Giselle saw him standing at the door and tried to stand up while cradling her belly. Being eight months pregnant, her belly was quite swollen.

Lucas quickly approached her, seated her back down, and gave her a light kiss.

“Don’t try to get up when it’s difficult for you to move.”

“It’s fine. I can still move this much.”

“Meow.”

Along with Giselle’s answer came the cat’s meow. Lucas, who was placing the dessert box on the table, unconsciously glanced in the direction of the sound.

Next to the sofa where she was sitting, occupying a low side table was…… a massive ball of fur.

‘……What? Massive?’

“What is…… this?”

Lucas pointed at the ball of fur with his chin, asking with a bewildered expression. Before Giselle could answer, the ball of fur promptly responded to him.

“Meowww!”

The cat meowed in displeasure, as if protesting that he didn’t recognize her. It was definitely Elizabeth’s meow.

But…… she had become so fat!

Lucas looked at the cat with an incredulous gaze before turning to Giselle. Meeting his gaze, Giselle smiled knowingly and nodded, understanding his surprise.

“She left home and came back pregnant.”

“……What? Pregnant?”

His eyes blinked several times before turning back to the cat. The cat was lying nonchalantly on the side table as if it were her own home, just swishing her tail.

Her plump body and slightly swollen belly were visible too.

“……Ha.”

Finally understanding the situation, Lucas let out a hollow laugh before covering his forehead with one hand and shaking his shoulders. Unlike him, Giselle glared at the cat without a hint of amusement and scolded her again.

“Tell me! Whose baby are you carrying!”

“Meow.”

“Don’t try to change the subject and pretend you don’t know. Tell me! Which cat is it! The children need to know who their father is!”

“Ahem, excuse me, Giselle……”

Lucas barely suppressed his laughter as he tried to calm his excited wife.

But despite his efforts, Giselle seemed determined to find out who the ‘baby daddy’ was that had gotten Elizabeth into trouble, and continued to interrogate the cat.

“……How is the cat supposed to understand what you’re saying.”

He couldn’t help but laugh again as he watched Giselle seriously scolding the cat. Somehow, she resembled a mother scolding her reckless daughter who had returned home after causing trouble.

Of course, such a thing should never actually happen.

* * *

“The maids have narrowed down several candidates.”

Giselle, who was sitting propped up against a pile of cushions on the bed, spoke as soon as Lucas emerged from the bathroom. He approached the bed while roughly drying the remaining moisture in his hair.

“Candidates?”

“The fellow who got into trouble with Elizabeth. The father of the soon-to-be-born kittens.”

“Hmm…… If you’re talking about the father of a soon-to-be-born baby, he’s right here.”

Lucas pointed to himself with a playful smile. Giselle also laughed lightly at his joke and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be silly. Here, look at this.”

She picked up a sketchbook placed beside her and showed it to him. The sketchbook contained drawings of several cats.

Yellow fur, black fur, white fur, gray fur, and so on.

“This one in particular is considered the most likely candidate by everyone. The tuxedo gentleman.”

The sketchbook Giselle pointed to showed a cat with black and white fur mixed in such a way that it looked like it was wearing a tuxedo. Lucas glanced at it and burst into laughter.

“He’s ugly. Why is his head so big?”

“My goodness! Ugly? He’s probably the most handsome in the cat world.”

“Handsome?”

“I heard that the bigger the head, the more popular they are with female cats.”

“……What?”

He made an incredulous expression, as if he couldn’t believe her words. But Giselle continued triumphantly, paying no attention to his reaction.

“From that perspective, shouldn’t our Elizabeth be with a cat of this caliber? Right? Be honest. The one you got into trouble with is the tuxedo cat, isn’t it?”

“Meow.”

The cat, who had been burying her head in her food bowl and lapping up her food, responded to Giselle’s coaxing words. Although they couldn’t understand what she said.

Lucas watched the scene and chuckled, then looked at the table beside the bed and furrowed his brow.

“……Well, you see, I was going to eat it, but……”

She noticed what had made his expression sour and hurriedly tried to explain.

It was because she had barely touched the dessert that Lucas had specially bought for her.

