle had a similar expression to the one she had in the morning.

No, it would be fair to say her face looked even more excited and flushed than in the morning.

Should he describe it as an expression that screamed ‘I want to tell you something!’ instead of ‘I’m suspicious!’?

He was curious about what had made his wife so excited.

At that very moment, as if to resolve his curiosity, Giselle took a thick envelope from her handbag and placed it on the table.

“This.”

“What is this… It’s money?”

Lucas’s expression became bewildered as he checked the envelope Giselle had presented. She pointed to the envelope with a satisfied expression and explained.

“It’s the money you lent. First 80 million larcs, then 30 million larcs.”

“……?”

“Excluding the money you lent them after our marriage. We didn’t agree on that.”

“Ah, so you’re now……”

Only then did Lucas realize what the money she had presented was, and he let out a hollow laugh. She was referring to the agreement they had made to marry on the condition that he would pay off her father’s debt.

“Giselle, I never intended to take that money back……”

“I calculated the interest as I saw fit. Of course, that doesn’t mean I did it completely arbitrarily. I used the Royal Bank’s basic interest rate.”

She interrupted Lucas’s words and said with a bright smile.

Then, as if determined not to give him a chance to speak, she immediately took out another envelope from her bag. Lucas’s eyes filled with even more questions at the sight of it.

“It’s the same amount.”

“……?”

“Would you like to borrow it?”

“……What?”

It was difficult to understand her words. No, he couldn’t even follow what Giselle was thinking.

Lucas just blinked at Giselle’s unexpected words. She smiled slowly at him and continued.

“In exchange, marry me. This time… not as a deal, but a real marriage.”

Lucas heard her words and remained dazed for a moment before bursting into laughter. Then he stood up and approached her.

Giselle looked up at the man who approached her with a smile on his lips.

“So you want to become a creditor?”

He raised one eyebrow as he looked down at his wife who had expressed such a bold ambition. Giselle nodded as she observed the smile at the corner of his lips.

“I’d like to try being a creditor at least once.”

“My wife as my creditor….. That sounds good.”

Lucas bent down, held both of Giselle’s cheeks, and pressed his lips against hers.

Once again, it was a moment when a contract was established.

One that would never be broken in their lifetime.