“It’s fine. You can’t force yourself to eat something your stomach can’t handle.”

He shook his head and smiled wryly, seeing Giselle’s apologetic expression as she didn’t know what to do.

“Hmm…… I usually like it.”

Despite Lucas’s words, Giselle couldn’t shake off her apologetic feelings and muttered almost to herself.

It wasn’t just empty words; it was true. Although the desserts made by the mansion’s chef suited her taste, she would often visit that bakery when she wanted something even sweeter.

Knowing this about her, Lucas had taken the time to buy various things she liked.

She had intended to eat them with joy, especially now that the cat that had been causing her so much worry had returned.

But when she tried to take a bite of the cake, her stomach turned, and she couldn’t even touch it.

“It’s really okay. Is there anything else you’d like to eat? You don’t have to force yourself, but you can’t go without eating anything either. You seem to have lost some weight already.”

Lucas comforted the apologetic Giselle and examined her with a concerned gaze. While her belly was quite swollen at eight months pregnant, he could clearly see that her face and limbs had lost weight.

Tsk, he clicked his tongue and caressed her cheek, causing Giselle to shyly tuck in her neck and blush. Then, rolling her eyes around, she spoke up.

“Well, umm, there is one thing.”

“What is it?”

Lucas immediately brightened at Giselle’s hesitant words and asked. He looked ready to get whatever she mentioned the moment the words left her mouth.

She became embarrassed by his reaction, wrinkled her nose, and answered in a small voice.

“……Sandwiches.”

“Sandwiches? Then I’ll tell the chef to make them right away.”

All she wanted was sandwiches? Lucas unconsciously furrowed his brow in surprise but quickly corrected his expression and hurriedly moved to call a maid.

However, Giselle shook her head and spoke again with an awkward expression.

“Not the ones made by the chef.”

“……?”

“The ones made by Nanny. Umm…… the ones Nanny packed for my lunch when I used to go to work, that’s what I want.”

Giselle’s face turned red as she replied to Lucas. She was clearly embarrassed.

“Why were you hesitating over something so simple? Wait a moment. I’ll call the nanny.”

Lucas smiled lightly at her reaction and pulled the bell cord to call the nanny.

* * *

“A sandwich… you say?”

“That’s right. I heard you packed it as lunch.”

“Ah… you mean the lunch box.”

Looking at the sandwich placed before him, Lucas realized why the nanny had shown such a reluctant reaction and hesitated for so long after hearing his words.

“So… ahem, this is what you wanted to eat.”

Nod, nod.

As he doubted his own eyes and spoke in disbelief, Giselle nodded with bread crumbs on the corners of her mouth, then immediately took another bite of the sandwich with a “nom” sound.

What she held in her hand was so shabby it was embarrassing to even call it a sandwich.

Just a thin slice of ham stuck between bread.

But seeing her eat it with such delight made him feel strange somehow. Perhaps she noticed his incredulous feelings.

Giselle stopped eating excitedly, rolled her eyes around, then put the sandwich down on the plate and smiled broadly. It was a smile that anyone could recognize as embarrassed.

“Strange, isn’t it? I used to eat these so much in lunchboxes that I thought I’d never want to look at them again. But… after getting pregnant, I find myself craving this from time to time.”

The chef would prepare all sorts of dishes if she just asked. Yet all she wanted was something this simple—it made her feel awkward and embarrassed in front of Lucas.

As if he might think her taste was quite cheap.

“Hmm. May I have one too?”

As she was fanning her flushed cheeks with her hand in embarrassment, Lucas’s words suddenly reached Giselle’s ears. She looked at him with wide eyes, then belatedly nodded.

“Oh! Of course you can. But, it probably won’t taste very good.”

Though it was an unkind thing to say about the nanny who had prepared it with care, honestly and objectively speaking, this sandwich couldn’t be called delicious. What could be so special about bread with just a slice of ham?

But while Giselle was feeling embarrassed, Lucas picked up one of the sandwiches in front of her with a smile.

The way he took a bite was incredibly elegant. It looked as if he were savoring a gourmet dish.